by Layla Nash
“Won’t me meeting with a homicide detective tip them off that I saw something? Wouldn’t that convince them to kill me sooner?”
Smith’s smile widened just slightly. “We have our ways of dealing with being observed, Ms. Lawson, never fear. But it is good for you to consider all variables. It is a trait that will stand you in good stead.”
“Professional hazard, I suppose.” I took a deep breath and drank more water to buy myself time to think. “So, Mr. Smith. What else is Ms. Bridger up to in the city? I would like a clearer picture of what I’m dealing with.”
He glanced at Dodge briefly, then made his way back around his desk. “None of it is particularly easy to hear, Ms. Lawson.”
I gripped the armrests and took a deep breath. “I need to know. I’m ready.”
Dodge shook his head but didn’t try to stop Smith when he started through the criminal résumé of a woman I’d thought of as a mentor only a day earlier. It turned my stomach to hear what she’d done and who she supported, but it was all data I needed to really understand the scope of how fucked I really was.
Chapter 16
Dodge
Dodge grew more agitated the more Smith shared with Persephone. Dodge didn’t want her to know about all the shitty things that went on in the city. It wasn’t something for her to worry about. He would deal with it all so she didn’t have to see the ugliness and hate and violence that had made up such a large part of his life.
Although every time his thoughts strayed toward why he would be the one to protect her, Dodge crammed the feelings down and tried to revise his instincts. Someone else in the pack could protect her. It was up to the pack. She wasn’t Dodge’s sole responsibility.
Even if his wolf seriously disagreed.
Dodge hadn’t expected Smith to share quite so much about the fae and witches and other supernatural creatures running around the city, nor for him to ask Persephone’s assistance in tending to some kind of forest that Smith went riding through on occasion. Something about the way he described the forest and riding through it raised the hairs on the back of Dodge’s neck, and his wolf growled in warning. The old man glanced at him more than once and finally seemed to get the message, though Persephone remained rapt and leaning forward in her chair.
Smith smiled placidly and folded his hands on his middle. “But I’ve taken too much of your time. We can perhaps discuss a commission and specialty input to my habitat at a later date.”
“Of course,” the architect said. She still looked mesmerized, gazing at Smith as though he was the center of the fucking universe.
Dodge’s eyes narrowed. He knew the old man was some kind of weirdo magical fae and could do things that even overpowered Deirdre, but he’d never imagined Smith would deliberately dazzle a human into obeying him. The wolf tensed, ready to set some boundaries, and Dodge sat forward. “We have to go to lunch.”
Smith got to his feet, perfectly pleasant, and came around the desk to offer Persephone a hand up. “Of course, I wouldn’t want you to be late. Give my best to Deirdre and Miles.”
Dodge retrieved Persephone’s hand from the old man, giving him a hard look. “I’ll let Evershaw know you’re interested in the outcome with Bridger. You’ll reach out to the detective and figure out when she can take the girl’s statement. Thanks for your help.”
Persephone gave him a sideways look, since there was nothing in Dodge’s tone that even hinted at him being grateful.
Dodge clenched his jaw and struggled to control the wolf. It wasn’t entirely Smith’s fault. The guy wanted to help, to some extent, but he was always in it for his own benefit. He hadn’t survived as long as he had – which, according to Deirdre, was a long fucking time – by being soft-hearted and generous. Dodge took a deep breath and tried again. “I appreciate your assistance.”
“Of course,” Smith said. He showed them to the door. As Persephone stepped into the hall and eyed one of the super fancy conference rooms with giant computer screens that seemed to float on the walls, Smith cleared his throat and fixed Dodge with an enigmatic look. “You’ve spent most of your life fighting, have you not, Mr. Dodge?”
Dodge tensed. “Yes.”
Smith nodded, dark eyes flashing silver with elongated pupils for just a heartbeat – so fast, Dodge doubted he’d even seen it. The old man lowered his voice. “Have you stopped to consider when you should stop fighting? That there are things that may be... frightening but are worth embracing, despite that they may threaten to upend our lives?”
Dodge didn’t move, though his heart beat faster against his ribs. What the fuck was the old man talking about? “I don’t follow.”
“Hmm.” Smith’s gaze deliberately went to Persephone wandering through the conference room, absently touching the sleek table and examining a 3D model hologram type thing that rotated above it. The old man cleared his throat but didn’t speak any louder. “Young man, there is a time when you must accept that the world has changed. It has happened to me many times. I still struggle against it, and occasionally back-slide into the old ways. Just because your life has been a certain way up to now does not mean it will always be that way. Be open to change, Mr. Dodge.”
The wolf didn’t like it. Not a bit. Dodge held himself stiffly and kept his attention on Persephone. She looked like she belonged in a fancy high-rise building with all the high-powered people in suits, even if her clothes were more appropriate for running around an animal sanctuary. Dodge didn’t look at Smith. “No idea what you’re talking about.”
“Of course. My mistake.” Smith kept on smiling, a hint of narrow sharp teeth peeking out, before returning to his office.
Dodge growled, louder than he intended, and Persephone looked back at him with wide eyes. “What’s wrong?”
He shook his head and gestured toward the reception area. “We gotta go.”
“This is a very... interesting place,” she said under her breath, nodding to Smith as they passed the office. She waved to the still-beaming receptionist, and frowned as they got into the elevator. “I’m still not really sure what he does? I mean, he said he’s a private investigator, but...”
“It’s a mystery,” Dodge said under his breath. He tensed as the elevator descended and they grew closer to having to go outside. Bridger’s goons no doubt waited to see what Persephone would do next. He held the wolf back with a bare thread of control, agitated by the way Smith had watched her and talked about his weird ass mystical forest. “We’re going to the restaurant, but you have to remember Bridger’s people are following us. Act like this is any other client lunch meeting. I’m your assistant, I’ll drive you there.”
“Hmm, so it would be unprofessional for me to grab your ass, right?” She blinked at him with a completely blank expression.
It threw him off balance for far too long. His brain still clicked through all the awful things that could happen the moment they stepped outside, and for her to make a joke... Dodge shook himself as the elevator door opened, glancing into the lobby for threats, then led the way out of the building. He was still figuring out what to say, since most of his attention went into “bodyguard mode,” when she sighed.
“I was joking. It was a joke. So you wouldn’t be so damn awkward.”
“Awkward?” He frowned as he glanced over at her. “What do you mean?”
Persephone snorted and ducked into the car before he could open the door for her. “Since last night when you lost your nerve. Figured your feelings could use a little shoring up.”
Dodge scanned the street for threats while trying to be subtle, tracking the four bruisers from before as well as three of their new friends lurking in an alley a block down. He only half-heard what Persephone said. “Lost my nerve?”
She didn’t respond as he started the car and pulled out, headed for the restaurant. When Dodge looked over at her, Persephone stared out the window and faced away. He frowned more, trying to sense her mood and still navigate the city without crashing into other cars. “What
are you talking about?”
Persephone shook her head but looked at him, her expression carefully blank. “Last night when things got... weird. It seemed like you were uncomfortable.”
“I’m not uncomfortable.” It was a damn lie, but she didn’t need to know that. Of course, that assumed he knew why he was uncomfortable. It was like an itch under his skin that he couldn’t scratch, driving him crazy. He didn’t know why he’d rolled out of bed, other than he was a damn coward, so there wasn’t anything to explain.
“You ran out of there like your ass was on fire.”
Dodge concentrated on the road as the bruisers followed closely in their SUVs. They couldn’t afford to get boxed in by the larger, heavier cars; he couldn’t drive through a fucking SUV with a shitty sedan. “It was better to stop. Adrenaline makes people crazy. Didn’t want you to do anything you’d regret.”
“You didn’t give me a chance to do something I’d regret.”
He forced a laugh. “Believe me, you’d’ve regretted it.”
“So you’re that bad in bed?”
Dodge choked on air and nearly crashed the car. “What the f– no, that’s not what I meant.”
“Handsome guy like you, I’m sure you haven’t had to try very hard to get the ladies between the sheets,” she said, tapping her chin as she mused over it. “Clearly haven’t had the chance to develop real skills. I’m guessing you just jump on and pound away? No finesse?”
Dodge wanted to strangle her, laugh madly, and show her the damn truth, all at the same time. She deliberately provoked him, pushed him. Like she wanted to punish him for rejecting her, or maybe convince him to re-initiate contact so she could reject him. Dodge’s head spun. He didn’t understand. He didn’t know what she wanted. He’d kept all previous relationships very simple, very transactional, so he didn’t have to think about shit like feelings and innuendo and unintended consequences. He wasn’t ready for her. Not by a long shot.
“We are not having this conversation,” he said under his breath. He drove through a yellow light and the SUVs got caught up in other traffic. “Not here. Not – right now.”
Persephone arched her eyebrows in challenge. “Not even going to dispute it, hmm? Guess I dodged a bullet.”
Dodge parked the car in a side lot next to the restaurant. He figured he had just a few seconds before the bruisers caught up and got a good look inside the car. He turned and seized Persephone’s face in his hands and dragged her mouth to his. She tensed, gripping his shoulders like she meant to push him away, but stilled as he deepened the kiss.
The wolf meant to devour her, to mark her so the rest of the world would know who protected her, who looked after her. Persephone’s lips were soft and pliant under his, parting with an inhale as his fingers worked into her hair. He took advantage and teased her tongue with his. He wanted to know every inch of her. She made a soft sound, maybe surprise, but he was so far gone in his need that he hardly knew the rest of the world existed.
There wasn’t enough room in the car. He wanted her back in her bed or in his, somewhere with enough room to lay her out and worship her. She’d made a joke about him just jumping on and having his way, but that was exactly what the wolf wanted. Dodge had better control than that. He wanted to show her how wrong her joke was, wanted to tease her to climax after climax until she knew how wrong she’d been.
He growled against her lips and broke away before things got out of control. Persephone stared at him, reaching a shaking hand to touch her mouth. She looked flushed and rumpled and so well-kissed there would be no mistaking what they’d been up to in the car. He just hoped that Bridger’s goons weren’t taking pictures. That would have been harder to explain than the ‘assistant’ story they meant to use.
But he wasn’t done. One kiss was just a start. Dodge fixed the architect with a dark look. “Believe me, sweetheart, we’ll have this conversation. But both of us have to live long enough to have it, so why don’t we worry about that first?”
She blinked, still looking dazed, but he’d gotten out of the car by the time she started to speak. Dodge opened her door, getting her up and walking so they could get into the Korean restaurant without too much time in the open. He kept his head on a swivel and marked the locations where all the goons set up to watch the restaurant, and figured at least one would try to break into Persephone’s car while they were eating lunch. He clenched his jaw against irritation; there was nothing to do to prevent it.
His hand tightened on her upper arm as he pulled her toward the door; Persephone followed, her face still flushed, as he led the way. Dodge wanted to be smug that he’d at least proven his skill with kissing, but there wasn’t time. The hostess showed them toward the private room in the back of the restaurant where Evershaw, Deirdre, and Todd already waited.
Dodge pulled out a chair at the table for Persephone and shut the door to the room after checking the hall for eavesdroppers one last time. “We’ve got a couple of problems.”
Deirdre’s eyebrows arched as she studied Persephone, perhaps surprised when the architect didn’t run screaming from the room. “Oh? What could possibly...” Her expression darkened as her eyes narrowed. She sniffed the air like someone had broken wind right next to her and she intended to find the culprit. The witch’s voice went quiet and dangerously calm. “Who have you been talking to, Dodge?”
He clenched his jaw and finally dragged out a chair to sit across from her. “It’s been a rough day.”
“It’s about to get rougher,” the witch said sweetly. She poured green tea into their cups, one after another, as Evershaw and Todd scooted their chairs back to get distance. Deirdre aligned her chopsticks and napkin very precisely. “Why don’t you start talking?”
It wasn’t really a question. He took a deep breath and braced his hands on the table. “Last night I went to pick Persephone up at the animal sanctuary, after the run-in with O’Shea and his people.”
He kept talking and everyone grew quiet and still; some of the rage on Deirdre’s face faded into confusion, then kindled into the slow-growing kind of anger that he’d learned to be really, really wary of. Dodge kept half his attention on Persephone, in the chair next to him, and hoped that someone else in the room had a great idea on what the fuck to do. He was all out of ideas except just going out and killing everyone who looked at Persephone sideways.
Chapter 17
Percy
Some kind of haze drifted over me while we were in the office as Smith talked. Almost everything ceased to exist except the old man and the words he spun around me. It was easy to believe magic existed as he spoke. The only thing solid in the whole room was Dodge, grumpy and silent to my left. He got grumpier after we left and headed for the restaurant, and when I tried to distract him and alleviate the tension, it... failed.
Miserably.
Of course, I was lying to myself if I thought I made fun of his sex moves just to alleviate the tension. I wanted to poke him, to pass on some of the uncertainty I’d been struggling with since the night before. There hadn’t been a reason for him to take off like he did, so of course my brain started filling in all the awful, personal reasons he might have rejected me. Because it sure as hell felt like a rejection.
None of that mattered as we sat in the cozy backroom of a restaurant that smelled heavenly – like grilled meat, spicy cabbage, and other delicious mysteries that arrived with a knock on the door. I was still in a state of shock after Dodge calmly relayed the events of the previous day, and not just because having a witch and a couple of shapeshifters around the table had stopped being the weirdest thing about my life. Hearing him recount the awfulness of what I’d only peeked at in the kitchen, and Dodge’s assessment of what had really happened, turned my stomach all over again. He’d seen and understood a lot more than I had.
It left me feeling so out of my depth that I wanted to just leave them all to it. I could let the adults in the room handle everything and I’d go hide in my closet until things blew over.
Dodge wrapped up with our visit to Smith’s office as a brief stop with a client, which Deirdre grudgingly acknowledged as “reasonably acceptable.” The big dude next to me paused only as the waitresses arrived with massive trays of tiny bowls filled with a wide range of bean sprouts, kimchi, pickled stuff, fish pieces, and things I might have needed the Internet to identify. He shifted in his chair and stretched, resting his elbow on the back of my chair since his wingspan was too wide for our side of the table. He didn’t go on until after the door shut behind the waitresses. “He’s going to call the detective who’s shacked up with one of the lions.”
I made a mental note: not all shapeshifters were wolves. Apparently there were also lions. How could one tell them apart in human form? I frowned as I picked up the metal chopsticks and tried to hold them without dropping one and looking like a fool. Trying to pick up a piece of kimchi took most of my concentration, though the others kept talking. We’d never bothered with chopsticks growing up, so I’d never practiced with them. If it wasn’t related to how the Romans dined, Dad didn’t care.
Miles grunted, sounding rather irritated. “I’d rather we handle this in-house.”
“It’s Bridger,” Todd said. “If the detective can handle the heavy lifting, why not?”
They kept arguing about whether involving the lions in “pack business” was acceptable, but I tensed as Dodge leaned over and picked up my hand. He maneuvered the chopsticks into the right position on my fingers, then demonstrated how to use them to pick up a piece of kimchi. He did it absently and without taking his attention off the other two men at the table, but my heart stuttered at the simple gesture. He must have seen me struggling and decided to... to what? Show that he knew more than me? Help me actually eat something instead of letting me stare sadly at the little dishes with my stomach rumbling?