The only reason he would bother mentioning it to Righty was if...
“Daire.” My use of his name shocked him more than me. “Where is Shaw now?”
He stared at me, unblinking. “He left.”
I squeezed my cell until the plastic ridges cut into my palm. “Left as in went to work his case or left as in gone and not coming back?”
“I didn’t ask.”
My feet were two steps ahead of my brain. I was out the door before Lefty got up from his seat. Five strides later, I bumped smack into dead air and knew I had found them.
I jabbed somewhere in the vicinity of Righty’s chest. “Where is he?”
“Packing,” the invisible man answered.
Relief flooded me. “Which room is his?”
A door opened a crack. “This one.”
Scenting to make sure both guards were outside because Lefty was hot on my heels, I backed into the room. “Don’t budge an inch.”
The slamming door brought Shaw darting out of the bathroom in a pair of skintight boxer briefs.
My gaze flashed to his, and my mouth went dry. “We need to talk.”
He set his hands on his lean hips and waited. “So talk.”
A sleek, black suitcase sat open on the bed. Its hinged lid held a change of clothes for after Shaw showered. Otherwise, his room was picked clean and packed tight.
Leaving without saying goodbye.
Hurt made it easier to resist the temptation of his bare torso. “Where are you going?”
“My leads have dried up here. I called my brother with the news last night.” He rocked back on his heels. “While I’m local, I might as well go check out whatever the hell is happening in Daytona.”
He still planned on going then. “I’ll go with you.”
“No, you won’t.”
“But you said—”
“That was before Mai filled in the blanks for me.”
“What blanks?”
“This is a routine call,” he said firmly. “Sometimes old things get the idea in their heads that they aren’t bound by conclave laws. Usually, a reminder visit from a friendly neighborhood marshal is all they need.” He lifted his index finger. “It’s a one-man job. I’ll handle it.” He pointed at me. “You get to stay here with Mai.”
“Why does it feel like you’re punishing me?”
“You’re suspended. You can’t be present while I conduct official conclave business.”
“Official business?” I pried at his weak spot. “So you called Mable and got this approved?”
He didn’t reply, which was answer enough.
“This is so official that you called the Southeastern Conclave and got permission to crush the toes of their organization, right?” I walked up to him. “What gives? We were going to investigate together.”
“That was before Mai got hurt.” He dealt a low blow. “She needs you here.”
“Mai is propped up in bed, eating junk food and vegging out on telenovelas. Besides the fact her dad is on the way. You can wait a couple hours, Shaw.”
His stance shifted. “Why does this matter so much to you?”
“If I still had my badge, I would have left to go back and fix the problem just like you’re doing now.” The time on his clock caught my eye. “Except I would have slept later.”
“This is a delicate situation.” He shook his head. “I can’t take a bull into a china shop.”
My hands tightened into fists. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
He turned away from me. “You’ve changed.”
“No, I—”
“The Thierry I knew wouldn’t have gone in guns blazing to bag a djinn kid. Mai said the boy claimed you assaulted him when he refused to grant your wishes. Her office got tagged in the arrest report. What the hell were you thinking?”
I circled around until he had to look at me. “Mai told you that?”
“She’s worried about you too.”
“Why would she confide in you?” Unless he hit her up while she was drugged. “She hates you.”
“Mai and I have never seen eye to eye, but we both...” He bit off the word. “She loves you, and she’s worried. You haven’t been yourself in weeks. You’re being reckless and lashing out. It’s like you’re hell-bent on finding a way out of going back to Faerie, even if it lands you in a body bag.”
I crushed my eyes shut and swallowed my denial. All the pent-up righteous indignation I came here ready to spew at him bled out of the soles of my feet into nothing. My voice, when I found it again, came out little-girl soft and trembling.
“I’m scared.”
Two words. One heartfelt admission. That was all it took. I exposed a chink in my armor, and my white knight charged.
Shaw swooped down on me and gathered me against his bare chest. He settled us on the foot of his bed with me in his lap and banded his arms around me so tight I couldn’t breathe. I didn’t care. It felt so good to be held. I was so tired of being alone with all my fear and anger.
Mom had no idea what had happened to me in Faerie. Partly because she had been under Bháin’s enchantment and partly because I was a coward. How did I tell her that after everything she had given up to be my mom, the universe had demanded one more sacrifice from her? I couldn’t do it. It was bad enough to have Mai dogging my heels, afraid I might vanish in a puff of smoke if she took her eyes off me.
I had outlined the events for Shaw the night I returned from Faerie, because he had a right to know. But I’d clutched all the ugly details to my chest, unwilling to share them.
I thought I was holding myself together better than this.
I guess I was wrong.
Shaw’s voice was warm at my ear. “We’ll figure a way out if that’s what you want.”
“I don’t want to be a princess.” My tears dampened his chest. “I don’t want Rook—any of it.”
“Last night I was out of line.” He palmed my cheek and made me look at him. “I thought if I knew you loved him, if this was what you wanted, then letting you go would be easier.”
I blinked my vision clear. “I don’t love Rook. I barely know him.” I coughed up the rest before it strangled me. “I don’t love him, but maybe I...want me to?”
His arms tightened around me. “You should have told me sooner.”
“I can’t get out.” I wiped my face. “I’m trapped.”
“There’s always a way out,” he said against my hair. “Let me think on it.”
A sigh blew past my lips, and the heat of my breath on his chest made his nipple pearl. My thumb swiped over the taut bud, and he shuddered beneath me.
My name was a hot sigh over his lips that warmed me to my bones.
“I’m sorry.” I scrambled off his lap and turned my back on him. I raked fingers through my sleep-tangled hair, and my hands were shaking when I screwed up the nerve to face him. “I shouldn’t have unloaded all over you.”
He laughed, and the weary sound shook his shoulders. “You don’t do vulnerable well, do you?”
In drying my cheeks with my shirt hem, I had exposed my soft underbelly to him. Literally.
“You have snot on your nipple.” I tugged my shirt down. “It doesn’t get more vulnerable than that.”
Another man might have grimaced or at least cleaned his chest, but Shaw sat there wearing my tears like some warped badge of honor.
He shifted on the bed and indicated I should take a seat, so I nabbed the task chair tucked under his complementary desk.
I sat and waited while he scratched his five o’clock shadow thoughtfully.
“All right, partner.” He gave me his full attention. “Let’s start at the beginning. I want the unedited version, deal?”
A smile lit me up from the inside. Work I could do. It was so much better than the waiting or the worrying. I picked up my story where I left off the first night, after the fae confronted Mai, and I told Shaw every detail I remembered. This time I held nothing back. I gave him everything I had.
When I finished, he was wearing a hard, contemplative expression.
He folded his thick arms over his broad chest. “Let’s start with Mai’s drugging and work our way back.”
“Best I can figure, one of two things happened.” I relayed what Mai had mumbled during the car ride to Orlando. “Either the selkies drugged her to get her out of their way while they traveled farther down the coast, or her predator pal paid the bartender to mix her a special cocktail.”
His lips compressed. “You don’t think the gray men are responsible.”
“No, I don’t.” Their fear of the Morrigan extended me some protection, and they knew hurting Mai risked bringing us both down on them. “There’s no reason why they would have risked retribution by drugging Mai when they could have swum away from the confrontation. They have one powerful enemy. I doubt they’re eager to make another.”
“Good point.” He nodded. “From what you told me, the last thing they would have wanted was a reason for the Morrigan to get involved, and dragging you into the fray made that a possibility.”
“Exactly.” I exhaled. “They’re terrified of her.”
A pause lent weight to his next question. “Are you planning on reporting this situation to the conclave?”
“No.” I held up a hand to stave off his scowl. “For me to pursue the claim past the filing stage, I either need an eyewitness to her crimes or sworn testimony from one of the victims. The selkies would have to be willing to press charges, and they won’t. All it would do is tip her off that a reckoning is coming, and I don’t want to risk her killing them off to avoid the fallout.”
“They could seek protected status from the conclave,” he insisted.
“The Morrigan is a goddess. The selkies can’t beat her in a fight—fair or otherwise—and the law can only protect them so far. A piece of paper isn’t going to stop her. Not after all this time.”
As much as her predation disgusted me, my hands weren’t any less bloody. I didn’t have a single stone to toss. She might pick the meat off fae bones, but that was after I had devoured their souls.
“She will pay for what she’s done,” I promised. “She will be answerable to me one day.” Soon.
Under his breath, he murmured softly, “Not if I can help it.”
Doubting I was meant to hear it, I let his comment slide and focused on our problem.
“The most likely candidate is the predator.” Whoever and whatever he was. “He left pissed off and hungry.”
“Finding Mai alone at the bar would have been tempting.” Shaw expanded that line of thought. “He either drugged her or had the bartender do it for him, but then you and your entourage showed up and spooked him. He had to let her go. Again.”
Meaning I had made myself a new enemy. Great.
“He didn’t know about my guards.” I fidgeted. “They were cloaked.”
“Are you sure the predator wasn’t playing along, pretending not to know they were there?”
“No.” The thought Mr. Linen Suit had played us worried me. “He didn’t acknowledge them, but fae being fae, that could mean he didn’t see them or they were beneath his notice. I don’t get why he would go after us at all, especially if he could see the guards. Unless he viewed our presence as a challenge?”
“Maybe.” The gears were turning in his head. “He may have been curious why you were there, why you stood up to him without flashing your badge. Maybe he thought you were working undercover and it made him nervous. Maybe he’s just that stupid and goes around challenging unknown fae in his territory blindly. I don’t know.”
Option two sounded good. Too good. “You don’t think he’s stupid.”
A half smile twitched his lips. “Do you?”
“No,” I grumped. “Idiots don’t live long enough to amass the kind of power the guards sensed.”
“You didn’t sense anything from Linen at all?”
“No, I didn’t.” The lack of sensation still bothered me. “Not even a blip.”
“Huh.” He turned pensive. “Odhran must have logged Linen’s magical signature when he sensed it the first time. It’s like a fingerprint some fae can recall and use to recognize or identify a person. It’s a rare talent, and it was probably his ticket to princess duty.” He palmed a towel off his bed. “That means Linen either stopped shielding himself, which seems unlikely since you didn’t notice him, or he expended enough energy to register with Odhran. If he was feeding in the vicinity, it might have caused a surge large enough for Odhran to notice.”
Feeding. The word made my skin crawl. All of us preyed on someone, but I stuck to fae. Humans reminded me too much of Mom, helpless against the strength of creatures who were centuries older than humanity, monsters who wielded their deadly skills with merciless precision.
“Did you phone in the issue to Mable?” I wondered.
Shaw’s interest shifted to the nubs on his towel. “Not yet.”
“Why not?” It hit me. “Ha! You’re not supposed to be down here either.”
“One of the terms of my return was that I can’t leave the region without express permission from the magistrates.” He eyed me pointedly. “I couldn’t get that without first explaining why I was suddenly free to travel—” which would implicate me, “—so I decided to risk it.”
Small wonder Linen wasn’t afraid to show his face again. The conclave hadn’t rapped his knuckles for reaching into the cookie jar after all, because Shaw couldn’t report him without tattling on us.
Only the tightness of his expression kept me from laughing.
His scowl sharpened. “You think this is funny.”
“It’s a little funny.” I snickered. “Did the fall off your high horse hurt?”
He growled.
I was not intimidated.
“After all the grief you gave me over not telling the conclave where I was, and they don’t know where you are.” I clicked my tongue. “Marshal Shaw, I am shocked by your sudden moral decline.”
“Hang around you long enough...” he started.
“Hey.” I narrowed my eyes. “You’re the one who made googly eyes at an underage cadet.”
The dimple in his cheek winked at me. “What you’re saying is my moral decline isn’t sudden. It was gradual and brought about by continual exposure...to you.” He stood and looped a towel around his neck and approached me. “Incubi don’t have strict age rules about feeding. Food is food. My brother never agreed with that stance. I don’t either. I never lost sleep over a missed opportunity until you.”
Seeing as how my sitting position put my eyes at crotch level with him, I clambered to my feet.
“The first time I saw you, you were terrified. Magic dripping from your fingertips. Your soul glowing with the lives you had taken. You were a scared kid who had made a terrible mistake. At thirteen, you should have been too young for me to notice. But I did. The incubus saw easy prey where I saw a child.” He clenched the towel in his hands. “If I had been a good man, I would have transferred to a different outpost first thing the next morning.”
Shaw was responsible for so much of my education, my self-worth, my restraint. No other creature could have understood the hunger coiled in my gut the way he did. Only someone as willing to fight their own nature as he was could have taught me where the line between black and white turned gray.
Unsure what else to say that wouldn’t crack open my heart, I said nothing at all.
Chapter Eighteen
Two hours later, Daddy Hayashi stepped out of a rented town car wearing a tailored suit that matched his sleek, black ride. As if familiar with the hotel’s layout, he took the stairs with a bounce in his step and walked straight to the room I shared with Mai. Two beefy guys kept a few steps behind him, their shoulders so wide they collided trying to take the stairs at the same time. The taller guy fell back and let the shorter one close the gap on Hayashi.
“Is that Mr. Hayashi?” Shaw’s voice drifted over my shoulder.
I was hiding out in his
room since Mai felt it was best to keep her father and me separated. At the moment, I was kneeling on top of the boxy air-conditioning unit in front of the window, being careful to keep the curtains shut except for a slit.
“Yep.” I widened the gap. “Snazzy dresser, isn’t he?”
“He looks like a mob boss.”
Heat from Shaw’s body warmed my back where he leaned close. He had showered and dressed, but the scent of his damp skin filled the room and distracted me from my snooping.
“Mai says he watched The Godfather one too many times.” I glanced at Shaw over my shoulder and then back at the window. “Her dad is the reynard of one of the larger skulks in west Texas, maybe even the whole state. His kitsunes breed like bunnies.”
The Hayashis had money, but most of it was tied up in keeping so many tiny furry mouths fed.
“There are better ways to amass power that include changing fewer diapers.”
“Maybe, but they take too long.” I laughed under my breath. “He has gorgeous daughters, and I bet each of his ten eldest married into ruling families. His last kit who got hitched is the reason Mai and I ended up in Daytona. She married the reynard of a large central Florida skulk, who owns a condo.”
“Hmm.” He withdrew, taking his citrusy scent with him. “What about their tests?”
“All I can figure is the Hayashi girls fudged their answers.” I tugged on the coarse fabric of the curtains. “Otherwise, the odds of them all landing rich, influential and fated mates are pretty slim.” No family was that blessed. “Mr. Hayashi hasn’t pressured Mai—yet—but she’s his baby. He spoils her rotten. Makes her sisters crazy jealous.”
“I bet.” He lowered his voice. “No one wants to be forced into marriage. Mai’s lucky she’s avoided that fate.”
“So far,” I said.
“So far,” he agreed.
Afraid he might be wearing a tender expression to match his voice, I kept my back to him and avoided peeking at the sliver of his reflection in the glass.
Fifteen minutes later, Daddy Hayashi escorted Mai down the stairs to his waiting car. The taller guard slid behind the wheel. The other turned toward Mai’s coup with a grimace. It would be a long ride for a big guy like that. His legs would have to fold like origami to squeeze into the driver’s seat.
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