by Layla Nash
“That doesn’t sound like fun at all,” I said. I dropped my cat onto the couch and took a deep breath as I faced them. “And since when am I part of your pack? I’m just on loan from Smith, from my understanding. As soon as the geas is removed, there’s no reason for me to stay.”
Mercy brightened again, about to blurt something out, but Henry got there first. “She misspoke. We can talk about it more later. Tom is on his way up. Mercy, make fresh coffee. Deirdre, what kind of cat food do we need to get for the beast?”
I wanted to smile more as his face got red; he was not a good liar at all, and definitely couldn’t hide when he was trying to redirect a conversation. “Right. Well, if Mercy isn’t going to feed him chicken every day, we can get dry and canned food from the market on Eighth Street. Maybe we can make a stop on the way back from the florist.”
He nodded and pretended to make notes. Mercy focused on the coffee, Cricket stalked over to rub against my legs and complain about the lack of attention he was getting, and I waited for Tom to show up. It might be an interesting day after all.
Chapter 35
Miles
Evershaw wanted to beat Todd into a bloody pulp when he finally found him. His cousin didn’t wait for Evershaw to speak, and instead held his hands up to fend the alpha off. “I’m sorry, man. I’m really sorry. I didn’t even think... Henry was in the living room and said you were watching the witch sleep, and I didn’t think that she was awake and you might be... engaged in something.”
Evershaw scowled and kept striding into his office, though Todd fell in on his heels. “You’re lucky I don’t rip your arms out and beat you to death with them.”
“In my defense, there wasn’t anything in your previous conversations with the witch that would have warned me you intended to roll around on the floor and make out with her.” Todd ducked in time to avoid the elbow Evershaw threw at him, and instead flopped into the comfortable couch a few feet from the heavy desk. “So I’ll knock next time for sure.”
“Good. Don’t ask me any fucking questions. I don’t want to hear it.” Evershaw sat behind the desk and tried to focus on the business at hand. They were dangerously close to losing the building he’d spent months researching and setting up for foreclosure. He didn’t want to miss the purchase. And yet even as he found the paperwork and stared at it, he couldn’t see anything but Deirdre’s face. He leaned back in his chair and put his feet up on the desk, scowling and wanting to punch himself for being a fool. He couldn’t let her distract him, not when it mattered. Not until he’d figured out how she might fit into his life.
But he couldn’t take it. He couldn’t concentrate on anything. “Have you heard from Smith?”
“Nothing yet,” Todd said. He didn’t look up from his phone, flipping through messages or emails or some bullshit game he’d downloaded. “I left two messages, both of them urgent, and that was in addition to the three from last night when we wanted him to help save the witch’s life. I don’t know where the old man has gotten to. Hopefully that djinn didn’t track him down and beat him up.”
Evershaw scowled, his feet hitting the ground with a thump as he sat up. “What about Chase? Did you call Edgar Chase?”
“For what? To see if they’ve heard from Smith?”
“Yeah.” Even though Evershaw hadn’t really thought that would be a reason to contact Edgar Chase. “And to figure out what the fuck is up with that kid who works for them. The one who probably drugged Deirdre.”
Todd’s eyes narrowed slightly. “What do you want me to ask him about the kid? Whether he’s ever roofied anyone at work? Whatever went on at that house, it was probably a witch or coven thing, and probably has nothing to do with us. So what difference does it make?”
“A kid like that is dangerous,” Evershaw said.
“And...” Todd said, watching him closely.
Evershaw wanted to punch him. “I swear to God, man, you’d better watch yourself. That kid hurt the witch and I’m not about to let him try again. Okay? Is that what you want to hear?”
“I want to hear that you like the girl,” Todd said. “But it might be a while until you pull your head out of your ass, so we can just go with the kid being a danger to the witch and therefore a danger to your life as well. Since someone might still be trying to kill you.”
“It’s none of your fucking business,” Evershaw said. His wolf side started to get protective. “Don’t you say a damn word to her. Now get your shit together and call Edgar Chase. We’re going down there and I’m going to talk to that kid.”
Todd sat up. “Talk to him about what? That we were surveilling his house and saw him have a party and then let a girl leave who was clearly intoxicated by something? How would that conversation go, man?”
“I’ll figure it out when we get there,” he said. Evershaw pushed to his feet and started for the door. “Call Chase and get the car going.”
Even though his cousin shook his head and dragged his feet, they were still inside Edgar Chase’s office downtown in under an hour. Chase shook their hands and returned to his desk, waiting unblinking as Evershaw figured out what the fuck to say that wouldn’t make it clear he needed to protect Deirdre. “That kid we asked you about earlier, Palmer something. Does he have a record?”
“No disciplinary actions at all,” Chase said. He pressed his fingers together near his chin. “Any reason I should be worried?”
“I have reason to believe he drugged the witch who has been assisting my pack. She knows him and she left a meeting where he was present and ended up drugged with Rohypnol.”
Chase made an irritated noise. “What do you want me to do?”
“I want to have a word with the little shit. Lock him up somewhere and maybe beat him a little beat so I don’t have as much work to do.”
The lion sighed and the sound of a clicking keyboard set Evershaw’s teeth on edge. Then Chase grunted. “He just left. Driving a light blue hybrid two door sedan. Plates are HTG 445. Looks like he headed west on Elm after he pulled out of the garage. Good luck.”
Evershaw growled in response and ended the call, ordering Todd to turn onto Elm so they could track down the little bastard. He enjoyed the chase in general, but with the promise of kicking the kid’s ass after drugging Deirdre… That was a fine day no matter what else was going on in the world. He bared in teeth in what could have been a smile. Time to hunt.
Chapter 36
Deirdre
It took a bit of wheedling and a few calls to the florist shop to make sure my boss would be there, but eventually I convinced Henry that I wasn’t actually going to escape—not without Cricket, for sure—and really needed to talk to my boss. He grumbled about it and checked things over with Todd, and eventually mustered together two SUVs full of extra security before he took Mercy and me to the garage to load into our own SUV.
I eyed him from the back seat after hauling the door closed. “Seems a little like overkill, Hank. Is this an armored car?”
“Yes,” he said, frowning over his shoulder at me. “And it’s not overkill. It’s less than I’d like.”
“You’ve got to be shitting me,” I said. I laughed, even though it wasn’t really funny. “What should we have taken instead, the tank? A helicopter? Come on. It’s maybe twenty minutes from here, and it’s a florist. I promise they won’t do anything except maybe beat you with thorny roses.”
Mercy grinned but settled in the passenger seat, picking up a handheld radio to click and murmur something to the rest of the teams as Henry pulled out of the garage and onto the street. “We don’t believe in doing things half-assed. Whole-assed is the only way.”
I shook my head. “And how the hell am I supposed to explain this to my boss? I can’t show up with an entourage; she’ll know something is up, and I really don’t need that scrutiny. I’m guessing your boss doesn’t need that scrutiny, either.”
Henry sighed, like he was questioning what he’d done in a previous life to deserve the kind of annoyance I
brought into his world, and squeezed the steering wheel a little tighter. “We’ll figure it out. Mercy will go in first to browse and make sure everything is clear, then you and I will go in. Just don’t act like you know Mercy, and maybe I’m a friend of a friend you’re helping to pick out a bouquet for my girlfriend or something. In and out as fast as possible, then we’ll be back at the house before dinner.”
“And before Evershaw gets home,” Mercy chimed in. “That’s important, too.”
“Does he know you guys sprang me from the cell?” I leaned forward into the space between their seats, studying their profiles. “Are we officially AWOL? On the lam? Ridin’ dirty?”
Mercy laughed, patting the top of my head, but didn’t turn her attention away from the road and the surroundings as Henry sped through another intersection without doing more than pausing. “Not precisely. He didn’t say we couldn’t leave. He didn’t say anything about it at all. And we’re the kind of pack that tends to ask forgiveness rather than permission.”
“But it’s all on me if something happens,” Henry said. “And I like my head where it is, on my shoulders, and not on the floor after the alpha rips it off. So we stick to the plan and we get in and out. If there’s any hint of trouble, I’m grabbing Deirdre and running.”
“So Mercy’s on her own?”
“That’s why we’ve got two more trucks of guys,” she said cheerfully. “Plus I’m close to indestructible, at least compared to you, so if anyone wants to take a swing at me, they can try but it’ll be the last thing they do.”
And her teeth gleamed a little too pointy and shiny. It reminded me suddenly that they were all part animal, could all turn into killing machines, and there was probably a thin line between the person and the wolf. My stomach clenched, though I couldn’t tell if it was because of that or because Henry’s careful planning gave me anxiety. If he really thought things might go wrong, then clearly I needed to be more concerned. I couldn’t pinpoint who would be the ones to target me, since most of my enemies wouldn’t know that I was even at the florist, or with Evershaw’s pack, or even running around the city. Normally I was much better at covering my tracks.
Two blocks away, the SUV pulled into a side street so Mercy could hop out and head for the florist, then Henry took his time in the half dozen turns it took to navigate so he was going with traffic and could pull up next to the shop. I stopped to wonder how he knew the address and the neighborhood so well, but swallowed it back, since it might have unbalanced my stomach even more. What didn’t they know about me? How much research had Evershaw done when he was trying to track me down?
As we rolled up to the florist, a car that had been idling right out front on the curb pulled out and gave Henry plenty of room to pull in, so we weren’t more than ten feet from the door. I didn’t know whether to laugh or appreciate the planning. “I take it that was one of your friends, saving our spot?”
“Yep,” he said. He smiled a little apologetically as he turned the car off and pretended to search through the console. “Never leave anything to chance. We’ll just wait five minutes and then we’ll go in. Mercy hasn’t called back to say there’s a problem; there’s only one other customer inside, an older woman.”
I wanted to roll my eyes but instead glanced into my bag to make sure I had some paper and a pen to write down my schedule or maybe take notes for the make-up work I’d have to do just to keep my job. “So who are you buying the bouquet for, stud? Someone special?”
His ears turned red and he stared straight ahead. “No one. It was just a ruse.”
“Come on, surely there’s some pretty lady you’d like to impress.”
The muscles in his jaw jumped, and he cleared his throat a couple of times before he pushed his door open. “I think we can go in. Probably safe.”
I smiled to myself and made a mental note to dig a little deeper, since clearly he had someone in mind but didn’t want to share. Not that I blamed him. If he whispered a word of it around Mercy, the entire world would know in the space of a few minutes. I struggled with the heavy-ass door until Henry helped pull it open, and I muttered about hoping we didn’t have to make a fast getaway because I was screwed if I had to open the door in a hurry.
And then we were inside the close comfort of the florist, a room that wasn’t terribly small but still felt kind of cramped with all the vases and bouquets and arrangements and enormous, water-filled tubs that sustained the cut stems of the slowly-dying plants. Mercy pondered a shelf of crystal vases, turning one after the other over in her hands, and in a flash I could just see her using one as a weapon, chucking it at someone’s head or stabbing them with the shards.
I shook myself out of it and ignored Henry’s tense posture at my side as I approached the back counter where Maggie spoke with someone.
I waved and started to turn away, so she could finish her conversation with the customer, but Maggie said cheerfully, “There she is. I told you she was coming in. How are you feeling, Deirdre?”
Henry froze as the woman at the counter turned. My stomach sank: my aunt. In all her familiar outrage, hair done and carrying her Sunday pocketbook, she eyed me with some mixture of fury and distaste brewing in her eyes. She hid most of it behind a glamour, so there was no doubt that Maggie and the wolves only saw the concern and worry Estelle wanted to project. I pasted a benign smile onto my face and went forward to lean over the counter and hug Maggie. “It’s good to see you. I’m so sorry about the last few days.”
“It’s not a problem,” she said, though there was definitely relief in her expression. “I was just glad to hear from you. Is everything worked out?”
“For the most part. I just had some personal business to take care of.” I squeezed her hand and glanced over at where Estelle fumed. “Estelle, I’m surprised to see you here. We just had dinner last night; is something wrong?”
Henry tensed as he finally put together who Estelle actually was, and that she’d been at the coven meeting when they watched me. Estelle, for whatever reason, seemed off balance. She sniffed and dabbed at her nose with a tissue. “I thought you might be under the weather this morning and wanted to check in at your work when I couldn’t reach you at home. Imagine my surprise when Maggie helpfully told me you’d disappeared for the last week. Whatever has gotten into you, Deirdre?”
“That’s funny, I didn’t have any messages from you until yesterday.” My smile turned stiff and I wanted to give her a warning about dragging my business into my workplace. Especially in front of strangers, with Henry standing a little awkwardly behind me and to my right, ready to leap to my defense any second. I started to wish I could have taken one of those glass vases from Mercy to defend myself against my aunt. “I just had some personal business to take care of, that’s all. I’m happy to fill you in later, when we’re not taking up Maggie’s time and half of the store.”
Estelle’s eyes narrowed. “I’m sure...”
“And my friend here needs a bouquet for someone special,” I said, attention on Maggie as I caught Henry’s arm and dragged him up to the counter. “I promised to help him pick something out.”
Maggie’s eyes brightened as she studied the handsome young man, her eyebrow quirking in speculation. “Someone special. Wonderful.”
Henry cleared his throat and shifted his feet, uneasy with all of our attention on him. “Roses. Just roses.”
“Don’t be silly,” I said. I borrowed Mercy’s cheerful tone and managed to almost get it right, since Estelle looked at me like I’d lost my mind. “Maggie, can you show him the orchids? Something delicate and unique and a little wild. Nothing boring like roses. I’ll just have a word with my aunt over here.”
Henry opened his mouth to object but Maggie had already hustled out from around the counter to show him the orchids and other tropicals. It did not escape my notice that Mercy drifted a little closer, puzzling over some cards to go with the different bouquets, the moment that Henry could have been distracted. Maybe there was something to
be said for packs, after all, when they could work so well as a team. It would have been nice to have that with the coven, although after the previous night and getting drugged, that didn’t seem at all possible. Ever.
Estelle lowered her voice and dug her fingers into my arm. “What the hell are you doing with that animal? Where have you been? Were you with them?”
“He’s a friend,” I said. “And where I’ve been is none of your business. If you cared, you would have realized what happened four days ago. But instead you spent all your time yelling at me for missing one of your stupid meetings. All you want to do is take from me, Estelle, and you haven’t once bothered to ask what you might be able to do to help me. So fine. I’m done. I don’t want anything to do with your group. I’m on my own. I wish you the best of luck, but I won’t be part of whatever it is you’re doing.”
I started to turn away but her grip tightened on my arm and pulled me up short. Mercy stiffened, her eyes flashing gold, as Estelle hissed, “You don’t get to walk away from me, you ungrateful little girl. I made you. Without me, you’d be wallowing in self-pity in a gutter somewhere. My sister gave you far too much leeway, but no more. You’ll do as you’re told and hold your place in the coven. That’s how it’s going to go, do you hear me? You can be made compliant.”
I laughed even as my insides went cold. I’d missed the signs, then, that she’d gone completely crazy. What we did in the world came back to us times three, and if she meant to influence my free will just to get her way... I didn’t want to be around when that kind of karma circled back to catch up with her. “Good effort, but no.”
She took a deep breath to start over, magic tingling in the air until even Maggie noticed something had changed, then the bell over the door jingled and someone walked in. Henry, still busy with Maggie’s questions about the bouquet, edged closer as Palmer scanned the room and saw Estelle and me. I held my breath as Palmer smiled and nodded to Maggie before making a beeline for the corner where Estelle tried to manhandle me into rejoining the coven. What the hell was he doing there? Had Estelle called him?