She saw him glance at the money, then open one of the two bottles of Scotch after staring at the label, and take a long drink.
Then he shooed her with her fingers to get the thing away from him.
Shrugging, Lia pulled out the rest of the twenty-five grand and put it inside her satchel, just barely squeezing it into her overstuffed bag. She managed in part by transferring some of her clothes, which needed replacing anyway, into the man’s suitcase.
Zipping up the bag, she ripped the ID tags off it and dragged it out of the taxi when they stopped, only to leave it on the curb in downtown Santa Monica.
A few blocks later, she dumped the ID tags in a trash receptacle.
She figured someone would get some use out of the clothes, at least.
And hopefully the suitcase.
And the last bottle of Scotch.
She’d given Loki Gregor’s address, which was in Malibu.
When Loki told the taxi driver an address in Santa Monica instead, she figured he wanted to change taxis to confuse their trail. For the same reason, she was a little bewildered when he got out of the taxi and simply walked down the street, beckoning her to come along.
From the way he scanned the sidewalks, he definitely appeared to be looking for something.
Whatever it was, it wasn’t another taxi.
Lia saw his eyes light up when they’d gone about two blocks.
She stopped dead, watching as Loki walked right up to a steel-gray and sky-blue Bugatti Divo, which had just pulled up to the curb in front of them. Loki walked to the driver’s side, bending down to lean his forearms on the open window.
Lia watched, incredulous, as Loki chatted with the Bugatti’s gray-haired driver for a few seconds, right before he straightened, turning to her and waving her over.
“Come, darling,” the god drawled. “This nice man has agreed to give us his car.”
She fought not to laugh.
She only half-succeeded.
Still, her primary reaction remained disbelief.
Even after watching Loki pull this crap multiple times now, not to mention all the glamouring he’d done to people in the Bangkok airport and on both planes, Lia couldn’t help staring as the gray-haired man got out of his car, and handed Loki the keys.
After bowing formally to the God of Mischief, the gray-haired man proceeded to walk away from his car with a smile on his face, like he didn’t have a care in the world. Lia happened to know a Bugatti like that cost more, new, than most people’s houses––even in Los Angeles, even in Santa Monica.
Hell, even in Beverly Hills.
Anyone watching would have assumed the man worked for Loki. It looked like the gray-haired man just got the car detailed and was now returning it to its rightful owner.
As Lia walked around to the passenger side of the car, the gray-haired man waved to her in a friendly way, glancing down her in the form-fitting white dress, which was visible again since she’d unfastened the front of her green leather coat.
Lia didn’t bother to wave back.
She watched Loki climb into the driver’s seat, but not before the god gave her one of his shark-like grins, blowing her a kiss.
“Get in, sweets,” he called out, loud enough that a few people on the sidewalk turned, staring at them. “And pull up your dress. I want to stroke your cunt while we drive. And I plan to drive fast, so there’s no time to waste.”
Snorting a laugh, Lia rolled her eyes.
She knew he said it primarily for shock value, and maybe to embarrass her. Maybe for the same reason, she found herself more amused than appalled.
“You’re a pervy weirdo,” she told him, equally loud. “And an exhibitionist.”
He only winked, grinning wider.
“You know it, baby.”
She snorted at that, too.
Tossing her satchel in the back and climbing into the passenger seat after he unlocked and opened her door, she couldn’t help grinning with him after he inserted the car key and flipped on the ignition, hitting the gas to rev a motor that positively roared, vibrating pleasantly under her seat.
“Oooh,” she said, smiling as she wriggled in the leather upholstery. “Maybe I could get used to this.”
“Get used to it, darling,” he grinned at her. “You’re a god’s bitch now.”
Again, Lia couldn’t help it.
She laughed.
L oki pulled into Gregor’s driveway without slowing, barreling down the long, winding, white cement drive at around sixty miles per hour.
Feeling her nerves climb, her heart inching its way up into her throat for the first time since they successfully left the airport, Lia held onto the window frame and the Bugatti’s dashboard, giving Loki a sideways look and a frown as he gunned it even faster over the hill leading to the cliffside mansion.
“This is subtle,” she informed him.
Loki glanced at her, and she quirked an eyebrow.
“I thought we’d be a little more… you know… ninja-like. For a kidnapping.”
“No time for that, my dear,” he informed her, laying a heavy hand on her thigh and massaging the long muscle there. “It’s not like he won’t know who’s behind this. For the same reason, covert ops are hardly going to gain us much.”
Thinking about that, Lia tilted her head, conceding his point.
Gregor would definitely know she was involved.
If Maia disappeared, Gregor would have exactly one suspect.
It’s not like soulless, sociopathic Mommy Dearest was around to give a shit.
Loki glanced at her, his eyebrows rising to his hairline.
“Ouch,” he said.
She thumped his arm. “Ouch what?”
“You will tell me this story, yes, little elf?” He pushed at her with his own hand, then grabbed her thigh again, yanking her closer to where he sat, despite the gear shift between them. “About your mother and how you ended up owing this dreadful man?”
Lia frowned.
After a pause, she shrugged.
No reason not to tell him, given everything.
“There’s not much of a story,” she admitted. “Our mom stole from Gregor. Gregor took my sister as collateral. I work for Gregor. End of story.”
“Hmm.” Loki looked at her, obviously unsatisfied by her truncated version of events. “How much did Mummy Dearest steal?”
“Dunno. Gregor says upwards of ten million.”
Loki whistled, smiling humorlessly as he shook his head. “And she did not bring you along? That seems rather… evil. If you don’t mind my saying.”
“You would know,” she teased.
He gave her a sharper look.
“I am not evil, precious.” He sniffed a little, as if offended. “Even my brother Thor would concede that much. I may not be the boy scout he is, but I would never leave an offspring in the hands of someone like this Gregor. I would peel his skin off in small strips if he stole one of my children. Furthermore… I am not evil, little elf.”
He gave her another look.
“A little bad, perhaps. A little difficult. But not evil.”
Lia frowned, but mostly in her mind, not where he would see it. If she didn’t know better, she’d think she’d really offended him.
“Perhaps you did,” he grunted.
She opened her mouth to answer, but Loki waved her off.
“Finish your story,” he demanded. “Hurry now. We are here.”
He pulled up in front of the enormous, white-stone house, with the nymph-filled marble fountain in the center of the driveway.
Loki drove right up to the front door, then drove past it, parking on the other side of the loop. Slowing the car at the edge of the lawn, he drove carefully out onto the grass to get the Bugatti off the paved surface, coming to a stop maybe thirty feet from the front door.
The god activated the parking brake, and switched off the ignition.
Turning in his seat, he looked at her, his arm on the steering wheel.
“We can’t just sit here,” she said, frowning. Lia motioned up at the house. “He has guards. People watching us.”
“They will not see us. Not yet. And we still have some time before there is much risk of others arriving here, from the airport or elsewhere. Tell me.”
Lia blinked. “Tell you what?”
“The rest of your story.”
Lia frowned.
Then, realizing Loki wasn’t going to leave until she told him more, she exhaled, combing her blond hair out of her face where it had fallen out of the ponytail.
“My mom did for Gregor what I now do for Gregor. Well, with one exception,” she added sourly. “My mom provided a few ‘extra services’ that I’ve been unwilling to do for him, regardless of how much money he’s tried to throw at me.”
Grimacing, she gave Loki a sideways look.
“Gregor keep hinting, pretty obnoxiously, frankly, that he intends for me to eventually take him up on his offer. It’s a lot of money,” she admitted. “But I just can’t bring myself to do it. I admit, it would probably make our lives easier in some ways, but I can’t stand the thought of Maia being trapped in that house a day longer than necessary. Also, Maia told me, flat-out, that she would never forgive me.”
Sighing, she combed a hand through her hair again.
“I don’t think I’d forgive myself,” she added. “And frankly, it would probably just put me in more of a cage with him. And Maia. He might never let us go.”
Loki’s green eyes darkened.
“Continue,” he said, his voice colder.
“So, yeah, my mom and Gregor had a relationship,” Lia said, shrugging. “If you could call it that.” Folding her arms, she motioned up towards the beachside mansion. “I’ve been coming to this house since I was a kid. Maybe only a few years older than my sister is now. I remember watching Gregor and my mom make out while we played in the pool. Sometimes Gregor’s thugs would take us down to the beach to give them ‘grownup time.’”
Lia shuddered, grimacing again.
“But your mother was also a thief,” Loki clarified.
Lia nodded, sighing.
“She worked as an ‘acquisitions expert’ for Gregor.” Lia made air quotes around the title with her fingers. “For his ‘import-export’ business.”
“What did she steal?” Loki said. “What do you steal?”
Lia shrugged, still hugging her arms.
“Information, mostly,” she said. “Sometimes more cat-burglary type stuff. Expensive art. Sometimes jewelry. That kind of thing. More and more lately, it’s been bigger-stakes stuff. Even some government and military-type things.”
“What were you in Kathmandu to steal?”
“Information,” Lia said, sighing.
She motioned towards the house a second time.
“Loki, he has people in and out of here all the time. Guards who walk the perimeter. Guards on the roof who would have seen us come down the driveway. Are you absolutely certain no one could have seen us come in here?”
“Yes. I am certain.” Loki studied her face, frowning. “I glamoured the car right before we pulled into the driveway. Continue, little elf.”
Exhaling again, Lia shrugged.
“I was in Kathmandu to get information on what a rich guy in the Chinese government planned to do with banking policy in Southeast Asia.” Looking over at Loki, she smiled. “Sexy, huh?”
“Did you succeed?” Loki queried.
Lia gave him a wan smile. “Of course.”
“How did you do that?”
“I bugged his hotel,” Lia said, shrugging. “I picked him up in the bar, wearing something a lot hotter than what you met me in, and bugged the collar of his suit jacket. I tried to get into the Chinese Embassy, but I couldn’t pull that off without risking getting ID’d.”
Lia shrugged, glancing out the window at one of the armed guards on the roof of Gregor’s mansion.
“It didn’t matter that much in the end. Between the bug on his suit and a prostitute I sent his way, I got more than enough. Enough that Gregor likely would have been very pleased with my results.”
Sighing, she refolded her arms, adding,
“I was lucky, really. The guy liked to talk when he drank. I got a number of pretty detailed discussions between Gregor’s corrupt government contact and several other Chinese banking executives who were discussing their holdings in different parts of Asia, including Nepal, India, Thailand, Singapore. Deals they cut with mafias in different parts of the world. Money laundering. Trafficking. Bribery. Hours of recordings. Not to mention video of him with the prostitute and several of her friends… he’s married to the daughter of some bigwig in the Party, so I suspect that would’ve helped Gregor out even more.”
“I see.”
Loki smiled at her.
Lia swore she saw a hint of pride in his eyes as he looked her over.
“Very impressive, my darling,” he added. “What else?”
“What else?” She frowned at him, puzzled.
“About your mother.”
Lia sighed, letting her head fall to the cushioned car seat.
“I don’t know what you’re waiting to hear, Loki. My mom was a piece of shit, working for an even bigger piece of shit. She was skimming. She was pretending to fuck up acquisitions and selling product herself, cutting the Syndicate out of it. She was also double-selling some of the intel Gregor was having her steal, often to rival corporations or governments. Meaning whatever lowlife Gregor already had a contract with, she’d sell it to the other guy, or even to a third party. Eventually, her double-dipping got around. Gregor was furious.”
At Loki’s quirked eyebrow, she added,
“Gregor might be a petty, piece of shit thug, but he understands the importance of reputation in business… even this business. If the other corrupt lowlifes can’t trust you, they won’t buy from you. Gregor had to convince them he could still be trusted. He had to convince them he’d taken care of her, that it would never happen again. He more or less paraded me around for that very reason, letting them think he’d turned me into his personal slave. Even then, he lost clients. My mom was… is… really beautiful. People said she used sex to manipulate Gregor, making him a chump. Some clients left just because they were pissed. Well-paying clients. Influential clients.”
“Ah.” The god nodded. “I see. Most understandable. Pray continue. This story is very interesting.”
Thinking, staring up at the roof of the car, Lia shrugged.
“What more is there to say? Gregor blamed mom not just for what she stole but for the clients he lost… and for making him look like a fool. Dear old mum didn’t clue us in on what she was doing. When she got caught, she just bailed. That was five years ago, and I still have no idea where she went. She more or less vanished… and with every cent of the money she’d stolen from Gregor. He never got any of it back.”
Lia turned her head, giving Loki a grim look.
“But Gregor found us. Me and Maia. I was going to college at Santa Barbara. His muscle showed up at my dorm room and more or less kidnapped me in broad daylight, with guns to my head. Gregor already had Maia with him. At his house.”
Lia motioned with her jaw towards the mansion behind them.
“…This house.”
Loki frowned.
“You mother did not warn you?”
Lia let out a bitter laugh. “Are you kidding? She knew Gregor had all of our phones tapped. He didn’t trust anyone. It’s part of why he was so pissed.”
Her voice grew bitter as she adjusted her back in the seat, adding,
“I can forgive what she did to me. But Mom just left Maia there. Alone. At her place in Los Feliz. Maia doesn’t even remember how long she sat there, waiting for mom to come back from her latest ‘trip,’ before Gregor’s goons showed up. Days. Probably over a week. She sat i
n an empty house, alone, playing video games for days. Watching Netflix. Eating things like potato chips and ramen and canned fruit until she ran out. She eventually went to the neighbors when she got too hungry. She was afraid to call me because she knew I’d be furious with mom. She didn’t want to get our mom in trouble.”
Lia’s back molars ground together.
“…She was seven years old.”
Loki quirked an eyebrow, frowning.
“And she’s never once contacted you?” he said. “Your mother? No cryptic messages on your little machine? No note spelled out in refrigerator magnets or cut up newspapers?”
Lia shook her head, exhaling.
“Nope.”
“Well, well.” Loki’s frown deepened.
Lia was surprised to see real anger in the god’s eyes.
“Shall we find her next, after this?” he said, his voice a touch harder. “Your mother? I would be interested in having a few words with her. I have… questions.”
“No.” Lia let out a humorless sound, half-laugh, half grunt of horror. “Absolutely not. Thank you for the offer, but hell no. I never want to see that train-wreck again. The only good thing that came of this is that she’s out of our lives forever.”
“You are certain?” Loki said.
He met her gaze, his green eyes perfectly still, like mirrored glass.
From the rage she sensed simmering there, she found herself thinking the offer was one hundred percent serious.
“…I would really like to speak with her, as I said,” he added.
Smiling at him, in spite of herself, she laid a hand on his arm.
“No, honey,” she said, caressing his skin, then leaning up impulsively to kiss him on the mouth. “But thank you.”
Loki flinched.
Then he looked down at her hand on him, and her fingers.
He stared long enough that Lia was about to remove her hand, thinking perhaps she’d crossed some kind of boundary with him. She was about to withdraw her fingers when he suddenly caught them in his, bringing her palm up to his lips.
Kissing her hand, then her fingers, tenderly that time, he smiled at her.
Gods on Earth: Complete Series (Books 1-3): Paranormal Romances with Norse Gods, Tricksters, and Fated Mates Page 23