Chapter Sixteen
MARIUS
The fifteen-minute walk to Anastasia’s apartment took Mina, Roux, and me across the short side of Hyde Park, and I cursed Clement the entire time. Police championships? In what, stealing another man’s woman?
“Regional police championships?” I couldn’t help muttering.
Mina looked straight ahead.
“Let me guess,” I grumbled. “That ass of a wolf shifter put you up to it.”
She gave me a fierce look. “Clement is not an ass, and he didn’t put me up to anything. He asked nicely.”
“I bet he did,” I muttered. “Did he butter you up with cake or something?”
Her step hitched. Then she continued stomping along.
“What would you have me do?” she muttered back. “You left without a word. Bene and Roux wouldn’t tell me anything, and Henrik attacked me. Oh, and meanwhile, I have a business to develop.”
“A business hosting police events?” I grumbled.
She ticked off one finger at a time. “It will allow me to test the logistics of hosting large groups of people. It will help spread the word that the chateau is available for events. And it never hurts to be on good terms with the police.”
My dragon sent whiffs of smoke through my nose as I pictured police officers partying it up in the stables I’d helped clear. Mina waved a hand in front of her face.
Was I being childish? Yes, and I knew it.
I kicked the ground and uttered a sullen, “Sorry.”
“Are you?” she shot back.
“Yes,” I said.
Sorry about not kicking that no-good wolf shifter’s ass, my dragon quietly added. Yet.
I sighed. It was hard to be good when bad was so much easier.
Mina is worth it, my beast decided.
True, but she’d just announced we weren’t welcome at the chateau. Where did that leave me? Where did that leave us?
“What?” she demanded, reading my face.
I shrugged. “Just wondering where we’ll go after this mission. Me and the guys, I mean.”
Mina slowed, then stopped altogether. I stopped too, bracing myself for one of her outbursts.
She sucked in a deep breath, calming herself, then towed me to a spot under the trees.
“Uh, guys…?” Roux called back.
She shook her head at him. “Give us a minute.”
The tiger shifter turned away, muttering to himself in French.
Mina took both my hands and looked me straight in the eye.
“It’s not that I don’t want you at the chateau.
I want you there. Desperately.” She swallowed hard.
“I want you in my life. But coming and going without a word won’t cut it.
” Her tone went sharp, then softened. “Not even if you’re trying to do the right thing. ”
She was right. But, crap. Doing the right thing meant telling her about the mark I’d left on her, and I hadn’t done that either.
She shook my hands a little, forcing me to look up. “All I ask is that you talk to me. Please.”
I opened my mouth. Crap. Where to begin?
“I love you. I mean it,” I managed. “But everything is a mess right now, and I keep getting pulled away. First, Gordon… Then that threatening text… Now, this job…”
I decided to leave out the mark I’d left on her neck for the moment.
“I know what you mean,” she said. “But once we get past all that…”
Getting past all that was the day I lived for, but it always seemed further and further away.
“Besides, we’re in this together,” she said.
I gripped her hands tighter. “There’s a lot I want to be in on with you, but not when it involves predatory vampires and Gordon’s sketchy business deals.”
Her face hardened. “Trying to protect me is one thing. Assuming I’m stupid or helpless is another.”
“You’re not stupid or helpless. Not by a long shot. But we could be up against some really dangerous thugs here.”
She snorted. “Like Anastasia?”
I shook my head. “Like Szabo. Like Gordon. Like half the buyers on his list.”
She grimaced but ceded my point.
Roux motioned at his watch impatiently. “It’s five minutes to ten.”
“Seven to ten,” Mina snipped, then turned back to me. “All I ask is that you talk to me.”
“When? Here? Now?” I motioned around. “Or in a hotel room with all the other guys? When have I had the chance?”
A fair point, I thought, but Mina stuck a finger at my chest. “Make the chance, dammit.”
I gritted my teeth. Clement had probably been making chances every opportunity he got — and he got plenty as a cop in Auberre, a town with zero crime to speak of. So I wasn’t competing on a level playing field.
But that was the story of my life, and if I wanted Mina, I would have to earn that privilege, wouldn’t I?
Damn right, my dragon agreed.
I sucked in a long breath, steeling myself for all the obstacles that lay ahead. Then I kissed her knuckles softly. “I will. I swear.”
You’d better, her expression warned me.
“Now it’s five to ten,” Roux grumbled, tapping his watch.
Mina dropped a kiss on my cheek and turned to him. “Coming.”
* * *
Anastasia, as expected, wasn’t enthused by the candidates Mina presented — not even the ones at the very bottom of our list. That led to a long phone call to Gordon on an old-school rotary phone that came straight out of the seventies.
Anastasia ended the call with a slam and a great deal of pouting.
“Fine,” she muttered after fuming for five minutes. “I’ll meet them tomorrow. The Bulgarian and the Latvian.”
“And the Swiss art foundation?” Mina tried.
“As if they appreciate art.” Anastasia snorted and whirled out of the room.
I gripped Mina’s shoulder before she followed.
“But…” she tried.
When I shook my head, Mina slumped, muttering, “God, I hate this. Everything about this.”
I pointed silently to The Tower of Blue Horses, and she sighed.
“Okay, everything except that.”
I left her there to appreciate it in silence while Roux and I finished making arrangements with our hostess. Then I tugged Mina out of the study and bid Anastasia goodbye.
The moment we exited the building, Roux was on the phone.
“Good news, Gordon. We have a go for two candidates. The client has invited the Bulgarian and the Latvian.”
Maybe not such good news, because he grimaced at whatever Gordon said and went on in a measured, “Anything you say. Can you see if they’re available?” He nodded a few times, then halted in his tracks.
Mina and I stopped, looking at him.
“You have? I-it is?” Roux stuttered a little, then composed himself. “Roger. We’re on it.”
He clicked the phone off and stared at it for a good ten seconds.
“What?” Mina asked.
His expression was pained. “I forget how quickly Gordon moves sometimes. He’s already booked the suite adjacent to ours to hold meetings in, and he’s had the clients on standby, so they’ve already confirmed for tomorrow.”
Mina blinked. “How did he know which buyers Anastasia would choose?”
Roux’s eyes drifted to mine, and I sighed. Yes, Mina was that na?ve when it came to the way her godfather operated.
“I guess he has good instincts,” Roux said tactfully.
When we were a block away from the hotel, he tapped Mina’s arm.
“I forgot one thing. Can you help me order flowers and food for tomorrow?” He gestured toward Kensington High Street.
“Shouldn’t we check the new suite first?” she asked.
He shook his head so vehemently, I knew something was up.
“No. It’s identical to ours. Marius can have a look and let us know if any changes are necessary. But I really need your help on this.”
Mina knew about as much as he did about flower arrangements and finger food. Another sign of something amiss.
I go where she goes, I growled into the tiger’s mind.
He gave me a firm look. Better that you check the new suite before Mina does. I’ll keep her safe.
In other words, safely away from that suite. What the hell was going on?
He jutted his head toward the hotel, then stuck on a fake smile for Mina. “It won’t take long, I promise.”
Mina followed him glumly, giving me an uncertain wave. “See you soon.”
“See you,” I forced myself to say, though every instinct screamed for me to remain with her.
I watched them walk to the end of the block, then bolted into the hotel and hurried to our suite, where I banged on the door.
“Coming, coming,” Bene called irritably. And not just irritated with me, I realized when he opened the door. He grimaced, then tilted his head to the right. “Ah. You’ve heard about our new neighbor.”
As if on cue, the adjacent door opened, and a curvy woman stepped into view.
“Marius. So good to see you,” she purred.
My mouth fell open. Celeste?
“What the hell is she doing here?” I demanded of Bene.
Celeste chuckled. “Happy to see you too, cherie. Now, where is that delightful goddaughter of Gordon’s? She and I have so much to discuss.”
Not if I could help it, dammit.
Bene gave me a pained, This isn’t my fault look, and for once, I didn’t blame him.
“Fucking Gordon…” I muttered.
“I’d much rather fuck you,” Celeste chuckled.
Bene grabbed my arm as I stormed toward her.
Her eyes sparkled. “In that much of a hurry, huh?”
To wring the life out of her? Yes.
Bene pulled me back. “Be nice, kids.”
“Ah, but Marius is so much better at bad,” Celeste hummed, giving the words layers of subtext. “Aren’t you, cherie?”
I wrenched myself away from Bene, shoved Celeste into her suite, and slammed the door behind us.
“God, you’re something when you’re angry.” Celeste grinned.
Sultry, succubus magic swirled through the air, trying to get a grip on me. In the past, I’d had to fight hard to resist. Now, it was easy.
“Whatever you’re here for, you will leave Mina out of it. Do you hear me?” I half shouted.
“That would be difficult since we’re here for the same thing. The art deal, of course.”
Her sugar-sweet tone suggested otherwise.
“If you so much as touch her…” I started.
Celeste hooted. “Oh, I wouldn’t dream of it, just as I’m sure you wouldn’t dream of touching her. Oh, wait. You already did.”
I snarled, clenching my fists before they flew at her.
“Touchy, touchy,” Celeste scolded. “And all for that scrawny, spoiled snob. Really, what do you see in her?”
I barely bit back my dragon’s roar. Mina wasn’t spoiled. She worked her ass off, and she didn’t have a hint of Celeste’s entitled attitude. And as for scrawny…
“Quite the Achilles’ heel, you know, caring about someone,” Celeste went on.
The blood froze in my veins, and I stalked closer, hissing. “What did you say?”
Celeste’s eyes didn’t so much as flicker. “I said, quite the Achilles’ heel. Even if you’re only fooling yourself about your feelings for her — or fooling her.” She cackled.
“What the hell does that mean?”
Celeste huffed. “Believe me, I know every trick in the book. Sooner or later, she’ll realize that you’re only after her money. That you’ll never fit into her world. Then she’ll kick your sorry ass out of that fancy chateau, and where will you be?”
If Celeste weren’t so dangerous, I might have laughed. Peeling paint and broken plumbing hardly qualified as fancy, and Mina was broke.
But there were two kernels of truth in her words — never fitting into her world and having my sorry ass kicked out of the chateau.
I gave myself a little shake, trying to dislodge the tendrils of succubus sweet talk that had closed in around me.
“You think I don’t know your tricks?” I growled.
“You know a few. But I have so many more,” she hummed, slipping back into seduction mode. “Wouldn’t you enjoy it if I shared them?”
I bared my teeth. “Share them with someone else. Gordon, for all I care.” Then I narrowed my eyes. “Or Szabo. You like vampires, don’t you?”
She dismissed the notion with a flip of her hand. “You’re mixing up what I do for business and what I do for pleasure.”
“I wonder what Henrik would have to say about that?” I asked, recalling what the two of them had gotten up to in Mallorca.
She bristled. “Is that a threat?”
“Absolutely.”
“Henrik can hardly blame me since it was business for him too. Not that business can’t be enjoyable.” Her eyes sparkled. “But I’m sure you agree that genuine connections bring about the highest levels of pleasure.”
As she drew out the last word, magic spun around the room, sparkling like tiny fireworks.
Fireworks that flickered and faded around me, unable to penetrate my defenses. Even a succubus couldn’t trick her way around those when they were built upon love — true love for my destined mate.
“What about Szabo?” I went on, keeping the focus where I wanted it.
“Who Szabo screws is his business.” Bitterness laced her voice.
Interesting. Had Szabo shacked up with one of her rivals?
“What about who he conducts business with?” I demanded.
Celeste shrugged. “Irrelevant.”
To her, maybe, but not to me. Not with him stalking Mina.
Luckily, a knock sounded at the door, because I was ready to throttle Celeste.
“Yes?” she called sweetly.
Bene opened the door and indicated the phone at his ear.
“I have Gordon on the line for Marius.”
Celeste smirked. “Go ahead, cherie. See what your master wants now.”
Her words were laced with venom — and not all of it aimed at me.
I gave her my hardest, darkest look, then stalked into the adjoining suite, where I stuck my hand out for the phone. I was out of the frying pan but into the fire.
But Bene grinned and put it away. “I lied. No call from Gordon. Just me keeping you from killing that bitch.” He sighed. “The big boss wouldn’t like it.”
I exhaled slowly. “No, he wouldn’t.”
Bene went back to his takeout meal on the dining table. “You owe me, man. Again, I might add.”
“You’re right,” I murmured. “I owe you.”
I leaned back against the door, calculating how to protect Mina from Celeste. Because that succubus was always up to something.