Chapter 19
Plutus went with her to her defense. He couldn’t be stopped, god that he was, so she didn’t try.
Honestly, she didn’t want to try. He comforted her, so she was glad for some quiet time with him in the car.
His hand on hers helped give her mind something physical to focus on instead of the anxiety of what was about to happen.
She was about to walk into a room with three people, all set to judge her.
She’d done all she could. Finished her thesis with three days to spare, just enough time to give her committee the opportunity to read through it. E felt proud she’d met the deadline, all things considered. She’d be even prouder if she passed the damn defense. When. When she passed the defense.
She became fidgety the closer they came to the department, and the only thing that broke her out of her own head was the deep growl erupting from Plutus when they eased in front of the building. She looked at where he stared outside the car and saw Mitchel slinking there.
“What the hell’s he doing here?”
“I don’t know, but I’m about to find out,” Plutus’s voice was an anvil, a mountain, anything cold and hard and immovable. She imagined his claws and fangs would be flashing if he wasn’t wearing his amulet just then.
However, he looked cool, calm, and steady as he exited, stared down the other man, and helped her out of the car. All at once. How’s that for multitasking?
“May I help you?” How Plutus managed to make his voice have the exact note of richness and dismissiveness was impressive to E.
“I’m here to speak with her,” Mitchel spat out, and she noticed he looked a little less put together than normal. His suit hung limply and wrinkled, and his eyes looked a little puffier than usual. His hair wasn’t slicked back, but mussed in a not-attractive way.
“Not. Happening.” Plutus clipped at him, placing himself a step ahead of her, almost like he had the night with the vampire. E snorted, because Mitchel was a vampire of sorts, though not a cool or interesting one.
“She got to the board.” His voice cracked halfway through the yelled accusation, but E simply blinked at him.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Mitchel.”
“Liar! Thief!”
“She’s being honest. I’m the one who spoke with the board. Had a lunch meeting with three members. John, Carlton, and Francis to be specific. Hadn’t seen them in ages.”
E cocked her head at Plutus, thinking he knew an awful lot of board members and he’d never brought that up.
“You? Why? What lies did you tell them?” Mitchel demanded, stepping close to Plutus.
“Bad move,” E muttered under her breath as Plutus straightened further somehow, towering over the man before him in a menacing and not at all sexy way.
Well, not at all sexy for Mitchel, most likely.
Sexy as hell for her in the moment because he was putting Mitchel in his place.
Admittedly, she liked whenever he loomed, menacingly or not.
“I told no lies, Mitchel Collins. I had no need when you have transgressions of your own. Including, but not limited to, your baseless accusations against E.”
“They are not baseless. She had to have stolen the book. Or seduced you into–”
Plutus’s hand shot out, gripping the much smaller man by his lapels and leaning down, inches from his face. “Be very careful what you say next.” The grit and menace of his voice was loud and clear.
Mitchel managed to squirm free, but E figured it was only because Plutus let him.
He rubbed his hands together, as if rubbing away grime, and continued.
“You also had some recent discrepancies in your database, not just with the missing book you accused E of stealing. Discrepancies which pointed to more than one stolen book that happened to make their way to backroom dealers with money to spend. I figure you wanted someone to pin all those dealings on, no?”
Mitchel’s mouth opened and closed like a hooked fish.
The weird “glitches” in the databases that disappeared books.
Mitchel’s hyper focus on one book, and her.
It made so much more sense now. “You lousy, conniving jackass,” E called, surging forward to get in his face.
Maybe even take a swing. You can take the girl out of the trailer park and all that.
“Whoa, little one. No need for more. Mitchel is simply upset about the consequences of his own actions. What was it again? Ah, yes. Administrative leave, without pay, effective immediately. Hard, isn’t it, when your old money is dwindling daily thanks to a string of truly stupid investment decisions. ”
“How would you know?”
Plutus’ green eyes flashed. “Why else would you resort to stealing from your employer?”
“I never–”
Plutus waved a hand at him. Pure dismissal, as if he were beneath the both of us.
Which he was, the toad. “You should run along. You might find authorities at your door soon enough, as there was evidence against you. Unlike with E. Also, I suggest you check your digital payment methods soon: debit cards, touchless pay, etc. They seem to be on the fritz of late.”
A wide, wicked smile stretched Plutus’s mouth and Mitchel huffed. Because he was who he was, and he never had to learn self-preservation, he spun to throw some more vileness at E. “You’ll regret this. I will end–”
“Enough!” Plutus pushed the man back, step by step, until Mitchel was shoved against the brick building.
He crowded him and E only heard what he said to the man because she was right on his heels.
“The only reason you stand here now is because of her mercy. You will never interact with, look at, think of E again, or you will find yourself in a much more dire situation.” Mitchel cried out in pain and E noticed Plutus had a finger poking right into his chest. Hard.
So hard he might leave a bruise. “It is past time for you to run along.”
Mitchel gave her one last hard look over Plutus’s shoulder but did as he was told. Likely off to figure out how much trouble he was actually in.
“Is he going to jail?”
“Most likely. Unlike you, he did steal and there is a trail. He was a careless idiot about it.” Plutus spun around, straightened his suit jacket, and smiled down at E. “No more of him. Ever. He will pay for what he did to you and his general jackassery without any more from us.”
“The vengeance of a god,” she whispered up at him as she gripped his freshly straightened lapels.
“Watch the suit,” he said, his tone telling her he didn’t care a bit about his suit.
“Watch the lips,” she said before she stretched up on her tiptoes and smacked a quick, hard kiss on him. “Thank you.”
“You never need thank me for a kiss, love,” he said with a smirk.
“I kissed you, dude. And not for that. For doling out justice.”
“All in a day’s work,” he said, with a little salute. He kissed her again, this time making it deep and on the edge of wicked. “Now, go wow your committee, as I know you will.”
“Will do,” she said, stepping away, a little more bounce in her step thanks to what Plutus did for her and to her.
Ewaited in the hallway like a chump.
It was an odd thing, to have three professors pepper you with complex questions for two hours then ask you to wait in the hallway, while you knew they were in there talking about you.
Lucky for her, it only lasted about five minutes, though it felt like five hours in her hazy mind.
She was running on adrenaline and massive amounts of coffee at this point.
She couldn’t remember the questions they’d asked her.
It all existed in some half-panicked daze even through it was literally minutes ago.
“Ms. Michaels. Please come in,” her advisor called from the doorway. E entered the ordinary meeting room to her other committee members standing. “Congratulations. You’ve passed your thesis defense with no revisions.”
There was clapping, a few pleasantries, talk of the ceremony in August, which E knew she wouldn’t attend.
She didn’t say as much then, of course. She’d email her advisor about it later.
For now, it was enough to take the congratulations and leave as quickly as she could so she could get to the person she really wanted to celebrate with.
She exited the building expecting to see Plutus waiting there for her. The car sat there of course, but no Plutus. She slumped in disappointment but the driver beamed at her. “He’s waiting for you at the apartment with a surprise, Miss.”
“Told you. It’s E.”
“Master E?”
“Yep.”
“Nicely done,” he said and she reached out to shake his hand.
“Thanks. Now I’ll collapse in the back until we get home.”
He smiled and nodded, holding the door open for her so she could crawl in and decompress for the length of an uptown ride.
She was done. Done. No PhD for her, especially not here and now. Maybe one day. Who knew? After the messed-up sendoff she had, she was finished. Not finished with books or academia fully, because she’d still take the job at OSU, but finished with degrees and NYC for now.
The last thought shot a bolt of panic through her.
Would Plutus be willing to come with her to Columbus?
Could they do long distance if he stayed?
The idea of leaving him behind made her ache, but she couldn’t stay here.
She’d never be comfortable as a lady who lunches, though she knew Plutus would happily give her such a life.
They needed to have a talk about it, she knew, but damn.
She’d just done something major. She deserved to celebrate a little.
Which she’d do with Plutus as soon as she saw him. They’d discuss the future later.
She rested her eyes all the way back and fidgeted in the elevator until it pinged open. Darting out, she started teasing right away. “You better have a damn good excuse for not being there when I got out because I wanted to tell you that I passed. Your driver was the first to know.”
“We were second. He texted before he started back,” Plutus said, a huge smile on his beautiful, human face. Odd to see in his own home. He stepped aside then, not coming to hug me like usual, because my parents stood right behind him, tears in their eyes.
“Mom? Dad?” The world turned watery at the sight of them.
“Oh, baby girl. Congratulations. We knew you’d do it.” Her mom barely got through that before the tears fell.
“Way to go, baby,” her dad whispered, then they barreled into her, and all three cried happy tears together.
When they managed to disentangle themselves, she turned to plant her face square in Plutus’s chest. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, E.”
“You got a good man, there, E. Very kind. Called us last week with this plan and all. Got us the tickets and a hotel and everything. Plus, we’re going out somewhere fancy to celebrate.” Her mom blabbed in her endearing way, and E saw she was half in love with her god, too, given all he’d done.
“Busy.”
“Had to be, what with you so consumed with work for the last few weeks. Needed something to occupy my time.” He smirked down at her.
“We’re going for steak tonight,” her dad chimed in. Offered steak would be at the forefront of his mind.
“Where?”
“Delmonico’s” Plutus said, as if it didn’t shoot an arrow straight through her chest, the idea that he remembered her talking about going there with Lisa and her family, how special the experience was to her.
His face softened and he added, “I rented out the bar area for the night. Also, just so you don’t get too teary-eyed in front of others there, know that Anne and her husband and Lisa and her parents are also invited. ”
“You flew in Lisa?”
“I was going to, but she’d already planned on it herself.”
“I’m sure she did.” She thought of something that happened only weeks ago, though with the frantic pace of her life lately, it felt like it happened months or years in the past. Back to the night she first met her god. “Um, honey? There is probably still a big handprint on her wall.”
She didn’t say more, like how it was a giant, godly claw print pounded into the brick wall of Lisa’s living room after Plutus first appeared to her.
What her parents didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them, especially when it came to gods living amongst humans.
Too much for her to deal with on an already packed day.
Lisa deserved an unmarred wall, though, so she hoped they could get that fixed soon.
Plutus waved his human-looking hand and said, “Taken care of, little one.”
Of course it was. He took care of everything. Most of all her.
Her mom, ignoring the entire conversation she just had and the gooey eyes she sent to her god, took E’s arm and headed to the couch. “Come now, honey. Tell us all about how your test went.”
They sat there, chatting and laughing, until it was time for fancy steak in the financial district, then more time chatting and laughing with friends. Actually celebrating her accomplishments for once, thanks to the god by her side.