31. Henley #2
“Hiney…aren’t you going to come say hi?” Euston’s grin might’ve been his attempt at looking innocent but it didn’t work.
He just looked like a Batman villain.
Blaine went still as I reached in my pocket and pressed the fob to unlock the truck. “That’s disgusting.”
“He couldn’t say my name when I was born?” That was what I’d always been told but one skeptical glance from Blaine had me shrugging. “I’m running out of excuses, so let’s just ignore this one.”
“Alright, my mate.” Ignoring my brother, Blaine cocked his head. “Do you have strong feelings on what I do to defend you?”
Did I?
“Um, I probably should?” Logically I knew most people would. “Do you want me to?”
I could probably fake horror and emotional damage for a while if it’d make him happy.
Blaine coughed again, rolling his eyes. “I’ll take that as a no.”
“If that’s what you decide.” I wasn’t going to talk him out of it. “Oh, and we have enough water for a quick shower if we get messy. I made sure to top that off when I was dumping the black water tank.”
Doing that in the dark was a pain in the ass I was going to try not to have to do ever again.
“Good thinking, my mate.” Nodding slowly, Blaine was handling the situation remarkably well. “Now, is our plan still the same?”
That was a very good question.
“I don’t know where the cameras are or if they cover the parking lot, otherwise I’d ask your thoughts about shifting.” I was going to need to re-evaluate situations like this going forward. “Let’s do a debrief on this tomorrow and see what we should’ve done differently.”
He didn’t bother trying to hide his grin that time. “Yes, let’s do that over lunch or dinner. It’ll give us a nice break from driving.”
“Sounds good.” Dawdling sounded good too but it wouldn’t help the situation. “Let’s get this over with.”
Because putting it off wouldn’t help.
“Lead on, my mate.” Standing straighter, Blaine’s expression shifted into neutral again as we started down the steps.
“I didn’t see any missed calls from you, Ewie.” I hadn’t been able to say his name properly either, and then didn’t bother correcting it because he’d always made me want to go eww. “Is everything okay?”
There’d been something wrong with him even when he was young…which was probably why he was my dad’s favorite. I was starting to think I’d been too normal as a kid for the rest of the family to like me. I hadn’t been quite enough of a sociopath for the rest of them.
None of it explained why he was hanging out with so many different types of paranormal people, though.
Euston’s grin got creepier. “I had better ways of finding you.”
So one of his new friends could track us magically?
Great.
Something about the way Blaine barely jerked beside me said it meant something to him, but I tried not to draw attention to it.
“That’s handy.” We stopped at the bottom of the stairs, still too close but at least we were on flat ground. Falling down concrete stairs seemed more dangerous than having the high ground under the circumstances. “Is that a skill one of your new friends has?”
No point in pretending they were human…they weren’t trying to pass.
Something about all of them just gave them a not-quite-human look to them but I wasn’t sure if it was their intent focus or something actually magical I couldn’t identify.
“Does Dad know you’ve made new friends?” There was no way he’d give permission for this and we both knew it. “It seems like something he’d disapprove of.”
He hadn’t liked us making friends with humans outside of the family.
“His views on how to grow the business are old-fashioned.” Euston shrugged like it didn’t matter, but it was all bullshit. “I’m taking it in a new direction.”
What direction?
They hunted paranormal people for a living.
How many ways were there to do that?
“Did your brother form a gang of monsters to go kill other monsters?” Blaine’s shock had me trying not to laugh because his innocence at how evil people could be was one of my favorite things about him. “That’s movie-level nonsense.”
Agreed.
“That’s what you’re going with?” He was ridiculous as well as evil. “Well, how are you expecting me to help? It doesn’t seem like we’re in the same line of work any longer.”
Even when I’d been trying to blend in with the rest of the family better I wouldn’t have agreed to whatever he was doing.
Euston cocked his head as his gaze shifted to Blaine. “I don’t know. You seem to have picked up an interesting new friend.”
What did he know?
Staying quiet just had his eyes sparkling with something evil and possibly curious.
“I’ve heard some interesting rumors about your walking rug.” Rug? Euston’s tone was just teasing enough that I couldn’t tell what was bluffing and what was him just fucking with us. Who had he talked to? “It seems like you’re slumming it, Hiney.”
Um, no.
Rich shifter mate…I was doing pretty well all things considered.
So what had he heard?
“Why are you here?” Ignoring his poking, I frowned as I started making a wide arc around his henchmen like I was aiming for the driver’s side door. Blaine moved the opposite direction like there was nothing wrong, but I could feel how much he hated separating from me. “This is weird even for you.”
Taking a chance, I made eye contact with his goons and frowned. “You guys don’t think this level of stalking is unhealthy? Sure, most families have their problems but this is unreasonable.”
Even bad guys had to have boundaries, right?