Chapter 6
Chapter
Six
Antoinette’s Apartment
East Boston
10:30PM
“ W hat’s all this about a masquerade?” Hawk asked.
Stella was wondering the same thing. Ethan hadn’t sounded interested at all when Doherty called earlier in the evening to check on his failure to RSVP.
“It’s a charity ball,” Ethan explained. “I went last year when I was gearing up for my campaign. David Hurley and his law partners…they were all there.”
So that was it. Stella’s imagination started to spin, picturing the loud, crowded, costumed ball. Wasn’t it bad enough, trying to find her father when he was disguised as someone else? Now, they had to throw a masquerade layer on top of it all?
Though she supposed, after everything they’d been through, this was just par for the course. Why should things suddenly get easy?
Hawk glanced at Stryker, then at Dylan and murmured, “We’ll have to buy suits.”
“Technically,” Ethan said, “you’d need costumes, but it’s not necessary. You aren’t going.”
Hawk’s eyes snapped to Ethan, and Stella braced for what would come next. Ethan might not have been an alpha wolf, but he was nobody’s beta.
“The fuck we aren’t ,” Hawk said, his silver eyes flashing. “That maniac is after our mate.”
“And what are you going to do?” Ethan asked in a tone that verged on sarcasm and definitely suggested a challenge. “Shift in the middle of the ballroom? Shifter magic is too in-your-face. You’d be a liability.”
Hawk pushed himself off the wall and took two menacing steps toward Ethan.
Ethan rocketed to his feet and met the shifter head on.
“Hey!” Antoinette cried, throwing her arms out wide and leaning over her glass coffee table. “I got breakable things here.”
“Ah, hell,” Stella murmured to herself. The last thing they needed was a macho pissing contest.
“This maneuver requires subtlety,” Ethan said. He was nose-to-nose with Hawk. Neither of them seemed willing to back down.
“Uh…just to say,” Dylan hedged, looking up at the shifter-witch face-off from his seat on the floor. “ None of your guys’s magic is exactly subtle. Abby can deafen everyone within a square mile, and I’ve personally witnessed Stella set an entire forest on fire.”
Stella scoffed. “I’m not going to light up the ballroom , Dylan.”
“Regardless,” Ethan said, “just witches—and hybrid witches—in the ballroom. And let me remind you, Hawk, you’re not the only one with a partner who’s on the line.”
“Abby’s not going in alone,” Hawk said without glancing toward the couch where Abby sat ram-rod straight.
“She’d hardly be alone,” Antoinette offered. “You just heard Ethan. There will be five of us, assuming Jun’s sticking around.”
“Oh, I’m sticking around,” Jun said.
“Alone as in without us ,” Hawk said.
“I want my revenge,” Abby said, her eyes on Hawk.
“And you’ll get it,” Hawk barked, “but not tomorrow. At least if that means going in without us.”
“Hawk,” Abby said reassuringly. “ Babe . It’ll be okay.”
Before Hawk could answer, and he looked like he was about to explode, Stryker waded into the debate. “The Collector almost killed you, sweetheart, so please don’t bust our balls. We go with you, or you don’t go at all.”
“It’s a masquerade,” Abby cajoled, tipping her head back to look up at him. “I’ll be wearing a mask. The Collector won’t even know it’s me.”
No one responded because they all knew that was a weak argument. By this point, the Collector could probably detect Abby’s magic from a mile away.
“We could be getting way ahead of ourselves,” Jun said in a clear attempt to lower the temperature of the room. “We don’t even know if David Hurley will be there—either as himself or as the Collector in disguise.”
“Hurley will be there,” Ethan said. “It’s probably written into their contracts because the partners at that firm never miss an opportunity to schmooze with the most important people in the state.”
“Which means,” Hawk added, “if Antoinette’s right about the Collector wanting to assume Hurley’s clout, that he’s just as likely to be at this party because—whatever he’s after—the source of it will likely come from one of those VIPs.”
Ethan tipped his finger at Hawk in agreement.
“Ooo- wee !” Antoinette exclaimed while looking at her phone. “These pictures from last year’s masquerade are wild. People go all out.”
“Abby,” Hawk said. “A word in private.”
Abby rose from the couch and allowed Hawk to lead her to the kitchen area. Stryker and Dylan followed. They formed a close huddle.
Stella, Ethan, Antoinette, and Jun tightened their own conversation circle on the couch, and while Antoinette continued to scroll through last year’s masquerade photos, Ethan laid out an initial plan of approach.
“We can enter the ballroom in pairs. Spread out to cover as much ground. I think we’ll need to work out some signals…”
Stella tried to focus on what he was saying instead of the wolves’ ongoing argument with Abby. She could see both points of view, but she was leaning toward Hawk. The less people that were facing her father, the better for her conscience.
Antoinette might be able to separate her from the enemy, but Stella still had a hard time doing that herself.
Antoinette flashed them an online party photo from a few years back. “Cleopatra. That’s who I’m going as. A thigh-high slit will be good if we have to run, and I’ve got the perfect necklace.”
“Do you really think you’re strong enough for this?” Dylan asked, his volume suddenly rising above the rest of the voices in the kitchen.
Stella stopped looking at the photo and turned toward the kitchen. Ethan, Antoinette, and Jun turned too.
Abby growled at all of her mates, but she grabbed Dylan —the biggest of the three—by the front of his shirt and threw him up against the refrigerator.
The back of his head cracked against the freezer, knocking a box of cereal off the top and onto the kitchen floor.
Dylan chuckled and said, “Point taken. You’re strong. But you’re still not going.”
He leaned down to give Abby a quick peck, but she bit his lip instead.
“Get a room,” Antoinette groused, only half serious.
Abby turned toward her with a wicked grin. “Got one?”
“No, I do not,” Antoinette said.
“Then I guess we’re leaving,” Abby said. “Come on. We can argue about this in the car. Stella, I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“Didn’t you drive with them?” Stella asked Jun as the wolves headed for the door.
He shook his head. “I’m parked outside, and my hotel’s only a few miles from here.”
Ethan glanced toward the door and even though the wolves were already gone, his attention held.
“What is it?” Stella asked. Her body felt heavy. This time tomorrow, all her friends could be facing danger. Again. Because of her father.
“It’s too bad we won’t have Abby tomorrow night,” Ethan said.
“If they don’t change their minds about that,” Jun said, “we should bring in Jade and Izzy.”
Stella exhaled wearily, but she knew he was right. Besides, they’d be pissed if they found out they’d been kept in the dark. “I’m sure that won’t be a problem.”
Ethan returned his gaze to her. “No offense, Red. Jade’s your sister. But when I think about her and Izzy, ‘not a problem’ isn’t the first thing that comes to mind.”
“Why?” Jun asked. “They were a huge help after we rescued Abby.”
Ethan drew in a deep breath. “Let’s just say, I’ve got a long memory. They’ve got my appreciation, for sure, but I still think twice before turning my back on either one of them.”
Stella had to admit that was fair. Four months ago, Jade and Izzy had tortured Ethan within an inch of his life. In fact, if Stella hadn’t attacked her own coven, she and Ethan could have both been killed.
Things, of course, were different now between them all, but history did leave its scars. Hopefully, tomorrow night would leave them unscathed.