Chapter Two #2
“Because when a lady can deep throat a cupcake in a public place, that is a skill that needs to be shared.”
Jienne laughed and nodded. “Fair enough. Thank you again.”
“Don’t thank me until you meet my pet. Nigel is a lot of love in a very large animal.”
Jienne got to her feet and said, “Ready when you are.”
Ava brought up Zera on coms. “I am taking her home. I have sent you my address. Stop by anytime.”
“Jienne, are you going back to work at Klauz’s?”
“I don’t think I can. I... don’t think so.”
Zera nodded. “I will tell Klauz to get another hostess in.”
“Thank you.”
Ava smiled. “If you want help matching her with a likely candidate, I can do that, and when she’s ready, she’s ready.”
Jienne looked at her. “Do you think I will ever be ready?”
“You just need to meet the right patron.”
Zera stared. “Are you willing to come by as match-assist again?”
“You seem to be making a hash of it, and if I get booted out, I can do it remotely.”
She moved to end the call.
“Wait? Is that a yes?”
Ava smiled. “I am here, aren’t I? Send me the new files. Dork.”
Zera’s blinding grin blipped out.
Ava held out her hand. “Come on. Let’s get somewhere that doesn’t have the vibe of a brothel in a mad scientist’s lab.”
Jienne laughed and took her hand. That was how Jienne had gotten her treatment on the way in. The shadow had been exhaled into the street, and it went right back to its master. That is when the moron decided to camp out outside the building. Too bad he wasn’t better at hide and seek.
They got into Ava’s car, and as they drove away, Jienne said, “You know, I thought I had a shadow stuck to me, but it’s gone now.”
“You don’t say.”
“You don’t seem the kind to hold hands with strangers.”
Ava grinned as she drove through the early hours. “I have a very nurturing side. Somewhere.”
Jienne chuckled. “You got him out of me, didn’t you?”
“I probably did. I also cleared out Drin and her guys.”
“How?”
“I have done it before, and it is likely that I will do it again.” She whistled softly as she turned off the main road toward her neighbourhood.
She drove past Kritz and Arcady’s weekend home, went down a block, and then turned, heading past Ekron’s house, where the consortium lived, and Jienne gasped.
“This place is expensive!”
“Naw, that place is pricey.” She drove up to her gates, and they slowly swung open. “This place is expensive.”
Jienne exhaled slowly as they drove up toward the house and the gates closed behind them. “So, you are rich.”
“No, I work for my money. If you are born to it, you are rich. I am just successful.”
“Just?”
Ava laughed.
A huge shadow came and raced next to the car. Jienne gasped, and they screeched to a halt in front of the doors, and the big creature stopped in front of the vehicle. Ava put the vehicle in park and got out.
She closed the door and walked around the vehicle to hug the beast in front of them. Jienne slowly leaned out of the car. “Is it safe?”
“Jienne, this is Nigel. Nigel, this is Jienne.”
“What is... he?”
“He.” The booming voice came from the beast. Jienne jumped back and screamed.
Ava laughed and fell on her ass. “Oh, that never gets old.”
Nigel growled. “It isn’t funny. She’s terrified.”
Ava sighed and got to her feet. “Come on, Jienne. Nigel was made in the same lab I was. As soon as I could get him out, I did.”
“Lab?”
“Sure. I am Uraddan. I escaped nineteen years ago. I went back for Nigel twelve years ago, but he is hard to hide in the great outdoors. It’s easier to hide him in a city.”
Nigel murmured, “I like the trees here.”
She laughed and scratched under his chin. “Come on inside, Jienne. I don’t have a housekeeper. I have a ton of bots. Did you want food or just some rest tonight?”
“Rest, please. I had a long day. The long shifts in these heels are intense.”
“Righto. This way.”
Jienne said, “Is that a pool?”
“One of them. Thanks to grocery delivery, I can stay here ninety percent of the time. That is where the money shows up.”
“So, you invest other people’s money?”
“Not usually. I stick to my own. With other people, I can take what they wouldn’t mind losing and work with it, dumping any profit into a special account once a month. That way, only the initial money is ever at risk.”
Jienne paused. “Can you use five hundred and see what it does?”
Ava chuckled. “I can. Are you able to lose it?”
“I can always find another hostess job.”
“Fine. I will start working with it tonight.”
“Uh, don’t I need to give you authorization or something?”
“You just did.” She chuckled.
Half an hour later, Jienne was in one of the eighteen guestrooms and in the spare pyjamas that the room contained. She was showered, warm, fully clothed, and in an astonishingly comfortable bed.
Ava grabbed a computer, labelled it for Jienne, transferred the money into a holding account and five hundred of her own into the market. The numbers started climbing almost immediately. Ava grinned and closed the laptop.
Her little money engine was working. Time to get a bit of sleep for herself. “Up to cuddle, Nigel?”
He crawled up onto her bed and flopped on the other pillow, his three hundred and fifty pounds making a dip in the mattress.
Nigel grumbled. “We need to get you a mate, Ava.”
“Ha.” She pulled a pillow under her head. “They are messy, and you have to keep feeding them, or they get bitchy.”
“Like you.”
She snorted. “Stop being so accurate.”
He looked at her with his colour-shifting eye. He was a blend of canine, feline, bird, and something with scales, all of which blended into a human consciousness. “Are we staying for a while?”
“It depends on my meeting with the assessment team tomorrow. If they say I go, I go. It would be back to Daycross for us.”
“Etgar is fun to play chess with.” Nigel had a hopeful tone in his voice.
“Do you just want to go back to Daycross?”
He looked at her hopefully. “I was very happy there.”
“You are the wild beast of Daycross.”
He wiggled happily. “I know.”
“How do you get along with horses? They restarted the polo club.”
“I think I can make friends.”
“There are a lot of alphas skulking around now. They are the ones playing polo.”
“You could enjoy that.”
“They play to keep, and most of them are taken.” She chuckled. “Plus, I am a little old for that sort of thing.”
“You are in your thirties. You aren’t dead.”
She sighed. “I feel that way sometimes.”
“We are alive. We are free. Uradda is down, and its actives can have lives now as legal citizens of other countries. They are also finding out that building a whole bunch of active omegas was a fucked-up calculation.”
“And yet, you are here.”
She looked at him as their conversation relaxed her. “I am here.”
“Is she safe?”
“Yes. I have gone through her psyche several times to make sure that she is clear. She’s clear and horrified at what happened. It’s fine.”
“You have started her a fund?”
“Of course. I can see what she needs and get it to her. It’s what I do.”
“You are such a caretaker.”
“Don’t insult me, fuzz balls.”
He huffed and lay still. She followed and slept.
A heavy paw was on her shoulder. “Wake up, Avagail. You are screaming.”
“Oh, sorry. Back in the capitol.”
“Right. Put yourself back on your yacht and get back to sleep.”
Ava wiped the tears from her cheeks. “Right. Happy place.”
“How much are you sleeping, Ava?”
“Three or four hours a night. Sleeping in the day is easier, but we have a guest.”
“Right. You sleep. I will eat your nightmares.”
She nodded and focused on the sun, the waves and started shoving Hyreno off the boat. That was a good day.
She let that smug feeling carry her into sleep as dawn crept in through the drapes. She relaxed and was out before she hit the first Hyreno with a zodiac paddle.