Chapter 3
three
While the four of us had been inside, the parking lot had emptied except for the van. Rochele and Mindy leaned against its closed back doors, sharing a packet of Skittles, while Jess hovered outside the building.
“Bring it in,” Liam called out to our team. “Time to draw straws for who gets to drive.”
A tiny voice in my head urged that I should point out these were my animals, this was my business, and I ought to be the one ensuring they arrived at their destination safely.
But with Liam shadowing my every move, an ice cube in hell stood a better chance than them entrusting me with an open road and a set of keys.
“Cotton swabs.” Rían held up a handful he must have snitched from the jar beside the washing station. “We’re fresh out of straws.”
“Close enough.” Liam accepted them, snapping them into various lengths. “Who wants to go first?”
“Me.” I had been paying close attention to his shuffling and chose a short nub. “Sloane?”
Hers was middling, not a good sign, and she wrinkled her nose as we waited for the others to make their selections. We still had a shot at winning the keys, a slim one, but next pick decided the game as Rochele thrust her swab, no more than cotton, above her head.
“Straws or swabs.” Liam appeared pleased with himself. “It doesn’t get shorter than that.”
“I win!” She spoke into it like a microphone. “Mindy, you’re shotgun.”
With a tight smile for her clanmates, Jess curved her shoulders in, making herself small.
“That worked out well then.” Rían planted himself in front of her. “I was hoping to ask you about the shifter tranquilizer you’ve been synthesizing with Burdock. I heard it can bring down a small dragon.”
“Oh.” Her expression brightened with delight. “Not quite.”
An SUV pulled into the parking lot, and the driver tossed Liam the keys before hitting the sidewalk where a girl in a frilly blue dress waited for him while her mom watched from behind the wheel of an idling sedan.
The girl ran up to take his hand, guiding him to the car, and it struck me all over again how confident the Walsh clan was that Rían could protect them.
Even with the Sartoris next door, even with a tunnel discovered under my floor, even with threats on all sides, these people let their kids out to play, confident in their magnus and happy to follow him.
“Sloane, you’re up front with me.” Liam pocketed the fob. “Everyone else pile in the back with Rían.”
With an apologetic smile at me, Rían guided Jess to the vehicle, pausing to open the door for her.
Hanging back with Sloane, I had to admit, “He handled that well.”
“Rochele and Mindy don’t mean to exclude Jess, I don’t think.” She tugged on her bottom lip in thought. “They both work for the Abbeville Police Department, so it makes sense they would be close.”
“They have each other,” I agreed with her assessment. “Jess has no one as far as I can tell.”
Key members of the clan had been relocated to Brentwood. For my sake. Most considered it an honor to have been among the chosen, but guilt held me in a chokehold when I thought about what they had lost because of a betrothal that might go nowhere.
“She’s got us.” Sloane looped her arm through mine. “I’m willing to share.”
“I’m still figuring out the friend thing.” I let doubt creep in from time to time, even with Sloane, who had proven herself loyal to me over and over again. “Jess might be better off with just you.”
“You and me? We’re a package deal. That’s how besties work.” She tipped her head against mine. “And I’m not just saying that because I’ve been dreaming about your Tex-Mex eggs Benedict.”
“Mmm-hmm.” I snorted at her buttering me up to cook for her again. “Shifters will eat anything.”
They burned so many calories, they were always snacking on something to fuel their transformations.
“That’s a dirty lie.” She turned me loose and reached for her door handle. “Shifters will eat everything.”
Chuckling as she rubbed her stomach, I climbed into the backseat, sitting behind her.
Poor Rían had folded himself into the middle spot when he should have been the one riding up front.
The way his knees almost touched his chest couldn’t be comfortable, and his wide shoulder bumped mine as I fastened my seat belt.
About to tell Liam that Sloane and Rían ought to switch places, Rían snuck a look at me from under his lashes, a tiny smile fighting to stay hidden.
“You can’t be comfortable.” I pressed my back against the door to give him more room. “Your head is an inch from the ceiling, and I haven’t seen you breathe since I got in.” I studied him. “Can you breathe?”
“Around you?” He slid his palms down his thighs. “Not always.”
Pink flushed Rían’s nape, seeping into his cheeks, and he awarded the console his entire focus.
Having been the frequent target of skilled flirts, guys who viewed me only as the next rung on the ladder to alphahood, I found Rían’s unpolished approach refreshing. But I wasn’t about to admit that in front of Liam when I had no doubt he would hold it over my head.
“The seat belt is clearly restricting airflow to your brain.” Liam met his cousin’s gaze in the rearview mirror. “I’m going to spare you from embarrassing yourself, and me, by updating Ana on the Sartori situation.”
The Sartori situation. Funny. Liam had jokes. “An update would be great.”
“Mercer wants a private meeting with you. Outside the wards. If you ask me, he’s hoping to pull a smash-and-grab since his last attempt at smuggling you home failed.
” Liam drummed his fingers on the steering wheel.
“That means, in my humble opinion, a Walsh clan rep should attend with you to prevent that outcome.”
And I could guess who would volunteer to play rep, since the Sartoris wouldn’t recognize his real face.
“Mercer would view that as a sign I’ve aligned myself with your clan.
” I might not be a spymaster, but I had common sense.
“And, if he couldn’t make himself believe that, he would decide I was only allowed to attend with a Walsh rep because you’re holding me against my will and forcing me to do as I’m told. ”
Both things he ought to be well acquainted with, given how Dad treated me like a princess in a tower.
“I’m surprised he’s back on his feet so quickly,” Sloane mused softly. “You kicked his ass, Ana.”
For Mercer to be functional within twenty-four hours, he must have gone to the witches for help.
“You were breathtaking.” Rían watched me from the corner of his eye. “You’re lethal with those claws.”
Their praise sank into me, warming my chest with pride, and I couldn’t stop my smile. “Thanks.”
“Ana already told Mercer,” Sloane reminded them, “she won’t meet with anyone but her father.”
“Tell my dad I’m not choosing a side—yet—but I’m not leaving Brentwood until he agrees to meet with me. Either he tells me the truth, the whole truth, or I have no reason not to believe what the Walshes are telling me.”
That was the message I gave Mercer, and his loyalty to Dad was such he would have taken word straight to him. I doubt he would have consented to seeing a healer, despite his wounds being tainted with silver from my claws, before he relayed his failure and my ultimatum.
And in sending Mercer rather than coming himself, Dad had given his answer.
Either I met with him, spoke to him, on his terms or not at all. Which meant he thought I was bluffing. He expected me to tuck tail and return with Mercer. He was that certain of his control over me.
“I stand by that.” I wrapped my arms around my middle. “I want to hear his side of the story.”
Twisting in her seat, Sloane studied me. “Do you think he’ll tell you the truth?”
Unable to hold her stare, I turned my gaze out the window. “Why would he start now?”