“I must be tired. I never talk about that. She loved this place and was restoring it while I was away. I promised her I’d finish it someday, but I haven’t gotten around to it.”
I decided to move to a new, hopefully less painful subject. “Probably cuz ya work a hundred hours straight.” I patted his back. “I’m going to make you a quick meal. Why don’t you take a shower?”
“Do I smell?” He sniffed his underarm.
Such a man thing to do, and it made me laugh. “No. I just thought it might help you relax.”
“You don’t have to do this. I know you have to be tired, too. You’re the reason I’ve been working so much.”
I rolled my eyes. “I know. Don’t make me feel guiltier than I already do. Point me to the kitchen.”
We were at the base of a split staircase. “Take the hallway to the left, and it’s the last door. I’ll be down in a minute.”
I peeked in the various rooms as I walked down the hall. What had been the parlor had been turned into a beautiful family room in earth tones, a peaceful retreat for a busy couple. The dining room was attached, but the renovations hadn’t been completed there. There were paint patches on the wall as if someone couldn’t figure out the color, and there wasn’t a stick of furniture.
I stared at the colors on the wall for a minute and decided the iced mocha would be the best choice to go with in the family room. My instincts were confirmed when I walked into the kitchen.
His wife must have gutted the room and rebuilt it from top to bottom, though she kept the charm of the place with whitewashed floors and wood countertops. The walls were a soft, creamy yellow, and the stainless steel appliances looked brand-new. The whole back wall was lined with windows that led to a glassed-in sunporch. It was comfortable and homey.
I opened the fridge and was surprised to find the man liked mustard. There had to be at least five different kinds. I pulled out a variety of meats and cheeses and found some rye bread in the pantry. Since I didn’t know what foods he liked, I decided to keep it simple. Sandwiches were easy, and if he didn’t like them, no big.
After I had the food prepared, I found an old pitcher of tea in the fridge. I dumped it out and made him a fresh pot. I also cleaned out his vegetable drawer and dumped the sour milk. Other than that, everything was spotless and well kept. For a bachelor, he lived a tidy life, which probably had something to do with his military background.
I suddenly wished I knew more about him. Where he grew up, what kind of kid he’d been, why he’d left the FBI to join the CIA, that sort of thing.
I sat down at the kitchen bar and drank a glass of tea and ate a sandwich while I waited—and waited. “Jeez, he takes longer showers than Gilly.” After another ten minutes, I decided I better check on him. He was so tired he might have drowned.
He’d taken the stairs to the right, so I did the same. The house was huge. There was a long center hallway flanked by more doors on the right and left sides. The wooden stairs had been refinished. At the top I wasn’t sure which way to go. There were four doors in that center hallway, but I sensed he wasn’t behind them. I followed my instincts to the right and saw that the door at the end was open. “Jake?”
No answer.
Hell, here we go again.
I moved a little faster and stopped at the door. Jake was wrapped in a towel lying across the bed, sound asleep. Poor guy.
I tried hard not to look at his incredibly buff body. He might work long hours, but he still found time to go to the gym. His shoulders were wide, his hips narrow.
Warmth spread through my body, and I wanted to run my hands down those muscles along his back.
Alex, stop being a perv.
I pulled the comforter up over him. He looked so peaceful, and I couldn’t stop watching him. Finally, I had to make myself walk away.
In the kitchen I put the tea and the sandwiches in the fridge. I found some paper in the drawer and left him a note.
Jake,
Hope you slept well. Food’s in the fridge, and I’d go with the mocha paint for the dining room.
-A
I thought about him asleep upstairs.
My body heated again. I needed to get laid in a big way.
I’m actually lusting after poor Jake.
I touched my tattoos together and headed home.
Landing in my room, I tripped on the new rug I had put in recently.
“Graceful.” Mira sat on my bed, her long red hair piled on top of her head. “And my oh my, that’s an interesting smile on your face. Care to tell me where you’ve been?”
CHAPTER 12
I love my sisters, but sometimes they can be nosy bitches. I say that in the most loving way. I’m no better. I’m all up in their business, too. It’s just annoying when their attention is directed at me.
“I was helping a friend.” I sat down in the cushy club chair next to my window and yanked off my boots.
“Really?” She had one of those I-know-something-you-don’t-know looks on her face.
“What now?” I pulled my knees up under my chin.
“Everyone’s talking about you. The security tape showed you and Jake talking, and then you driving him out the tunnel. The team followed your GPS and practically drooled when they saw you took him out to his ranch. And they all know you were there for almost an hour.”
Damn GPS. It was a small dot that stuck behind our ear, but sometimes I wished Bailey had never invented the stupid thing. No privacy whatsoever. “So I ask again. What’s up?”
She continued to stare at me with that knowing look in her eyes.
I thought about telling her to go to hell, but I knew it wouldn’t do any good. “I found him asleep in his truck. The poor guy had been working for four days straight, so I drove him home. End of story.”
Mira chuckled. “I’d believe you, Al, if I hadn’t picked up on something. I was looking at a new house on the beach in Sydney when I felt it. You care about him. So much so that it made me extremely curious. Something happened at his house. Did you sleep with him?”
I wanted to.
The image of him half-naked was still burned into my brain “God, no. What the hell is wrong with you?” Damn her for being more in tune with my emotions than I was. Of course she had seriously strong abilities as a psychic and empath. But she was right about something shifting in regards to my relationship with Jake. Knowing that he loved his wife so much made me wonder if I would ever experience something like that. Maybe even if I could ever experience that type of bond with someone like him, crazy as that may have sounded.
I’d had plenty of boyfriends—too many, if anyone had kept count—but I didn’t really understand the kind of love Jake had for his wife. Or, for that matter, what my sister Gilly had with the demon king Arath. They weren’t married, but they definitely had a deep connection, and they were solidly in love.
I looked across the room at my sister. “You’re good, but you made a mistake. I just found out about his wife dying of cancer, and I felt really sorry for him. They must have really been in love. Anyway, that’s it.” I turned. “Well, that and he has agreed to be my temporary pretend boyfriend.”
She laughed. “What?”
“If Ginjin goes through with his threats to talk to Mom, I needed options. Jake was kind enough to say he’d do it. He’s a really nice guy. I consider him a friend, but that’s it.”
Studying me for a moment, she stood and walked to the door. “You can lie to yourself as much as you want, but I know better. Whatever you’re doing, be careful. One thing I do know for sure is that he’s a solid guy.”
I shrugged. “Even the great Mira Caruthers gets it wrong now and then. I’m telling you, nothing has changed. He’s just a friend.”
That I seriously want to shag. Stop saying that!
Her brows drew together in a scowl. “I’m never wrong when it comes to my family. Since you don’t want to talk about your feelings for Jake, want to tell me what else has been going on?”
Grateful for the change in subject, I told her about the dragons in Montreal and the Fae club. Mira dealt with all kinds of Fae, most of them nasty creatures about as far from the storybook flittering lightning bugs as one could get.
“I hate that friggin’ place, and I’ve never even been there.” She stood and put her hands on her hips. “I say we burn it to the ground. Tonight.” She wasn’t kidding.
I stuck out my hand, and she helped pull me off the couch. “That’s kind of extreme.”
“It’s run by that asshole Graves. He loves stirring up trouble.” Mira had a thing against the guy, which was weird, since he was kind of on her side.
Graves was something like the Grim Reaper of the fairies, and the name was no joke. He got away with murder because he was half-human and half-fairy death. When the Fae died, it was his job to get them to their next life. Or if they misbehaved according to their own set of laws, he took them out. And he had a gruesome style when it came to that.
Under the Other World Treaty he could live on Earth as long as he abided by our human laws. Let’s just say he pushed the limits on a daily basis. He thrived on chaos and destruction. I’d come across him once or twice. To be honest, he’d always been really nice to me, even when I threatened to kill him. “I get the feeling you’re in the mood to bash some Fae heads.”
“Oh, girl, you don’t know the half of it.” Mira threw up her hands. “Graves has been driving me crazy the past few months. If the damn fairy would die, I’d kill him.” The words were angry, but her expression was chagrined. She liked him. She didn’t want to, but she did.
Now, isn’t that interesting?
Twenty minutes later we were dressed to kill, but not in the way most people understand the phrase. Under my long leather coat I wore my work clothes. Leather pants and vest, both with graphite inserts to protect me from claws and poison darts. Bailey had found a way to have the inserts made so that they slid in easily wherever we needed them. Since the crossbow was always noticeable, I shoved a couple of knives and one of Bailey’s new guns into the holster on my belt.
Mira did the same, though she usually preferred carrying boomerang-throwing stars with her. They could slice the heads off of most Fae before the creatures blinked, and they came right back to her. Her technique with them was nothing short of amazing. If I were to try to use those things, I’d slice off my hands.
We met in my room, took one look at each other, and smiled. “It’s been a while since we’ve had fun like this.” I buttoned my coat over the protective clothing.
She winked. “I know. If we’d had time, we should have called Gilly and Claire. We could have made it a girls’ night out.”
I laughed. “They’d be in for the fight, but I’m taking your suggestion about burning the place down to heart. I think it’s an excellent idea.”
“Yeah, Gilly’s need for things to be fair might get in the way of that. Though our baby sister, Claire, has developed a hard edge the past few months. She might not light the match, but she wouldn’t say anything if we did.”
“I’ve noticed that, too. Just lately. She’s growing up.”
Mira sighed. “They always do. I think it may have happened when they took Bailey. Before that, I don’t think she took the job too personally, but now she does. Ready?” She held up her arms, showing off her sun tattoos. I had moons, Gilly had stars, and Claire’s were lightning bolts. We were born with the things, though they looked like birthmarks at first. As we grew older, the color deepened and the shapes became more defined, showing which worlds were ours to guard against.
A few seconds later, we landed in a dark alley next to the club. There was a line to get in that snaked around the corner, but we didn’t bother with that. No use calling attention to ourselves. We took the back entrance through the dingy kitchen. Since no food was served, it looked like the room was used to wash dirty bar glasses and for little else. From the smell I’d guess Bells had a rat problem or at the very least mice.
“We should definitely report him for health code violations,” I commented as we walked through. “Don’t eat the peanuts in the bowl if they have any.”
Mira chortled. “I’m going upstairs to chat with my buddy Graves. You check out the club.”
I nodded and pushed through the double doors into the back of the bar. The place was so crowded the bartenders hadn’t even noticed me invading their space.
The code violations continued. The place was packed beyond capacity. There was open use of drugs. I saw a mirror with rows of cocaine on a table in the corner. There was also the heavy scent of weed in the air. Fae used human recreational drugs like candy. It affected them little more than a martini at lunch would us. The problem here was that humans were using, too.
There were several little rooms off the main floor, and I didn’t even think about what was really going on in there. I did my best not to look at the naked flesh writhing, but the musty smell of sex that mingled with everything else was difficult to ignore.
I blended into the wall and watched as people mixed with the Fae. I didn’t notice any dragons, but I could see why Mira would want to burn the club down. Graves had been running this place right under our noses.
It wasn’t like he hadn’t done it before, but nothing like this. Graves had always run businesses that catered to humans: strip clubs, a hugely successful porn mag, and a lingerie company for skanks that carried a variety of sex toys as well.
My guess was that none of the otherworldly creatures in the room had shown up on our radar. That meant this place was protected by magic—a far bigger code violation and one that was punishable by death.
What the hell is he thinking?
The guy was a tool, but a smart one. I didn’t understand why he would risk it all for a club like this.
He has to die.
Just one problem: Graves was death, so he couldn’t die. I sighed, which was a mistake. The smells in the place were overwhelming, and taking such a big breath could have been toxic if I weren’t a Guardian. Our metabolisms worked differently, so we were not as affected by drugs and alcohol as most people. Let’s just say it takes at least three dirty martinis to give me a slight buzz.