He moved closer to us, not that close, but it
was closer.
When he did, I felt Josette nearly tuck
herself in my back.
Dax Lahn didn’t miss her movements,
undoubtedly read them both correctly and incorrectly, but he’d
already stopped, getting close so he could drop his voice very
low.
“You are not the first in your position,
Franka, to feel the need to falsify her identity.”
“I’m sure that’s true,” I retorted. “And I’m
equally certain this is a dire state of affairs for I’m also
certain that I’m far from the last. Thus me wishing to give a
substantial donation to someone who’s doing something about
it.”
“If there’s someone, outside Josette, who can
corroborate what you say, just one person, then—”
Bloody hell, was I going to do what I needed
to do?
Love was on the line.
I had no choice.
“Noctorno Hawthorne,” I declared.
His head twitched at hearing Noc’s name,
which gave credence to Noc saying it was most unusual here.
Then again, it was unusual in my world too.
It was simply that a prince had it, and whenever it came to royals,
that was that.
“He’s a police officer from Seattle who…well,
there was…” I affected an uncomfortable swallow and softened my
voice when I went on, “He was lovely with me. And he and I, we…” I
looked demurely away and then back to see what I saw many a time
from the my-world Lahn when he regarded his Circe (though with
obvious differences as this Lahn was regarding me).
A tender warmth of features that I felt
settle around my heart.
If I had not known I was doing the right
thing (and I already knew that), I would have known in that
moment.
“He’s here, with me, and Jo,” I carried on
quietly. “He is not living under…he’s himself. And if you were to
look into him, contact him, he would verify all I’ve said to you
today.”
“Can you give me a contact number so I can
phone you when I’ve had that verification?” he asked gently and
finished respectfully, “I hope you understand the need for it.”
I opened my mouth to answer but Josette
stepped around me. “You can deal with me on that.”
He nodded to her, took us both in and then we
pivoted to watch as he sauntered to his desk.
My, but he was
most
watchable.
More so in person.
He pulled a pen from his inside jacket
pocket, put it to a pad on his desk and lifted his gaze to Josette.
“Your number?”
She rattled it off in a way that made me
wonder if I should memorize my own.
I didn’t think long of that.
Instead, I thought fast.
First step done, it was time for the next
one.
I just didn’t expect the first one to happen
as it did so I had no idea what should come next.
“Thank you,” he said when Josette was done
and straightened from his desk. “I know it’s an inconvenience that
we weren’t able to see to our business today, and it would be my
pleasure to take you both, and Mr. Hawthorne if he’s available, out
to lunch as my way of apologizing when we meet again to discuss
your situation and how best to bestow your gift on First Mother
House.”
I had, for once, not thought fast enough.
Fortunately, he’d given me the perfect
plan.
I did my best not to allow my mouth to curve
in a triumphant smile and declared, “Dinner.”
His brows pulled together. “Sorry?”
“Dinner,” I repeated. “Drinks, for us first,
to go over business that should only be between us. And if you’d
please invite the director of First Mother House to dine with us
after drinks, I’d like to meet her. I’ll make another donation, not
anonymous, but generous, to explain her presence while we dine. The
anonymous one can be made when all the arrangements have been seen
to.”
“Actually, that’s a great idea,” he
stated.
I knew it was, seeing as Circe wanted us all
to meet for dinner and we would be doing just that.
With Dax Lahn in attendance.
He carried on, “Patricia is an amazing woman
and she’ll be best at explaining just how much good your gift will
do for the women, men and children who find themselves in need of
First Mother House.”
Then he imparted upon us a genuine smile.
Josette beside me made a noise like a stifled
moan.
I pressed my lips together.
“I’ll look forward to that,” he said, lifting
an arm. “And now, I’ll walk you to the lobby.”
Josette touched the back of my hand and
whispered, “I need to call a taxi.”
“I’ll do that as we walk,” Lahn offered. “We
have a service. The least I can do is get you home after wasting
your time in coming here.”
Not to mention, his “service” could offer him
the information of the locale of where we’d been deposited.
I had no idea what reputation Valentine had
in New Orleans. My sister-witch was exceptionally cunning so I had
no doubt she made certain it was excellent.
I was still going to lead them to Noc’s
house.
He might be angry.
But then again, he could have helped. I’d
asked. He’d refused. He’d told me to get creative.
And one could say the last ten minutes were
most creative.
I smiled slowly at Dax Lahn and accepted.
“That’d be lovely.”
* * * * *
“Yeah, unh-hunh, yeah.”
Noc was pacing his kitchen, head bent, hand
wrapped around the back of his neck.
Josette and I were perched atop the stools at
his island, watching him.
I caught myself biting the side of my lip and
ceased doing that as Noc made a turn, dropped his hand, lifted his
eyes to me, and at the look in them I felt a
not-altogether-pleasant curl in my belly.
“Right,” he said into his phone. “Tomorrow’s
good. We’ll meet there. No problems. Yeah. Later.”
He finished speaking and took his phone from
his ear, his eyes still locked on me.
“Just to put your mind at rest, sugarlips, I
just made a meet with one of Dax Lahn’s investigators to
corroborate your story.”
“I, well, erm…” I began.
I looked to Josette.
She felt my gaze and returned it with wide
eyes.
I looked back to Noc.
“Thank you, darling. That will be most
appreciated,” I finished.
“And so you know,” he continued like I didn’t
say anything, “Lahn contracts with the firm I’ll be working for to
do his investigative work. So essentially I’ll be having a meeting
with my boss tomorrow to let him know my woman is filthy rich but
on the run from an abusive relationship and living under a false
identity.”
It took much to remain impassive in the face
of this dire information but I did so, saying, “Is that going to be
troublesome, my dearest?”
“No, since I’ve given them permission to
investigate me in order to clear myself for the job. This means,
now that you’re in my life, they’ll likely investigate you, so now
I have a plausible excuse why the woman in my life has falsified
identification documents, somethin’ guys the caliber of these are
gonna find out in about two seconds.”
Well!
That was a windfall!
“How lovely. Two birds,” I murmured.
“Two birds, my ass.” Noc did not murmur.
“Really fuckin’ good luck.”
That worked too.
Noc turned his attention to Josette.
“I gotta worry about this one’s shenanigans,”
he gestured to me. “With this shit today, now I gotta worry about
you jumpin’ on her bandwagon?”
“I’m sorry, Noc, I don’t know what jumping on
a band—” Josette began.
“Oh for fuck’s sake,” Noc interrupted her to
say to the ceiling, visibly at the end of his patience.
I decided to move us past this part as it
seemed all had settled quite well with that and now it was time to
move on to the next part.
“As soon as this is sorted, we’re having
dinner with Lahn, or Dax, as he’s known here. You will, of course,
need to invite Circe to this dinner,” I shared.
Noc dropped his eyes to me. “Did you hear me
when I said this was your gig?”
“I heard you when you said you’d do anything
for me,” I replied quietly.
Yes, that wasn’t fighting fair.
But love was on the line.
That was the one time anyone had to agree it
was all right not to fight fair.
“I just…need to text Glover,” Josette
murmured and slid off her stool, moving out of Noc’s kitchen.
I watched her go, and when she was in the
living room, I again looked to Noc.
“I’m not asking you to break any laws, be my
wheel man. I’m asking you to affirm I am who I am and I have the
money I’ve offered his charity. And I’m asking you to ask Circe to
dinner. That’s it.”
“And I’m gonna affirm you are who you are and
I’m doin’ that part because I got no choice but also because you
got half a billion dollars, you can give a million to a domestic
violence shelter. Circe, I’ll give you her number. I’ll show at
this dinner. But I’m not gonna be the one who leads her to the
Savage.”
“Noc—”
He took a quick step to stand opposite me at
the island.
“Do anything for you,” he whispered.
“Anything you ask. Call Circe. Set her up for an ambush. Right now
what I’m askin’
you
to do is not ask me to do that. I am who
I am to her. That means something to me. She trusts me. That means
even more. So please, babe, I’m askin’ you. Don’t ask me to do
that.”
I nodded immediately. “I’ll phone her and you
don’t have to be at dinner.”
“I’ll be there if only to keep your ass out
of whatever hot water you might get it in and to be there for Circe
if she freaks way the fuck out you’re throwin’ her right to the
wolves.”
Dax was frightening but I’d seen his tender
streak.
He was no wolf.
I did not share my insight into Dax Lahn’s
character.
I said, “I think that’s wise.”
Noc drew in breath through his nose.
I sat still and said nothing as he did
that.
When he released it, he declared, “I cannot
believe you waltzed into his office and told him off for missing a
non-existent meeting with you.”
We had told him the story.
All save the part we were intending
unauthorized access to Dax Lahn’s computer.
We did not (as far as I knew) break any
laws.
Noc didn’t need to know we’d intended to.
“You told me to get creative.”
“Well, Frannie, you succeeded in that.”
I held his gaze and asked softly, “Are you
angry at me, my love?”
“Fuck no,” he replied instantly. “Why would
you think that?”
“You seem,” I flipped out a hand,
“irked.”
His lips twitched. “Irked isn’t angry,
gorgeous. Irked is irked.”
“So you’re irked not angry.”
“Yeah, the woman I love confronts the most
vicious attorney in the city, she succeeds in her objectives and
comes away unscathed, I’m not freaked because she’s good. I’m not
angry because she’s good. I’m irked because she’s a lunatic.”
My spine snapped straight. “I’m not a
lunatic.”
He shook his head and returned, “This is an
argument I don’t think we should have when I’m hungry and need
food…or maybe ever.”
I decided we shouldn’t have it, maybe ever,
because I was also hungry.
But further, I was pleased Noc was not going
to get more than irked about what Josette and I had done, making me
feel like I’d gotten away with something that day,
twice
.
Therefore I felt it best to quietly enjoy my success and move
on.
“Thoughts on dinner?” Noc prompted.
“Pizza!” Josette cried from the living
room.
Noc grinned in that direction and then he
transferred that to me.
“Good for you?” he asked.
He didn’t have to ask.
It was pizza.
I still answered. “Most definitely.”
He jerked his chin up to me, expression no
longer irked, just sweet.
No.
Just Noc.
“Get on your phone, Frannie. You can’t slice
a tomato, but you can learn how to order a pizza.”
I instantly exited my stool to get my purse
to find my phone, for it would be no hardship to learn how to order
a pizza.
None at all.
I’m In
Franka
“I’m thinking about beauty school,” Jo
declared in Noc’s bathroom where I was leaned forward across his
basin and putting on my lip gloss while she twitched and flipped
strands of my hair that hung around my face, tucking pins more
securely in the large chignon that rested at the side of my
neck.
I shifted my eyes to hers in the mirror.
“Sorry?”
“Beauty school. I wish to go to one. After
Noc teaches me how to drive, that is.”
I straightened, slid the wand into the gloss
and turned fully to her.
She dropped her hands.
“Sorry?” I repeated.
“You know, for something to do,” she stated
confusingly. “I’ve always enjoyed doing your hair, best part of
what I do. You have lovely hair.” She grinned. “But it’s even more
fun here with curling irons and straighteners and smoothing elixirs
and—”
“Jo,” I cut her off.
“What?” she asked.
“Explain fully what you’re talking about,” I
ordered.
“I need employment,” she declared.
I felt my head give a slight jerk with my
surprise. “Whyever do you need that?”
It was then I saw Josette’s head jerk.
“Whyever do I need that?” she parroted.
“That was my query,” I confirmed, and at her
look of bemusement, I explained, “You can imagine my confusion
since you’re already in
my
employ.”
“There are showers here,” she said.
“There are,” I agreed.
And there were. Delightful rainfalls in the
bathroom that were made more delightful when Noc led me to his and
we both bathed together.