Val smiled slyly and sipped her hot chocolate. Maybe, Mai thought, she wasn’t so amateurish in controlling her expression after all.
“Of course, you stated why he might want to ask you along to the dance, not why you would accept,” Mai said, just as innocently.
“I have my reasons,” Val said.
Here was the real crux. Mai had been noticing changes in Val that could not be explained by her pregnancy. At least not in such early stages. Though it might cost what little she’d gained, she felt she had to press on.
“Reasons you don’t want to share, even with me. Come on, Big Butt. You’ve been stressing over something for a while now. Something that has you working out three times as hard as you ever have since I met you. Isn’t it about time you shared with someone?”
Mai waited on pins and needles. She had spent her arrow and had no idea whether it would hit its mark. As inconsequential as this conversation might be, she felt more exhilarated than she had in months.
“I was attacked,” Val said quietly.
Bull’s-eye.
Mai silently ran over possibilities in her mind.
“If you had simply been mugged, it wouldn’t have mattered. You would have wiped the floor with them. What do you mean, attacked?”
“Tell me, Mai. You obviously knew Nathaniel. Did… does he have any sisters?”
Pieces fell together with a
“A few, only one of whom I can think of who might do you harm.”
“Lizzy?”
Mai’s train of thought reached an exploding bridge of a conclusion. She almost shuddered thinking of Lizzy meeting Val. As composed as she was, she couldn’t help her reactions.
“God, you are lucky to be alive,” Mai said.
Val looked at her for a long moment, and whatever she saw seemed to reassure her. She nodded, and bit into another beignet.
“So,” Val said, “you see why I might want to accept the acquaintance of a professional dragon hunter.”
It was a statement, not a question. Still, Mai found herself trapped between two roles, two faces. She knew what she would do as a manipulator and what she would do as a friend. They were not the same course of action. And the conflict, as deep and sharp a conflict as she had felt in years, had only one resolution.
She had to try to be a friend.
“So call him, dummy,” Mai said, and hoped Val wouldn’t hear her reluctance.
“What do you mean?” Val said.
“Surely he gave you a way to contact him. You aren’t the type to let a man, any man, defend you. Why the hell aren’t you on the horn with him asking for advice. Tips. Training?”
Val looked at Mai for another long moment. Without responding, she reached down and pulled out her cell phone. A few numbers later, she was speaking into it.
“George?” Val said.
Mai focused on her ears, extending her senses in a way that few nondragons could.
“Ms. McCandles,” George said on the other end. “Called to make arrangements?”
“Perhaps, but not for the date. We need to meet, George. Someplace big, someplace open. Someplace without witnesses,” Val said.
There was a long pause on the other end of the phone.
“Is this a challenge? A fight?” George said.
“Something like that, only we should both walk away after. If you want a date, Georgey boy, you are going to damn well earn one,” Val said.
Mai could just make out George’s low chuckle on the other end of the line.
“Oh, really. Very well. I will call you back with a time and place. And soon, because you have intrigued me, Ms. McCandles.”
“Valerie,” Val said, as automatically as her brother would have said “Griffen,” “and good. I will expect your call.”
Valerie closed the phone, and when her eyes met Mai’s, they were filled with uncertainty. Uncertainty that grew when she saw a bit of answering insecurity in Mai’s eyes.
“What? That seemed right,” Val said.
“It was,” Mai answered. “I am just realizing. With everything going on… I am going to have to secure my own invitation to this damn ball.”
Thirty-five
“How could you be so stupid?”
Flynn dug his fingers into his thigh, pain helping control his temper. It was that or crush the flimsy cell phone in his hand, and he didn’t have the time or energy to replace it. Years of practice meant he did not start to grow scales or claws or anything similar, yet the impulse was close.
“I’m sorry, sir,” a thin, contrite voice said on the other end.
“Do you have any idea what that will cost me in the long run? That no-talent hack could have been president one day! And you let him sign on with another firm,” Flynn said.
“But, sir, you said he wasn’t important. That your project there was far more valuable, and I should just handle it as best I could.”
“I had assumed your best wasn’t quite so inadequate. Why did I ever let your mother talk me into hiring you?” Flynn said.
“Because it was the only way you could get her to sign a nudity clause in her contract, sir, and you owed the studio head.”
“Yes, well, her career has been over for a year. So your career is over now. I’m calling security next to make sure you clean out your desk without any fuss.”
Flynn disconnected, cutting off any further protests from the lackey on the other end. If he admitted the truth to himself, he should never have let the kid handle such a job. He just hadn’t thought the actor in question bright enough to jump on his current absence. Still, he had to set an example. Besides, he was still disappointed over the low box-office returns off his mother.
“Hey, Flynn, mind if I join you?”
He looked up, surprised to see Griffen McCandles leaning over the railing that surrounded the tables at the Cafe Du Monde. He smiled, openly to Griffen, inwardly to himself. The folly back at the office aside, the deal he was working on certainly did have the potential to be great. More important, since Mai’s little encounter, it was proving to be more and more intriguing.
It was a good thing, to be able to enjoy one’s work.
“Sure, Griffen, come on over and order something. Excuse me, though, while I finish up a little business.”
Griffen nodded and moved around the railing and into the Cafe proper. Flynn dialed his office number, and the extension to on-site security. If the son was anything like his mother, he would throw a temper tantrum before leaving.
“This is Flynn,” he said, as the line was picked up. “I’ve fired Bradley… Yes, that’s the one. Let him make some fuss, draw some attention, then put him out on his ass… Yes, that’s right, he’s the example of the year… Good. I’ll call back for a report later.”
He hung up and noticed Griffen looking at him a little oddly. He didn’t think the young dragon could pick up on his tension, his anger over the whole issue. Minor though it was. After a few quick thoughts, he decided to probe the issue.
“Never fired anyone?” Flynn asked.
“Not directly, no; when I first got started, I set some policy. Made people make a choice, but there weren’t
