We hadn’t made it official, the way the Society formally declared a blood feud, but yeah. We had carved out the hearts of six of their members and killed more than twice that. We had thrown down the gauntlet, picked it back up, and then smacked the taste out of their mouths with it.
The coven had declared war on innocents first, and that I couldn’t ignore or forgive.
With a screech of tires, four white vans pulled up to the curb in a neat row. Men and women dressed in outfits that greatly resembled flame-retardant footy pajamas poured out onto the sidewalk. A red-faced man, who I hadn’t seen since Bonnie Diaz had attempted to swallow him for barking orders at me, trundled across the street. Sweat dotted his balding pate, and dislike curled his lip.
“We have the area secure.” He yanked on padded gloves. “There’s no reason for you to be here.”
“This is my city,” I told him. “That’s reason enough.”
“Preliminary results will be uploaded into our database at our earliest convenience.” His jaw might be grinding, but he was being civil. Bonnie really left an impression on him. A giant white gwyllgi with equally huge white teeth had that effect on people. “Until such time as we have completed our investigation, I ask you to leave so that my team has the freedom to perform their duties to the best of their abilities.”
The Daaé clan must have thrown their considerable political weight around to get the cleaners out here so fast and in such numbers.
As much as this guy’s attitude annoyed me, he was playing nice, so I would return the favor.
Pivoting on my heel, I started walking away from the chaotic scene, certain Midas would follow.
“We’re banned from the crime scene, and Bishop has HQ in hand. Looks like the rest of our night is wide open.” I linked my arm through his when he caught up to me. “What do you want to do?”
“Go home,” he said, defeated. “We can order in, watch a movie.”
We had nothing to do and nowhere to be, and I didn’t want to waste the opportunity to spend time with Midas. We had put our lives on hold to cleanse Atlanta of the coven, and I refused to let shame eat him from the inside out for daring to take one night for himself. For us.
“This isn’t your fault.” I jiggled his arm. “You know that, right?”
His curt nod paid lip service to my reassurance, but I didn’t press. It wouldn’t do either of us any good.
“You’re not getting out of taking me on a date.” I withdrew from him. “I hope you have a Plan B.”
“Hadley…”
“Come on.” I grabbed him by the wrist and tugged him after me. “I have an idea.”
The late hour meant getting creative, but there were plenty of para-owned businesses in town who kept Society hours to accommodate their nocturnal clientele.
“You don’t have to do this.”
“No, I don’t.” I yanked harder. “But I want to have you to myself for a minute.”
Preferably one when the world wasn’t burning down around our ears, but I would take what I could get.
“We’re going to have guests soon,” I kept going, filling the quiet. “We’ll be stuck doing the tourist thing.”
“We’ll make it work.” He exerted less pull against me. “Where are they staying?”
“They still can’t decide,” I admitted. “Oh, the joys of traveling with family.”
While I was excited to see Addie and Boaz, I had a case of nerves about my faux father visiting, and I was doing my best to ignore that my biological mother would be sharing the same zip code with me.
“Let’s forget about them.” I skipped my gaze over the restaurant signs. “Let’s focus on us.”
The reminder Midas didn’t know my whole truth was stamped on his face whenever I mentioned my family, but I had never told another soul about my mother. I wanted to tell him, but I didn’t know how, and I was afraid he would treat me differently once all the pieces clicked into place.
Grier and Linus had witnessed her ambivalence toward me in my past life, but they didn’t have a concrete reason to dislike her.
I could give them a metric ton of them, but not without that knowledge crushing me too.
“Okay.” Sensing my mood, he leaned over and kissed my temple. “Us it is.”
“I have an idea.” I stopped in front of him. “It’s not as great as yours, but it might do in a pinch.”
Tilting his head, he glanced around us. “Do I get a hint?”
“It involves food.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s it.” I bounced on my toes. “Are you in, or are you out?”
“That sounds dangerously like a dare.”
“I would never dare a gwyllgi.”
“Mmm-hmm.” He took my hand and shook on it. “I’m in.”
“Excellent.”
Keeping hold of him, I dragged him through the rear door of another restaurant that spat us out into the kitchen. An old man with weathered brown skin who hunched to avoid his shoulders brushing the ceiling stirred sauce in a pot on the stove. His limbs creaked when he twisted to see who had joined him, and the green leaves of his hair stuck out from under his chef’s hat.
“Hadley,” he rumbled, a smile curving the strips of bark that formed his lips. “Did you get turned around in the alley? The takeout window is up front.”
And I made good use of it to get my grabby hands on his epic pies whenever the craving struck me.
“I have a huge favor to ask.” I clasped my hands in front of me. “Pleeease.”
“A favor?” Knotty eyes fixed on me, he chided me. “After I haven’t seen you in weeks?”
“Sadly,” I confessed, the Choco-Loco blaze fresh in my mind, “business has been booming.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.” He turned slowly, his rootling feet long and thin. “What would you ask of me?”
Twisting my sneaker on the tile, I pressed my clasped hands to my chest. “Teach us to make pizza?”
The us made him curious enough to
