“I love it when you say my name. It sounds so sexy.”
“I’m investigating people who sacrifice trained killers to dark gods.”
“Perfect. It will keep him occupied.”
“He needs an outlet for all that energy, and you could use him.”
“In what capacity?”
“Bait.”
“If you don’t take him, the ball is back in my court and I have to give him hard labor. The last time I sentenced him to the Keep building, he was bench-pressing rocks to bulk up ‘for the girls.’ He has a brain, and hard labor accomplishes nothing in his case. This way he can waste his energy trying to bodyguard you and might accidentally learn something in the process. It might be what not to do, but that’s also useful. When Raphael comes to liberate him, he’ll be kissing his boots.”
“Curran, I’m not running a nursery here. This shit is going to turn hairy. You know it and I know it. The kid might get hurt.”
“I have to bloody him sometime, Kate. He came to the Pack late. Most kids his age have already had their first fight with real consequences. He hasn’t. B has a soft spot for him, because he is male and he had a rough childhood. She won’t take him in hand, and even if she did, there are seventeen males in the bouda clan right now, all of whom are under the age of ten or over twenty. He has no peers and he’s isolated.”
“So put him with other kids his age.”
“No. He can’t be challenged, because he’s a minor, but adolescents fight for dominance among themselves. He doesn’t get the pecking order, and he thinks it’s all a big game. He’ll run his mouth, and they will beat him, which will accomplish one of two things: either they will break his spirit or he’ll snap and kill somebody, and then neither B, nor you, nor anybody else in this Pack can protect him. He needs to learn how to be a Pack male.”
“And you think that I can teach him that?”
“You—no. But Derek can.”
Ah. Now it all became clear. He’d arranged this whole thing, like moving chess pieces on a board. I unclenched my teeth. “I’m really pissed off at you right now. You could’ve told me all this last night and asked me to take him. Instead you manipulated me into a corner. I don’t like feeling manipulated, Curran. I don’t appreciate being put into this position, and in case you’ve forgotten, I’m not one of your flunkies. I don’t need to be managed and led by the hand.”
His voice dropped into a measured patient tone that made me want to rip his head off. “You’re blowing this out of proportion. You’re trying to make a fight out of nothing.”
I hung up.
The phone rang. I picked it up.
“Kate,” he snarled.
“Guess what? I don’t have to listen to you.” I hung up again and marched outside. Derek and Ascanio stood on opposite sides of the vehicle. I pointed at Ascanio. “Into the car. Now.”
Ascanio climbed into the Jeep. I turned to Derek. “What are you doing here?”
“I quit.”
“Quit what?”
He smiled. “My job.”
What in the name of all that was holy . . . “Why?”
Derek shrugged. “Just felt like it.”
Like pulling teeth. I tried to speak slowly and form coherent sentences. “What precipitated you quitting your job?”
He looked up at the night sky above us. “Curran and I had a conversation.”
I wondered if kicking him in the head would make the whole explanation pop out of his mouth in one chunk. “What did he say?”
“He said that I was doing a good job. He asked what would be the highest a bodyguard could go in the Pack. And I said, protecting the Beast Lord and his mate.”
“Aha.”
“He nodded and asked how old I was.”
Curran knew perfectly well how old he was. “You said, ‘Nineteen,’ and?”
“He said, ‘Okay, what’s next?’ ”
Now it made sense. Derek was wasted on bodyguard duty, and Curran knew it. Derek had talent and a will to make something out of it. He couldn’t climb any higher up the bodyguard ladder, and he was comfortable where he was. Apparently my sugar woogums decided it was time to make him uncomfortable. That still didn’t explain what the boy wonder was doing here.
“So what
Derek looked at me, his dark eyes luminescent with telltale shapeshifter glow. “I said, ‘Next I fight Jim for his job.’”
I felt an urge to hit my head against something hard. “Brilliant move, boy wonder. What did Curran say?”
“He said, ‘In about thirty years, maybe.’ ”
“Put fighting Jim out of your mind. You’re not there yet.”
Derek rolled his eyes. “Yes, His Majesty explained to me in detail how if Jim sneezes in my direction, I’d have a weeklong stay in the hospital.”
“Jim is deadly. It’s not an exaggeration, it’s a fact. Also, he’s been at this game for a lot longer than you. No fighting Jim. Yes?”
“Yes,” Derek agreed.
Maybe he had some sense after all.
“So . . .” Derek shifted from foot to foot. “Can I have a job?”
I closed my eyes and counted from ten backward.
“Kate?”
“The last two times you and I crossed paths, you got your leg ripped up and had molten metal poured on your face.”
“The metal was my fault, not yours.” All humor fled from his eyes. A wolf looked at me, a vicious wolf with a scarred face. “I’ve worked for Jim for three years as a ‘face.’ I went in undercover, I obtained information, and I brought it back, safe. After that, I ran Curran’s personal security for six months. I know the security protocols, I know procedures, and I’ve proven I can effectively use resources at my disposal. If you hire me, I would be a valuable asset.”
“Very nice. How many times did you rehearse this speech?”
“I’m serious, Kate. I can be useful to you. Besides, you need somebody to ride shotgun. You gave Grendel to Andrea, so you don’t have a wingman. I can vomit better than a shaved poodle, I promise. And honestly, you could use a driver.”
“What are you implying?”
“I’m not implying, I’m saying it. You’re the opposite of Dali. She drives like a maniac, you drive like an old lady . . .”
Bloody hell. I closed my eyes. I couldn’t tell him no and he knew it.
“Are you okay?”
“I need you to go to the garage and get another Jeep, because mine only seats two. Then I need you to follow me in that Jeep. And if I hear as much as a whisper about my driving abilities, I’ll fire you on the spot.”
“Thanks, Kate.” He grinned and took off running.
Curran got rid of Ascanio and saddled me with not one, but two bodyguards. God help anyone who dared to look at me funny. They would rip him to pieces, just to outdo each other.
NO MATTER HOW MANY TIMES I VISITED THE CASINO, it always took me by surprise. After the hard freezes of a freakishly cold winter, the early spring painted Atlanta in black, brown, and gray. Grim ruins thrust here
