“Why the sudden change of heart?” B asked.
“Two things. First, Jim came to visit me this morning. He brought eight people with him. They occupied my apartment and when some cops showed up trying to take me in, they were met with firm resistance.”
“And?”
“And I realized that if I was in trouble, the Pack would back me up and I would back up the Pack. All my friends are in the Pack. I like to belong. I need it, need the structure.” I licked the icing. “I’m tired of starting over. I’m not likely to stop being a shapeshifter, so I might as well make the best of it. I will be the best bouda I can be.”
“Better than me?” B arched her eyebrows.
“Yep. I plan to eclipse your fame.”
Aunt B smiled. “Aiming high.”
“Always.” I sipped my tea.
“And the second thing?” Aunt B asked.
“I spoke to Martina and realized that to take the clan away from you, I need to earn their loyalty first.”
“Oh, so you plan to take over?”
I licked the icing off my lips. “In a few years. Once I am sure they will follow me.”
Aunt B leaned back and laughed.
“You’ve done such a good job for such a long time,” I said. “Don’t you feel you deserve a nice retirement?”
Aunt B kept laughing. “Very well. I will speak to Curran. In light of the investigation, I’m sure the lion will grant us an extension on having you officially admitted into the ranks. As long as it is known that you and I have an understanding and an application has been made, you won’t encounter problems.”
Lika returned from the bathroom, rubbing her arm, plopped at the seat next to me and waited until B waved her toward the food. Lika snagged a red velvet cupcake. “Yummy.”
“I need you to go to Milton County,” B said.
Uh-oh. The sheriff of Milton County and I didn’t have the best relationship. He was the one who had locked us up after the hot tub incident.
“Where to?” I asked and sipped my tea. Earl Grey. Tasty.
“To the Milton County Sheriff’s office,” Aunt B said.
I choked a little on my tea.
“Some of our people got arrested last night,” Lika said. “Including your boy.”
“Nothing,” Aunt B said. “Wrong place, wrong time. There was some sort of bar brawl. I could go to Kate with this, but you see, she is spending all her time with Curran. Something to do with the Vikings, not sure what exactly.” Aunt B waved her spoon. “Involving her right now means involving the Beast Lord and I don’t feel like setting his tail on fire. He’ll growl and fuss and I’d rather avoid all that. So I need you to go down there and make this problem go away. I understand you and Beau Clayton have a special relationship.”
Yeah, he’d thrown my bikini-clad butt into a jail cell. “I can do that,” I said and stole a second cupcake.
“I’m so glad,” B told me.
We all drank some tea.
“I know you’ve spoken with my son,” B said to me.
“Yes. He seems to have gone insane.”
“The mating frenzy will do that,” Aunt B said. “And I’m not talking about the blonde. He has never been dumped before, dear. He has no idea how to handle it.”
Lika snickered.
“I told him we were through, and he broke into my place, scratched MINE into my table,” I told her. “And then he moved his things into my apartment.”
Lika stopped eating. “Seriously?”
I nodded.
Aunt B grinned. “He was always such a clever boy.”
There it was, the final proof that Raphael could do no wrong. I had just told her he had gone nuts, vandalized my furniture, and was guilty of breaking and entering, and she was bursting at the seams with pride.
“What would you do in my situation?” I asked.
Aunt B cut another slice off her cupcake. “I was never one to let a man get the better of me, dear. If someone dared to treat me in this manner, I would rub his nose in everything he had lost by his idiotic stunt. I would do something…spectacular. Something he would never forget. And I would make sure everyone knew what a fool he was.”
“If I spring the boudas out of jail, what are the chances of Raphael spending this evening away from his house?”
Aunt B smiled at me above the rim of her cup. “I would say those chances are very, very good.”
I got up. “I’d best get on with it, then.”
Aunt B’s eyes sparked with an amused ruby light. “Lika will fill you in on the details. Good luck, dear.”
I would need every drop of it, too.
“And Andrea?” Aunt B said. “You and I have made a deal today. I trust you to hold up your end of the bargain.”
It was like she had looked into my head and seen that inside I was still wobbling. I talked the talk and walked the walk, but somehow she had sensed my hesitation.
“If Curran sets the date for your admittance and you fail to show up, it would be truly disastrous.”
“No worries,” I told her. “I’ll be there.”
To say that Beau Clayton was a good old Southern Boy would be an understatement. The man kept a can of green boiled peanuts on his desk, for crying out loud. For some reason, it was half-filled with bullet casings.
Beau looked at me from behind his desk, which was organized to within an inch of its life. He was big as all hell and half of Texas, a massive bear of a man, with lineman’s shoulders and power-lifter’s arms that strained the sleeves of his crisply-ironed khaki uniform shirt. His dark brown, wide-brimmed sheriff’s hat rested on a hook on a wall, within easy reach. Above it a rapier hung, a beautiful sword with an ornate basket hilt. I was pretty sure I had seen it before, but for the life of me I couldn’t recall where.
“It’s always nice to see you, Ms. Nash,” Beau drawled.
I gave him my most dazzling smile. If he thought he could out-Southern me, he was in for a shock. “May I ask why you have bullet casings in that can, Sheriff?”
“Every time someone shoots at me, I put the casings into the can,” he said.
Alright then.
“So what brings you to the sunny skies of Milton county?” Beau asked.
“You have some of the Pack’s people in lockup.” And my first test as a beta was to get them out.
“We’re always glad to have guests in our jailhouse,” he said. “We almost never get lonely.”
I licked my lips, moistening them, and Beau’s gaze slid down.
“I understand you have three of our boys,” I said. “How would I go about getting them released?”
Beau leaned against his chair. “Well, this is where we run into a problem. From what I understand, your boys caused a disturbance at the Steel Horse, assaulted two men, and damaged some property there.”
I crossed my legs. “As I recollect, the Steel Horse is in Fulton County.”
“You recollect correctly, but you see, your boys were out for a hell of a night. Not satisfied with that bit of fun in Fulton, they continued their brawl down Gawker Alley, which put them twenty feet inside Milton County when they were subsequently apprehended.”
Drat.
Beau’s eyes sparkled a bit. “Eyewitness accounts indicate a female was involved.”
I smiled at him. “A female is always involved. So how does your version go?”
