“I’m sorry.” I touched his wrist. “I didn’t mean to worry you.”
With any luck, he didn’t notice I hadn’t promised to call. When I vanished, the only cells I had access to tended to be the barred kind.
“I hid your dress. Just in case.” He jutted out his chin. “I refuse to acknowledge a Blue Belle who isn’t you.”
“You’re the best,” I told him with absolute conviction. “Cruz has no idea how lucky he is.”
“Oh, I remind him every now and then.” He winked. “I hope this thing with Volkov doesn’t put you off dating. It was nice seeing you all dolled up and hitting the town with a hot guy on your arm instead of riding your death machine home and crawling in bed alone.”
Alone meant no one saw, really grasped, how deep the cracks extended in my façade. No matter what Woolly thought, it wasn’t always a bad place to be. “Guys are a lot of work.”
“Amen, sister.” A dreamy expression blanketed his features. “The right one is worth it, though.”
Between studying with Linus, self-defense with Taz, figuring out what it meant to be the Woolworth heir and goddess-touched, my dance card was full. And then there was Boaz. I had no idea where to pencil him in.
A prickling rush of heat tingled in my cheeks when I thought of the press of his lips on mine the night before he left to rejoin his unit, but I had seen him smooch enough girls that his technique had never been in doubt. It was all the rest of it—the mechanics of a relationship with him—that made me question his skills. And mine.
“I’ll hold you to that.” I checked the time on my phone as I stood. “I have some thrones to polish before I head your way, but I’ll see you in about thirty.”
“There’s a chance of rain in the forecast. Maybe you’ll get lucky and the girls will track in mud for you to mop.” He unfolded to his lanky height. “Failing that, I’ll sprinkle bobby pins like confetti so you can hang out with me longer.”
“Thanks.” I snorted. “You’re a prince.”
He smoothed back his hair. “If the crown fits.”
After swatting him on the butt to get him out the door, I got down to business. By the time I marked off the last item on my to-do list, a victim had blown chunks on the sidewalk leading up to the front door. I blasted the concrete clean with a hose and reevaluated my life choices. When the late-late tour returned and Amelie flounced up to me with my spare helmet dangling from her fingertips, I was miles past being ready for sweet chocolate oblivion.
Amelie was the first brave soul to hop on the back of Jolene and let me take her for a spin after Boaz taught me how to drive his one true love. That same trust had her crowding behind me so I could zip us over to Mallow. Plus, I think the bike reminded her of the brother she missed something fierce.
The best thing about Mallow, besides the fact everything on the menu was mouth-wateringly delicious, was the fact it stayed open until dawn. Most folks in town thought it was a gimmicky tourist lure, but the truth was the owner was a necromancer, and she kept Society hours.
After I parked, we crossed the lot together, our shoulders bumping, and got into a shoving match to see who could squeeze through the door first. She won by tickling me until I almost wet my pants, then she slid through the opening like a greased pig at a county fair.
“You play dirty,” I grumbled with admiration. The only person who could tickle her was Boaz. Try as I might, I couldn’t get so much as a giggle out of her. “You should buy me a drink to apologize.”
“Crybaby.” Rolling her eyes, she approached the counter. “I’ll take two hot chocolates with extra marshmallows and a side order of Kleenex.”
The cashier blinked at her owlishly then passed over a handful of napkins.
Amelie thanked the woman then stuffed them down the front of my shirt, giving me a lumpy third boob, cackling all the while. I ducked out of her reach before she could tweak my nonexistent third nipple and caught movement outside the shop from the corner of my eye.
“Be right back.” I left her waiting on our order while I stepped up to the large display window. Jolene was the only vehicle in the lot, and I saw no pedestrians. I lingered a moment longer, scanning the area, but I came up empty.
“Grier?” Amelie walked up behind me. “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah.” I rubbed my hands down my arms. “I thought I saw something.”
The light went out of Amelie’s eyes, and she took a look around as well. “Do you think we were followed?”
It had happened before, and it likely would again. “I’m not sure.”
“I’m texting Boaz.” She whipped out her phone. “He’ll skin me alive if I don’t keep him in the loop.”
“It’s probably nothing.” I closed my hand over her screen. “Besides, he’s not my keeper.”
“No, but he is my brother, and he is your wannabe friend with benefits.” She pried her phone out of my grip. “He’s earned the right to worry.” When she spotted the face I made, she laughed. “He’s four states away. He can’t drop everything and run home to shine a flashlight at shadows for you.”
“So you say.” Her brother was more resourceful than she gave him credit for, and more commanding too.
“He was right there. He saw the car pulling away, you inside it, and he couldn’t save you.” The playfulness in her swirled away like water down a drain. “Neither could I.”
“Ame,” I breathed, yanking her into a hug. “You did the best you could. You both did. I don’t blame either of you, and neither of you should blame yourselves.”
“We just got you back,” she said, echoing the sentiment I had shared with Boaz not that long ago. “I don’t want to lose you again.”
“I’m not going anywhere.” I hauled her to the counter in time to pick up our order while it was steaming delicious curls. “I’m working on getting stronger, and I’m going to fortify Woolly too.” We took our drinks and settled at our usual table. “Plus, Linus lives shouting distance away. I’ve got ’round-the-clock backup.”
Amelie blew across her mug. “How weird is it having him as a neighbor?”
“Pretty weird.” Impatient as always, I sipped too soon and burned my tongue. “It’s odd having a guest, let alone one staying in the carriage house. No one’s ever lived there. It’s strange to think I can walk across the yard and talk to someone if I want.”
“I hate to break it to you, Grier, but you’ve been able to do that basically all your life.” She snorted into her cup. “I’m right across the yard in the opposite direction, in case you’ve forgotten.”
Linus was different, though. He had answers for so many of the questions I was just thinking to ask. Amelie was a friend, a shoulder to cry on, a sister of the heart, but Linus was a resource as valuable as any book in Maud’s library.
“You know what I mean.” I played it off like it had been a slip of the tongue instead of me realizing how much I liked the idea of having a living encyclopedia on the grounds. “He’s right there. There’s no buffer. It’s almost like having a roommate.”
“Has he changed much?” Her eyes fluttered closed on her first sip, and she licked the melted marshmallow off her upper lip. “I haven’t seen him in years.”
“He’s taller, thinner. He grew out his hair.” I pictured the wraith in his gaze and shivered. “His eyes are darker.” I didn’t tell her why, and I couldn’t explain keeping his secret, except conversations on magic between Amelie and me always dead-ended with each of us put out with the other. “Otherwise, he’s pretty much the same. Still prefers books to people. Still dresses like a little professor.” Except now he was one. Maybe there was something to the old adage of dressing for the job you wanted after all. “You should pop in and say hi sometime. He might enjoy having another social outlet.”
“Nah. I’ll pass. He never liked me much.” She wiped her mouth with a napkin. “He hated Boaz when we were kids, no idea why, the possibilities are limitless. He snubbed me since I was tainted by association.”
“I always thought…” Rolling in my lips, I wished I hadn’t opened my mouth.
“That it was a class thing?” Of course, Amelie knew exactly what I’d meant. “Linus was a little snob. How could he not be with Dame Lawson for a mother? But he was polite to other Low Society girls. He did have some manners. He just never used them on me. He wasn’t mean when you weren’t around, nothing like that, more like I ceased to exist.”
“Well, we’re all grown up now.” I poked the bloated marshmallows with my finger to watch them bob in their chocolatey bath. “Maybe things have changed.”
“Maybe.” Her attention drifted to the door behind me and stuck. “I still don’t like this. I wish we’d taken my car. Jolene leaves us too exposed.”
“I can check in with Linus if it makes you feel better.” With Boaz gone, we didn’t have a whole lot of other options.
“Linus?” She laughed so hard she swatted her mug on its side and spilled the last few swallows of chocolate. “Are you sure he’s qualified to act as a bodyguard?” She wiped up her mess. “Or were you hoping he’d borrow a few of his mother’s henchmen?”
Again I found myself biting my tongue about his wraith. “He’s got some tricks up his sleeves.”
“Call him.” She spun her now-empty mug in her hands. “We’ve got no one else unless we want to involve my parents.”
The Low Society tried to stay as far away from High Society politics as possible. Involving them would be a last-ditch effort since any assistance from the Pritchards would put them in the Grande Dame’s crosshairs.
There was only one small problem with my plan. I didn’t have Linus’s cellphone number. All I could do was dial the landline and hope there was still a working phone plugged in at the carriage house and that he would pick up.