“I’m not leaving.”
“I
know.”
“Then why did you tell the wolf you would take care of it?”
“Are you really that thick?” I raised an eyebrow and bit off a corner of the pastry. Considering I typically only ate blood, this tasted ferociously sweet. I puckered my lips before I drank more coffee. “Lucas can’t know you’re here.”
I played with the pink hoodie strings, my anxiety making it impossible for me to sit still. I didn’t like the idea of lying to Lucas so early into this trip, especially not about something this big. But there was no way to make him understand I couldn’t undo Sig’s order to Holden.
Part of me didn’t want to. I liked having Holden around.
“If you put your hair into pigtails, I think you might appeal to a very kinky niche,” he teased.
I threw a hunk of pastry at him. “Do you think you can maintain a low profile? Keep your distance?”
“Yes.” Brushing white spots of sugar off his sport coat, he looked far from intimidating.
“I’d appreciate that.”
Back out on the street, the night was bursting to life in the French Quarter. Streetlights glowed a warm amber, throwing puddles of illumination onto the sidewalks. Holden and I moved through the golden circles without speaking.
Jazz and blues filtered out from various clubs and street musicians. A woman whose voice sounded like Billie Holiday’s crooned mournfully from a bar a block away from the hotel. A faint chill in the spring air reminded me of home, but the scent of jambalaya and fried fish was in stark opposition to New York’s street fragrances. No pretzels and hot dogs here. The air smelled different. It was exotic, tinged with a note of magic—spicy and wicked.
I liked it.
“I’m glad you’re here,” I whispered, feeling unusually confessional in these strange surroundings.
“I’ll always be here. As long as you need me.” The seriousness of his tone surprised me. I’d expected something cheeky or bawdy and instead got frank and raw. I looked at him, hoping to get a read from his face, but it was just a mask. A lovely, chiseled-jaw, bow-lipped mask, but empty of clues all the same.
We arrived at the hotel in time to see a bellhop throw my suitcase into the trunk of a waiting limousine.
“What the—”
Holden had vanished, gone so quickly the night must have opened invisible jaws and swallowed him whole.
Lucas trotted down the steps with Dominick at his heels and came to a stop when he spotted me. “Your timing is impeccable.” He stooped and kissed me on the cheek. “Did you get everything…taken care of?” His gaze raked the sidewalk behind me.
“Yes, it’s been handled.”
“Good.” He nodded, smiling more to himself than to me, and waved Dominick onwards to the waiting car. “There’s been a slight change of plan.”
I eyed the car with wary apprehension. “Oh?”
“Your uncle has requested that rather than stay in the city and have us commute to and from his estate, he would prefer if we come to stay with him.”
“He…” I looked at our idling ride and an unease crept under my skin that felt, for all the world, like a thousand cicadas had begun buzzing inside me. “And you agreed?”
“Keep your friends close…”
“Lucas,” I said as his words drifted off. “This isn’t really that kind of situation, is it? There’s a very real possibility Callum is working with Mercy and together they are responsible for the attempts on my life. And you honestly thought it was a good idea for us to stay where he can see us at all times? How does us going to Callum’s estate help us keep our friends close?”
“Maybe your friends were a little too close.”
The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. “This is about Holden? I told you that was taken care of.”
“This is about more than your vampire friend, Secret.” He didn’t look at me when he opened the back door of the car and stepped aside so I could get in. “I can’t refuse an invitation from the king when we are in his territory.”