Milla
“Tansy,” I called into the bakery, knowing she’d gone to work far earlier than any human being ever should. I couldn’t believe Etienne was still okay with her working, given she was carrying his young and he was protective to the point of nauseating. Okay, that might have been an exaggeration, but I didn’t hear his less-than-subtle hints to let Gina take over as much as before, so it was a start. Not that anyone was going to tell Tansy what to do.
“I’m in the back, come on in,” she called from the back.
I meandered back there, giving Gina a smile and wave as I walked by. It was still stupid early, but that didn’t stop the place from being filled with regulars. Something I should’ve paid attention to before screaming for Tansy, but I’d had a stressful morning. Or so I justified to myself.
As I opened the swinging door to the kitchen, I found her covered in flour, bringing a rolling cart of what looked like rolls to something I could only describe as a sauna for bread. Who knew baking was so complicated?
“I was wondering how you get ahold of Marie.” No sense chitchatting. I needed to reach Marie and stat. This entire thing had my nerves in a knot and my mate’s gator tearing at him. I needed it over and done with.
“I don’t.” She shrugged me off before going back to her work table and scraping it free of residual dough.
“What do you mean, you don’t?” My hands were on my hips like a pouty teen. Tansy so didn’t need my attitude, and I relaxed my fists before letting my arms drop.
“She gets ahold of me. It’s not like she has a phone, being dead and all.” She scooped the crumbs now settled on a pile on the table into the garbage before making her way to the sink to fill a pail of soapy water. At least, I knew my conversation wasn’t getting in the way of her routine.
“She’s not really dead,” I countered as if that was the part of the answer that made any difference.
“Her body is, so same difference in the cell phone bit. Why? You need a reaper?”
I bit my lip, not wanting to deal with what I now knew I was going to need to tell her. Etienne was going to be ripshit at me. Not that I could blame him.
“Shit, you do.” She turned off the water and grabbed my hand, leading me to what she used as an office and indicated for me to sit down, which I did. “Tell me all things.”
And so I told her all about Louie from how I started to work for him in his legit business before realizing all of his money came from illegitimate sources, to how I rerouted some of his money, covering up it was me and moving down here to start fresh. How I feared I hadn’t covered up enough but figured I was safe enough here until Marie showed me exactly who he was and I did more digging, and how I then stole him blind, leaving enough tracks for him to hunt me down, but knowing I had time since he had no funds except cash on hand. I even told her about the passenger list watches I had in place so I could know when he was flying in and what the end result was to be. It felt good to get it off my chest, and Tansy seemed more riveted by the conversation than distraught by it, so I left very little out.
“Whoa, and Justice is letting you out of his sight.”
“About that. He doesn’t know.”
“You need to tell him.” She was both adamant and right.
“I don’t want to put him in danger.”
“He is in more danger not knowing. At least, this way, he will be able to be more aware of his surroundings.”
Hiding shit from him wasn’t protecting him, even if hiding it from him had felt easier. I needed to trust my mate with all things or let him move on to a mate he could trust. We called each other mates in slips, and our friends referred to us as such, but the truth of it was we had yet to form the mating bond. Either of us could walk at any time.
“Maybe,” I conceded. Or sort of conceited as the case might be.
“Bologna.” She waggled her finger at me “No maybe to it. You need to tell him.”
“I need Marie,” I argued, not wanting to admit to Tansy that I was the worst mate ever and didn’t deserve her mate’s best friend. Not even close.
“And she will be there when it’s time. It’s how she does things. Or so she tells me.” She smiled at the last part. I could see Marie doing just that, too. I couldn’t fathom the difficulty Tansy was facing, losing her grandmother, but not really. It was as if her good-bye was in perpetual limbo.
“Was she like that before?”
“You have no idea.” She sighed with humor before shooing me away. “Now, scram. Go take a shower, ’cause even I can smell last night’s fire on you, and then get to your mate.”
I grabbed a clump of my hair. Smoke and sex. Not a good combination. At least Tansy could only smell the fire part.
We said our goodbyes, and I raced home and showered away the night before. Dressing in my tightest jeans, and adding some extra mascara, I twirled around in the mirror. At least I’d look good even if the words coming out of my mouth weren’t going to be what he wanted to hear.
Checking my phone, I saw missed alerts.
“Fuck,” I mumbled. Three of Louie’s aliases had booked and boarded flights early that morning. Three different airlines, but all three flights landing in Baton Rouge. He found me and, from the looks of things, at least two of his henchmen were en route with him. At least they were flying into multiple airports. If they had chosen to fly into different places that meant they weren’t willing to wait to fly down here, and chances were, they had no real plan. And they would need time to convene before heading my way. Both of those things were good news for me. It meant I had time. Some time, anyway.
I grabbed my keys and drove far too quickly to the row, needing to tell him right away before heading back to my computer and figuring out his next step. If I’d been thinking clearly, I’d have called him to me, but my brain was working overtime to get nowhere.
As I pulled into the spot by his home, I saw a ladder which had seen better days, with Loic next to it, giving a half-ass hold to steady it. Asshat.
“What’s with the tree?” I hollered as I exited the car, Loic immediately holding on tighter. Good. If my mate was up there, he’d better be scared of me for not keeping him safe. Yeah, my gator was getting me just as irrational as she was, but that was the way of things, or so it seemed.
“Your mate is putting some dish thing up there in the hopes of getting us all civilized here with Internet and shit.” Loic pointed to where Justice was doing exactly that. Or attempting to, from the looks of things, but it was up there, so that was a step closer than earlier.
“Bullshit. I’m doing this so she stays here and I can keep getting laid.” I could taste his truth, as crass as it were.
“He’s romantic.” Loic fluttered his lashes as he singsonged his jab at Justice.
“Loic, you’re just jealous and lucky since becoming civilized is a side effect of him finding me.” I kicked him in the shin after making sure my hand was good and tight on the ladder, not wanting Justice to fall. I was rewarded with a grunt.
“Just a minute, and I’ll be down,” Justice bellowed from the tree, and it was all I could do not to call him a lemur the way he was balanced so gracefully up there. “It’s almost done.”
“I got this.” I eyed Loic, hinting he should leave. No sense letting him stick around to watch me ogle Justice’s ass or hear what I needed to confess. No. It was bad enough Tansy was the first person I told. There didn’t need to be more before Justice found out. Telling one person was me being confused and chicken shit. Telling two was me being disrespectful to my mate.
“You sure? It’s men’s work.” He flexed his arms as I shook my head, trying not to laugh.
“Says the guy who was half-ass holding it when I pulled up. I’m not even going to bother addressing the men’s bullshit. Scram.”
“Your mate is fierce, Jus. I’m outta here.” And with that, he went to who cared where. I needed to talk to my mate. My gator was clawing at me to, hating the danger I had put him in.
“Good riddance,” Justice shouted to Loric, who was already out of sight, but I was sure wasn’t out of sound. “Maybe now I’ll get me a piece.”
“Maybe now you’ll get what you wanted this morning,” I called up, adding every bit of innuendo in it for Loic to be jelly over. ’Cause screw him for leaving the ladder half-attended.
He was down faster than humanly possible, tapping into his gator. Loic probably assumed he was about to get laid, which, in fairness, was what I wanted him to think, but the reality was, he was down as fast as he was because he wanted answers, and answers were finally something I was able to give him. Not that he was pleased with any of what I had to say, being less pleased with each passing moment, culminating with me telling him I needed to go home and he needed to stay and tell the crew.
“Fuck no. Where you go, I go.” His voice was deep and stern and, if I weren’t also a gator, if not by form, by DNA, it would’ve been terrifying. Shit, had I not been his mate, it would’ve been terrifying.
“They are in a fucking plane,” I shouted less gracefully than I should’ve. Losing my temper was only going to lose me the battle, and this was one I needed to win. I needed the guys to know, to be able to protect Tansy and not to get their asses caught in the crossfire.
“Let me go figure shit out while you tell the guys.” I calmed my voice, knowing it was the best way to get him on my side of this argument. “They need to know. Gina needs to also. I’ll have Tansy tell her. No need for her to come down here, but who knows, we may need her fire.”
I didn’t know a ton about dragons, but I knew they had fire, and fire covered up a lot of badness. From what little I’d known about Gina, she’d help us if need be, if only to protect Tansy whom she very obviously adored.
“Shit. I forgot she was a dragon. They’re badass.”
I was winning. I could sense it. I put my hand under his shirt, pressing it against his chest, needing him to feel me.
“And so am I, fire or no, teeth or no, so don’t worry about me. I promise to keep my phone on and tell you all things.”
“You are badass.” His head fell to the top of mine in defeat. “But I need to keep you safe.”
“You are doing that by telling the rest. And unless you have that dish set up complete with service, I need to be home to do what needs doing.” Which he might not know was impossible, but I sure did, given he’d yet to run a wire and probably hadn’t called for service yet. For all I knew, he got the dish from Leon’s junk pile.
“Fine, female.” He wrapped his arms around me, squeezing tightly before letting me go and taking a step back, his eyes showing just how much he was struggling with his gator. “Go. But if you get one scrape, you are going to be handcuffed to me for eternity.”
“Handcuffs.” I walked to my car backward watching him nod with sincerity. “That sounds like an idea to explore later. I have to go.” I turned so as not to walk into my car, and just as I reached the door, he called out the one thing that could stop me.
“I wish you wore my bite.”
“Me, too.” So very much. All the reasons we had for not marking each other fell away in that honest moment, but the reality that was Louie took over almost immediately. “But now is not the time.”
“Tell my fucking gator that,” he mumbled as I climbed into the car.
“Only if you tell mine,” I answered when I was too far down the road for him to hear. “Only if you tell mine.”