Actually, she wanted to make more of them while they were naked in a bed but they’d deal with that situation later. Right now, she had more on her plate than she’d expected.
She needed to figure out what they were going to do because, no, she couldn’t leave her successor in the hands of the Mal. No matter what else happened, that had to come first.
“Where is your sister?”
“In New York City.”
She turned to Den. “And your mother?”
“The Hamptons.”
She thought about the logistics for a few seconds, thought about who she knew she could trust with this information.
A few names came to mind but only one she knew wouldn’t ask for anything in return and had enough leverage to actually make this all work.
“Do you have my cell phone?”
Jacoby shook his head. “Why?”
“Because I know someone who can help us pull this off but I don’t exactly have his phone number memorized.”
“What’s his name? Can we find him in the phone book?”
She almost laughed but then realized it wasn’t a bad idea. Unless you actually knew who you were looking for, the phone book was fairly anonymous. A perfect hideout for those who didn’t want the wrong people to find them.
“Actually, I think so. But we need an actual phone book. One made of paper. Find me one from Reading, Pennsylvania, and I think I’ll be able to find us some help.”
Chapter Four
“We’re not sure it’s authentic yet but Sal passed along a message that might have come from the men guarding Lady Kari and I may need you to go on a scouting mission.” Cole Luporeale waved Quinn Kennett into his office and motioned for him to shut the door, which he did before dropping into the chair on the other side of Cole’s desk. The lucani king had his head bent over a stack of papers on his desk and hadn’t yet looked up. Quinn could tell his friend’s attention was split in about six different ways and that made him want to smack Cole across the back of his head to get him to pay attention. “Your wish is my command,” Quinn shot back, just to see what Cole would do. For the past few months, the lucani king had been...stressed. No, not stressed. He’d been more than just stressed. But he’d been hiding it well. Quinn understood the guy was dealing with some pretty heavy shit these days. Goddesses being pursued by demons. Children being born to replace the Etruscan deities who’d served the Etruscan magical races for thousands of years. The Mal hunting the Etruscan wolves with the intent to enslave them again. Deep shit, all of it. And Cole believed he had to handle it all on his own. The only thing on Quinn’s mind lately was a mate who didn’t want anything to do with him. Granted, Serena was more than five-hundred years old and had only just become uncursed a couple of years ago but still... He had some time on his hands and he was Cole’s second in command. He was supposed to help Cole with this shit, take some of the burden. Lately, Cole had been more close-mouthed than normal. And that scared the crap out of Quinn. Just when Quinn thought Cole wouldn’t bother to respond, the other man sighed, dropped his pencil to the desk and grimaced at Quinn. “Damn it. Sorry. These fucking spreadsheets are giving me a fucking headache.” “What are you trying to figure out?” Now he winced and Quinn’s brows rose. “Nothing. I mean, it’s probably nothing. Hell, I’m still not sure I know what the fuck I’m looking for.” “Can I give you a hand?” Cole pushed the papers across the desk. “Go for it.” Quinn grabbed the papers and leaned back in his chair as he scanned the first page. He immediately sat forward again. “Holy fuck. Is this what I think it is?” “If you think it’s a godsdamn recipe for disaster, then yeah, that’s exactly what it is.” “Well, shit. The club’s already made more money this year than it did all of last year.” Cole sighed again. “Exactly. We’re supposed to run under the radar, not become a fucking hot spot.” Quinn had to laugh at the absurdity of it. “Well, it could be worse.” Cole gave a disgusted huff. “How?” “It could get a Michelin rating.” If Quinn had hoped to get a laugh out of Cole, he’d bombed out. “How the hell did this happen?” Cole flung a hand in the direction of the spreadsheets. “I pull you back here and things in Philly go to hell.” Well, that was a backhanded compliment, wasn’t it? While Quinn had been in charge of the Philly clubs, they’d done well but not prospered like this. Which had been the point. But now his replacement was making more than Quinn had and... Yeah, it kinda sucked.
His thoughts must have shown on his face because Cole grimaced again. “Vaffanculo. You know I didn’t— Oh, for fuck’s sake.”
He let Cole swing for a few seconds before he grinned, mostly unforced. “Dude, you’re too easy.”
Cole threw a pencil at him, which he caught just before it hit him in the face. “And you’re an ass.”
Quinn caught his friend’s quick smile before it disappeared again under that worried grimace and his gaze dropped back to the spreadsheet. “Hey, man. You need a break. If this shit is getting to you, you need to take a step back.”
“No time. Too much to do.”
“I get that you’re busy, but seriously, you’re gonna stroke out if you don’t take some downtime.”
“It’s not that bad.”
“From where I’m sitting, it looks worse.”
Cole looked up to roll his eyes at Quinn. “Don’t you have enough of your own shit to worry about? How are you and Serena getting along?”
And this was why he was king. Cole knew how to shut down a conversation with one question. Because that question was just too damn hard to answer.
“We’re fine.”
Cole finally looked up from the desk and looked straight at Quinn. “Bullshit. You want to talk about it?”
Sure, now Cole decided to get interested in something other than those spreadsheets.
“Nothing to talk about. Serena’s got her hands full and so do I.”
“You know I can give you time off—”
“I don’t need time off. What I need is for my king to let me do my job. You don’t have to do everything yourself.”
For a second, Cole looked like he might actually open up and tell Quinn what was going on. Because something was definitely going on. But after a few seconds, he just shook his head. “Fine, you want something to do? Talk to Sal, see if this information is something we need to check out. And if you think it is, go ahead and chase it down. Hell, it’s the first lead we’ve had in months and Lady Amity’s beginning to worry. And I don’t need another worried goddess on my ass.”
“Another?”
Cole grimaced, like he’d revealed something he shouldn’t have. “It’s nothing. Nothing to worry about. Cat’s been...having some issues.”
“Why is this the first I’m hearing about it?”
“Because she doesn’t want the entire damn den knowing her business. Bad enough the girl’s gotta deal with trying to figure out how to control her new powers along with all the other stuff related to growing up.”
Quinn nodded in total agreement. Cat was still only a teenager but she’d taken on the mantle of the Etruscan goddess of the moon, the mother goddess of the lucani. She had an entire, albeit small, race of people who were looking to her to make their lives better. To have answers to questions they didn’t even know they had.
“Is she okay?”
“I think so, yeah.” Then he rolled his eyes. “Believe it or not I think she’s having guy trouble. Only, the guy is a fucking god. Not that I blame Tivr for keeping his distance. She’s only nineteen—and vaffanculo, I can’t believe I’m talking about a godsdamn teenager and her love life.”
“We’re living in strange times.”
“Damn right. And on top of it all, the fucking phone company wants to put a tower on den property. They’d need access for almost a month. The upside is, we’d get an upgrade on our cell and internet service.”
“Yeah, but the bad side is there’d be eteri wandering around for who knows how long. Are you going to deny them access?”
“I don’t know
yet. It’ll look suspicious as hell if I do and we don’t need anyone getting suspicious.”
“True.”
Cole shook his head and sighed. “Do me a favor and check out that call from Sal.”
Nodding, Quinn got up and headed for the door. “No problem. I’ll let you know what I find.”
“Hey, Quinn.”
He stopped at the door and turned to see Cole with a half grin on his face. “Thanks.”
Quinn bowed, knowing it would piss off Cole. And make him laugh, which it did.
“No problem, your royal highness.”
*****
“I’m still not sure this was the right thing to do.”
“We needed to try. We’re running out of time.”
Jacoby shook his head, uncertainty still eating at his gut. “We’re not even sure this guy’s going to call back. Even with Kari vouching for us, what if he doesn’t come through? What the hell are we going to do then?”
Where a Goddess Belongs Page 3
