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Earl looked up slowly. Alexis spread her arms in a what’s-taking-so-long gesture. Earl rolled his eyes and sauntered toward her. While she took her time choosing her poison, Slade pulled me away. “What’s up with you and Adam?”
“As much as I’m sure you’d love to know so you can make jokes,” I said, crossing my arms, “it’s none of your business.”
He had the audacity to look wounded. “Sabina, please. It’s true I enjoy poking fun at the two of you, but it sounds like this is serious. If you need to talk about it, I’m here.”
I eased up on my glare. It wasn’t Slade’s fault I’d screwed up. “Don’t worry about it. We’re just going through a rough patch. All couples do, I hear.”
“If you say so.” He looked skeptical.
At that point, PW and Georgia emerged from the ladies’ room they’d disappeared into earlier. Georgia’s face was scrubbed clean of makeup. Her eyes were red-rimmed and puffy. She looked young, vulnerable. But Pussy Willow looked like a mama bear protecting her cub. “We’re leaving,” she announced, her head held high.
“Okay, we’ll see you back at the apartment,” Giguhl said.
“No. You don’t understand,” she said. “We’re not just leaving Vein. We’re leaving this godsforsaken city.”
I’d kind of expected Georgia to leave. After all, until I’d intervened, that’d been her plan. But this was the first I’d heard of PW wanting to go. Before I could question her, though, Giguhl did it for me. “What do you mean ‘we’re’?”
She raised her chin. “I’m leaving, too. I don’t belong in New York. I thought coming here would be an adventure. A chance for a fresh start.” She cocked a hip and crossed her arms. “Boy, was I an idiot.”
“I had no idea you were unhappy here, PW,” I said.
“I wasn’t at first. But I have some things to work out.” She glanced toward Giguhl. Something heavy passed between them in that moment. Regret, maybe? “Anyway, I called Zen and she said my old job is waiting for me.”
Zen’s full name was Madame Zenobia Foucher. In addition to being a voodoo priestess, she owned a voodoo store and apothecary in the French Quarter. Madame Z was as New Orleans as Mardi Gras and gumbo. We’d butted heads a bit, but I respected the hell out of her.
I glanced at Giguhl, knowing that of all of us he’d have the most important opinion on the subject of PW’s departure. His posture was stiff and guarded, like he worried one false move might make her disappear. “Why can’t you work it out here?”
“You know I can’t do that. Not anymore. Besides, I miss N’Awlins like a phantom limb.” She approached G and put a hand on his green cheek. “Plus, you’ve got your own stuff to work out here.” She nodded toward me. “One day you’ll be free, little Gigi.”
My eyebrows slammed down. There was so much wrong with what she just said I wasn’t sure where to begin. “Hold on,” I said. “What the hell does that mean?”
PW turned on me, her red lips crumpled into a harsh pout. “Giguhl will never be truly happy until you release him from slavery.”
I put my hands on my hips. I’d been getting attitude from the faery for weeks and never understood what I’d done to piss her off. I had no idea she believed I was being unfair to Giguhl. It was freakin’ ridiculous. Unfortunately for the changeling, I’d had just about enough of every-one’s shit to last the rest of my immortal life.
“Listen, Pussy, I’m not sure what kind of diva hormones made you lose your damned mind, but Giguhl is nobody’s slave.” I stepped closer to her. She crossed her arms and glared up at me. “I have never pretended to understand your special friendship, but I have done nothing to get in the middle of it. Nor have I done anything to restrict his freedom beyond the natural limitations of our arrangement that I have no control over. If you’re having problems, don’t lay them on my doorstep.”
“Oh, really? You haven’t restricted his freedom?” she challenged. Then she ticked off all my sins on her red-tipped fingers. “He can’t go anywhere without your permission. He isn’t allowed to make any choices without your input. And every time you force him to switch between his magnificent and sexy demon form into that embarrassing hairless carcass he dies a little more inside.”
My eyes shifted toward Giguhl. He wouldn’t look at me. Instead, his arms were crossed and a red flush spread across his cheek scales. “Giguhl? Is that true?”
“It doesn’t really matter, does it?” he said, sidestepping that minefield. “This is about Pussy Willow running away.” He pointed a claw at her. “Right, babe? Shit got real and now you’re booking.”
I raised my eyebrows. What the hell was up with these two?
PW pursed her lips but wouldn’t meet his eyes.
Georgia, who until this point had stood by looking miserable, plugged back into the conversation. “Let’s go, PW.”
Giguhl, realizing this was his last chance to have his say, marched over to PW and grabbed her arm. “Can I speak to you alone?”
Without waiting for her answer, he pulled her toward the shadows under the stairs leading to Slade’s office. I tried to pretend I didn’t want to eavesdrop on their conversation, but who was I kidding? I started to sidle in their direction, but Slade stopped me. “Do you need a place to stay?”
“Excuse me?”
He shrugged. “I just figured if you and the mancy were on the skids, maybe you’d need a place to crash.” The look in his eyes told me that sleeping was the last item on his to-do list.
“Slade, not now.” I started to dismiss him altogether, but paused. On second thought, maybe it was time I laid this out for him in clear language. “Actually, scratch that. I need you to understand something. I won’t be ‘crashing’ with you ever again. Am I clear?”
His jaw went hard. “I was just trying to help.”
“Yeah, help me out of my pants,” I shot back. “Look, we had some fun. It’s over now. I thought we’d discussed this already.”
“Sabina, I don’t know what the hell is going on with you, but I have no intention of making a move on you. You made your feelings quite clear on that score months ago.”
I grimaced. He was right. I’d set him straight back in October just before we’d left New York to go find Maisie. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to insult you.”
