Page 47 of Wild Wolf

“Your truck is about to die a terrible death. It needs to break down so we’re delayed at least an hour while you attempt to fix it. When you can’t fix it, after we get notified the Chinese are ready to meet us, we’ll abandon it to deal with later.”

“How are you going to break my truck?”

“My wife is going to fry the engine when she comes to check on Amber.”

My poor truck. “But I promised Amber we’d run it over with a tank, Richard.”

Richard frowned and considered my truck. “It doesn’t have to work to run it over with a tank.” In a louder voice, he called, “Nicolina? Mind coming here?”

She walked over, careful to lift the hem of her gown, so it wouldn’t get stained from the grass and dirt. “How is Amber doing?” Maintaining her grip on her gown with one hand, she rested her hand on the hood of my truck. A few seconds later, the engine spluttered and died.

I heaved a sigh and killed the engine. “Well, shit.”

Pretending as though nothing had happened, Richard said, “The next time you break one of your cars, we’re going to run it over with a tank.”

“Why?”

“Declan promised Amber they’d run his truck over with a tank, and that sounds like a lot of fun.”

“I actually like my cars, Richard. I don’t want to destroy them with a tank.”

“But I want to destroy things with tanks.”

“So destroy something other than my cars with a tank. Where are you even going to get a tank?”

“I have no idea. I’ll cross that bridge later.”

“No tanks,” Nicolina growled.

“But—”

“No.”

Richard sighed. “But it would be fun.”

“Why was my truck sacrificed? How was it sacrificed? What did you do to my poor truck?”

“The battery is dead, every wire in the vehicle is melted, and I may have broken the cylinders through sudden temperature differential. They’re cracked through. I used some magic to make sure the engine didn’t blow with a loud bang, so you can open it up and poke at it while we waste time in case any of the locals are watching us. The locals are probably watching us. I’m using some magic to mask our conversation. This is going to make me tired and crabby later, but that’s fine. This whole thing is going to make me tired and crabby, so I’m just getting an early start.” The woman shrugged and stared down at her gown. “I really like this dress, so I hope we don’t destroy it today.”

“If you destroy it, I’ll get you a new one,” Richard promised.

“I don’t want a new one. I like this one. You gave it to me.”

I grinned at her admission. “It’s always better when it’s a gift, isn’t it?”

“It really is.” She wrinkled her nose. “Richard wanted me to look my best, and this is my best.”

According to Richard’s expression, he disagreed. “You’re beautiful no matter what you wear. You’re not beautiful because you’re wearing some damned designer dress.”

“Declan, tell him he’s wrong.”

“But I’d be lying if I did that. Your dress is beautiful, yes. But it’s not why you’re beautiful. You’re pretty no matter what you’re wearing. I certainly thought your husband was a lucky man when you came out of that airport in London.”

“I looked like a sleep-deprived, rabid goose.”

I attempted to imagine what a sleep-deprived, rabid goose looked like and failed. “Can geese get rabies?”

“I really don’t know,” she admitted. “But is there anything scarier than the thought of a goose with rabies?”