Page 61 of Up in Smoke

Brent kept on laughing and abandoned me to go talk with Sandro. “You must not have spent long grabbing them.”

Sandro snickered. “She had everything together near the door, so I just scooped them up and promised Batbayar I’d bring her back in a day or two. Batbayar was laughing his ass off about it, then he went back to work with the kids. And Jade? You realize I wasn’t going to take your legs off or pull your tail, right?”

I sipped my water, huffing at his question. “I don’t like being hit.”

“Well, that much is obvious. You did a very admirable job of escaping. Next time, you can chase me and try to smack my legs. I won’t promise to stand still for you, but you can have a turn trying to get your revenge.”

That got me to emerge from the cubby, and careful to keep from spilling my water, I got to my feet. “Do you think Batbayar will even allow that?”

“I’ll talk to him. We can’t have a good lesson if your flight instinct has you running for the hills. You realize I wouldn’t actually hurt you, right?”

I widened my eyes at Sandro. “Bruises hurt and I do not like them. If you got a hold of me, I would bruise. You would have to nurse me back to health.”

He raised a brow. “As I enjoy pampering you, I do not see any problems with having to nurse you back to health. Would you need to be carried everywhere? Obviously, I’d have to groom your tail to maintain its perfection.”

I pricked my ears forward. “I think I sprained my foot running here.”

“Obviously. You probably hit your head on the bar diving into hiding, too.”

“Jesus Christ, could you two get any more disgustingly sweet?” Brent faked a gag. “Take that nonsense back to your own home. I am glad you two stopped over, though. Mr. Mansfield granted an approval to do a test run in a week and a half. In a week from now, I’ll be starting their training. He is aware I’ll be having you and Sandro assist with the training, which is part of why he’s approved the timing.”

Of course. If he refused, I would become upset, which would then upset Sandro and create problems for our dear friend Mr. Mansfield. “We’ll be there.”

“Good. Unless you want to do a full inventory of this place, head on home.”

Sandro stole the glass out of my hand, and I protested its loss. He tossed me over his shoulder, picked up Peace and my shoes, and headed for the door. “We’ll stop by to get the exact day and time. For now, I’ll just keep this vixen out of trouble.”

“I wish you the best of luck with that,” my ex-boss said, opening the bar door for us. He smiled and ruffled my hair. “I think it’s safe to say you’ve gotten precisely what you deserve.”