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He grinned. ‘I am. You’re going to love my sense of humour.’
I smiled in genuine response. Here was the guy I’d glimpsed at Jess’s house: relaxed, joking and jovial. Maybe he needed this as much as me. ‘You’re a laugh a minute,’ I agreed.
He winked.
There was a knock on the door. Manners was instantly upright in his chair, almost vibrating with contained energy. His gun had appeared again; this time I saw him remove it from his ankle holster. ‘Come,’ I called.
Mrs Dawes entered. ‘The council’s here, dear.’
Fantastic timing. ‘How many?’
‘Two delegates, but only one of them is the council member.’ She took pity on my blank expression. ‘The council member is Adam Frost. Everyone calls him “Ace”. He’s part of the Devon pack where his brother, Beckett, is the alpha. Ace is his second. Ace has been part of the council for the last three years. Rumour has it that Beckett pulled some strings to get his brother out of his hair before Ace was tempted to challenge him.’
She gave a little shrug. ‘Like most council members, Ace has got his own support team. Only a fool would wander into another wolf pack without backup. He introduced today’s backup as Lauren Gallagher. She also works for the council. I haven’t heard of her, but presumably he trusts her.’
‘She’s sixth in the Devon pack, and both she and Ace have diplomatic immunity,’ Manners warned. ‘They have to be able to carry out their investigations without fear of reprisals. If you have a problem with either of them, you report it to the council and they investigate internally.’
‘So I have two rival top dogs coming into my house, and if they piss me off I can’t do anything about it?’
‘That’s about the size of it,’ Manners agreed.
‘Fuck’s sake,’ I muttered. ‘Just what I need.’
‘I’m sure they’ll be in and out of our hair before we know it,’ said Mrs Dawes.
Somehow I didn’t share her optimism, especially with the complication of Mark’s unfortunate demise.
We can kill them and hide the bodies,Esme said confidently.
I smiled. She always had a solution – mostly killing someone – and I liked her upbeat attitude.
‘Alright, let’s face the music.’ I pushed away from the desk. ‘Have you shown them to my living room?’
Mrs Dawes nodded. I was grateful she’d had the forethought to take them there rather than to the lounge, which probably still smelled of James’s blood.
Manners and I marched down the hall. Liam was loitering outside the living room; I raised an eyebrow, questioning his presence. ‘I’ll come in with you,’ he offered uncomfortably. ‘Then you’ll have three to their two.’
I resisted the urge to beam at him or pull him into a giant hug, both of which he would probably have scorned, but it was so damn refreshing to be treated with anything other than derision.
‘Appreciate it,’ I said laconically. ‘Let’s go greet our guests.’
And here’s hoping that they weren’t here to stir up trouble.
Chapter 10
Mylivingroomisbright, airy and painted a warm yellow. It has a fireplace and floor-to-ceiling bookshelves which I find incredibly useful. The focal point of the room is the three sofas around the fireplace.
My guests had seated themselves so they had full view of the door and the windows. That put us on the back foot, even though we were on home turf.
I appraised them. Lauren had dyed her hair a black-purple colour and, with her pale skin, it made her look a little gothic. Maybe she and Seren could do some bonding.
Ace was muscle-bound and dressed in jeans and a shirt – the casual werewolf. It was no exaggeration to say that he was ridiculously handsome: he had a square jawline, tanned skin, ginger hair and green eyes. If I hadn’t known he was a werewolf, I’d have thought he was a vampyr because he was so perfect.
He smiled warmly and stood up. Lauren followed suit, reluctance in every line of her body. I guess they’d agreed on a good cop, bad cop routine.
‘Lucy,’ Ace greeted me familiarly. He touched his right hand to his heart and gave a shallow bow. ‘You may call me Ace. It is my honour to meet you,’ he intoned. He ignored Manners and Liam, which said something right away. Smiley as he was, he thought the others were beneath him even though Manners was a second, too.
I copied his gesture and gave him a similar-level bow. ‘My honour to meet you,’ I responded with a cool smile. I didn’t acknowledge his underling either: two could play at that game. ‘Please be seated.’ I sat on the sofa opposite the one they’d taken, Manners to my left and Liam to my right.
