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Beautiful. Deadly.Balls out terrifying. A committed speed freak. The wave of conflict, rage andfear she was creating in the traffic around them went a long way to help withhealing all of Kaleb’s bruises, burns and scrapes. Even his eyebrows appearedto be growing back extra fast.
Huh, realisingsuddenly he couldn’t have chosen a better ally. She would totally own hispolitical advisors when those bickering assholes caught up with them. Kaleb wasso busy mentally patting himself on the back for his savvy moves, and savouringthe fact he was still all in one piece, the smack to the face came as asurprise. “Hey.” Trying to fend off the Valkyrie as she drove one handed andwas now beating at his chest. “What the-” Oh, she yanked his phone out of hispocket, throwing it unnecessarily hard he thought into his lap.
“Start dialling.”
“Who?”
“Party planners.Gods. Galen’s uptight relatives.”
“Oh, sure.” Hestarted scrolling through his contacts list. “Where is the… baby shower beingheld? How many are going to attend? Do you have a date in mind? Buffet or al lacarte? What about the theme?” For a moment, Kaleb thought the mustang was aboutto explode before realising that the growling he heard was emanating from thedriver. “Never mind. I’ll deal with it. Galen’s paying, right? Oh, hold on.It’s voice mail. Jenna. Darling. Drop everything. I have a mega rich money-bagswho needs a party planned pronto. Baby shower. No expense spared. I’ll text youall the details.” Kaleb disconnected, one item down on the Valkyrie’s… to-dolist. But did he get any thanks? No, all he got was another fierce scowl.“What?”
“Don’t just sitthere, start dialling the rest. The Gods. Galen’s mulish relatives.”
“You don’t justring the Gods. You find out where they’re hanging out and oh-so casually dropby. Then you court them. Flatter them. Funnily enough, the same can be said forGalen’s mother and sisters. I’m assuming they’re still pissed off about notgetting a heads up regarding how close Galen was to turning Stabby Berserker,and then the whole rushed claiming fallout.”
“Which sounds likea Galen problem to me. Why are they taking it out on Stephanie by ignoring allher messages and refusing to come to this stupid baby shower? Galen’s mother isthe one insisting it be held in the first place, it makes no sense.”
“Because Galen hasnotoriously thick skin, but now he has a weakness, his meld mate. And they’reConflict Demons, it’s kind of in the blood to fuck with everyone. Don’t growlat me. I don’t make the rules. Strike that. Right now I do make the rules, butI’m not changing that one.”
“So, what do we…what are you doing?”
“I’m checkingInstagram in order to find Galen’s sisters whereabouts right at the moment.Interesting. Okay. Now, if I jump over to Apollo’s account… yikes. He’s such abraggart and a dickhead. You should see his tinder profile picture, it’s likelooking into the sun. So needy. Thankfully for us he’s always posting about theexclusive places he intends to take his dates. Huh, what do you know, atwo-fer.”
“A what-fer?”
“Oh, Valkyrie, youneed to get out in the world more. A two-fer in this particular case means wewill be able to knock two different items off that ridiculous to-do list ofyours in one go, or in this instance, one place. Though you’ll need to turn thecar around and head for Carmel.”
“That’s over sixhours away at this time of day!”
Kaleb settled backin the comfortable leather seat as the Valkyrie performed an illegal u-turn,cutting across six lanes of traffic. It was a nice day for a road trip up thecoast along a flat wide highway. Giving the Valkyrie plenty of room to tailgatethose who were too slow for her liking and overtake anyone who appeared tochallenge her.
Despite theconstant honking of horns and vocal loud abuse, Kaleb was about to nod off whenthe Valkyrie smashed something into his chest. Seriously? What was up with thiswoman and all the abuse and… yet more paperwork. Or actually the same paperworkshe’d shoved in his face when they first met. Two admission forms for hispre-school.
“Sign them.”
“I’ll tell youwhat. I’ll sign one, as a show of good faith.” He pulled a pen from theglovebox and proceeded to do so. “At the end of ten days, if I’m still alive,I’ll sign the other one. Now, since we’ll be spending so much quality time together,I suppose we should get the introductions out of the way. No need to stand onceremony, just call me Kaleb. And I should call you…?” Damn, if he wasn’tenjoying watching the Valkyrie squirm, there was something about getting underher flawless mocha skin that was revving all his engines.
“Names areunimportant. I don’t care what you call me.” The words spat out from betweengritted teeth.
“Excellent. ThenFlunky it is.”
Chapter Three
Flunky? Flunky!
This Demon, thisKaleb, was beyond annoying. And so freaking chatty. The only time he seemed tostop yakking was when he was being choked to death or like right now, when hewas asleep. Unfortunately for Shaw he couldn’t sleep forever, or could he...?
No. They had adeal. Or alliance, or whatever he wanted to call it. Shaw was making actualprogress on a number of items on Stephanie’s to-do list. All she had to do wasprotect this verbose butthead for ten days.
Ugh, ten days.That sounded a horribly long time. She’d be lucky if she could stand his presenceuntil they reached their destination. Perhaps she could stash him awaysomewhere for the duration. Once he ceased being useful.
The Bounty HunterDepartment had some nice sturdy cages. There was a good chance her sister,Monroe, might help her out and find some room for a yappy Conflict Demon.
Swapping lanesabruptly, Shaw overtook a low slung car emitting a loud annoying techno beat,successfully beating out a large truck for a sweet spot in the fast lane.Pressing her boot down harder on the accelerator. Oh, yeah, releasing a deepcontented sigh. An astonishing amount of tension draining away from her neckand shoulders.
The sun wasshining. Her beloved baby was totally owning the road. Sweet Freyja, when wasthe last time she’d done this? Hit the open road and just kept on going? Beforethe stupid accident that had ruined her knee, definitely.
Speaking of which.That climb down from Kaleb’s office hadn’t done her any favours. The slightestof twinges nibbling at her every so often. Bugger, if she was back atHeadquarters, she’d be futilely storming Medical right about now, demanding toknow if they had come up with any new ideas on how to fix her.
