AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I plated up our breakfasts and brought them to the table along with the juice cartons.
“Ooh! Grapefruit juice!” Lillian looked positively giddy. “Yes please!”
“Eww.” I made a face but poured her a glass anyway.
She laughed. “Yeah, it’s a bit of an acquired taste. As is coffee. Which we don’t have, by the way.”
I loved that she said “we”.
“I’ll order from True Brew,” Tansy said, pulling out her phone. “They deliver.”
As we ate, I made a few calls and sent some messages to get the ball rolling on our surprise wedding. Then I asked for her phone and listened to the message the group called The White Claws had left. It did sound very official.
Tansy called her mate Eamon out from his office, and after another round of introductions and explanations he did a quick search for The White Claws in the EA’s database. The demon was Redrock’s official liaison with the Enforcement Agency, the magical world’s version of an international police force, though the rest of us had done our share of jobs for them as well.
Technically, I was on payroll too, but Eamon had greater access to the files. It was impossible to keep the demon out of places he shouldn’t be, so they’d just given up and gone with it.
Sure enough, the number that had called Lillian belonged to The White Claws. It turned out they were linked with large, influential corporations right across Asia, as well as with illegal “Black Societies,” which had nothing at all to do with skin color and everything to do with organized crime.
Lillian had stopped eating by now, and was looking pale. “Listen, Gunnar, if this is more than you signed up for and you want to back out, I will totally understand.”
Did she think I was scared because this group had a bit of clout? Clearly, she didn’t know who I was.
“And miss out on you playing house with me for the foreseeable future? Never. That”—I pointed to the antique ruby ring she’d taken off so she could use utensils without dropping it in her eggs—“means you’re mine. No Triad is going to scare me off.”
Her mouth made the cutest little O.
Nugget, who had followed my index finger to the ring, was thrilled to find a new, sparkly toy. She hopped over and snatched it up.
“Hey, give that back!” Tansy reprimanded her.
Nugget’s response was to fly off with her new prize.
“I’ll get it.” Eamon floated up and flew after the mischievous little sun conure. It was handy to have a demon around at times like this.
Being a gargoyle, I could fly too, but I needed a huge amount of space to spread my wings. As Lillian watched the demon and the bird play tag, I considered. She didn’t even know what I was yet.
How desperate must she be that she was willing to marry some guy she’d just met without even knowing what type of monster he was? Would I be any better than the guy The White Claws had matched her with?
As Eamon retrieved the ring from Nugget, I knocked on the door to Grayson’s part of the penthouse. Shelby opened the door, her hair up in a messy bun, a pencil stuck behind her ear. Shelby ran a successful made-to-order clothing business. She looked past me at the demon currently chasing the bird around the room, then at the two women laughing at the table, and quirked up an eyebrow.
“I’ll introduce you two and explain everything,” I promised. “But before I do that, do you have a spare length of cord?”
---
I helped Lillian out of my Lamborghini Urus. She’d been quiet the whole ride over to her apartment. It had started when we’d gotten into the private elevator to head down to the parking lot, and got worse while I was debating taking my Urus or the Hellcat.
My brothers and I had our own private section in the underground parking lot of the Imperial, and there were not one but three Dodge Hellcats in it, as that was one of the few sportscars that was big enough for us.
The matte black one was Grayson’s, and the one in classic TorRed red was Graham’s. Mine was the bright one in Sublime green. Because, why not? If I wanted to drive my beast, I wanted it to be the loudest thing on the road, audibly and visually. I’d wanted to take my kitten in the Hellcat but had decided on the Urus instead since she needed to move her stuff out of her place, and it had more cargo room.
Her change in behavior had me wondering if I should’ve taken her in one of the company SUVs instead. I held her hand as I ducked and squeezed into the tiny elevator in her building. My wings, which were still hidden by the glamour spell, were smashed up uncomfortably against the ceiling, and my tail, similarly concealed, was wrapped around the elevator awkwardly. I hoped no one else walked in because it would get cramped.
Luckily, no one did.
Lillian visibly relaxed the moment we stepped into her apartment. The place was a riot of green, with houseplants lined up three rows deep at every window. Two large shelves lined the walls, and on them were more plants under grow lights. I’d walked into a hidden urban jungle. Even the kitchen table was an excuse for more greenery.
“You like plants.”
