Destined for an Early Grave(17)

An expression of relief washed over Bones. “Makes me glad I didn’t kill that chap when we met like I wanted to. That’s excellent news, Kitten. I didn’t think I could stand to let you fall asleep, wondering if you’d disappear from my sight even as I held you.”

The emotion in his tone dissolved my earlier irritation at him. If the shoe were on the other foot, and it were Bones who could vanish, yeah, I’d be spitting nails, too.

“I’m not going to disappear.” I went to him and wrapped my arms around him.

Then Liza’s phone rang.





SIX




I WANDERED AROUND THE TOWN HOUSE, struck by its size. It had a beautiful interior, wrought-iron balconies, and three levels. The walls were painted in strong hues, with white elaborate crown molding. All the bathrooms I’d seen were marble. In short, it was rich and tasteful without making me afraid to sit on the eighteenth-century chairs.

Pieces of Bones’s influence were seen amidst the feminine touches. A collection of silver knives. Couches that cradled instead of cramped. Of course, I had time to notice such things. He’d left to see Marie without me.

His announcement that he was going alone sent me into a sputtering, livid objection that had Liza hurrying from the room. Bones took my anger in silence, waiting until I’d finished to flatly refuse to take me. He said my presence would distract Marie from hearing him out, or some crap like that.

I didn’t believe him for a moment. Bones was just trying to protect me again. If I wasn’t going, no matter his claims of “safe passage,” then it meant his meeting with her was dangerous. Still, it boiled down to either physically wrestling with him when it was time for him to leave or letting him go with promises of payback. I chose the latter.

So, after I wandered around the house, I took a bath in a claw-footed tub. Then I put on a lace robe and began roaming the house again, looking for a washer and dryer. I didn’t have clean clothes to wear, and nothing of Liza’s would fit me. It was too early to buy something new, either. The only thing still open after three in the morning was the bars.

When Bones returned, it was almost dawn. He came through the door, pausing at the sight of Liza and me. We were on the floor, and I was braiding her hair. While he’d been gone, I’d struck up a conversation with Liza. She seemed to be a truly nice person, and I’d come to like her with surprising quickness. I gave Bones a single, lasered glance even as I melted with relief that he was safe, then resumed my attention to Liza’s hair.

“Your hair is gorgeous. So thick. You should grow it until you trip over it.”

“I see the two of you are getting on,” Bones said with faint astonishment. “Aren’t you going to ask me how it went, Kitten?”

“You walked in and took the stairs one at a time,” I answered. “And you haven’t barked at me to get in the car, so I take it Majestic didn’t tell you our asses were trophies for hunting season. Am I wrong?”

His lip curled. “Still brassed off at me, I see. Then you should enjoy this—Marie wants to meet you, and she refuses to let me be present when she does.”

I laughed with a sharp, self-satisfied guffaw.

“God, Bones, you must have argued yourself blue in the face. Hell, I like her already.”

“Thought you’d fancy that.” His expression told me how unamusing he found it. “Should I leave you to your braiding and take myself to bed? You seem to find Liza’s company preferable to mine.”

“Really annoying when you have to sit back and twiddle your thumbs while the person you love goes off into danger, isn’t it?” I said, not feeling guilty in the least.

“I didn’t relish the thought of leaving you behind,” he shot back. “Yet you’re almost cackling over your chance to do the same to me.”

Liza’s head swiveled back and forth between the two of us. Since I still had three of her braids in my hands, however, that made it more difficult.

“You didn’t care how I felt, as long as I stayed behind,” I flared, the tension from the past several days catching up with me. “So yeah, I’m enjoying the payback. Guess that makes me shallow.”

“It makes you a spiteful brat,” Bones snapped, striding forward until he loomed over me. “What say you to that?”

I dropped Liza’s braids and got to my feet. So the gloves were off, huh? “That it takes one to know one. What’s the matter? Are you mad that you sauntered in there, swinging your dick at Marie and reminding her about old times, but you didn’t get the results you wanted?”

“For your information, I have never shagged Marie.” Bones actually jabbed me in the chest as he spoke. Liza scrambled out of the way.