The last ten days, Erin had always been good for a wisecrack when it came to her husband’s intolerance about weight, but now her sorrow made Tasha’s heart ache. More gently, she asked, “How about we get you back to the hotel?”
Erin shook her head and pointed at the ceiling again. “I gotta talk to him first. Find out what he wants. Maybe he can make Bobby love me again.”
“Who?”
“Him.” Erin raised a wobbly finger.
This time Tasha looked over her shoulder. Nothing. Erin pointed again, raised her brows and bugged her eyes like an annoyed teenager.
For good measure, Tasha craned up and down and all around before returning her attention to Erin.
“Don’t tell me you can’t see him, because he said you can see him.” Erin folded her arms over her chest.
“Okay, we’re done.” Tasha wove an arm around Erin’s shoulders and pulled her to her feet. Erin’s arms flailed wildly as she resisted. Tasha lost her grip on the other woman and stumbled backward, catching herself with a hand on the back of a neighboring chair.
“Hey lady, watch it,” a man cried.
“Sorry,” Tasha mumbled, righting herself and taking back every charitable thought about ordinary guys.
Erin was slumped on the floor, still staring at the ceiling and mumbling.
Yeah, this was turning into a clusterfuck of a night.
Pulling herself back together, Tasha sidestepped through the thick crowd until she reached the bar. There were stools for ten, but about thirty people crammed into the space. She waved for the bartender, an older man with spiky gray hair and a pleasant, round face.
“What can I get you, ma’am?” he asked.
Tasha said, “My friend’s had a little too much to drink. Do you think you could help me get her to the car?”
The bartender leaned left and then right, craning as if to see precisely who Tasha meant. “That lady?” he asked. “The one with the red hair?”
Like it matters who she is? Tasha wondered. “Yeah, that’s her.”
“Oh yeah,” the bartender said, nodding and wiping his hands on a white towel. “No, I can’t help her.”
“Excuse me?”
“It’s the crows,” the bartender said. “Whoo-ee, they’re bad.”
The blond waitress slapped her empty tray on the bar. “Shake a leg, Benny, I got a big order.”
“I gotta go,” the bartender said. “I’m sorry about your friend.” He seemed genuinely contrite, and that took some of the fire from Tasha’s indignation.
She appealed to the waitress. “Could you ask if someone in the kitchen or one of the staff could help me get my friend out to the car?”
“Sure thing,” the waitress said, handing a slip of paper to the bartender. “Get cracking on those, Benny.” She turned to Tasha. “Hold on a sec and I’ll get one of the guys from the back.”
“No!” Tasha said too fast, her voice too loud.
The waitress frowned. “I thought you said you needed some help?”
“Uh, thanks anyway,” Tasha said. “I can manage.”
Nine by Night: A Multi-Author Urban Fantasy Bundle of Kickass Heroines, Adventure, Magic
CHAPTER NINE
As Lilith walked back into the banquet room carrying a shirt and trousers she’d found in the employee break room, she was unhappy about what had gone down. No one should have noticed her hex. Ever. It had been a tiny package of magick, a bit of her most elegant work and designed, as they said in this modern age, to fly under the radar. Tasha and Owen should have mated to their heart’s content and never suspected a thing.#p#分页标题#e#
None of this was her fault, but the only thing to do now was cut her losses and wait for another opportunity. Considering the hotheaded and thoughtless nature of werewolves, it wouldn’t take long. Judging from the level of Remy’s anxiety, Owen was starting to unravel.
Her outlook did not improve when she handed the clothing to a still-naked Gideon Black. He smirked as she studiously kept her gaze above the waist.
“Look all you want. I don’t mind.”
She tried to depart quickly as she’d come, but Remy blocked her exit.
“Not so fast,” he said.
She folded her arms under her breasts, glad to have her back to the all the dangling were nakedness. “I thought we were done here.”
Gideon’s voice rumbled from behind her, muffled for a moment, then coming clear again. “The balance of power has changed, thanks to you. You will not be permitted to walk away.”
Which meant she’d have to deal with Gideon now, instead of Owen.
It was an interesting turn of events, and maybe not the good kind of interesting, but it also meant she was still in the game.