“He’s telling the truth.” Boaz shrugged when I checked in with him. “The courtship ends when the avowal is returned.” He held Volkov’s stare. “However, there’s no rule that says you have to wear it while you’re making your decision.”
I tucked in the smile twitching on my lips and conceded the point. Fine. So maybe I wouldn’t shake off Volkov tonight. But Boaz had found me a loophole. I could keep the bangle as an escape hatch for the day the Grande Dame pressed me too far into a corner. Not an ideal solution, since it meant I had to keep tap-dancing around Volkov, but if I could find another means of nullifying his lure without depending on his gift, I could seize the upper hand in any future negotiations.
“All right. I’ll keep the bangle for now.” I didn’t put it back on, and Volkov let his mask slip a fraction in his irritation. “I don’t want to make any irreversible decisions until I’ve had time to weigh my options.”
Volkov inclined his head. “Perhaps I could persuade you to—”
Boaz placed a proprietary hand at the small of my back, and Volkov’s lip twitched in a snarl.
“Not tonight.” I stepped away from Boaz to show that while I wasn’t with Volkov, I wasn’t with him either. “Maybe some other time.”
Volkov took a step that mirrored mine. “Grier.”
“She said no.” Boaz didn’t raise his voice, didn’t shift his weight forward, gave no outward indication he was primed for battle. Except for his smile. There was something wicked and dangerous in the curve that set my pulse sprinting. “Back off, vamp.”
Volkov bared his fangs and hissed under his breath. His guards, who had been content to watch the show up to this point, pushed off the car and approached us.
“This is my line,” I warned Volkov, stepping between the vampires and Boaz. “Cross it, hurt someone I love, and there’s no going back.”
The threat had the desired effect, but I got the impression admitting I loved Boaz, no matter that it was mostly unrequited, had painted a target on his carotid.
The growl of a motorcycle approaching caught the guards’ attention and shattered our stalemate.
“I’ll be in touch.” Volkov shoved his hands into his pockets. “Soon.”
Boaz and I stood together in silence until their taillights flashed at the end of the street.
“He’s going to be a problem,” he predicted as he returned to the car to gather my things. “Vamps are hella territorial, and he thinks I hiked my leg on his hydrant tonight by bringing you home.”
Of course he would remember the hydrant comment.
“We’ll figure something out.” I frowned at the limp he had concealed from the vampires. “For now, you need to go home and take care of your leg.”
He grunted. “Don’t start mother-henning me, Squirt.”
“You’re lucky you didn’t break something jumping onto the dais.” I shoved him gently. “Count your blessings.”
Grumbling all the way, he bent down and dropped a kiss on top of my head as he passed off Keet and the box. “Don’t think this means you can start bossing me around every day.”
I batted my lashes at him. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”
A herd of wild buffalo would have made a quieter exit than Boaz’s stomping. I got the feeling he wasn’t thrilled leaving me alone for the night, but asking him to stay over wasn’t happening. I had too much to process tonight without adding the temptation of Boaz sleeping down the hall from me to the mix.
Ready for this night to end, I took the stairs and sang out, “I’m home.”
The porch light blazed in welcome, and I shuffled in with all my burdens as the door shut and the latches engaged until Woolly was locked up tight behind me. An air of expectation hung around me as she attempted to use silence to crack me, but I was a tough nut and onto her tricks. After all, I had taught her most of them.
“I’m sorry, girl.” I rested my forehead against the door. “So much happened tonight, and I don’t want to get into the gory details.”
A floorboard groaned in protest.
“I’ll give you the scoop tomorrow, I promise.” I rushed to assure her I wasn’t falling into old habits. “I just need to think for a bit. Is that okay?” The lights in the foyer brightened in assent, and I lifted the cage. “Look who’s back.”
The curtain near the window where Keet’s empty cage sat rippled in excitement, and I transferred the little guy back into his own home. The smaller one I would toss out tomorrow to be on the safe side. Keeping any gift from the Grande Dame, no matter how benign it appeared, struck me as asking for trouble.
After trudging upstairs, I changed into Boaz’s rumpled shirt and crawled under the covers in the cool darkness while my mind raced frantic circles around all I had learned tonight. At least I had confirmation of who I owed the favor. Now the question would be when did she plan to collect?
Eleven
I choked on a scream and scrabbled deeper into the corner. I was panting through the worst of the pounding heart and screaming adrenaline dump when I understood what had woken me. The doorbell. Woolly flipped on every light in my room and cranked them up to blinding levels to urge me to my feet.
I pulled on a bra and cutoff shorts before padding downstairs and pressing my eye to the peephole.
A short man decked out in a navy three-piece suit stood on my welcome mat. Green eyes flicked up to the fisheye lens, and he winked at me, aware he was being watched. His tan skin made the white sleeve of his shirt pop when he reached up to adjust the mop of black curls sliding across his forehead.
Woolly unlocked the door, and I pulled it open, careful to keep on my side of the threshold. “Can I help you?”
“Dame Woolworth?”
The impulse to glance behind me to see if Maud stood there twitched in my neck. “Grier Woolworth, yes.”
Though, now that he’d mentioned it, I suppose with Maud gone, I was the current title holder.
“I’m Omar Hacohen.” He extended his arm. “I work for the office of the Grande Dame.”
“You don’t say.” I made no move to accept his hand. “What can I do for you?”
“For me? Not much.” The leather portfolio he slapped against his thigh bore the insignia of my financial institution. “This visit is all about what I can do for you.”
“Uh-huh.” I cocked an eyebrow. “You’re not trying to sell me a used car, are you?”
“Ouch.” He gave an exaggerated wince. “Do I really cast off the snake oil salesman vibe?”
Yes. “A little.”
“We got work to do, girly. You want to do it out here or in there?”
I wasn’t in the mood to invite a stranger working for my aunt into my home, so I joined him on the porch and shut the door to give me something to lean against. “Out here is fine.”
“Access to your funds were granted earlier today.” A heavy packet with my name emblazoned on it was the first thing I saw when he flipped open the folio. “You have a new debit card in there along with all your new account information.”
The urge to rip into the packet and hold that rectangular piece of heaven in my hands twitched in my fingers. The promise of financial solvency had me salivating harder than the time I spied on Boaz skinny dipping with his friends.
This was more than the ability to keep the lights on and the fridge stocked. With access to my inheritance, I could afford a specialist to repair Woolly’s foundation. More than that, I could erase all the years of neglect from her creaking floorboards to her leaking windows to her peeling paint. I could give the old girl a facelift that would make her the envy of the town.
“Before we get to all that,” Mr. Hacohen said, pulling a pen from the pocket of his single-breasted jacket, “I got some forms for you to sign.”
Forcing myself to block out the stack of papers that would turn my world upside down for the third time—or was it the fourth? I was starting to lose count—I tried for nonchalance so he wouldn’t see I was ready to tear the activation strip off my new debit card with my teeth.