Page 65 of After 5

He started down the stairs, stopped, and turned toward me. “Marco has always been about numero uno. When we needed him, he refused, and now that he’s set his sights on you, he’s free to join the gang? Think about it.”

My head throbbed from all the thinking, and the effects from overindulging in booze last night amped up my pain. Brodie continued down the stairs. I headed for a shower to wash away the headache and the heartache.

The warm water relaxed my tense neck muscles. As I massaged the shampoo into my hair, I disregarded Marco’s annoyance with me and Brodie’s steadfast support of Caiyan. Both men would have to get over it.

I had a date. July second. The moon cycle would open at noon the day of the wedding. I heaved a sigh of relief. They wouldn’t jump. The moon cycle would be well underway before they said I do. I found it interesting Mahlia planned the wedding during a moon cycle, but who knows what the Mafusos are plotting.

After I showered and dressed, I sat down on my bed to call Jake. I would inform him about the date of the wedding and politely tell him I was going to attend.

“Hey,” he said after the first ring. “I was just about to call you.”

“You were?”

“Yeah, the date for the wedding’s been set.”

“I know. I found out last night.”

Jake blew out a long breath. “Sorry, I should have called sooner. I was…distracted.”

“No problem. I saw Ragina at a club last night and she was happy to inform me.”

“Ragina?”

“She saw it on Gossip Gal.”

“Damn, Jen, I’m sorry.” He paused. “You OK?”

“I’m dealing.” I eased into the request. “Jake, I have to attend the wedding. I want to talk to him. He’s not going to jump in the middle of his wedding.”

“You don’t know that. The answer is still no. We have other brigands to follow, and I need you on base. I’ve already got eyes on the ground at the wedding.”

He was sending an undercover agent. I called bullshit. Mahlia wasn’t going to honeymoon in Pennsylvania, but I left it in the wind for now.

“In case he decides to jump the following moon cycle, research the battles that take place in August. Maybe he’s going somewhere I can send you that doesn’t involve over fifty thousand casualties.”

I was thrilled Jake considered sending me to find Caiyan, but it would be too late. He’d be a married man.

“Sure.” I missed the back and forth banter Jake and I used to have. The conversations we shared over beer and wings. For the past few months he’d been all business. “So, how’s the secret girlfriend?”

“Fine, and she’s not a secret.”

“Why haven’t I met her?”

“It hasn’t been the right time.” He exhaled a long, slow breath into the phone. “I’m working. Can we have this conversation another time?”

“Yes, but as the adjudicator of any females I might be destined to hang out with, I would like to meet her before you get knee deep in love.”

“Don’t worry.” He chuckled. “Have I ever dated anyone you disliked?”

Ragina came to mind, followed by Bambi, and a woman whose name I couldn’t recall, but Gertie thought she had teeth like a horse.

“Never mind,” he said in the absence of my answer. His cell did the blip thing when another caller wanted his attention. “I’ve got another call, we’ll talk later.”

I thumbed off the call, leaned back in my cozy chair, and stared at the ceiling trying to put together the puzzle of the sword and Caiyan’s mysterious wedding. The problem was, this ten-thousand-piece puzzle had a few key pieces missing.

I raised my head and caught movement out of the corner of my eye. A brown ball of fluff carrying a flash of metal scurried down the leg of my antique dressing table and took off toward the staircase.

Skipping a few stair treads I rushed after the furball and shouted at Gertie to close the window in the den. I caught up with it trying to make a getaway out the open window. Gertie slammed the window shut and I cornered it behind the end table.

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