Page 51 of Let Go My Gargoyle
The antiques shop was on Royal Street, in the middle of the hustle and bustle of the French Quarter. As it was mid-morning on a nice, fall day, the streets were crowded with pedestrians wandering about, shopping, dining, oblivious to the fact that a group of supernatural beings were about to throw down in one of the boarded up shops.
“Ah, I miss this place,” Delilah said when they crouched behind a dumpster three doors down from the antiques shop.
“You were dealing Darius’s drugs?” Sofia asked. “How did I miss this?”
Delilah shrugged. “Hey, it was good money. But I’m with the good guys now. Unlike some of us.” She gave Maria the side-eye and frowned. “I can’t believe I didn’t realize you were a spy.”
“Since Darius went into hiding nine months ago, you and Trennon have done nothing but terrorize all the bars in town, so it doesn’t surprise me at all,” Antoinette said.
“Yeah, that’s fair,” Delilah responded good-naturedly. “Say, answer me this: how come he didn’t ask you to steal Antoinette’s laptop?” She gave Maria an imploring look.
Maria shook her head. “Antoinette doesn’t trust me. I’m forbidden from going anywhere near her bedroom or office. I actually suggested Darius get Sofia to steal it since it was so obvious Antoinette had taken to her.”
Delilah nodded. “Makes sense.”
Antoinette had an outraged look at her face and opened her mouth, probably to protest, but Ketu placed his hand on her arm and gave it a squeeze, then said, “How are we going to play this?”
“If we could trust her, we could send Maria up to the door by herself,” Delilah said.
“That’s not happening,” Antoinette replied.
“See what I mean?” Maria said.
“What about Maria and I?” Sofia suggested.
“No,” Griffin said immediately, while the rest of the team seemed to think it was a good idea.
“We’ll be right out here,” Antoinette said soothingly. “With the connection you two share, you’ll know if she’d in danger, and we can all rush in to save her.”
Griffin shook his head. “We don’t have a connection.”
Delilah snorted. Griffin glanced at Sofia, who dropped her gaze because she did not want to admit it either, even though she knew it was there. Her dragon believed he was her fated mate, and they’d had sex, which was part of the mating ritual. The only thing they had to do in order to seal the bond was fly together.
Which, since he couldn’t have a relationship with her, was obviously not going to happen. Still, there was definitely a connection between them, even if it wasn’t fully intact.
Sofia straightened. “Let’s go, Maria.” Griffin started to stand, and Sofia shook her head. “This is the only way. I’m going to try to get as close to Penelope as possible, as quickly as possible. You guys all have supernatural hearing, so listen for sounds of a scuffle. If you hear anything remotely bad, rush in.”
Delilah stabbed her finger at Griffin’s chest. “And you pay attention to that connection you keep denying you have with her.”
Trennon abruptly stood. “I’m going too.”
Sofia shook her head. “No, bad idea. This will—”
“Hey, that’s my granddaughter in there.”
Sofia’s eyes widened as she stared at him.
He scratched his head. “It’s about time I did something useful anyway. The reason I’m not reeve is because I was lousy at the job. I’m feeling the need to redeem myself.”
“I’m not sure this is going to work,” Antoinette said.
“Actually, I think it will,” Sofia said. “It will throw Darius off-kilter. He has this compulsive need to control everything, and this is definitely going to be outside his control.”
Trennon patted her shoulder. “Looks like my sperm isn’t useless after all.”
Sofia shook her head and tried not to smile. As far as compliments from one’s father went, that was definitely an odd one.
Griffin grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze, but she shook him off. She was finally in charge of her own life, and frankly, that included her love life. Which meant it was time to start moving on.
