volumes. So we were taking turns reading aloud to each other, a bedtime ritual that was more homey, and strangely more intimate than sex, or feeding the ardeur.You didn't read your favorite childhood stories aloud to people you fucked, you read them to people you loved. There was that word again, love.I was beginning to think I didn't know what it meant.
"Blake, Blake, you in there?"
I blinked up at O'Brien and realized she'd been talking to me, and I hadn't heard her. "Sorry, really, I guess I'm thinking too hard."
"Whatever you were thinking about didn't look too happy."
What was I supposed to say, some of it was, some of it wasn't, like most of my personal life. What I said out loud was, "Sorry, it's unnerved me a little to have someone like Heinrick after my ass."
"You didn't look scared, Blake, you looked like you were thinking too damned hard."
"I've had hit men after me before, but not terrorists who specialize in politics. There is nothing political about what I do." The moment I heard it leave my mouth, I realized I was wrong. There were two types of politics that I was deeply involved in, furry, and vampire. Shit, had Belle hired him? No, it didn't feel right. I'd touched her mind too intimately; she still thought she could own me. She wouldn't destroy what she believed she could control, or use.
Richard was still digging out of the political mess he'd made of his pack when he tried to make them a true democracy. You know--one vote per person. It so hadn't worked, because he'd forgotten to keep that presidential veto power. He was Ulfric, wolf king, but he'd gutted the office of Ulfric and still hadn't built back up the respect and power base he needed. I was helping him rebuild, but some of the pack saw my involvement as another sign of weakness. Hell, so did Richard.
But to my knowledge no one was trying to move in on Richard's pack. Neighboring packs were giving us a wide berth until the dust settled. There wasn't anyone worthy of challenging him for pack leader except Sylvie, and she had held off, because she liked Richard, and didn't want to have to kill him. If Richard hadn't been afraid of what Sylvie would do as Ulfric he might have just stepped down for her, but he knew, and Sylvie had admitted, that her first order of business would be to kill anyone she suspected of disloyalty. That could be a dozen, or two. Richard wasn't willing for that to happen. But Sylvie would have come directly to my face if she had a problem. So . . .
I looked up at O'Brien. She was watching me, trying to read me. I had no idea what she'd seen as the different thoughts played over my face. I was definitely not on top of my game today.
"Talk to me, Blake," she said.
I decided for half-truth, better than nothing. "I was thinking that there's one type of politics I do participate in."
"And that is?"
"Vampires. I've got close ties to the Master of the City of St. Louis. I don't think Heinrick would knowingly work for a vampire, but he might not know. Most people like this work through intermediaries, so no one ever sees faces."
"Why would some vampire want to kill you just because you're dating the Master of the City?"
I shrugged. "The last time someone tried to kill me, it was for pretty much that reason. They thought it would weaken . . . the Master, make his concentration bad."
She leaned on the edge of her desk, arms crossed on her stomach. "You really think that's it?"
I frowned and shook my head. "I don't know. I don't think so, but it's the only politics I could think of."
"I'll put a note in the file, pass it up the line," she said. "We could offer you some police protection."
"You got the extra budget for that?"
She smiled, but not like she was happy. "Heinrick has terrorist in his dossier. Trust me, right now, with the T-word in the picture, I could swing the man power."
"Wouldn't that be person power?" I said, straight faced, looking her dead in the eye.
She snorted. "Oh, please, I'm not that P.C., and I don't think you are either."
"Sorry, couldn't resist."
"Besides you've worked with the police long enough to know that it usually is man power."
"Too true," I said.
"How about the police escort, or some surveillance?"