How to Rattle an Undead Couple - Hailey Edwards Page 0,23

warned him. “Things are going to get ugly fast if you don’t explain yourself.”

A nice, vague threat had loosened many a tongue. Maybe it would throw him off balance too.

After shaking hands with Linus and nodding to Lethe, he sat on the edge of the desk in the spot she had vacated, but I snubbed him.

“I received orders through official channels to report to the Grande Dame a week ago.” He stole the fork out of my hand. “I’ve been in town ever since.”

Leaning forward, I glared at him. “Doing what?”

“Promise not to get mad?” He stabbed a piece and shoved it into his mouth. “Whoa, this is good.”

“We used Mallow,” Lethe told him. “Same folks who made that tropical wedding cake you loved.”

Leslie Dunn, the head baker at Mallow, had customers for life in Lethe and me. And, it seemed, Corbin.

“Get your grubby mitts off my cake.” I stole my utensil back. “And, in case you can’t tell, I’m already angry.”

“Hormones,” Lethe mouthed to him. “She’s our little ray of sunshine lately.”

Linus circled the desk to stand behind me and rested his cool hands on my shoulders.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Inhallle.

Exhallle.

“I didn’t expect to see you until next week,” I said, forcing calm into my voice, “so you can imagine my surprise when Lethe noticed you had paid a visit to the Grande Dame first.”

Wiping the corners of his mouth, he bought a moment to consider what he said next. I could appreciate the move, but I also wanted to stab him in the thigh with my fork if it got things moving along.

“The Grande Dame asked me to keep an eye on you,” he said slowly, deliberately. “She had reason to believe you were in danger.”

“How is that different than any other day of the week?”

“She received a credible threat.” Lips thinned, he hesitated over his words. “We took every precaution.”

“Where does Boaz come in?”

“For what it’s worth, I told her to bring you both into the loop.” He frowned. “She refused.”

“I’m not surprised.” I exhaled. “We’re all here now. Tell us everything.”

And tell us everything, he did.

Six

Linus dug his thumbs into the knots of spasming muscles in Grier’s lower back the way Hood had taught him. It caused the tension to leak from her shoulders as she leaned against him, but his own unease continued to climb.

Corbin wasn’t lying, exactly, but he wasn’t telling them the whole truth. Linus trusted him, but not his prevarications.

There was a simple answer to the conundrum, but Linus had to observe him longer to be certain.

“Boaz was in Savannah when I got here, but I didn’t know that,” Corbin said offhandedly. “Until I bumped into him yesterday, I didn’t realize the Grande Dame had us both on retainer. He was patrolling as I was headed in for my nightly report, and he stopped me to chat.”

Grier asked the question gnawing on Linus. “Why was he there?”

The thought his mother had trusted her wellbeing to Boaz and not her own son made the void howl through his head as old insecurities threatened to rear their ugly heads.

“I’m a sentinel. He’s Elite.” He spread his hands in a helpless gesture that conveyed layers of meaning. “What he does, and who he does it for, is above my paygrade.”

“Did you learn anything from Boaz?”

“He believed you would be the target. I got the sense he was the one who requested me brought in.”

Confirmation Mother had taken Boaz’s advice without so much as hinting to Linus she might be in danger honed his anger into a blade, and his voice cut when he asked, “Why didn’t you come to us when you noticed Mother had gone missing?”

“I didn’t grasp the situation until I went to check in, shortly before Grier called. The Grande Dame wasn’t there. I waited around to see if she got detained at the Lyceum, but she never showed. I tried Boaz, but he didn’t answer his phone. I checked the barracks, but the captain says Boaz is in Pennsylvania.”

And he couldn’t ask the staff without revealing both her absence and his presence.

“Boaz must be with her,” Grier said quietly, and he felt, for his benefit.

“They would have made contact by now if they had been able.” It was a hard truth, but one he couldn’t avoid. “We can’t assume she’s safe, wherever she is. Or that he’s with her, however grateful I would be for it.”

Grier leaned her warm cheek against the top of his hand. “We’re going to find her.”

Bending down, he kissed the