Outfoxed (The Fox Witch #1) - R.J. Blain Page 0,111

forever.”

“She’s a classmate, and they’re playing together. That is not a reason to marry him off. By the time he’s eighteen, they might not like each other anymore. You have to wait. Stop trying to overturn Marco’s rules. You know I’m not going to do it.”

“Unfair!” Sandro’s mother heaved a sigh. “Then tell him we should try for one more before menopause gets me. Maybe we’ll get a girl.”

Theo apparently wasn’t the only one who wanted more children. “That is something you should talk to Marco about. Once again, I can’t make those decisions for him. You should be grateful he was willing to have more than just the boy.”

“I’m persuasive.”

“You wrapped yourself around his leg and cried while he dragged you around the house questioning why he agreed to be sold to an idiot like you.”

“You hurt me, Theo.”

“Is it even possible for you to be hurt?”

Without a care in the world, Stephani Moretti shrugged. “When it suits me. I’m very hurt the boy hasn’t come home yet.”

“You stole his fox. He’ll come home, and he’ll be very angry with you, especially as you’ve spent a ridiculous amount of money stealing his fox from him. You know full well he wanted to be the one to catch her.”

“Do you really think the boy would have turned her in for that pathetic little bounty she originally had? Really, Theo? He would have caught her and run off with her and set her loose so he could catch her again, and then the boy would never come home at all.”

“Of course he wouldn’t turn her in. He’s all about the hunt, and he’s more of the catch and release type unless he’s out for a hardened criminal. Your fox is not precisely a hardened criminal. That’s why you overrode the bounty, so when he caught his fox and brought her home, you’d wave your hand and make the problem disappear. Most people call you an asshole. There is a reason for that.”

“It’s the boy’s fault for not catching her and bringing her home sooner. Two years, Theo. He’s been wandering around chasing a vixen for two years.”

Sandro needed to work on his basic hunting skills if it had taken him two years to catch up with me. Then again, he’d been among the first to actually track me, so I gave him some credit. However, I would have some words for him when he showed up, assuming he showed up.

I debated telling his mother he’d been the provisional buyer. What would she do?

I considered her through narrowed eyes, one ear pricked forward, the other turned back.

“His fox is looking at me funny, Theo. Did they feed her today? Is this how foxes communicate hunger levels?”

“She is probably trying to figure out a polite way to state you belong in an institution.”

“I was wondering how you would handle my provisional buyer, actually.”

“I’ve already received a request to negotiate. I have not yet replied. I like making jerks stew before telling them no. You’re the boy’s fox now.”

Crazy rich people. I reached for my backpack, but the woman batted my hand, clucked her tongue, and pointed at the seat until I sat back. Without a care in the world, she unbuckled her seatbelt, thumped to the other side of the limo, and retrieved my bag before returning to her spot. With a dramatically heaved sigh, she clipped her belt back into place before placing my backpack on my lap. “You don’t pick anything up or fetch a damned thing until the family doctor says so. You can carry your sword around. But that’s it. There’ll be no pulling your stitches or hurting yourself fetching anything.”

“You’re hovering, Stephani.” Theo sighed. “Please forgive her, Miss Tamrin. She’s an overprotective idiot.”

“I’m a mother. It’s my job to be protective, and some bastard shot the boy’s vixen. When I find that bastard, I’ll make the boy deal with him. The boy’s useful for things like that.”

Yes, I could see him being very good at eliminating people in the Alley, and I wondered what tricks he had in the other quadrants. I dug through my bag, retrieved my provisional contract, made sure she couldn’t spot her son’s name on it, and waved it around. “I could be talked into cooperating with your plans for a price.”

“Oh, this will be good. What do you want, my little fox?” Stephani clapped her hands. “This is wonderful, Theo. I thought it’d take her weeks to warm up, but she’s already trying