A Vigil in the Mourning (Soulbound #4) - Hailey Turner Page 0,123
both hands resting on the steering wheel. “I take it you enjoyed your flight home on the private jet?”
“Jono let me put in a request for whatever food I wanted yesterday, and they had it all waiting for me when we got on board. I ate everything.”
“I’m sure you did.”
Jono got into the front passenger seat and hauled the door shut. “Thanks for picking us up.”
“Considering you still have a bounty on your head, you aren’t allowed to go anywhere alone. Besides, I took the morning off.” Sage took her foot off the brake and pulled away from the curb in the passenger pickup area of LaGuardia. “How much longer is Patrick staying in Chicago?”
Jono sighed. “At least another week. Maybe longer. He said he might have to make a stop in DC before coming home.”
Sage kept her eyes on the road and the interweaving mess of vehicles. “Did you find the Morrígan’s staff?”
“No, but Patrick located an invitation to a black market auction of artifacts that might lead to it.”
“Might isn’t helpful.”
“Medb did say she wouldn’t give up the staff unless the payment threshold was met. It’s still something.”
Sage made a face. “True. Did you tell Patrick about the hunters?”
“I did,” Jono said slowly.
“Are you sleeping on our couch?”
“No.”
“They argued,” Wade said from where he sat on one of the middle seats. “And then they made up by having sex on my bed.”
Jono rolled his eyes. “Oh, sod off. We didn’t have sex while you were in the room, and we got you your own hotel room after that.”
Sage glanced at Jono, arching an eyebrow. “So Patrick was angry?”
“You can say I told you so,” Jono said wryly. “I promise I won’t hold it against you.”
“I’ll wait until Marek and the rest are off from work. We can do it in surround sound for you at the dinner table tonight.”
“Great.”
Sage laughed. “You’re welcome.”
“Patrick was pissed, like you said he would be. But we talked through it, I apologized, and I promised not to keep things like that from him again.”
“Good.”
“I got us an alliance and recognition with the Chicago god pack. You have to admit I’m doing something right.”
“Maybe, but there’s always room for improvement.”
She said it with a teasing smile, and her scent was full of happiness and mirth. Jono shook his head, laughing a little. Sage was never mean-hearted about her teasing, but their pack’s sense of humor was built on a solid foundation of loving sarcasm and a bit of gallows humor. If she hadn’t needled him, he’d be worried.
“Lucien called the other night. He said he wanted to speak with you when you got back,” Sage said once they were on the highway heading toward the Queensboro Bridge.
“Did he say why?” Jono asked.
Sage shrugged. “No.”
“If he called rather than show up in person, it can’t be much of an emergency. It can wait.”
“You sure that’s wise?”
“We already brokered an alliance with him and the other Night Courts. We can’t jump every time he demands something from us. That’s going to put us in the weaker position and piss off Patrick.”
Sage smiled, a sense of calmness filtering through her scent. “Good. I’d hoped you’d say that.”
Her faith in him was something Jono would never take for granted. The moment he did, Jono knew he’d be no better than Estelle and Youssef. His job as the alpha of the New York City god pack was to fight to protect the packs under his care.
Jono was finally in a position where he could stand his ground, and he wasn’t moving one bloody inch.
23
“Do you see him? I don’t see him,” Wade said, standing on his tiptoes to try to see over the Wednesday afternoon crowd at the Arrivals area.
“Patrick’s plane landed ten minutes ago. Give it at least ten more before he even gets off,” Jono said.
“Marek should’ve let him use the private jet.”
“We don’t need that paper trail with the government.” Jono reached out to grab Wade by the collar of his jacket and reel him back in so he wasn’t in the way of the exit. “And keep your hands to yourself.”
Wade tugged free with a mock-scowl before he decided to pull a Pop-Tart packet out of his jacket pocket. Jono let him snack in peace and kept scanning the people coming through the Arrivals security gate.
It had been a week since he’d last laid eyes on Patrick, though they’d rung each other every night to check in. Jono was far more forthcoming than he had