Divine Misdemeanors

The boy frowned, trying to understand.

“I’m his na

“I didn’t know,” I said.

She smiled brightly. “I would never leave Felix here. I’ve been with him since he was three months old, but I can recommend a few others if they’re between charges, or are willing to leave their charges.”

I hadn’t thought that far ahead, but… “Do you have a business card?” I asked.

She smiled and got one out of her purse. She put it on the table and wrote on the back of it. “This is my home phone so you don’t have to go through the agency. They won’t understand that you need different things than most clients.”

I took the card and put it in the small wristlet wallet that was all I’d brought with me. We’d been headed to the beach; I’d wanted my ID and not much more.

Matilda brought me a small plate with roast beef folded artfully on it. “I’d put something else with it but when a lady’s expecting you never know what to add.”

I smiled at her. “It’s perfect. Tha—sorry. I know better.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it. I’ve been out among the humans for centuries. It takes more than a thank-you to lay this brownie, eh, Harvey?” She laughed at her own joke. Harvey behind the counter looked both embarrassed and pleased.

The roast beef was tender, just the right side of rare, and exactly what I wanted. Even the little hint of salt was perfect. I’d noticed that about the cravings, that if I gave in to them the food tasted amazing. I wondered if that was typical.

Matilda pulled up a chair, and the na

Doyle and Frost stayed standing, keeping an eye on the people outside. The young-looking man stood with them. He was obviously enjoying being one of the guys, and was showing his shoulder tattoo to Doyle and Frost.

Matilda had told Harvey to put coffee on. I realized with a start that this was the first time in weeks that I’d sat down with other women and not felt either like a princess, a detective, or someone else in charge of everyone I was dealing with. We’d brought sidhe women with us out of faerie, but they’d all been part of the prince’s guard. They’d spent centuries serving my father, Prince Essus, and he’d been friendly, but not overly so; he’d been as careful of the boundaries as the queen, his sister, had been careless. Where she’d treated her guard as her harem and her toys to torment, he’d treated his guard with respect. He’d had lovers among them, but sex wasn’t looked down on among the fey. It was just normal.

The female guards would give their lives to keep me safe, but they were meant to guard a prince, and there were no more princes in the Unseelie Court in or out of faerie. I’d killed the last one before he could kill me. The guards didn’t mourn their lost prince. He’d been a sexual sadist like his mother. One thing we’d managed to hide from the media so far was how many of the guard, both male and female, were traumatized from the tortures they’d endured.

Some of them wanted Doyle, or Frost, or one of the other fathers to be named prince so they could be their guard. Traditionally, making me pregnant would have made the father a prince and future king, or at least royal consort. But with so many fathers, there was no precedent for making them all princes.

I sat with the women and just listened to them talk about normal things, and realized that sitting in the kitchen at my Gran’s or in the kitchen with Maggie Mae had been the closest to normal I’d ever known.

For the third time that day I felt tears at the back of my eyes, in my throat. It was that way every time I thought about Gran. It had only been a month since her death. I guess I was entitled.

Matilda said, “Are you well, Princess?”

“Merry,” I said. “Call me Merry.”

That earned me another bright smile. Then there was a sound behind us.

We all turned to see the glass begin to crack under the weight of the reporters crushing one another against it.

Doyle and Frost were at my side. They got me to my feet, and we were ru

Chapter Twelve

There were ambulances, police, and glass everywhere. None of us in the shop were hurt, but some of the paparazzi were taken to the hospital. Most of the people plastered against the glass had been photographers trying to get that one special picture that would make them rich. Certain shots were rumored to go for hundreds of thousands of dollars. After today, I believed the rumors.

Lucy was standing over me as the ambulance medic checked me out. My protests of, “I’m fine. I wasn’t hurt,” fell on deaf ears. When Lucy had found me inside the glass-covered deli she’d been pale. I looked up at the tall brunette and realized that though we might never go shopping together, she was my friend.

The emergency medical technician pulled the blood pressure cuff off my arm and pronounced, “Everything seems fine. Blood pressure, all of it. But I’m not a doctor, and I’m sure as heck not a baby doc.”

“So you think she should go to the hospital?” Lucy asked.

The EMT frowned and I felt his dilemma. If he said no and he was wrong, he was fucked. But there were other people who were actually injured, and if he left one behind to take me, just in case, and the one left behind died, he was also screwed.

She turned to Doyle and Frost for backup. “Tell her she needs to go to the hospital.”

They exchanged a look, then Doyle gave a small nod as if to say “Go ahead,” and Frost answered, “We don’t ‘tell’ Merry what to do, Detective. She is our princess.”

“But she’s also carrying your babies,” Lucy said.

“That doesn’t give us the right to order her around,” he said.

Doyle added, “I expected you to understand that better than most, Detective Tate.”

She frowned at both of them, then turned back to me. “You promise me you never fell or had something fall on you?”

“I promise,” I said.

She took in a lot of air, let it out slowly, then nodded. “Fine. Okay. I’ll let it go. If none of you are worried, I don’t know why I bother.”

I smiled up at her. “Because you are my friend, and friends worry about each other.”

She looked almost embarrassed, then gri

Doyle reached out a hand and I let him help me stand though I really didn’t need it. They’d both been calmer than Lucy, but then they’d been with me the entire time. They knew nothing had happened to me physically, but they were still more careful of me than they had been before. It was both touching and a little irritating. I was worried that as the pregnancy progressed it might become a lot less touching and a lot more irritating, but that was a worry for another day. We were free to head for the beach, and there was still daylight to enjoy it. It was all good.

The EMT asked, “So I’m done here with the princess?”

“Yeah,” Lucy said, “go find someone who’s bleeding to take for a ride.”

He smiled, obviously relieved, and hurried off to find someone who really did need a ride to the hospital.

“I’ll give you uniforms to escort you back to your car.” She sort of nodded toward the press that was being held back by tape and barriers. Oddly, the paparazzi who had gotten injured were now news themselves. I wondered if they were enjoying being on the other side of the camera.