Flirt

“My dance card is full, so if his lies keep the others away, fine with me.”

“But it isn’t fine with your lion,” he said. He shook his head. “We didn’t know you were an unmated werelion. We wouldn’t have taken the job if we had.”

“Why not, and what job?” I asked.

“We’re being unprofessional, and I apologize for that, but you’ve caught us off guard.”

“Why are you here, Jacob?” I asked; maybe if I used his name it would speed things along.

“I’m going to reach into my jacket for a cell phone. I have pictures on it to show you. You aren’t going to like them. You’re going to get angry with us, but remember we were hired to do this, it’s nothing personal.” He looked past us. “Your waiter is coming back.”

“He’s probably going to take your orders,” I said.

“Would it really bother you if I killed him?” Nicky asked.

I finally realized that this problem, whatever it really was, wasn’t going to be settled by guns at the table. I stopped worrying about keeping an eye on both of them and just looked at Nicky. I gave him the full weight of my unfriendly gaze.

He blinked the one big blue eye I could see. “Nice look. It really has me quaking in my boots,” he said.

“You haven’t seen anything yet,” I said.

“Tease,” he said, low.

Ahsan was back at the table. He wasted smiles on me and I was torn between wanting him away from the table and warning him. “Can I take drink orders?”

“No,” Jacob said, “we got called back to work, so no time for lunch. Just give us a few minutes to fill Anita in on the problem, and you’ll get your table back.”

He nodded, put his tablet away, and flashed me another brilliant smile. I tried to give one back, but knew my eyes didn’t hold it. I couldn’t pretend that well. He left us alone, and he would tell the rest of the wait-staff to avoid the table.

“Show me the pictures,” I said.

Jacob spread his suit jacket carefully with two fingers and reached in just as gingerly with his other hand to lift out a cell phone. It was another one with a large screen like Be

“If you do anything violent, we will hurt some of these nice people,” Jacob said.

“I’ll rip the hot waiter’s throat open, just for you,” Nicky said, almost a whisper, and smiled while he said it.

“I’m more practical, Anita. I’ll hurt whoever is close,” Jacob said.

I nodded. “The foreplay is getting tiresome, just show me.” But I didn’t like the buildup; it promised that whatever they were going to show me would be bad. My pulse was speeding up, but the lioness was not hurrying toward the surface of me. She was afraid; afraid of these men, these lions. She was attracted to male werelions, never afraid. What was wrong with these two that she could sense?

Jacob made the screen light up, pressed something on it, and said, “When you want to see the next picture, just slide this with your finger.”

The first picture was of Micah, Nathaniel, and me on the sidewalk holding hands; laughing. The next picture showed Jason leaning in from just behind us, me leaning back listening. We were all smiling. The next picture was a bad angle, and too far away, but it showed us at the booth in this restaurant the day we all came in together. I watched the pictures of that lunch slide across the screen.

“Is there a point to this?” I asked.

“Keep going,” Jacob said.

I went back to the screen and found pictures of Micah driving, going into office buildings, going into the television station for an interview. The next images were of Nathaniel going into Guilty Pleasures at night for work, going down the alley where the dancers’ entrance was, then daylight and going in to practice the new dance routine on the stage without customers. Jason was in some of those shots. Jason going into the club at night and driving his new car around town. Jason parking at the Circus of the Damned parking lot, and pictures following him all the way to the door.

I swallowed past the pulse that was trying to come out my throat, and gave a cold, blank face to them. “So you’ve been following my boyfriends, what of it?”

“You’re almost to the end of the pictures,” he said.

I kept sliding my finger and moving the pictures. I saw Micah walking down the sidewalk, toward an office building. I knew he had meetings all day. But this time there was a picture, then a picture of the camera used to take it; same street, same everything, but a second camera taking an image of the other camera. Then the next image was of a rifle, a very nice sniper rifle. The next image was back on Micah, and the last shot was of the camera and the rifle side by side.

“Is that it?” I asked, and my voice was squeezed down tight.

“The other two are still asleep. They worked last night, but when they get up we’ll have men on them, too.”

“You obviously know our schedules. Now what do you want?” I put the phone down and let him slide it across the table to himself.

“First, if we don’t check in with our sniper, he shoots Micah when he comes out from the meeting.”

I nodded. “So I can’t shoot you here.”

“No,” he said.

I nodded, small little nods over and over. I wasn’t thinking very clearly, but I had enough sense to put my gun back in its holster. It went in smoothly from all that practice, even while the rest of me was frozen. I couldn’t think. It was like a great roaring silence in my head, but it wasn’t quiet. It was filled with a sound like wind, or storm.

“Good,” Jacob said, “come with us, quietly, and no one has to get hurt.”

“What do you want me to do?”

“We want you to raise the dead for us.”

“You know you can just make an appointment for that.”

“You’ve already turned the job down,” he said.

That made me look at him. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Come outside with us, let us pat you down for weapons, and we’ll take you to our employer. Then it will all be explained.”

“I would do it before your Nimir-Raj comes out from his meetings,” Nicky said. “You want us to call our friend the sniper before he comes outside again.”

I stared at him, did the long blink as if I were having trouble focusing. I guess I was; I felt damn near light-headed. I never fainted, but part of my brain was thinking about it. Crap. I had to do better than this, had to be stronger than this.

I nodded again and got up, but I had to touch the table to steady myself.

“You’re not going to faint, are you?” Nicky said.

“No,” I said. I took in a lot of air, let it out slow, did it a second time. “I don’t faint.” I started walking, and really wished I were in jogging shoes rather than high heels, but you never plan to be kidnapped, so you’re never dressed for it.

I caught my heel on a chair leg, and Nicky grabbed my arm. All touch makes metaphysical powers more. My lioness snarled inside me, her power lashing out, and a slap like claws, saying, Get back!

Nicky staggered a little, but didn’t let go of my arm. He squeezed hard enough for it to hurt, and growled out, “That hurt!”

“It was supposed to,” I said.

“Let her go, Nicky.” Jacob was up with us, using his taller body to try to block the view.

Nicky growled at him, still holding my arm.

The lioness and I were in agreement, as we lashed out at them both. The visual was of claws slicing at them. They both reacted as if the pretend claws had weight to them. Jacob touched Nicky’s wrist. “Let her go, now, before we cause a scene.”

“She started it.”

“Bullshit,” I said.

Jacob made the other one let me go. They stepped back, gave me some room. But both their beasts were watching me. It was that feeling that you might get on the grasslands surrounded by all that gold, wavy grass, and you stop because you feel something watching you. I knew I had not just the men’s attention, but also that part of them that turned furry once a month was staring holes in me.