Page 23 of Professional Liar
“You want me to ask him out for you?”
Fox winked. “That pretty boy wouldn’t know what to do with me.”
“Was that all the meetings for this morning?”
Fox chuckled softly and ran his hand over his buzzed ginger head. “You won’t believe who is up next.”
Another young man entered the door in front of Gerry and sat down. I held out my hand again to shake. He eyed it before acquiescing and then settled both his hands on the table.
“And you are?” I asked, standing in case this was a short as the last. Fox wandered back to his seat and Gerry into the kitchen again.
“Hortensio Litio.”
I sighed and didn’t bother taking up the chair again. “If you are here to ask to marry Bianca, you need to make an appointment with my wife.”
“How did you…” He glanced at the door and slammed his fist on the table.
He contained a little more fire than the first one did, but his nose had been broken too many times, marring up his slight feminine features in a weird way.
“Did Cambio come here for the same reason?”
I gave him a wide feral smile, and he flinched back. “Gerry will escort you out,” was my only answer.
He left with a string of curses as Gerry shoved him out the door. I stared at Fox, his feet up on the table as he lounged on the soft gray microfiber. “I’m a dead man,” I said.
Fox laughed. “I’m glad I’m not on duty tonight. When she hears about this…”
“Maybe I can talk sense into her and tell her before she finds out. Cut it off before the rumors spread, and she thinks… I don’t know… I’m trying to usurp her position or something.”
“I’d bring in Mama Grace.”
I shook my head. “I wanted to save Mama Grace for when I really fucked up. We both know it’s bound to happen.”
He didn’t answer that, so I went and got more coffee. Gerry returned and sat in the seat I’d been occupying before. “So how bad will Ms. Katherine take this?” he asked.
I dragged a chair out from under the table, sat, and slung my feet up onto the other one. “I’m hoping I can explain. But if she hears something like I’ve been holding meetings to marry off her sister, I might need to start wearing a cup or clear out all the breakables.”
Gerry pointed to a ding in the wall by the door. “We saw that this morning. What happened there?”
I smiled as the memory of my wedding night came back. “Yet another misunderstanding. Katherine is an act first, ask questions whenever it becomes convenient kind of woman.”
“Your mother would have loved her.”
I nodded, my throat tightening at the involuntary thought of my mother. She’d died five years ago, and I missed her every single time her name came up, every single time I smelled Scotch.
The warm mug gave me a grounding point while I considered. “Were there anymore meetings this morning? I’ll need to go see my father. He has some paperwork, apparently.”
Fox fielded the question. “No more meetings. He already called this morning. You should head over there next.”
I put the mug down and went to get my wallet. “Fox, you’re driving. Kat has my car. I might need to hire a new driver for her, or me, if she can stand being driven by Holt.”
Gerry waved us off as I followed Fox out the door. Benson sat outside the entryway, knitting something with tiny delicate needles. I clapped him on the shoulders as I passed. “That’s looking good, Ben. Your pressure is getting more even. Maybe we can start training you on handguns next week.”
He didn’t answer as I climbed into Fox’s passenger seat. We both started laughing at the glare he leveled toward the car while we drove away.
“I think he still thinks the knitting is a joke.”
“I’m sure he does. As did all of you when you were brought on. And now you can shoot better than any guards in the city and make your grandmother a nice scarf for Christmas.”
He shook his head and pulled out into the Monday morning traffic. I stared out the window and wondered if I should tell Kat about my meetings first or let her ask me about them.
Regardless, the five families were about to be rattled.
