Page 17 of Moody as a Minotaur

“Well, he’s towering over us,” she said, waving to me. “Although the view is nice, he’s blocking the TV.”

I glanced over my shoulder. Sure, there was a TV behind me, but I suspected she was more interested in the woman seated under it than in the hockey game. Davina was starring at Edie. Her gaze flicked to mine quickly, but then she went right back to looking at Parker’s Nana.

Davina usually sat on the other side of the pub, so it was strange to see her sitting over there. She’d probably moved close to the door tonight to control the biggest exit. The woman was petite, but she had what in a man might be called big dick energy. Her hair was ruthlessly styled like a 1920s starlet to match her vintage pant suit from the same era. Not a single strand of hair was out of place. And I suspected she exerted that same level of control on everything she did.

And now that I was paying attention, I realized people were stationed at the other exits too, which wasn’t a bad idea. Still, I shuddered at the idea of being trapped with the hunters, but they were the minority here. We’d be okay. I hoped.

In addition to Gage being noticeably absent, I didn’t see Nelson and Teague either. I suspected they were patrolling outside in case the hunters hadn’t come alone like we thought. I should have thought about doing that, too. Man, I was out of practice in dealing with hunters.

“Well?” Edie demanded. “Are you sitting or not?”

“I should, uh, let you catch up. You drove all this way to see Parker and I didn’t mean to interrupt your evening.” I retreated. And with every step I took away from the cute ginger, my instincts shouted at me to return to his side.

“Damn,” Edie said as I joined Carter at the pool table. “Look at that ass. I bet it’d look better in bike shorts, or nothing at all. It’s all juicy and round.”

“Nana! Stop it,” Parker whisper-shouted. “Someone is going to hear you and report you for sexual harassment.”

But it was too late. With this many supes in the room, the whole damn place would have heard what she said.

How long would it be before people started ribbing me about my juicy ass?

Carter glanced up from setting up the pool table and grinned. “So, you want to play a game, Juicemeister?”

So, not long then.

“Carter.” I used his name as a warning.

“For all the entertainment you’ve given me tonight, I’ll let you break. What do you say, Juicilicious?”

“Shut up,” I muttered and grabbed my pool cue from the rack on the wall.

“Oh, Mr. Juicy is getting sassy.”

Behind me, Parker continued to reprimand his grandmother. “If you keep behaving like this. I’m going to carry an air horn so I can blast it whenever you open your mouth to say something inappropriate.”

6

NANA, THE CAT BURGLAR

PARKER

I jolted awake. Huh? What?

I patted my nightstand for my phone. After fumbling with it for a minute, I finally tapped the screen. It blazed to life. The bright light from my phone stabbed through the darkness and straight into my eyeballs. I snapped my eyes shut. Fuck. I blinked until I could read the time. Seven minutes past three.

Why the fuck was I awake?

I still had another two hours to sleep before I had to get up.

So, what had woken me? I tried to remember. Was it a sound? I thought it was. Like a door closing?

And, ugh, why was I so sweaty?

Right. Nana was here. I was wearing pajamas because I couldn’t sleep in the buff with my grandmother staying with me.

Was she having trouble sleeping? That must be it. She must be roaming around the apartment. Maybe she needed a glass of water. Or to use the toilet.

Or was she meeting up for a rendezvous with Davina?