Page 92 of Bad Enough

She looked at him with innocent eyes. “Well, it isn’t very safe to allow a woman to go alone into a parking lot. You’ve told me it’s part of your job to protect me. He’s not exactly been a ringing endorsement for protective Dom behavior.”

“I believe Tripoli was only escorting her to her car. Fleur was uncollared, and I don’t believe they had scened together,” Medusa added.

Gilgamesh spoke up. “You should have no worries, Flame. Your Dom is one of the most protective men I know. Now that he has finally collared a sub, it would appear the wolf has been well and truly captured. And wolves do fight to the death for their mates, whom they take for life. Or so I’ve been told.”

“Flame knows I would never allow her to be unprotected, don’t you, princess?” TB put his hand around the back of Flame’s neck and gave it a squeeze, making sure his gesture of reprimand was obvious. Then he whispered loud enough for them to hear, “Never be disrespectful to another Dom by making assumptions about their behavior. It’s not done.”

33

JUNE 17TH

Sylvan

“I don’t mean to be disrespectful,” she murmured, eyes down. “You hear about people going missing all the time, but it’s in the news, never someone in your own space. It’s difficult not to be nervous. And I’m already nervous enough to be here.”

TB looked down at her, murmuring against the top of her head. “I’ve got you, little Flame. I promise. There’s no need to be nervous. Just careful.”

It was a dual message to her, which she appreciated.

Sylvan looked back to Medusa. “Can I ask you a question?”

“Of course,” the woman replied.

“Do you…” She stopped, then restarted. “I’m sorry. This is probably forward of me, but… how does your triad work in public?”

“That is forward, Flame.” TB grabbed her chin with his fingers and turned her face to his. “If I have to speak to you again, we’re going to have words in private.”

“It’s okay, Lobo,” Medusa assured him.

“I appreciate your openness, Medusa, but she needs to learn what she can and can’t say and do here.”

Flame nodded at him. Dual message.

Understood. Keep pushing.

“I’m sorry,” Sylvan apologized. “I’ve just never met anyone in an actual triad before. Not judging or offended by it.” She offered a smile. “Blame it on all this concern for the missing women. I guess I babble when I’m nervous and don’t think things through. I overheard Lobo tell someone all the girls had red hair and, well—” She gestured. “I suggested I color it, and I thought he was going to go through the roof. Men are more touchy about their girlfriend’s hair than the women are, I guess.”

“It’s fine. Really. And yes, they did all have red hair, although oddly enough, Fleur is blonde. Perhaps that was a coincidence up until now.”

“As for the relationship,” Loki replied, “we work together, so we’re always together. Unless we ran into a client here, though, no one would probably be the wiser as to how we’re connected.” Loki turned intense eyes to Lobo. “Extra eyes on our women is always a good thing, though. Same thing for friends, both here tonight and others farther away. We’ll make sure to keep a continued eye out for yours, as we know you would ours.”

The three men paused and weighed each other in the silence.

She felt TB tense beside her, and when she looked down, the hand that he’d had resting on the tabletop next to his drink was now clenched into a fist.

TB nodded. “Appreciated.”

Gilgamesh picked up his drink and asked a question that seemed to come out of the blue. “Have you ever traveled to Egypt? Particularly Sallum?”

“I was there not long ago on business, but I was focused on Cairo.”

Loki waved him off. “Larger cities are no good for seeing the real Egypt. If you really want to get a good feel for the country and what it has to offer, Matruh is the place. We were there in April, as well. It’s a Bedouin village just shy of the Libyan border. A fishing village, primarily. One of the oldest ports in the world is my understanding. Nothing of real historical significance other than that, but no tourists floating around clogging up the street life either, so you get a real sense of how things are there. Very interesting.”

“Being so close to Libya, I would have thought that was a place tourists would stay away from.”

“We had business there, so it was easier for us to move around. It also helps that we didn’t stay long. Westerners are always looked at suspiciously in non-tourist cities, but if you take care to blend in, it’s easy to move around there.”

“And you’re in the fishing industry?”

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