Page 81 of The Succubi's Choice

Jacqueline looks like she’s gonna burst for a split second, before she grabs her purse. “I’m running to Starbucks, want anything?” Like it’s the grandest of tragedies she’s not able to stay in the room and observe. Like her curiosity is what is at stake here.

“Sure, get me the most ridiculous frappuccino you can find,” Miri says, flippant, and Jacqueline gives her a toothy smile in return, and she has an ally in the little things with her.

It’s another small thrill.

The moment she’s out of earshot, Lundy sighs. “Those aren’t good for you,” he says, as if she’s just a rebellious teenager. “Let me see your arm.”

Gabriel looks just as murderous from the couch, scowling into his phone.

“It’s doing better,” Miri says, still not moving.

She sees the mental calculation in Lundy’s mind, before he abruptly changes tactics. “You stayed at a hotel with a man?”

“He had a room, it was very nice, and he wanted cuddles,” she says, trying to pour as much sarcasm and vitriol into the lie. “Said he missed his wife, couldn’t sleep alone.”

Again the appraising look, the once over, checking the fullness of her face and the lightness in her eyes. It’s a look she gets from so many people about so many things, the checking to see if she’s compliant, that she’s actually following all their rules.

“How many times did you feed from him?” Lundy asks, because of course she looks better than she usually does.

“Just the once. But he kissed me a bunch afterwards,” she says, not breaking the eye contact. “And it was serious cuddles, I’m talking being the little spoon for the entire night.”

The narrowing of eyes as he definitely does not believe her, but she sticks to her stance. “Well, that’s not allowed, as you know.” She shrugs, and his lips thin. “I’ll have to include that in my report, but...” He softens, and she doesn't trust it one bit, “but I do need to look over your arm. They did a number on you.”

“Yeah,” she says, still not moving. “They did.”

“What I don’t get,” Gabriel explodes, from the couch, “is why you took her there when she followed all your instructions.”

And there’s the elephant in the room, large and looming, and Lundy looks down and away.

“They threatened my job, if I didn’t take her to that location,” he says, spreading his arms wide. “I can’t look for another job right now, not while the divorce is still going through.”

“Torture is worse,” Gabriel says, his voice breaking, which makes him scowl. “She did everything correct, since like forever, and you rewarded her with that?”

“ “I’m certain he thinks his job is more important than that,” she says icily, still not uncrossing her arms.

“I either have to do a visual inspection of your arm or bring you in for further examinations,” Lundy says, scowling. “That would mean they’d have to do a full energy level reading on you, which I don’t think you want right now.”

And she doesn’t. Not at all. “Can Katya do it instead?” She asks, sparing a brief thought for interrupting whatever wedding prep that Katya is probably doing. “I trust her.”

There’s a brief moment of pain crossing Lundy’s face when that one lands, before he covers it, like he hasn’t been working this job for years.

“I’ll leave the hotel room out of the report if you let me check your arm,” he says. “I have to emphasize...”

She holds out her arm, at the angry black marks, and he hisses between his teeth, before he gently holds it up, his hands way gentler than she would expect out of a man who hand delivered her to torture.

“Jesus, they really went all out for that, didn’t they,” he says, unfolding his reading glasses and sticking them on his face. “That’s...”

“Not fucking acceptable,” Gabriel pipes in from the couch. “Cruel? Unnecessary?”

“Painful?” Miri supplies. “Also, a big surprise?”

The guilty looks flashes back on his face, and she wants to just dig that needle in deeper.

“Did you know they had me charm some of their goons? Put the needle in my arm and then had me use it? That they had ten people in the room to tackle them in case I told them to do anything illegal?”

Lundy’s lips thin again, and instead of his stern disappointed look, there’s a flash of something else. Not anger, not disciplinary, but something more intelligent.

“Really,” he says, neutral. “That’s what they did?”

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