Page 10 of Thor

“Am I?” Elle touched her cheek.

Val eyed her suspiciously. “You’re chewing your fingers again.”

Elle dropped her hand. “I need another beer,” Elle said, not meeting Val’s probing gaze.

“Which table?”

“Heimdall.”

Val’s eyebrows slammed together. “He never drinks more than one an hour.”

“It’s not for him.”

Val glanced over Elle’s shoulder and her eyes darkened. “Elle—”

“I didn’t ask him to come.”

“We’ve talked about this. It’s dangerous for anyone to find out you are here. Especially him. If he finds out who you are—”

“Lady Frigg knows. And Heimdall knows. Loki knows—”

“But Frigg, Heimdall and Loki didn’t try to kill your father. And thousands of fire giants. And vow to kill them all after Ragnarök.” She looked around. “And though most of these are mortals there are any number of sups that pass through here who I am sure would be more than happy to sell you out for money or favor with Surtr.”

Elle’s fists balled. “Then why did we run? Why did we come here if I’m still going to spend the rest of my immortal life looking over my shoulder? I might as well have stayed and let Thadren have his way with me. At least with him I would’ve been protected.”

Val crushed a lemon in her fist. “You are protected. I will protect you. I just want you to be careful.”

“And stay away from Odin’s son?”

“Yes.”

Val wouldn’t be happy with anything but her agreement to stay away from Thor but somehow, she wasn’t sure that was a promise she could make.

“I’ll do my best. But I can’t ask him not to come to his mom’s establishment. That would be more suspicious than if I do nothing.”

“Then continue to do nothing. Don’t be discourteous, but don’t encourage him either. If Thor Odin’s son finds out who you are you can bet he will want one of two things: to use you to hurt Surtr, or to kill you to hurt Surtr.”

Elle snorted. “Too bad he doesn’t realize my father would have killed me himself if he’d cared enough about me to lift a finger.”

Somehow when Elle had left with Val she’d anticipated her life getting easier, not harder. She shook her head. She should have known better.

Frigg walked up and smiled at Elle. “Problem?”

* * *

“Tell me about her,”Thor said. His gaze remained on her as she moved about the bar in her dark tight leggings that hugged her slender hips in a beautiful temptation. Once again, he didn’t like her wearing something so sensual around other people, but he had no idea why it bothered him.

“Who?”

Thor rolled his eyes. “Elle.”

“Ahhhh...” Heimdall sipped his beer but didn’t say anything.

“Ahhh? That’s all you have to say? Ahhh?” Thor waited a moment. “Heimdall?”

Heimdall shrugged his heavy shoulders. “Not much to tell. She got here about a month ago with her friend. They were looking for work. Frigg needed help and hired them.”

“Where did they come from?”

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