Page 56 of Guarded By a Monster

A woman’s voice I didn’t recognize greeted me across the line.

“Jade?”

“Yes, who is this?”

“Hi, I’m River. I work with Zeus at Superhuman Security.”

“Oh, right. You’re housesitting for me. I hope I didn’t leave dirty underwear lying around.”

She laughed. “No dirty underwear, and far less cat hair than I expected.”

“That’s surprising, for sure. What can I do for you?”

Thurl’s warm hand skirted across my lower back and curled around my side. I leaned back into him, letting my shoulders drop from my ears. My neck protested. I was going to need a massage after this was over.

“I just wanted to let you know you had another unwanted visitor early this morning.”

I gasped, but she kept going before I could interrupt her with the million and one questions that wanted to spill out of me like a two-liter Coke stuffed with Mentos.

“It’s fine, the threat was neutralized,” her chuckle sent a shiver over me, “and I didn’t damage anything. I already informed Zeus, who contacted Kragen, so the whole team knows. You’re safe where you are.”

“So stay with the wyr—“

She cut me off with a volume that made me take the phone from my ear.

“Yes, you’re safe, but your phone isn’t secure, and we have to assume the bad guys are competent enough to be listening.”

My cheeks heated. “Oh, right. Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. This isn’t a normal situation, and you have no reason to be thinking about things like that. That’s what we’re for. Just keep your head down and you’ll be fine.”

I heard a pained groan in the background. “What was that?”

Once again, her low laugh sounded evil. “Your unwanted guest.” She seemed to be speaking to herself when she added, “I didn’t expect him to wake up so soon.”

Another voice called out. “Damn it, River! We’re going to have to sand her floors to get that out!”

“They’re real hardwoods. It’ll be fine.”

I had no idea what was happening at my house, but I was positive I didn’t want to know.

“Don’t worry, Jade. You’ll never know I was here.”

“Um… okay.”

“Stay safe, and when you see Zeus next, flick his ear for me.”

I would absolutely not be doing that. The line went dead with a click, and I set my phone back on the counter.

“Are you okay?”

Thurl’s fingers curled tighter around my side, pulling me until our bodies melded from shoulder to thigh. Mine, not his. The top of my head barely reached his chest.

“Yeah, I guess. There was an incident at my house.”

“I heard.”

I spun out of his hold and stared at him. “What do you mean, you heard? River didn’t seem that loud.”

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