Page 33 of Asher

“Did you say Sam threatened to stab Alistairagain?”

I… completely missed that. Sam stabbed someone? Maybe I can see that… if he was mad. He got a little worked up when he was visiting over the summer, and it made me cautious. You know, the way you get cautious when a toddler’s running full speed at you and you think there’s a chance they might headbutt you in the junk.

“There was this thing not long after we got together with a pencil and Alistair’s hand.” Gideon’s not really paying attention to us anymore, too focused on stacking my now neatly folded clothes.

“Sam stabbed his friend with a pencil?” Micah’s almost choking. “That’s beautiful.”

Is my whole family this warped? Or just the ones in this room?

I think of Grandmother and decide it must be an inherited trait.

Speaking of… “Is Andrew Turner with Garrett too?”

“No, he and the others went to mingle.”

Immediately, my imagination throws up visions of Grandmother diving through the wedding cake to stick a makeshift stake in Andrew Turner’s heart. “Gideon! Grandmother’s out there!”

“Wait, Andrew Turner? From the gallery wall?” Zac asks.

“Yes!” I start toward the door. I don’t hear any screaming yet, and that’s the only reason I’m not teleporting. I don’t want to cause a panic if there’s nothing to panic about yet.

“It’s fine,” Gideon says. “Noah’s with Andrew, and I called Grandmother last week and specifically told her she couldn’t kill him today. She agreed it would ruin the wedding and promised not to touch him.” He puts the last item back in my overnight bag, then turns his attention to us. “Things might get a little tense, but nobody’s going to cause trouble with Sam here.” There’s a heavy threat in his tone. Anyone whodoescause trouble is going to regret it.

“Who’s Noah?” Micah asks. “Wait, you mean Noah Cage, your team admin? The little human? How’s he going to stop Andrew Turner from killing our grandmother?”

That’s an excellent question.

“Trust me, Noah can be scary. And he has Andrew wrapped around his little finger.” Gideon’s distaste is clear, but it seems hypocritical to me, since he’s currently sulking over being separated from Sam.

“Plus, the way I heard the story, Grandmother wanted to kill him, and he just kind of rolled with it,” Zac says thoughtfully. He’s always been the most interested in the gallery, so he’d know, but I’m still a little worried. This wedding can’t start soon enough.

With that single thought, my nerves come flooding back, and I get up and start pacing again.

“Why’s he doing that?” Gideon asks.

“He’s nervous,” Micah replies.

“What for? I thought this was a business deal. Business never makes him nervous.”

“Some business is more personal.”

I happen to turn in time to see Gideon’s face at that moment. He looks like he smells something rancid. “Business isn’t supposed to be personal. If it’s personal, it’s not business.”

“Since when did you become Mr. Wall Street?” I snap. He’s right, damn him. Garrett and I might be doing this with contracts and agreements and an out clause and tentative end date, but I don’t think of him as a colleague or associate. He’s my friend… who I fuck. But more than that. He’s… my partner?

In this agreement.

So… in a way, it’s not personal at all.

I shove down the voice in the back of my head that’s scoffing and calling me an idiot. It sounds a lot like my late grandfather. He was a loving and affectionate demon, but he had no issue telling things like they were, no matter who he was speaking to.

“I’m just saying, if you’re nervous about this arrangement, maybe it’s not business. Maybe you’re in a relationship and marrying your boyfriend.”

There’s no air in my lungs, but Gideon doesn’t seem to notice that I can’t breathe.

“If you can’t treat this like a marriage of convenience, if you can’t maintain a certain level of detachment, then you should call it all off. Ask Garrett on a date and build your relationship, but don’t throw yourself into a marriage headfirst if your expectations are different. That’s just asking for it to get messy.”

Memories of me and Garrett on what’s become our weekly date night flash through my brain. Am I dating my future-husband-of-convenience? Does Garrett know? Is Gideon right… is this all going to become a disaster?

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