Page 107 of The Wild Charge

The elevator arrived, and Ian waved the ladies in with a showy gesture that left both Alec and Raven snorting. “Here I am,” he lamented, joining them inside the car, “spending my time with people who don’t appreciate a proper gentleman.”

“Poor you,” Raven said with a laugh.

Cassandra twisted to and fro, examining herself in the flashy gold walls of the elevator. “I like this place,” she declared. “Raven never takes me anywhere fancy.”

“Oh, that’s not true,” Raven said. “You come to my agency all the time.”

Cassandra rolled her eyes. “That’s not the same.”

“Cassie,” Alec said, his impeccable timing warding off further argument. “Will you be able to work here, do you think?”

“Yes! The light’s wonderful.”

“You’ve not seen the room yet,” Raven said.

“Don’t worry,” Ian said, “the light’s lovely in the room.”

There’d been talk over the phone last week, when Raven first reached out, about renting a cheap flat here in New York for the duration of their stay. Ian had insisted on putting them up in his preferred hotel. He was glad now, given his inner turmoil, to be in a familiar environment. The well-known sights and scents of the Ritz soothed his jangled nerves, and when Alec looked at him next, he was able to offer him a smile.

~*~

He’d stayed at the Ritz on Central Park so often, and had tipped so well, that it had been effortless to secure Raven and Cassandra the suite next to his and Alec’s usual one. They’d decided to stay the night, and wait to fly back tomorrow; no sense exhausting themselves for nothing. So they took the girls to dinner at a steakhouse which left Cassandra exclaiming some more and Raven face-palming in embarrassment.

“Don’t worry,” Alec told Cassandra with a wink, “I was a total embarrassment when I first got together with Ian. I never knew which fork to use.”

Raven kept shooting him glances, which he ignored.

Until Alec went to return a phone call to the home agency and Cassandra went to the restroom.

Then Raven shot him a look over her wine glass and said, “What’s wrong? Should I be worried?”

He paused with his own glass halfway to his mouth. He’d been so caught up in his own thoughts that he hadn’t stopped to consider the idea that anyone besides Alec would pick up on his strange mood.

He lowered his glass, and met her gaze, which had gone cool and direct, eerily like her brother Charlie’s. He debated what to say to her, and her composure, her desire to meet him on square, honest ground, stripped away his automatic charming smile and easy dismissal.

“Well,” he said, “on the small scale, nothing’s really the matter. Just stuck in my thoughts a bit.” He tapped his temple for emphasis, and she nodded. “On a grand scale, I’d say you already know what’s wrong, or we wouldn’t be sitting here right now.”

She tilted her head.Fair point. “I wasn’t trying to keep it from you – I just wanted to say it in person.” And, quickly and succinctly, speaking low beneath the jazzy chime of a piano and the clink of glassware, she relayed the alarming activity that had taken place in London, and which had driven her to reach out to him, and cross the Atlantic.

“Paranoid, I know,” she finished on a sigh. “But I suppose I come by it honestly, given this family.”

Ian frowned. “There’s no such thing as paranoid when you live on our side of the law.”

Her manicured brows lifted. “Ourside?”

“You didn’t exactly go to the police with your worries, darling.”

“Hm. Yeah.” She picked up her glass of red and drained it in a few elegant swallows. She was one of those individuals who could make anything look glamorous; Alec had said the same of Ian on more than one occasion, and it always left Ian fluffing his figurative feathers. A little vanity never hurt anyone.

But neither did caution. “Your brothers told you what the Dogs are dealing with?”

“For the most part. Doubtless some details were excluded”–

“Needs must, I’m afraid.”

–“but it’s enough to give anyone sleepless nights.” She groaned, suddenly, and dropped her chin on her raised fist with a defeated air. “I hope I did the right thing, bringing Cass here.”

“New York’s a big city.”

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