Page 41 of Smolder (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter 29)

“Why, your head of security, my queen.”

“Did Claudia orderyouto ride with me or just one of you to ride back with me?”

“Me; your American press and general populace seem very heteronormative no matter how woke they talk, so she thought a woman riding with you would quiet the rumor mill that has you running away with Nicky and leaving Jean-Claude at the altar.”

I knew that Claudia hadn’t said anything that long-winded and explain-y. She’d have just ordered the three of them to meet me here and given the division of labor, but one of the few good things about being the “queen” was that I could change things without checking with anyone else. I was so not riding with Rodina tonight.

12

RODINA’S BROTHER, RU,was in my passenger seat looking like a carbon copy of his sister except for an inch taller and a little more muscle on his slender frame. Oh, and he’d dyed his pale blond hair a deep rich brown so that it looked black in the darkened car. I wasn’t sure how I felt about the hair color, and Rodina hated it, because it made them not look alike. I guess that was weird for triplets; Rodina had requested that I not think of them as twins even in my own head because she and Ru could hear it, and their brother being dead didn’t change the fact that they were triplets, not twins. Since Rodrigo had died taking a shotgun blast to the chest to save Nathaniel, Damian, and me, I could call the remaining siblings triplets.

“Where are we going?” Ru asked.

“Back to the wedding shop so I can get dressed for date night.” I texted Edward and Peter, and I had missed seeing Edward and Asher dressed up together in their matching but opposite-color best man outfits, damn it. Peter assured me that he had pictures, though, which made me happier. He also asked if I needed any help at the crime scene. I was pretty sure that was Edward dictating that one. I assured them that I was done with crime for the night and off for date night. They were already at the gym with the bodyguards getting ready to work out. They would get to test themselves againstreal shapeshifters for the first time since they’d both been contaminated. I was sorry to miss the workout, especially after seeing what Peter had done to Kane, but like they had said, I couldn’t leave the love of my life hanging on date night.

Jean-Claude was suddenly in my head saying, “I adore being the love of your life,ma petite, I cannot wait to see you tonight.” I was in the dimness of the SUV grinning at my phone like an idiot with Ru sitting still and quiet beside me.

“So wedding shop, then Guilty Pleasures?” he asked.

“Yes, can you please text Rodina and Ethan?”

“If you lower your shields Ethan can read your mind, and Rodina and I always know when you are thinking of Jean-Claude.”

I fought not to frown, because I hated that so many people were so far into my business in a way that I couldn’t prevent. “Just text them, please, let’s at least pretend to be normal.”

“I’ll text them, but why does part of you persist in wanting to be normal?”

I glanced at him, but his face was bent toward the phone typing with his thumbs. “Didn’t you ever want to be normal?”

“We were trained to be part of the Harlequin from birth, this is my normal.”

I started the car and reminded him to buckle his seat belt automatically but realized it was already fastened. Rodina would have made me order her to do it. “You and Rodina are the only people I know whose parents were both Harlequin; everyone else was an adult when they were inducted, or invited, or whatever.”

“There were others born to Harlequin over the centuries, but it has always been rare since the female half of the couple would be unfit to serve our dark mistress’s bidding during the latter stages of the pregnancy.”

“So, there are other Harlequin that were born into the family business?”

“Yes,” he said.

I glanced at his profile as I drove out of the parking lot and headed for the I-70. “You don’t want to talk about it, or them.”

“No, I do not.”

I wanted to ask why so badly, but the topic obviously upset him, so I was willing to let it go, but he knew what I was feeling, and what I really wanted. “One of them was our friend, and the other was our enemy.”

“You don’t have to talk about this if you don’t want to, Ru.”

“You wish to know.”

“But you don’t have to tell me.”

He looked at me then. “You are my master, my queen, you have but to ask and I must do it.” He shivered. “You really don’t like being reminded that if you give a direct order I must obey it.”

“Nope,” I said, and concentrated on driving.

“I do not understand your push for us to find lives of our own, but I appreciate that you mean well by it.”

“I mean well by it, let me translate that for a second, that means that my good intentions are turning out not so good for you and Rodina, right?” I glanced at him in time to see him smile.

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