“Exactly.”
“I’m meeting LeeAnne, but I could look for him after that.”
“Meeting LeeAnne?” Law’s voice went hard. “Why?”
“No idea.” She eyed him. Was he worried that LeeAnne would say or do something to her? Or did he think Mal would piss off the housekeeper? Not that she hadn’t pissed LeeAnne off plenty since she’d first arrived.
“We could look for Elliot,” Edna said, shimmering into view at the next table. The ghosts had taken to making themselves scarce in order to give Mal and Law privacy. Not that they made it obvious or anything. Apparently, they were romantics.
“I thought you were recharging today?”
“We’ll take shifts, so we all have a chance to keep refreshing.”
She smiled. All the ghosts had a particular fondness for Elliot. Somehow, they could pet and snuggle him despite being incorporeal. All of them had the ability to go poltergeist, at least to some level, but that took a lot of energy, and because of that, snuggling pets wasn’t something they often chose to do. Besides, most animals, especially cats, didn’t like ghosts. But then again, cats didn’t really like anybody.
Elliot was different. He was like a puppy when it came to the ghosts, which was probably why LeeAnne still had any underwear left at all. If she did.
“I’ll go let the others know.” With that, Edna vanished once again.
Silence fell. The waiter brought more coffee. Mal scrounged for something to talk about when Law seemed lost in thought.
“Did you figure out who killed the giants?” she asked finally.
Was work really the only thing they had to talk about?
He frowned. “No. Stacking them like that was a statement; though what it said, I have no idea. They were dead and dismembered before that. I think you’re right that they were looking for the talisman and that’s why they were hacked up. That and maybe our bad guys got pissed and took it out on the bodies.”
“Why didn’t you or LeeAnne know something was going on?” That was the question that had been bugging Mal the most.
Law shook his head, the muscle in his jaw flexing. “Because they were guests, or they were invited onto the property. This is a big wedding and representatives from every clan will be here. Same with pixies. So while both sides haven’t officially checked in yet, they’ve been established as guests and allowed to come and go for the purposes of wedding planning and to negotiate alliance details on neutral territory. Plus they’ve been drop-shipping in various supplies. All that’s been going on for a few months. Anybody with permission to be here wouldn’t trigger an alarm.”
So it could be any among hundreds, maybe thousands.
“What about the murders? Shouldn’t those have hit your radar?”
He nodded. “I don’t know why they didn’t. That worries me. I’d have to have been drugged out of my mind—which I wasn’t—or they found a way around the security spells somehow. I’m tied directly to Effrayant, so to get around them is impossible as far as I know, and yet they managed.” He shook his head. “It worries me. If they could do that, what else could they do?”
Silence fell again. Mal chewed the inside of her lip, her imagination running wild. She sighed. She wanted to help, but there was precious little she could do.
“What’s wrong?” Law’s hand covered hers.
She looked up, surprised. “Nothing. Why?”
“You just heaved a long sigh and have a look like you just lost your best friend.” He frowned as he bent forward. “Look, Mal, I know you’re used to being on your own and this is all new but give it a chance. We’ll figure out how to make you happy.”
Her brows drew together. How did he get there from talking about Effrayant and the security issues? “I’m happy.” She said it a little too loudly, a little too defiantly.
He gave a humorless laugh. “No, you aren’t. Happy Mal is relaxed and flamboyant and doesn’t give a shit. You, on the other hand, are tense, and you’re always backing off like you’re afraid of something. Afraid ofme. Of us.”
She blinked at him, uncertain what to say. It wasn’t that he was wrong. She did walk on eggshells around him. She was afraid if she didn’t, she’d step on a landmine and blow everything up and ruin everything.
“I love you,” she said helplessly, feeling as if she were already standing on the landmine with no idea how she’d gotten there. They’d been talking about Elliot and the giant murders, for fuck’s sake. How did they end up talking about their relationship?
At her words, a smile flickered over his mouth but didn’t make it to his eyes. “I love you too, but it doesn’t seem to be enough to make you happy.”
She bit her lip and nodded slowly, forcing herself to be honest, even though she wanted nothing more than to smile brightly and pretend all of this was just him jumping to ridiculous conclusions.
“I’m sorry.”
