To Francine’s relief, Eloise was in her suite. No need to drag her away from the other guests and invite questions about what was so secret they had to discuss it in private.
“Be with you in a sec!” Eloise called from the next room. “Dear old dad wants a chat. And I bet I can guess about what, ugh.”
Francine sank into a sofa by the window. One of Eloise’s bodyguards handed her a drink before she even thought of asking for it, and she sipped it with a faint sense of surprise. Coffee. Herfavoritecoffee. Black and hot and chocolatey-bitter.
Outside, the ocean stretched out to the edge of the world, a churning steel gray that made Francine’s skin crawl.
The door to the next room slammed. “Parents,” Eloise snarled as she threw herself onto the seat opposite. “Honestly. It’s like he thinks I’m still a child.”
“Your dad?”
“So annoying.Like, I have this under control? And this latest thing he’s done—digging up something that issucholdnews…” She flung her head back and groaned. “You’re so lucky your parents let you do whatever you like without constantly going in and dusting the skeletons in your closet. They’re skeletons for a reason, Dad! Leave them alone!”
Skeletons?Francine sipped her coffee, eyebrows raised. “I didn’t realize you had any skeletons in your closet,” she said mildly.
“Whereas you could dance yours in front of your parents’ faces and they’d clap and tell you what a good job you’ve done.” Eloise huffed. “Ugh. Let’s stop talking about it.”
If I danced my skeletons in front of my parents…Francine swallowed hard. Was Eloise right?
Of course not. Her skeletons were there because she’d let herself be tricked. No lion parent would accept that.
Would they be happier if she’d done it on purpose? If she’d hurt people for her own purposes, not someone else’s?
They wouldn’t.
Would they?
She shook her head. Now wasn’t the time to worry about that. She had a job to do.
“You didn’t come here just to listen to me complain.” Eloise was watching her, eyes bright. “So come on! What is it? You want to gossip about the other passengers? I’ve seen the way Niki looks at you.”
Francine shuddered. “What if I want to talk about work?”
Eloise’s smile sharpened. “You’re thinking of getting into pharmaceuticals? What happened to your architectural empire?”
“Maybe I’m ready for a change of pace.”
“Don’t.” Eloise’s smile was only bared teeth, now. “You warned me off chasing your hunts. This one is mine. Stick with Nikolaidis. Or your decorative bodyguard.”
Francine paused. What was Eloise talking about? She’d asked about her work as a casual formality. The sort of thing they would laugh aboutnotwanting to talk about, which would let her shift the conversation towards her real goal.
Admitting that she was out of her depth.
She swallowed.
Maybe this was the opportunity she needed. Like she’d agreed with Julian. She would find out why Eloise was really here. What was really going on.
By rolling over and baring her belly.
She put down her cup carefully.
“Elly … what are you talking about?”
Eloise blinked. Her lioness prowled up behind her eyes, surprised and interested. “Don’t you know?”
It took all her strength not to dig her fingernails into the sofa arm. “Elly, I don’t have any idea what is going on here. I thought I did. I saw what Harper could do with the magic he stole, and I wanted in on it. That’s what I thought this was! But you’re after something else.”
Eloise looked like the cat who’d got the cream. “Well, if you’ve figured that out, it’s not like you havenoidea.”
