His eyebrow lifted as his eyes lowered to my chest. ‘Definitely not. But I was thinking, put them in your ankleholster and add a weapon on top – knife, gun. Whoever searches you will think they’ve removed the threat from your holster, but you’ll still have the potions contained therein.’
‘Sneaky,’ I said approvingly.
‘I’m not just a pretty face.’ He winked.
‘You do have a pretty face,’ I agreed. ‘Ridiculously so. You’re almost vampyric in your beauty.’
He blinked. ‘No one has called me beautiful before. Stacy, I’m anogre.I’m tough and scary. I’m not supposed to be attractive.’
‘Well, you’ve failed on that score, because you’re annoyingly handsome. Remember when that maid fainted?’ I rolled my eyes at the memory, and he gave a full-throated laugh.
‘I did enjoy that,’ he conceded. ‘But she fainted from fear, not attraction.’
‘You keep telling yourself that, big guy.’ I gave him a quick kiss. ‘I’ve got to go.’
‘Sure.’ He stood from the table and followed me out. I assumed he was going to his car, but when I reached the ground floor, three black Land Rovers full of ogres awaited me.
I frowned at Robbie. ‘What’s this?’
‘Your escort,’ he said blandly. Before I could object, he held up a hand. ‘They’re gunning for you, Stacy.’ His expression was carefully blank, and he had no need to name thethey.The Domini. The Order. Whatever they wanted to call themselves. Bolton had warned me,threatenedme, with his last breath.
‘Yeah, well, I’ll deal with them after I’ve dealt with Jingo.’
‘While I’ve no doubt you will, I’ll be taking measures in the meantime all the same.’
My eyes went flat. ‘No.’
‘No? What do you mean, no?’
‘I understand it’s not a word you hear often, but no, Robbie. I’m anInspector.I can’t have twenty ogres following me around!’
He opened his mouth. Closed it. Considered my point of view. ‘Fine. I’ll send half of them away.’
It was a concession. A big one. But ten ogres would still be an embarrassing parade following after an Inspector of the Connection.
‘Maktel, Hanlon and Ivan,’ I bargained. ‘My final offer.’
‘And me,’ he added.
I sighed. ‘You’re theking.Don’t you have better things to do than play bodyguard to your fiancée?’
He pretended to consider it for half a beat. ‘Ah, no. It turns out keeping you alive is more important than literally anything else I can think of.’
‘I can keep myself alive,’ I groused, but I thought of Cathill’s attack.
The vampyr’s attack had come too soon after Aspen’s murder to have been Jingo, who’d been inside Kate’s home as Troy. Too soon to have been the Connection to chastise me for not closing Aspen’s murder quick enough. That left the Domini as a very likely contender.
If that had been their first shot at me, I guaranteed it had been a test to determine precisely what resources they’d need to take me out. I’d disposed of Cathill relatively easily. Next time it wouldn’t be a lone vampyr sliding out of the shadows. It would be a whole bunch of them.
I looked at my fiancé. ‘Just you four.’
Satisfaction glimmered in his eyes. He jerked his head at two of the cars and they pulled away.
Instantly.
My eyes narrowed. ‘Did you play me?’
‘What do you mean?’ he said with a faux innocence I didn’t believe for a moment.
