Cash looked pissed. “Your husband just rolled into town and apparently showed up at the tattoo parlor to try and talk to you.”
I was right. I definitely didn’t like that.
Eighteen
“And what else did he say?” I asked everyone gathered in the waiting room at Monstrous Ink. We’d driven through the day, only stopping for food and coffee on the way back to Port Haven.
Daphne had retreated back into herself after the phone call, her whiskey eyes clouded by the return of her ex and cutting off any discussion about what had occurred right before Art called me.
We would have to talk about it, though, and soon. When Ronan and I were left alone in the trailer he told me that gargoyles experienced a mating heat when we found our heart songs and the desire to mark Daphne as mine would grow stronger the closer we got to the equinox.
I was already starting to feel the pull before we left for Las Vegas, and now that we’d kissed, all I wanted to do was drag her back up to the farm and not let her leave until after the equinox was over in two weeks.
And then Mike had to waltz back into the fucking picture.
Fiero had been at the desk when he walked in asking after Daphne and showing her old picture. We hadn’t looped any of the other employees at the shop into what happened to Daphne, so Fiero didn’t know that he needed to keep his mouth shut.
“He asked when Daphne would be back and I wasn’t sure, so I said as much,” Fiero replied apologetically. “I wouldn’t have said anything if I’d known.”
“It’s okay, Fi,” Daphne reassured him, though there was a haunted quality to her face that wasn’t sitting right with me.
Heath was quick to step in to defend his best friend. “It’s not Fiero’s fault. If Ambrose hadn’t said anything to that P.I., we wouldn’t even be in this mess.”
At the mention of the elf, a low growl rumbled out of my chest. He at least had the decency to make himself scarce by the time we made it back, so I wasn’t going to rip him limb from limb… yet.
Apparently Mike had hired a private investigator to track Daphne down and when he walked into the shop with her picture, Ambrose had confirmed that she worked at Monstrous Ink as our receptionist.
Now all of our carefully laid plans had been blown up and we were going to have to figure out what to do next.
“We weren’t downstairs either or we’d have turned him away,” Effie piped up from where she was sitting next to Daphne. “But we can assume he’ll be back.”
“And I’ll kill him when he does come back,” I bit out, my tail lashing behind my back and nearly knocking one of the framed pictures off of the wall.
“You can’t,” Dallan reminded me, giving me a clap on the back. “The human government doesn’t take kindly to monsters offing their own, even if they deserve it.”
“He’s right,” Daphne finally said, her eyes meeting mine for the first time in an hour. “We just have to keep with the plan. Mike is in town, so we can serve him with the divorce papers and the restraining order.”
“Do you seriously think that will keep him from trying to hurt you?” I asked incredulously. If human men had one thing, it was the audacity of an untouchable god. Especially human men like Mike who had been handed everything in life on a silver platter.
Daphne shook her head. “No, I don’t, but it’s all I’ve got.”
“We’ll protect you, we won’t let him take you anywhere,” Heath promised and reached out to give her hand a squeeze.
Heath’s love language was physical touch. It was nothing new to see him offering a comforting touch, but seeing him do it to Daphne made me want to rip his arm off.
“Back off, pup,” I growled, making everyone in the room jump.
Heath pulled his arm quickly back to his chest and there was hurt in his blue eyes when he looked at me again. “I wasn’t doing anything, Cash, I swear.”
“Yeah, chill the fuck out,” Fiero said, stepping in front of the other man, his hooves making loud clacking noises on the tile floor.
“He literally can’t, he’s protecting his mate,” Dallan said, his golden eyes moving between Daphne and me thoughtfully. “Anyone touching her who he perceives as a threat is liable to lose an appendage until the bond is finished, however the hell you gargoyles do it.”
Effie’s gasp filled the waiting room, her worry over Mike’s appearance in the shop momentarily forgotten by pure excitement.
“I fucking knew it!” she crowed, giving Daphne a little shake before enveloping her in a back-cracking hug.
I slanted a glance at Dallan. “Are you going to tell all of my business or is nothing sacred anymore?”
