I shot her a look. “You know exactly what, don’t be coy. It’s ugly.”
Grandma’s grin grew wide. “Oh, like how I was right about you and your hunky Secret Service agents? Even though you denied it until you were blue in the face? And now I get to come in and save the day and sneak you out to the Cape so you can live out your romance novel dreams?”
“Hunky?” I heard Zeke whisper behind me but I was too busy connecting the dots of my grandmother’s plan.
Of course she would offer up the house in Cape Cod. It was a cottage that she and my grandfather kept but rarely visited anymore.
“And Grandpa is okay with this? Does he even know about it?”
Grandma’s gaze shifted away from mine, a sure sign of guilt. “He’s… well he’s in the middle of fussing about it. I sent him home with strict instructions not to tell your mother or I would tell him about a whole motherlode of things. This is your business dear and when you want to tell your mother then you will.”
Well that wasn’t very reassuring, my grandfather couldn’t keep a secret to save his life, but it was all I had right now.
Crossing the room, I threw my arms around her shoulders. “Thank you, Grandma.”
“You’re welcome, Lennon,” she whispered back, squeezing me fiercely. “The cottage is yours, actually. It was always meant to be yours eventually.”
Then she pulled away and looked over my shoulder at the alphas still hovering against the back wall of the hotel room. “Now you all should get going. She’s starting to burn up again and you won’t have a lot of time.”
“They’ll track the SUV,” Maverick pointed out. “We’ll have maybe twenty-four hours before they come after us and we lose our positions and our jobs.”
“Lennon has the ‘flu’, remember?” my grandmother said, putting her fingers up in air quotes. “I’ve already told Athena I’m sending her out to the Cape for a week to recuperate. We’ll cancel her appearances and she won’t need the extra security outside of you guys thanks to the extra security we have at the cottage.”
“Extra security?” Dallas asked with a frown, pushing his glasses up his nose.
Bunny shot the alpha a haughty look. “You don’t think my husband and I would give our only granddaughter a home for her to potentially live in by herself without tricking it out like Fort-freaking-Knox do you?”
Dallas at least had the decency to look abashed by her scolding as he shook his head. “No, ma’am.”
I had to keep from laughing because, while my grandmother looked like the picture of a sweet old hippie, she had a spine of steel and was unafraid of using it. “There is an electric perimeter gate, cameras, and a fully staffed gate guard. The community itself is also gated and protected. Athena also knows this, so it’s unlikely that she’ll send the cavalry in after you all.”
My grandmother looked around the room at the four alphas. “Now, I’ve explained my piece of this puzzle, do I also have to explain your piece? I’m not sure if they explain the alpha birds and the alpha bees these days in school but if you get me a whiteboard I’m sure I can draw a diagram—”
“No!” the four alphas chorused, cutting her off before she could keep talking.
“Stop teasing them so much, Grandma,” I said, feeling suddenly exhausted and hot again.
She just grinned the same devilish grin that my grandfather thought was charming back in the day and pressed a cool hand to my forehead. “They’re going to have to get used to it, sweetheart, if they plan on sticking around.”
I was about to answer, but suddenly my world went topsy-turvy as I was lifted off of my feet and into the air by Brooks, his sweet honey mead scent reminding me that I was still, in fact, right at the precipice of my heat.
“We’ll take good care of her, ma’am,” he promised as he held me close to his chest.
“Good,” my grandmother said as she tucked her sparkly clutch under one arm. “See that you do, because if you don’t I’d just like to let you know that while my daughter may be a scary ass bitch, she learned it all from me and I’ll make you disappear with a level of efficiency that would scare a 1920’s mafia don.”
Through the emerging haze of my heat, I swore I could hear the sound of four throats swallowing nervously.
Chapter Twenty Five
My knuckles were bone white as I gripped the steering wheel of the SUV while we hurtled down the interstate toward the Cape.
Every nerve in my body was shot as I did my best to dodge drivers who refused to use their turn signals and adhere to any sort of speed limit. But really, it wasn’t the driving that was making me feel that way.
No, the feeling was the responsibility of the omega currently whimpering in the back seat.
We’d made it through the first forty-five minutes of the drive in relative peace and quiet, Lennon napping thanks to the sedative her grandmother had suggested we give her to help ease the ride, but about ten minutes ago she’d woken up andthingshad started to kick up in the back.
I was no prude, but the sheer number of noises coming from the back seat of the SUV would have made a porn star blush and give a nun a heart attack.
