“Sounds like that would’ve been a good plan,” Ren commented.
“And how would you have snuck in?” The King hadn’t taken his eyes off me for one second. “I’m curious.”
I doubted he was all that curious, but I’d tell him just to prove how dumb raiding the place was. “I would’ve—”
“Wait. Let me guess. Dressed up in a costume? Slipped past them and gotten behind the bar?”
Stiffening, my gaze met his. No one in this room other than he knew that I did that.
“Do you think that no one would notice that?” he continued.
“Not if I hid really well. I know how to blend in and not draw attention until I need a distraction.” My fingers curled in my lap. “But that isn’t a job I would do alone. I’d go with someone that could make enough of a scene so I could get behind the bar undetected.”
“I doubt one could make that large of a scene.”
“Okay, then the place could’ve been searched when it was closed.”
The King smirked. “You think they don’t have security?”
“Actually, we do need to search the place when it’s closed,” Kalen said.
“Security shouldn’t be an issue.” I smiled tightly at the King, aware that everyone was watching our exchange like a tennis match. “And it sounds like it wasn’t to you.”
“No, it wasn’t, because we’retrainedfighters.” The King’s gaze flickered over me, and I sucked in a sharp breath. “By the way, you look much better than the last time I saw you out.”
I looked better than the last time he saw me? The last time he saw me, I was in my pajamas in bed. The time before that, I’d looked like a vampy hooker. He’d said “out.” My lips thinned. He wouldn’t. Oh my God, he wouldn’t.
“What?” Ren glanced between us. “How so? She looks the same to—” His words ended in a cough, and I suspected that Ivy’s elbow had something to do with it. “I don’t know what I’m saying. Ignore me while I get another doughnut.” He rose.
“I saw Brighton at Flux,” the King announced, and my mouth dropped open. “This past Saturday night.”
“What?” Ivy exclaimed.
Ren stopped halfway to the doughnuts and faced us.
“That isn’t the first time I’ve found her there,” the King continued. “She’s been hunting.”
I couldn’t believe it.
The asshole had just outed me.
Chapter 29
I shot out of the chair like a rocket had been attached to my ass. Suddenly, his words from Sunday morning came back to me. He’d said that he’d do anything to stop me. He hadn’t been lying. “You son of a—”
“Ms. Jussier,” warned Tanner. “He may not be your King, but you will respect him while you’re here.”
Respect him? I’d respect him when I had a reason to, which was not right now. “And when I’m not here? Can I disrespect him then?”
Kalen covered his mouth with his hand as he looked at the floor, seeming to find the hardwood fascinating as Tanner sputtered.
“Hunting what?” Ivy demanded, coming to her feet.
My head whipped to her in stunned disbelief. Did she really have to ask that? “Hunting rabbits?”
Apparently, Ren didn’t even find that funny. His bright green eyes narrowed. “That’s what you’d better be doing. Or hunting crocodiles or whatever you locals do in your spare time.”
“That would be alligators,” I corrected him with a frown.
