“Why don’t you let me make the call?” Jace offered. “I’ve known Faythe her whole life.”
“No.” If I let Jace make the call, it would look like he was in charge. My Pride. My decision. My responsibility. “I got it.”
“Fine,” Jace growled. “But if it starts to go south, let me talk to Faythe. She’ll listen to me.”
“It’s not going to go south.” I pulled up Faythe Sanders’s contact information on my phone. “You’re up, Robyn.” I pressed “call,” then tapped the speakerphone button and set the phone on the island. She looked up at me, panic shining in her big blue eyes, and hurriedly swallowed the bite of ham sandwich she’d been chewing. “I’ll start,” I said, as the ringing echoed around my kitchen. “But then it’s all you.”
Static cut into the ringing, then there was a brief silence. “Hello? Titus?” Faythe said.
Robyn sucked in a breath and held it. She looked terrified, but determined.
“Yeah,” I answered as I sank into one of the bar stools. “Are you alone?”
“Um…I can be. One minute.” Hinges squealed over the line, then a door clicked closed. “What’s going on, Titus? We have our hands full here.”
“So do we. I have a problem.”
“What kind of problem?”
“The five-foot-eight, blue-eyed brunette kind of problem.” I glanced at Robyn and found her carefully peeling the crust from the top slice of bread on her sandwich. Watching me nervously. “The kind that sneaks into your car and hitches a ride out of her territory completely without your knowledge.”
“Shit.” Springs groaned softly over the line as Faythe sat. “Robyn?”
“Yes. And let me reiterate that I crossed the border with no idea she was in my car.” My phrasing was careful, but accurate.
Faythe sighed over the static. “Who else knows about this?”
“Just the four of us,” Jace said. “Me, Abby, Titus, and Robyn, of course. And a few of Titus’s enforcers.”
“Robyn’s there now?” Faythe asked, and I could practically hear the frown in her voice. “Is she listening?”
“Yeah,” my uninvited guest spoke up, at last. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to rile everyone up. I only—”
“Stop talking, Robyn,” Faythe ordered, and in that instant, despite all the other roles she played in her life, she was all Alpha. So Alpha, in fact, that the hairs on my neck stood up, as I became instinctively affronted by the assertion of her authority in my kitchen. “I’m going to ask some questions, and I want you to answer as succinctly as possible. With no extraneous information.”
Because she’d be obligated to report everything Robyn said to the rest of the council.
“Okay…” Robyn glanced at Abby, who gave her an encouraging nod. Then she looked at me.
I wanted to tell her to relax. That everything would be fine. But I couldn’t figure out how to do that without lying.
“How did you get into Titus’s car?” Faythe asked.
“He left it unlocked.”
“And you knew it was his car?”
“Yes,” Robyn said. “I knew he’d be leaving—”
“That’s enough,” I cut in. “Only answer what she asks.”
“Did Titus know you were in his car?” Faythe continued, as we all stared at my phone on the white granite countertop.
“Not until I showed myself. After we’d already crossed the border,” Robyn added.
“Okay. Titus, I have to ask…” Faythe said, and I closed my eyes. I knew what was coming. “Why didn’t you smell her?”
“Because she hid in the back, beneath the clothes from my gym bag.”
