Jace jumped up from his chair, staring at his phone. “Looks like you’re going to get that chance in person. She’s pulling up right now.”
“What? Here?” I stood, and my chair rolled across the floor behind me.
Titus looked surprise as well. “She goes where she wants, when she wants, and for security’s sake, she rarely gives advanced notice.” Because enemies can’t lay a trap if they don’t know where you’ll be. “Keeps my life adventurous. Yours too, now. Evidently.”
Shit. I’d barely slept in days and could use a shower. I was not at my best.
I led Titus and Jace out of my office and into the front of the bar, where Tucker, Austin, and Bishop were already on their feet, staring out the front window into the glaring morning sunlight. In the parking lot, Faythe and Vic, the enforcer I’d met a couple of days ago, were getting out of a shiny black SUV. A second enforcer remained behind the wheel.
Faythe carried a small cooler.
Today, she wore a praline-colored hip length blazer over a matching blouse and slim-cut jeans. More casual than last time, but still well-put-together and functional enough to make me seriously consider updating my own girl-boss wardrobe.
Would it be weird for me to dress like the world’s only female Alpha? Or would that just be the shifter version of dressing for success? For the job I wanted?
She marched toward the front door with Vic at her back, and I raced forward to unlock it, whispering to the guys on the way. “Female Alpha, incoming. Be cool.”
Titus chuckled.
I wasn’t sure anyone else had processed what I’d said.
“Faythe,” I said as I pulled open the door to let her in.
“Charley.” She wrapped both arms around me, her little cooler bumping against my back. “How are you? How’s Davey?”
“I’m fine. Davey’s…well, we’re doing everything we can for her,” I said as I led Faythe and Vic inside. “It’s so kind of you to come, but that really wasn’t necessary.”
“It was,” she said. “For multiple reasons. The Doctors Carver send their best.” She placed the cooler in my hands, but her small smile looked more apprehensive than hopeful.
I flipped back the top to find a medical vial nestled on an ice pack.
“It’s only been tested in the lab,” Faythe said. “Never on a patient. And you certainly don’t have to use it. I’ll understand if you don’t want to use your sister as our guinea pig. But I wanted you to have the option.”
“This is…?” I had a vague idea, but no words to put it into.
“The ‘designer’ antibiotic we’ve been working on. Not me, specifically. I know nothing about medicine,” she said. “But the Carvers have been designing this specifically to fight scratch fever. It’s pretty successful in the lab, but like I said…” She shrugged.
“Davey would be the guinea pig.” I glanced around at the room full of men all watching us in silence. “Will it hurt her?”
“No. Absolutely not.” She shook her head firmly. “The worst-case scenario is that it won’t work. That it’ll be ineffective.”
“She’d be no worse off than she is now,” Vic added.
“So then, there’s no reason not to try it?”
“Assuming she’s not allergic to any antibiotics,” Faythe said. “But it’s your call.”
“It isn’t, though. It’s what she wanted. She told me, but I wouldn’t listen.”
Faythe took my arm as I clicked the little cooler closed. “May I see her?”
“Of course. If she were awake, she’d want to see you.”
Faythe hugged both Titus and Jace on her way through the front room, then I introduced her to everyone else. She was gracious and professional, and though I’d heard stories about her fierce temper and a sailor’s mouth that rivaled my own, and I had no doubt she’d be a formidable opponent to anyone dumb enough to face off against her, she’d clearly grown into her role.
I led her up the stairs, wishing for the millionth time as we stepped into my private space that I was a more consistent housekeeper. But she spared no glance for my laundry hamper or dirty dishes. She just marched across the living room and into my bedroom, where she greeted Spencer warmly and took Vance’s hand briefly before leaning down to run the back of her fingers across Davey’s forehead.
“Poor thing,” she murmured. “I can’t imagine how hard this must be for you.” She stood, and her gaze slid from me to Vance. “For all of you.”
