The Prof Croft Series: Books 0-4 (Prof Croft Box Sets Book 1) Brad Magnarella (ink book reader txt) 📖

into his bathroom once and discovered two identical shaving mirrors beside two identical straight razors. When I asked my grandmother about this, she told me he had always acquired things in pairs. His reasoning? If something broke or went missing, he had an immediate replacement.

Too bad I hadn’t adopted the habit. With the inflating costs of firearms, I wasn’t sure I could even afford a replacement now.

Muscles swelled beneath the wolves’ security guard uniforms, but I was preoccupied by the burn in their irises. Left to their pack instincts, the brothers would tear me apart. Hoffman must have sensed the potential for violence, too.

“Been nice chatting,” he said, scooting from the booth. “Gonna leave you to your friends.”

“Mayor wants to meet with you,” Flint said to me as Hoffman bustled away.

“We make appointments for those now.” I blew on my coffee and raised it to my lips. Werewolf or not, I didn’t care for his threatening tone.

Flint thumped the mug with a finger. It flew from my grasp and shattered against the tile wall. Hot coffee rained over the table. I looked down at my dripping hand, then over at Flint.

“Problem?” I asked.

“Next time, it’s your head,” Flint growled.

“Is that what you told Lady Bastet?” I asked, testing him.

The muscles around his nose bunched up. “Don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. Now let’s go.”

I searched Flint’s and Evan’s eyes. If either had been involved in Lady Bastet’s murder, they were disguising it well. I pulled several napkins from the dispenser and began drying my hands.

“Fine,” I said. “But I’m not riding with you. I’ll catch a cab.”

Flint snarled and lunged toward me. Evan caught him by the arm and grimaced, clearly fighting his own inner beast. Whoever was running the pack in Penny’s stead had forbidden them from exacting revenge against me. But who would that be? Budge? As a mortal, he wouldn’t wield that kind of power. There had to be a second in command somewhere.

Flint controlled himself and straightened. “One o’clock,” he growled. “Or we come back.”

I’d been anxious to return to my apartment to begin work on the sulfur residue, but I’d get nothing done with a pair of pissed-off werewolves in the back of my mind. Plus, I still intended to resign from the eradication team—something I could do in person. Though the press coverage had improved my position at Midtown College, any further attention would only hurt. I consulted my watch.

“Tell the mayor it’s a date.”

14

The cab dropped me off at the checkpoint outside the plaza that fronted City Hall. The guard, another werewolf, studied my ID with a snarl while a second wolf gave me a bruising pat down. They returned my ID and shoved me through. I limped over the plaza, squinting from the bright concrete.

“Everson.”

I looked up to find Caroline descending from City Hall’s columned portico, one hand forming a visor above her eyes. She was dressed in business attire and carrying a black leather briefcase over one shoulder. She looked like a lobbyist, which I supposed she was. Among other things.

I met her halfway up the steps.

“You came,” she said.

“Yeah,” I replied, not sure what she meant. “I’m supposed to meet with the mayor.”

She angled herself so the sun was no longer in her face and lowered her hand. When her blue-green eyes searched mine, a keen pain pierced my chest. I looked back at her neutrally.

“My offer still stands,” she said.

“You mean the vacation in the faerie realm? I’m handling things pretty well up here, thanks.”

“That could change.”

“So you’ve said.”

Her lips pressed together. “Everson—”

“I’ve worked out something with Budge,” I said, cutting her off. “I help him, he helps me. And as much as I dislike the press attention, it now means he hurts me at his own risk. Same goes for Penny, if she ever wakes up.” Though the rationale sounded good, I still intended to resign. I just wasn’t going to tell Caroline that—for no other reason than to challenge her.

“Were things to go wrong,” she said, a thin comma forming between her eyebrows, “do you have somewhere you can go? Someplace safe?”

I thought of Arnaud’s offer of a renewed alliance.

“It won’t come to that,” I said.

“I see a lot more than you can.”

“Care to share?”

A breeze blew a strand of hair over Caroline’s cheek. I had to restrain myself from brushing it back behind her ear. Too much had happened since the night we’d held each other. She fastened the hair away herself, eyes flicking to the bottom of the steps. My gaze followed. A tall, striking figure in a Cambridge suit leaned against a flagpole, his copper hair shining in the sun.

The sight of Angelus kicked me in the heart with both legs.

“You should probably go,” I said, already starting to leave. “Don’t want to keep hubby waiting.”

She seized my arm, the force turning me so I was facing her again. “You’re standing on a precipice, Everson. And it’s crumbling.” The aggression in her voice and grip surprised me.

“What are you talking about?”

“You’re not as safe as you think you are.” She released me. “Let me help you.”

A determination in her eyes seemed to be masking a deeper conflict. For a moment, I thought she was going to lunge at me—though whether to strangle or kiss me, I couldn’t tell.

I glanced over at Angelus, who was still watching us.

“I don’t need your help,” I said, and paced up the steps.

This time, Caroline let me go.

I groaned when I spotted the werewolf brothers waiting for me beyond the scanners inside the City Hall building. “What are these two?” I muttered. “Part retriever?”

“You’re late,” Flint said. “Follow us.”

“Thanks, but I know the way to the mayor’s office.” I stepped around them toward the elevators.

“We’re not going to the mayor’s office.” Flint grabbed my right arm above the elbow. Evan took my left, and the two began marching me down a long hallway. I twisted my shoulders, but their large hands held me like