Frowning, he glanced over at her laptop. “Website?”
Nodding, she turned the screen toward him. “I saw the banner earlier and got curious. This is apparently the Fernandez Festival, and it’s all centered around a mythical dragon whose name was Julio Fernandez. But they’re graciously accepting other dragons,” she muttered sarcastically.
Stiffening in his seat, he eyes shot from her laptop to the festival in front of them. “Shit.”
“What is it? I feel like there’s more to this than you’re telling me.”
“It’s nothing,” he said distractedly, still looking at the mansion. “I think maybe we should go back to the clubhouse.”
“What? No way. We have a job to do.”
“A job that just got a hell of a lot more complicated and dangerous. This is a job for a few of the Enforcers, if not all of us. Not one Enforcer and a hu—someone who’s not trained in it.”
Her eyes narrowed, sure he’d almost slipped up and called her a human. “How does it get any easier than this? It’s open to the public. Maybe not the house, but we can go into the festival, see if we can learn anything more.”
“Hell no,” he replied with a shake of his head.
“Be reasonable, Noah. No one’s even going to notice us in this crowd, and even if they did, what could they do with so many people around?”
“It’s not a good idea.”
“Tell me why. Why did the job just get more dangerous and why would you think anyone could pull anything here?” She waited for an answer, but he just shook his head, his jaw rippling as he clenched his teeth. “That’s what I thought. Let me see what else is on the website.”
“I have a call to make.”
Her eyebrows rose as she watched him get out of the truck and shut the door, the phone already pressed to his ear as he paced in agitation. It was a lot noisier out there than it was in the truck, so whatever it was he had to say, he clearly didn’t want her hearing it.
Curiosity was burning through her, but she put it aside, focusing on the website. All that was there was a short description of the festival, along with the dates and address. It was the first day of a two-day event, but that was all she could find.
She was starting to scroll back to the top when she noticed a small link on the bottom of the page about a gala being held the next night. Clicking on it revealed the cost of a ticket and her eyes shot up when she saw it was a couple grand. She tried clicking on the link for more info, but it wanted a password.
Hmmm. She could get past that with a little time.
Noah opened the door and she could tell the call hadn’t gone well for him. He yanked his keys out of the engine and slammed the door, stalking around to her side and opening hers. She arched an eyebrow as she looked at him, taking in the bright glow of his eyes.
“We going somewhere?”
He growled low in his throat and she felt her eyes widen as he cut it off. “Blake wants us to check out the festival. But I swear, Lily, you better stay next to me. Hold my hand the entire time and don’t let go. Don’t ask anyone any questions, don’t even fucking make eye contact with anyone. We’re just going to observe. That’s it.”
Nodding slowly, she unbuckled her seatbelt and put her laptop under the seat before grabbing her purse. He was holding a hand out to her to help her out, and she took it, pausing before letting him help her.
“Okay, but if your goal is to stay inconspicuous and not attract attention, you might want to do something about your eyes. They’re glowing.”
Noah’s heart raced as he walked next to Lily, her hand held snugly in his. His eyes were darting all over the festival, searching for any hint of a threat on autopilot, his years as a Marine and then Enforcer kicking in. He kept his head down, but he reached up and tugged his hat lower, just in case.
His mind was racing just as fast as his heart. What did Lily know? How much did she know, and how had she figured it out? Maybe she didn’t know anything other than the fact that his eyes had been glowing, but that felt like enough. She knew there was something more to him, because human eyes didn’t glow.
A glance down at her showed her looking around the festival with a relaxed smile on her face, her eyes constantly scanning like his were, looking for anything unusual. Her hand was gripping his easily, and as far as he could tell, she gave no vibe of being uneasy or scared since noticing his eyes.
She looked up at him with her lips quirked. “Everything’s cool between us. Now pay attention.”
Huffing a laugh, he tore his eyes from hers, even though he could stand there just gazing into the light and dark blue depths all day. But they were there for a job, so he forced himself to focus. So far, he hadn’t seen anything unusual, and he hadn’t smelled any shifters nearby.
Of course, if they were dragons, they’d have no scent at all, so one of them could be walking next to him and he wouldn’t know.
And that made him uneasy as fuck, because he had Lily with him.
He was pissed as hell at Blake for telling him to take her into the festival, and although he understood the sudden urgency the mission had taken on, he didn’t think he’d get over it anytime soon. Blake might not know for sure Lily was his mate—Noah still couldn’t believe she was—but he suspected.