Savage frowned. “Maxim is loaded.”
Lissa shrugged. “Lucia already feels he’s taken on so much. She refuses to be a financial burden to him any more than she already is. I actually think it would be fun to have her here, and it gives me a chance to spend a little time with Lexi. I haven’t worked with pottery like this in quite a while, so I’ve begun to fool around with it. Casimir is helping me.”
Savage raised an eyebrow.
Casimir grinned at him. “You ever see the movie Ghost? If not, you need to.”
Seychelle laughed softly. It wasn’t much of a laugh, but it was enough of one that he decided they’d have to find the movie and watch it together. “Must have missed that one. We’ll have to watch it, babe.”
Seychelle nodded. “It was really good.”
“The boys look over the cottage?” Casimir asked as he took the seat across from Savage.
“Yes, they’re doing so now. I’ll take Seychelle back to the house, and we’ll stay there while the cottage is being fixed up. Be interesting to see if the bastard tries to break in there.”
“It might have been just a random break-in,” Seychelle said, a hopeful note in her voice. “It wasn’t that long ago that there was a group of robbers breaking into the homes of the elderly. I’m sure my cottage looked deserted. Or it could have been mistaken for a vacation home.” She took a sip of tea, her eyes meeting Savage’s over the rim of the mug.
Savage kept his expression purposefully blank. He held out his hand for the mug. “This is really beautiful, Lissa.” It was. The dragon was far more detailed than he’d thought possible with pottery. Lissa’s hair was nearly as fiery red as the dragon. The scales were touched with gold to add accents. The lip of the mug was thinner, and the handle was part of the tail.
Lissa looked pleased. “Thank you. I made it on a whim.”
Seychelle accepted the mug back and regarded all three of the others with her intelligent blue eyes. Savage wanted to groan.
“Casimir, you don’t believe for one moment that it was a random robbery, do you?”
“Probably not,” Casimir answered. “The destruction was far too much for it to be anything but personal. I’d like to tell you different, but that would be doing you a disservice.”
Seychelle nodded and took another sip of tea. “I thought that too. I just hoped I was wrong. Savage doesn’t lie to me, and I didn’t ask him because I didn’t want to put him in a position of having to deliver more bad news to me.” She leaned into Savage, tipping her head back to give him another wan smile.
He slid his arm along the back of the love seat, finding the nape of her neck beneath the thick layer of silky waves so he could ease some of the tension out of her. “You don’t have to think about it anymore, baby. Let the brothers fix up the cottage. We’ll get first-class security on it. I should have been all over that already.”
“Don’t, Savage. You know I never even locked my doors until you came along.”
Lissa gave a little gasp. “With your voice when you sing? With your looks? Surely, you had to realize men could get obsessed with you.”
“Well. No, actually, I didn’t,” Seychelle admitted. “I never thought of myself like that. When I sing, I get caught up in what I’m doing. I love it. I can feel the energy of the crowd. When the band is good, like it is with Torpedo Ink, that just adds to the magic of the feeling. I can see the musical notes floating in the air like these beautiful gold shimmering fireflies. Sometimes, when people are feeling down, I can weave a net and bring their emotions up, make them feel happy. That makes me happy.” Enthusiasm poured into her voice.
“Are you going to sing with the band tomorrow night?” Casimir asked. “I know they’re playing.”
“Tomorrow night?” She looked at Savage.
“I haven’t had a chance to tell you,” he said, keeping his voice casual. “Plank asked for a meet, and Czar is going to indulge him at the bar tomorrow night. The band is playing. Of course they want you to sing, but it isn’t something you have to do if you don’t want to. Czar isn’t asking for a command performance. It’s only if you want to sing.”
“Are you going to the meeting?”
Savage shrugged, watching her face.
She smiled at him. “Of course I’m going to sing. You have to be at the meeting, and I’ll need you there to make sure the room is clear for me to sing.”
“Clear?” Lissa asked.
“Sometimes, when people are really ill,” Seychelle volunteered, “I can’t help myself, I take on their illness. It can be … challenging.”