When He's Ruthless (The Olympus Pride 4)

“Or he could be an extremist himself,” Luke cut in. “Either way, I don’t want you alone with him and two other humans who are probably his security detail.”

“You’ll be able to hear the conversation from Elle’s bedroom,” Vinnie pointed out. “You’ll know if intervention is needed. But I highly doubt it will come to that.”

“Dad—”

“We don’t have time to dispute this. Zayne will be straight with me because he believes I’m of his ilk. But he’s not going to be so talkative in front of three random people who aren’t informants. He’ll want you to leave, and then you won’t be able to overhear anything unless I insist that you stay. And if I do, he’ll likely find that suspicious. More, he’ll probably just leave rather than trust that you’ll keep what you hear private, and then we’ll have no clue why he came. So stop arguing and scamper.”

Unable to deny that the man made sense, Blair nodded and rose from her seat. Elle did the same, though she looked close to protesting.

Luke swore, pushing out of his own chair. “Fine. But you tell him that your daughter is in the apartment. I don’t want him thinking that you’re alone here. And if I hear anything happening that I don’t like, I won’t stay out of sight.”

Vinnie accepted that with a dip of his chin.

Luke turned to Blair. “Come on.” He took her hand in his and led her out of the kitchen with Elle hot on their heels.

Inside her bedroom, Elle spoke. “You two should hide. Zayne’s bodyguards will probably search every room to confirm that Dad isn’t lying when he says that I’m the only other person in the apartment. They’ll also want to know exactly where I am and be sure that I’m no threat.”

“I mean this in the nicest possible way, Elle,” began Blair, “nothing about you says no threat so you might wanna tone down that predatory air of yours.” She always made Blair think of those female assassins you saw in movies.

“I’m not very good at playing harmless.” Elle’s eyes narrowed. “But you, well, you look as pure as an angel.”

Seeing where Elle was going with this, Blair said, “In the closet. Both of you. I’ll be fine,” she hurried to assure Luke when he went to argue. “You’ll know if I’m not, you’ll hear everything. You can barge out and deal with any problem that arises.”

He shot her a put-out look as she backed him toward the closet. “I do not like this, Blair. Not one little bit.”

“I’ll give you a blow job later, if that’ll help.”

He blinked, his glower easing ever so slightly.

Elle rolled her eyes. “Boys.”

Once the siblings were inside the closet, Blair shoved down her jeans, yanked off her tee, and pulled on Elle’s slinky robe. Her cell phone in hand, she pressed her ear to the bedroom door and listened.

“Wait a minute, the Zayne Whiteford?” she heard Vinnie ask.

“That’s right,” confirmed a smoky male voice.

“Wow,” said Vinnie. “Well wow. I, uh … Sorry, I’m a little starstruck,” he added with a self-depreciating laugh.

“It’s fine, no need to apologize, I’m happy to meet you,” Zayne told him.

“Not that I’m complaining, but why are you here? If it’s about an antique—”

“No, I’m here to discuss another matter.”

“Okay, well—Wait, where’s he going?”

“He’s part of my security detail,” said Zayne, all assurance. “It’s routine for him to scout out whatever place we enter.”

“The only person here other than me is my daughter. She’s a big fan of yours, actually.”

“I’d offer to meet her, but it’s imperative that no one realizes I’m here. That’s why I gave a false name to the woman downstairs.”

Blair moved to the vanity table, put her phone to her ear, and chatted away as if taking a call. It wasn’t long before the bedroom door swung open. A bald, bulky male blinked at the sight of her.

She let out a girlish squeal. “What the hell? Dad!” she called out, forcing her voice to tremble.

The human held up his hands. “It’s fine, no need to be scared, your father knows I’m here.”

“It’s okay, Elle, he’s just looking for the bathroom, he took a wrong turn!” Vinnie shouted from the kitchen.

“It’s down the hall,” Blair told the human, whose gaze dropped down her body as he swallowed hard. She widened her eyes. “Get out, jeez!”

Flushing, he mumbled an apology and backed fully out of the room, closing the door behind him.

Elle peeked out of the closet and mouthed, “Nice acting.” She and Luke then padded out of the closet on silent feet.

He dropped a quick kiss on Blair’s hair as all three of them gathered near the bedroom door, straining to tune into the conversation in the kitchen. God bless shifter-enhanced hearing.

“Sit down, please,” Vinnie invited. There was the sound of wood scraping tile, and then his voice came again. “So, how can I help you?”