“Griff,” Hayley whispered, her mouth dry with fear. “Reiner’s going to find out eventually.”
“I know,” Griff said grimly. “We’re on borrowed time. Let’s hope it’s long enough.”
“To do what?” she asked him, hoping against hope that he had a plan.
Griff straightened, his expression hard as stone. “To get you a really, really good lawyer.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Griff
“What do you mean, we can’t take Reiner to court?” Unable to keep still, Griff paced across the lawyer’s office. Frustration and anger boiled under the surface of his skin. “You’re a bloody fae hound, Michael! Since when do the Wild Hunt sit on their arses and let wrongdoers go unpunished?”
Michael’s professionally neutral expression didn’t alter, but his dark eyes flashed blood red for second. “We don’t,” the shifter lawyer said coolly. “But in the eyes of the law, Reiner Ljonsson isn’t a wrongdoer. Much as I’d like to pull him down for you, I can’t. And as your lawyer, I have to warn you that if you take Reiner to court over custody of Danny now…you’re going to lose.”
“But I’m Danny’s mother,” Hayley protested. Her brown eyes were huge in her frightened face. “Children always stay with their mother, don’t they?”
Michael shook his close-shaven, elegant head. “Not shifter children. That’s why we have our own court, to handle these cases. Our laws are designed to protect our children from being kept away from their birthright. Except in very, very exceptional circumstances, the shifter parent always gets custody.”
Hayley swallowed. “But…Reiner lives in Valtyra. Surely the law can’t really force Danny and me to move to a country where we don’t even speak the language.”
“Not both of you,” Michael said grimly, and Hayley went stark white. “Just Danny. I’ve looked into Valtyran law. As a non-shifter, you can’t even enter the country without a Valtyran sponsor. And from what you tell me of Reiner, he’s not exactly likely to be willing to do that. Griff, if you’re going to punch something, use that wall over there, please.”
Griff, who had indeed just been about to smash his fist into the nearest wall, caught himself. The one the lawyer was pointing at was covered in dents and scratches, some of them alarmingly deep.
His lion eyed the marks warily, its rage abruptly dimming. Territorial marks? They are very large. Very, very large. Are we trespassing?
“What in God’s name did that?” Griff asked, staring up at a particularly impressive crater near the ceiling.
“Wooly mammoth,” the lawyer said. He shrugged one shoulder. “Very touchy people, mammoths.”
Stupid cat, Griff’s eagle taunted his lion. Frightened of marks on a wall. And you think you can protect our fledgling?
Griff pressed his fist to his forehead, pain splitting his skull like an axe as his two beasts went for each other. He clenched his teeth. I don’t have time for this!
Deliberately, he thought of Reiner. His lion checked itself in mid-spring, while his eagle aborted its plunging dive, both diverted by the mental image of their common enemy. Griff took advantage of his beasts’ distraction to grab them both by the scruffs of their necks, forcing them back into their separate areas of his mind.
“Griff?” Hayley touched his hand, hesitantly. “Are you okay?”
Griff’s headache faded, washed away by the exquisite fire sparked by the lightest brush of her skin against his. His lion and eagle leaned forward in unison, yearning for more.
All her problems…and she’s still worried about me. I’m just another burden on her
.
He took a step back, thrusting his hand into the pocket of his jacket. “I’m fine now. Michael, tell me there’s something you can do. Or the next time you see me, you’ll be prosecuting me on murder charges.”
“I’m a fae hound of the Wild Hunt, Griff.” Michael’s eyes flashed red again. “Don’t even joke about that sort of thing in front of me.”
Griff matched his stare, not backing down. “Who said I was joking?”
“Griff, you can’t,” Hayley said. She rubbed her hands over her face, emerging looking wan but determined. “Reiner’s rich, but even he hasn’t got the funds to search all of America. I’ll take Danny and disappear, if I have to.”
Michael glanced up at the ceiling, a wince crossing his handsome face. “As someone who has to uphold child welfare even before client confidentiality, I did not just hear that.” He sighed, looking back across at them both. “Look, neither of you do anything rash. I said you would lose if you took Reiner to court now. I didn’t say ever.”
Hope rose in Hayley’s face. “You mean, there’s something we can do to help win a favorable judgment?”
“Possibly.” Michael steepled his long fingers, leaning his elbows on his polished desk. “It depends how far you’re willing to go. For example, if you were to marry a shifter-”