Page 82 of My Pleasure

“Nope, but it’s packaged too cleanly. I’ll keep looking and let you know.”

Beside her, Hunter’s phone rang.

“Hello?” he said, before putting it on speaker.

“Hey man, there’s this prissy guy talking shit about your mate in mid-city,” Zev said, sounding mad.

“We know.”

“We gonna let him?” Zev asked.

Meryn closed her laptop. “I wanna meet this guy.”

Kiera groaned. “Why?”

“He’s a puzzle piece. I don’t know how big of a piece he is, but it wouldn’t hurt to peep him out. Plus, if you show up with your mate in tow, he might change his mind about running his mouth,” Meryn said, trying to stand.

Pip stood, held out his hand, and helped her off the sofa.

“Baby, are you sure?” Aiden asked, immediately going to her side.

“Yes. I need to get out of the house or I’m going to get stabby.”

He shuddered. “Gods above help us.”

Aiden looked to Hunter, then to Rory. “Let’s leave Nu here.”

Caiden opened his mouth to protest, but Aiden held up a hand. “Hunter handling someone slandering his mate is reasonable, even Rory tagging along to help makes sense. If all of Nu shows up, it could be seen as unit warriors throwing their weight around.”

Caiden’s expression soured. “Why Rory?”

Aiden held up a hand and started ticking off reasons. “He’s Hunter’s cousin. He’s an Armstrong and built like a tank. He’s the public relations guy, so if things go sideways, he can put out fires on site and won’t have to wade through information second-hand. And last but not least, he’s not the lawyer, leaving Augustus available to represent us at Tribunal if needed.”

Caiden sighed, looking disgruntled. “I cannot fault that logic.”

Kendrick kissed Anne’s cheek. “Stay here?”

Anne searched his face. “I’ll stay here, where you know the warriors will babysit me.” She pointed to the ceiling. “I have an anime I need to catch up on anyway.”

Aiden looked at Pip and just gave a nod, knowing he couldn’t get the smaller man to let Meryn out of his sight. “Me, Meryn, Pip, Ryuu, Hunter, Kiera, Rory and Kendrick. Any more and it will look intimidating.”

Meryn chortled. “Three bear-shifters are going, it’s gonna be intimidating.”

Aiden leaned down and kissed her nose. “Three and a half.”

She beamed up at him. “Nugget is providing emotional support.”

Augustus stood. “I’ll consolidate our petition for tomorrow’s meeting. We’ll casually let it slip about the account changes, so that your uncle knows the money is beyond his reach.”

Kiera went to the back door and opened it. Like Connor, she yelled. “Keran! Nicol come say goodbye.” She closed the door behind her and waited for them.

The kids ran up, Eoin panting behind them. “Where are you going?” Keran asked.

“Meryn wants to go to mid-city so Hunter can intimidate my ex, and she wants to get out of the house.”

Keran scowled. “Do I need to go up there as your brother?”

Kiera ruffled his hair. “Rory and Aiden are going.”