Page 46 of Eat. Prey. Love.
Yanking the door to the library open, I bounce in, looking around for the two of them eagerly. “It’ssssssss Fitzy!”
It takes a moment before the big ass dragon’s head pops up from behind a large shelf, his expression guilty as hell. Sniffing the air, I point a shaky finger at him as I accuse, “Youuuuuuuu!”
The look on his face goes from guilty to sheepish and then to an unrepentant smirk when Baby Girl pops up next to him, her hair a tangled mess in back and skin flushed a pretty pink. “Fitzy, you’re early.”
Making an annoyed sound as I advance on the self-righteous dragon, I continue chastising him. “What happened to ‘no sex in my fucking library,’ you sanctimonious old prick? This is thesecondtime I’ve caught you!”
He wipes his mouth on his sleeve, then picks up the glasses I missed on top of the shelf. The scent fills my nostrils and I glare at them both until he starts laughing. Baby Girl joins him, giggling as she moves around the corner in her uniform skirt that definitely has nothing but those sexy thigh-highs under it. “Aw, come on, Fitzy, baby. I had a hard day. Aubrey was… distracting me.”
“I’ll just bet he was,” I grumble, but it’s really for show. She snuggles up into my arms, and I press a kiss to her temple. “So who do I get to dismember with a spork? A spot of violence might calm my jealousy over Scaly Balls’ being such a hypocrite.”
“Hey!”
Ignoring his weak protest, Dolly looks up at me with a fond smile. “You can’t kill your cousin yet; we’ve discussed this. And I don’t think you can disappear anymore Council students without them flooding this place with more assholes to balance it out. I’ll have to handle this snooty feline and your dickhead relative on my own.”
My eyes flash amber with my tiger and I squeeze her closer. “I don’t have to kill anyone. I’ll just grab a little souvenir to remind them who they’re dealing with.”
“Fitzgerald, you can’t?—”
I arch a brow at the dragon, my expression amused. “Oh, Lord Draconis, you’ll find I definitelycanand certainlywill. Give it time.”
Baby Girl sighs, pulling back as she sighs. “Do what you must, baby, butno killing yet. Got it?”
I can live with that; she just gets me.
“Cross my heart and hope my asshole Father dies,” I promise with a wink. “No killing until we’re all in agreement—-or perhaps, one of us loses it and then we have to deal with it on the fly.”
Aubrey snorts. “At least he’s honest, bite size.”
“Through and through,” I agree as I slap her pert ass and she squeals. “For better or for worse, I can’t be bothered to make shit up. It’s hard enough keeping track of real shit.”
That makes Dolly smile and my heart flutters as she grabs my hand. She tugs me toward the tables on the other side of where she and the dragon have left a delicious smelling spot behind the bookcase. When I growl at her playfully, she laughs, wagging a finger at me. “Nope, break time is over. Come help Aubrey and me with the work they’ve been doing on timelines. We’re almost through the twentieth century. Once we get everything highlighted, we are going to use one of the boards Chessie ordered to make comparison columns.”
A damn good idea—the egghead trio have their shit together.
“I’ll try, Baby Girl, but you know how hard it is for me to focus on shit like this,” I reply as she yanks a chair out. “Maybe you should sit on my lap?”
The dragon snorts as he joins us. “I highly doubt that will allow for concentration, Fitzgerald. Nice try, though.”
“You take this list of shifter events. Maybe something will spike in your memories? I’m taking the humans this time, and Aubrey has the Fae.”
“You switch off?” I ask as I scratch my chin. “That’s a pretty good plan. Seeing the same thing over and over makes your brain blur after a while.”
“Indeed.” Dolly takes the chair next to me, straightening her papers before she hands me a marker. “Use this color so we know where you started.”
I blink, noting the bright orange highlighter. “You’re even color coding it? Thisdefinitelyhas Chessie written all over it. Our boy is fucking baller at this kind of project.”
“Chester has been invaluable in helping collate the research. He really should take some classes after we prevent this idiotic war; I think he’s perfect for a library associate position.”
“Noooo! Don’t get rid of Betsy,” Dolly says with a frown. “I like her. She’s a scaredy cat, but I don’t want any of the allies we’ve made to be sent elsewhere if we can avoid it.”
“Lunchable, I would never get rid of Betsy. However, depending on where we end up, perhaps he could get a better spot than being an assistant for a nasty vulture woman trying to steal our lives for her shitty pulp fiction?”
He has a point; Chessie is such a jack-of-all-trades that landing the art position at Apex despite lack of credentials was a boon.
“I think it’s a fabulous idea and I’ll back you one hundred percent if you tell him, Charcoal Breath.” I grin at him cheesily and he rolls his eyes, muttering what I assume is a ‘thanks’ under his breath.
All for one and one for all and shit.