Once Upon Stilettos

Page 87

“What did you see? Were those the same people who ambushed you at the party?” Trix asked me.
I had no idea, given that I hadn’t seen anything at all, but it was a good bet. The burst of heat I’d felt on my back could have been from one of those fireball things that skeleton guy had tried to hurl at me. “Yeah, I think it’s the same guys, but I didn’t get a good look.” That was putting it mildly. I wondered if the fight was still going on right in front of me.
“Are you sure?” Ari asked.
“Not a hundred percent, obviously. I mean, most skeleton creatures look alike to me,” I said, trying to turn it into a joke. It was going to be more and more difficult to bluff this out, especially if I was going to be in physical danger.
Isabel got a cab, and Trix hustled me over to it, then helped me into the backseat. “Do you want to go home?” Isabel asked me.
I shook my head. “No, not really. It would probably be better if I got a chance to wind down after that.”
“You need a drink or three,” Ari declared, her jaw set and stubborn. “And then maybe a really hot guy to make it all better.”
“Dinner it is,” Isabel said, then turned to the driver and gave him an address.
“You must really be closing in on that spy if they’re attacking you like that,” Trix said, patting my shoulder maternally.
I gave a shaky laugh. “How little they know. I have no clue whatsoever.”
“Really?” Ari asked. “I thought you’d be closer than that.”
“Nope. I have some ideas, but that’s it.”
“And you’ve come up with some pretty good countermeasures,” Ari added reassuringly. “Or maybe whether you realize it or not, you’ve gotten too close for comfort.”
We stopped on a narrow street somewhere in Greenwich Village and went into a nearby restaurant. As soon as we were seated, Isabel ordered a cup of tea for me. “We’ll get you a drink later, but you need strong, sweet tea after a shock like that,” she said.
I didn’t like feeling so helpless, as though everyone else had to look out for me, but I knew I pretty much was helpless, so I gave in and let them look after me.
Once they had drinks and Isabel had made me drink tea sweet enough even to please my sweet-toothed Southern grandmother, Ari made an obvious effort to change the subject to lighter things. “So now that Katie and Trix are both single once more, it’s time to come up with a strategy,” she said.
“Leave me out of it,” Trix muttered. “I’m not ready to give up yet.”
“And I don’t think I’m ready to bounce into another relationship,” I added. Especially not while I was still so disconcerted from having lost my magical immunity. What if the guy I hooked up with turned out to be like Rod, hiding behind spells?
“What are you talking about?” Ari teased. “You’ve already got one phone number, and it’s not like you two were together long enough for it to count as a real breakup. You need to show him by getting out there again and snagging a man right away. Make him know what he’s missing.”
“It took me a year in New York to find him. I doubt I’ll have anyone else within the next couple of weeks,” I said with a sigh. I had to blink back tears at the thought. The champagne earlier, then the shock of that attack, and now all the sympathy were combining to make me especially emotional.
“What about Owen?” Isabel asked. “He seems to really like you.”
“Yeah, you do spend a lot of time together,” Ari said. “What’s the deal with you two?”
“We’re just friends.”
“But he talks to you,” Ari said. “I’ve been trying for years, and I haven’t managed to get him to say two words to me that weren’t about work.”
“Most of what we talk about is work,” I insisted. “We only commute together because he has bodyguard duty. We’ve had maybe a couple of conversations that were even remotely personal.”
“That’s two more than anyone else in the company has had,” Ari muttered, rolling her eyes. “I swear, that boy’s hopeless. Cute, rich, and powerful, but utterly hopeless.”
“I don’t think it’s that big a deal,” I said with a shrug. “I’ve been told I’m easy to talk to, so I probably make him comfortable. Trust me, that’s not generally a good thing with a guy. It usually leads to the ‘you’re such a good friend, like a sister’ speech.”