“Unfortunately, things like debts don’t just magically vanish,” Felix continued, moving aside for one of the catering staff as they came in through the back door. “Not to mention the cops still want to know all about that payroll fiasco.”
All too clearly she recalled the bone-deep fear of not being able to pay rent or buy food, and knew her fellow gym employees had suffered the same fate. “Fiasco? Is that what we’re calling it?”
She was pleased to see he finally had the grace to look ashamed. “So… anyway, I’ve decided it’s best for me to go. You know, leave town. Maybe even the country.”
“Where—” Then she shook her head. For better or worse, Felix was on his own. And besides, she didn’t want to be an accessory after the fact. “I’m glad you came to see me today, Felix. I was feeling like there was something important I was leaving undone, but now I don’t. You made my perfect day complete.”
“I’m glad, Al.” He sniffled again, then went rigid when he looked beyond her. “Loki. I was just leaving.”
“Good.” Loki’s strong arm curled around her waist to pull her back against him, then his other arm came around so that his hand came to rest over the tight knot of hers. “Don’t come back.”
“Right.” Felix nodded, looked to Alice for one final moment, then headed through the back door.
“I knew when you didn’t show up again that you’d gotten yourself into more trouble. I just didn’t know it was going to be the worst kind of trouble imaginable—family.” The arms around her tightened. “You okay?”
She rested her head back against his shoulder and felt complete. “Yeah.”
“You sure? You haven’t done this—” he squeezed her tightly clutched fingers beneath his, “in a while.”
“Like you said, it’s family. Family of my past, anyway. But you’re the family of my present and future,” she added, turning in his arms so she could latch her hands behind his neck. “Or have you forgotten that you’re now my husband?”
“I haven’t forgotten a damn thing. Like how ticklish you are right… here.” He ran his hands from the small of her back to her ribs, which predictably made her wriggle and laugh. “Damn, I love doing that.”
“And I love you.”
“Love you back, wife.” Smiling, he lowered his mouth to hers and kissed her long and deep. By the time he raised his head, she was breathless and wishing all the fastenings of her dress were made of Velcro. “You know what? For once in his miserable life, Felix had the right idea.”
Her brows shot up. “He did?”
“Yeah. Back doors are a great way to escape. What do you say we blow this joint and get our honeymoon started early?”
Yay! “Lead the way.”
Two years later
“Southern corridor is clear.” On the alert, Alice headed toward the main auditorium, the unmistakable sound of an excited audience growing with every step. She nodded to Luke as she passed, and wasn’t at all surprised when he fell into step beside her.
“So? How does it feel to be back?” Luke wanted to know, all the while keeping a sharp eye out for trouble. “Happy to get back to the old grind, or are you wishing you had four more months of maternity leave?”
“I miss my little dude, but it feels good to be back in the saddle.” She chuckled suddenly and fished out her phone. “Loki found a Badtz-Maru onesie for Cyrus while I was still pregnant, and my little dude’s finally big enough to wear it. You’ve got to see how cute he is.”
“I’m not looking at baby pictures while on-duty, no matter how adorable they are.”
“That’s okay, I’ll send them to you. I took, like, a dozen before I left for work this morning.”
“Holy shit. You’ve turned into such a classic mom, it’s mind-boggling.”
She poured as much drama into a pearl-clutch as she could. “Don’t tell me you never perceived that I was capable of classic momming.”
“Momming isn’t a word, and the woman I see today is completely unrecognizable from the closed-off hardcase I met a thousand years ago. You’ve done a total one-eighty, which proves that people are capable of just about anything imaginable, both bad and good.”
“I hope I fall into the good category.”
“You do, and so does your husband. I never told you this, but when I did employee profiles for House Of Payne as to where potential trouble would come from, Loki topped my list as the guy who would most likely set fire to the place and dance among the rubble.”
Alice tried and failed at stifling a snort. “My Loki? Never.”
“Exactly my point. Your Loki would never, now that marriage and fatherhood have turned him into the epitome of a mellow fellow. I hardly recognize him now, and that’s a good thing.”
“You say this before we enter the arena of battle,” she drawled, the crowd noise growing even through the metal double doors they were heading toward. “You might think differently when you see who Loki’s competing against.”
Luke’s eyes widened even as he reached for the door. “Oh, no. Not again.”
“Yep.” Smiling, Alice swept through the door and into the auditorium. “And to think, pitting Loki against Styx was once my idea.”
“There hasn’t been that bad of an idea since New Coke,” Luke muttered as he joined her. The convention center’s main area was filled with all things tattoo, as was always the case with House Of Payne’s annual tattoo expo, InkCon.
The way Alice saw it, the expo was basically Payne’s fiendish way of bringing all the newest and most innovative elements of the ink industry to his doorstep so he could firsthand see—or guide—the latest trends in the tattooing world.
Also, Payne wasn’t above flat-out stealing.
The year before, he’d headhunted a brilliant young tattooist straight from the booth where she’d been working for a little tattooing parlor in Des Plaines. Apparently Payne had heard angels sing when Mads, the tattooist, had demonstrated a color-layering technique she’d invented, and that was that.
Of course, security had to be called in when the owner of the booth had raged over losing his best tattooist to Payne, and secretly Alice couldn’t blame the guy. Luckily for all involved, Payne had somehow smoothed things over by the end of the day, and the security issue resolved itself. Alice herself had overseen the same-day delivery of a Maserati to the convention center, then stood back and watched the tattoo booth’s owner drive off in it.
That hadn’t mattered to Payne. All that mattered was getting the latest techniques and greatest talent for House Of Payne. Mads—whose legal name was Madelyn, but she point-blank refused to answer to it—was now a part of that elite world.
As for Loki…
A broad smile crossed her face as she focused in on her husband’s dark gold, downbent head. With only a fabric screen separating his portable tattooing station from Styx’s, Loki did what he did best. With clear, confident moves, he focused all his attention on the calf-muscle area of his “canvas,” a volunteer who also happened to be his brother, Tyr.