“Do you still believe that?”
She looked up at him and smiled. “I’m no longer sure.”
That was encouraging. “It’s a good start.”
As they climbed up the steps to her front porch, it suddenly occurred to him that no Guardian had been trailing behind them. Had it been an oversight? Or had Kian relaxed the security around them even more?
“Did you notice that we didn’t have a tail?”
Edna glanced over her shoulder. “I guess Kian trusts you.”
Could it be that Kalugal’s show of trust had worked so fast? Had Kian returned the favor by not assigning a guard to him?
Rufsur doubted that.
“Theo and Jay might have forgotten that I went to see you in your office, and they followed the others home. I hope they will not get in trouble for that.”
Edna opened the door. “Do you want me to send them a text?”
He rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. “On the one hand, I like it that we finally have some privacy, but on the other hand, I don’t want those two to get in hot water with their chief, so yeah. You’d better text them.”
Smiling, Edna stretched on her toes and kissed his cheek. “You are a good man, Rufsur.”
He rolled his eyes. “That’s what I keep telling you.”
“And so modest,” she mocked.
Pulling out her phone, she typed up a text, and a moment later got a response. “Theo says that it was Kian’s decision to leave you unguarded.” She looked up at him. “It seems that your charm is winning him over.”
It hadn’t been his charm that had done it, but Kalugal’s show of trust. Or maybe neither.
He pulled her into his arms. “I don’t think Kian is doing it out of consideration for me. He’s doing it for you.”
23
Edna
“Would you like some wine?” Edna opened the fridge and pulled out a bottle.
Rufsur grimaced. “Don’t you have anything stronger?”
Edna shook her head. “I drink wine for the taste, not for the alcohol content.” Perhaps now that she had a gentleman caller, she should keep a bottle of whiskey or two on hand.
She chuckled. Rufsur was no gentleman, and he wasn’t a caller either. There was nothing polite or old-fashioned about him. He was direct to the point of being crass, but he wasn’t mean or unpleasant. On the contrary, he was fun to be with and easy to talk to, and that was on top of being a phenomenal lover.
How he and Kalugal got along as splendidly as they did was a mystery. Rufsur’s boss was his exact opposite. Kalugal was well-educated, refined, and a snob who somehow managed to appear charming despite being condescending.
She handed Rufsur a wine glass. “How did you and Kalugal end up being such close friends?” She sat on the couch.
Rufsur sat right beside her and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “He needs me, and he knows it.” He took a sip of wine. “Although now that he has Jacki, I’ve been demoted.” He sighed. “I have to admit that I’m a little jealous, but that’s how life is. A mate supersedes all friendships.”
“Obviously. But Jacki can’t replace you, right? You are his right-hand man.”
“I’m not referring to my official job. Before Jacki, I was the one who made sure that Kalugal had some fun and didn’t spend all of his time buried either in books or his artifacts. He gets obsessive in his quest for knowledge and success, and he needs constant reminders that there is more to life than that.”
“Used to need.” Edna sipped on her wine. “He didn’t strike me as the all work and no play kind of guy.”
“That’s exactly how he is. But with Jacki around, he no longer needs me to drag him away from his desk or his dusty artifacts.”
“He is already rich and successful. What more does he want to achieve? Conquer the world?”
Snorting, Rufsur sprayed his pants with wine. “Damn. Look what you’ve made me do.” He brushed the droplets off with his hand.
It seemed to her that he was overacting to hide the fact that she’d inadvertently stumbled upon the truth.
She eyed him with a raised brow. “Was that too close for comfort? Does he want to conquer the world?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Kalugal is smart, not crazy. But he is obsessed with history and finding out more about the gods and where they came from. He thinks that they were aliens.”
It might have been a clever redirect, or Rufsur might have been telling the truth. In any case, he’d piqued her curiosity.
She’d heard about Kalugal’s extensive artifact collection. He’d even built a bunker to house it in an optimally controlled environment. The funny part was that before Jin had tethered him and everything that followed, they’d thought that he’d been hiding human slaves in there, or an arsenal of weapons.
“I’ve read some of the Sumerian legends regarding the gods’ origins, and I have to agree with your boss. But then all mythologies claim that their gods came from the heavens.”
“Yeah, but not all have accurate depictions of satellites, rockets, and launch pads.”
“I see that Kalugal shared some of his observations with you.”
Rufsur laughed. “He would have shared much more if I was willing to listen. I tried not to let him get started because he can talk about this stuff from morning till night.”
“I would love to hear some of his findings and hypotheses.”
Rufsur waved a hand. “Now is your chance. You can come over tomorrow and have a nice long talk with Kalugal. Perhaps you’ll discover that he’s a pretty decent guy, and you’ll change your mind about him.”
“I don’t hate him.”
“But you think that he and I and our friends are a threat to your clan.”
Sighing, Edna leaned forward and put her empty wine glass on the coffee table. “It’s not personal. But as one who has lived through the Scottish clan feuds, I’ve seen firsthand the ‘us versus them’ mentality at work and its bloody results. No matter how friendly and well-meaning you might appear, and by you I mean Kalugal’s entire community, I can’t fully trust you.”
He chuckled. “We are not in Scotland, Edna, and we don’t have cattle to steal from each other, or territories that we want to conquer, or a history of blood feuds. Where is the conflict?”
She opened her mouth to voice a counter-argument, but then realized that she had none.
Without conflict, or a reason for one, there was no impetus for violence. Kalugal and his men didn’t worship Mortdh, so there was no religious incentive either. What possible reason could they have to strike at the clan?
Females.
Tribal wars were often about that.
But if they could obtain them freely, they wouldn’t have to steal them.
Then there was the quest for power.
Kalugal was an ambitious guy, and he might seek control over the clan. Except, he was no match for Annani, and if he had any doubts about that, it had been proven during Richard’s induction.
So, that wasn’t it either.
Still, she couldn’t just relax and accept him and his men with open arms.