“Damn right.” He flexed his bicep. “I am a manly man.”
“I thought of something this morning. It’s just a seed of an idea, but if all of us gave it some thought, maybe it could be useful for our future plans.” She glanced at the door to the bedroom. “What’s encouraging is that Kalugal didn’t dismiss it out of hand.”
“Let’s hear it.”
“So the biggest obstacles to the unification idea are fear and the wish for privacy and independence. Kian is afraid of Kalugal using his compulsion power to get information out of people or to cause trouble, and now that we know that Annani can compel Kalugal, he is afraid of the same thing from her. Except, both sides have an immune. Kalugal has me, and Kian has Turner. The question is, how can we protect our people from compulsion? Kalugal will not agree to the cuff being permanently attached to his wrist, and I wouldn’t even suggest that the goddess wear one.”
So, he’d been right about Kalugal figuring that one out.
Damn. His chances of seeing Edna were not looking good, and Jacki’s idea wasn’t really helpful.
“That’s thinking out of the box, which is great, but I can’t see how we can use it. You can only shield yourself, and as you’ve experienced, you couldn’t help any of your friends when Kalugal froze them. There isn’t much you can do.”
“I was still human back then. I’m faster and stronger now, but I still don’t know what I could do to prevent Annani from compelling Kalugal to reveal his secrets.” She glanced at his pocket and the outline of the clan’s phone in it. “Whatever they might be.”
Rufsur smiled. “You can knock him out with a well-aimed punch to the head. I can teach you how to do that.”
Jacki rolled her eyes. “And then what? Fight the goddess, so she leaves him alone?”
71
Eleanor
While Jesse went into the kitchen to get the additional order for the mansion, Eleanor changed out of her maid’s skirt and put on a pair of jeans, which was what the guy was wearing along with a plain T-shirt. In terms of uniform, a baseball cap with the restaurant’s logo on it was the extent of it, and she intended to borrow it.
It seemed like the mansion was full of men, so perhaps she could use her meager feminine assets to distract them. Not everyone was susceptible to compulsion, and there were probably cameras everywhere. Besides, Eleanor could only affect a few people at a time, and she didn’t know how many of them she would encounter. She needed to play the part of a delivery girl well and phrase her questions in a way that didn’t arouse suspicion.
Taking a look in the rearview mirror, she undid her braids and combed out her hair, but it still looked frizzy and messy, so she gathered it in a ponytail.
Not a big improvement.
Eleanor’s face wasn’t ugly, but it wasn’t pretty either, and she would need to wear the eyeglasses that looked like they were corrective lenses but were designed to fool facial recognition technology.
Her best feature was her athletic, slim build, but the boxy shirt did nothing to accentuate it. Not only that, but she also appeared completely flat-chested because she’d bound her breasts in case she needed to disguise herself as a man.
The bandage had to go.
After pulling it down from under her shirt, she stuffed it into her tote. Luckily, her breasts were still nice and perky, so she could get away with not wearing a bra.
Look at me. She chuckled. Eleanor the Femme Fatale.
After Jesse finished loading the food order into the back of the van and got behind the wheel, she snatched the hat off his head and put it on hers. “Let’s go.”
“Can you remind me why you are here, and why am I taking you?”
“Because I told you so, and my wishes have to be obeyed. Now, be quiet and drive.”
Fifteen minutes later, Jesse turned into the street where her car was parked, and she pointed to it. “Pull up behind that Suburban, get out of the van, and wait for me inside the car.” She tossed him the keys. “If anyone asks what you are doing there, tell them that you are waiting for your cousin to finish her cleaning job. If anyone asks in which house, tell them that you don’t know. She told you to wait for her here.”
Perhaps she was overthinking it, but there weren’t any other cars parked on the street, and a ten-year-old Suburban didn’t match the profile of the wealthy residents. Someone might get suspicious.
Once Jesse was sitting behind the wheel of her car, she put the delivery van in drive and headed to the mansion.
At the gate, she stopped and pressed the buzzer. “Delivery from Jeremy’s.”
“What happened to the guy?” the guard asked through the intercom.
“Jesse is on a break. Can you please open? You are not my only delivery.”
“Sure, come on in.”
As the gate slid open and Eleanor drove up to the front door, it opened, and two burly guys came out.
“We can take it from here,” one of them said.
“Sorry, no can do.” Eleanor jumped down and walked to the van’s back door. “The boss wants me to make sure that you are happy this time. I have to deliver the food in person.” She smiled at the one who looked a little less intimidating. “But I would appreciate your help carrying it inside.”
As she handed each of the guys two bags and took the last two, the nice one looked inside the empty van and frowned. “I thought that you had more deliveries to make.”
Damn, had he been the one on the intercom? She’d thought it had been one of the guards.
“I need to go back for them. The other orders weren’t ready yet, and the boss didn’t want to make you wait.” She followed the two inside. “How many people do you need to feed that you are ordering so much food?”
“A bunch of hungry guys.”
They passed a dining room with at least twelve men sitting around the table, and she counted six more in the kitchen, sitting at the breakfast table.
“Sixty main courses for twenty men?”
“We have big appetites.” He put the bags on the counter and took the two she was carrying off her hands.
In a moment, she would be dismissed, and she still hadn’t learned anything useful. Perhaps it was time to use her feminine wiles.
Affecting a flirtatious smile, she struck a pose with a hand on her hip. “It isn’t every day that I make a delivery to a household full of hunky men. How come there are no women here? Are you all members of a football team?”
One of the guys sitting at the table chuckled. “We are a team, but we don’t play football. What’s your name?”
She sauntered over. “Gina. What’s yours?”
“Greggory.” He wiped his hand on his pants and offered it to her for a handshake. “Do you have a phone number, Gina?”
“I do, but I have a rule about that. I don’t give it out. I’ll take yours, though.”
He looked her up and down. “Do you have a pen?”
“Sure do.” She pulled it out from her shirt pocket and handed it to him.
Grabbing a napkin, he scribbled a number on it and added his name. “Here you go, doll. Call me when you are off work.”