CHAPTER 3

Luna

The shock of seeing Leo affected the rest of my afternoon. I paced through the little house I’d lived in for over a hundred years, unable to clear my mind of the way my soulmate had looked at me.

The attraction was just as deep and pulsating for me as it had ever been, the pull on the golden arch over my heart painful, yearning and screaming at me to go back to him. I hated that it still existed, the shock of the soulmate symbol still in existence even though I had been rejected, and he was supposed to be dead!

Who had I been fooling by thinking I’d ever really been over him?

Sweat broke out over my forehead, panic seizing my lungs.

Leo—my mate—had come back from the dead, or at least pretending to be dead. But he sure as hell couldn’t stay in Nampa City. Orson would lose his mind.

Or was that Leo’s plan? Was he back to take back his empire from Orson?

None of it made sense. If Leo hadn’t disappeared in the first place, Orson never would have taken over his businesses. And to wait two centuries?

I shouldn’t have left the diner without getting answers. I had to find Leo and discover what he was up to, why he’d come back after all this time.

Who are you kidding? You just want to see him again.

I silenced that stupid voice and grabbed my keys off the counter, but as I threw the door open, I recoiled in surprise.

“Did you forget about us?” Orson asked lazily, his arm draped over Etta’s slender shoulders. I stared at him, blood draining out of my cheeks.

“What?” I choked.

Etta scowled lightly and peered at her partner.

“Are you putting her on the spot, Orson?” the fae complained. “You said she agreed to come over tonight.”

Shit. I’d completely forgotten about that.

“I did,” I blurted out quickly when Orson eyed me reprovingly. “I was just on my way over.”

I held up my keys, and Etta beamed happily.

“See?” Orson told her. “I told you she was coming. You didn’t need to ambush her. Can I get back to my grill now?”

My eyes narrowed slightly, nerves thinning more at the phrasing.

Why did they ambush me?

“It’s not an ambush,” Etta insisted, grinning sheepishly and rolling her eyes. She glanced at me. “I just wanted to make sure you were coming.”

Orson glanced meaningfully at me. “You see what happens when you bail too many times? You get front door service.”

I tried to steady my breathing, to tell myself that this was typical Etta behavior, showing up unannounced with my employer, ensuring I attended their party with Orson on her arm.

“Well?” Orson grouched. “Can I go?”

“Go on,” Etta tittered, slapping his rear. “We’re right behind you.”

Orson turned, but he looked, his eyes fixed on me, tongue jutting out to lick his lips. I couldn’t miss the bulge in his pants as he scanned the swell of my cleavage before heading across the lawn toward the street.

Etta didn’t seem to notice the way her partner stared at me—or else, she chose to ignore it. It had been going on for years, after all.

She looped her arm through mine and pulled me over the stoop, barely allowing me time to lock my door.

“Why do you bother?” she tittered. “No one’s going to rob you, Luna.”

She had a point there, but I was nothing if not cautious. Anyone who dared come for me ran the risk of incensing Orson. And no one wanted Orson Haynes as an enemy.

“Old habits, I guess,” I mumbled, securing the door and allowing her to half-drag me back toward her house. Pursing my lips, I debated whether to ask if she’d heard any rumblings about a newcomer in Nampa City.

Asking would open the door to questions I didn’t want to answer, questions I wasn’t sure I knew how to answer, but at the same time, I needed to know if Orson had any sense that Leo was there.

On the other hand, I doubted that everyone would be so calm, cool, and collected if they did know. No, these were not the channels I needed to use to find out about Leo’s intentions.

I’d have to go dark and deep. If Orson didn’t know and found out I was keeping this from him…

I shivered.

“You cold, pumpkin?” Etta asked, snuggling closer to me. “It’s a hundred degrees out here.”

I shook my head. “I’m just tired,” I lied.

Etta peered at me worriedly, her somber gray eyes clouding more.

“Is Orson working you too hard, honey? I can talk to him for you, you know.”

I exhaled. “No,” I insisted. “I’m fine. I just didn’t sleep well last night.”

Etta made a commiserating sound and clucked her tongue.

“It must get so lonely in that house all by yourself. You need to get out there, get laid, girl. Why don’t you let me set you up with one of Orson’s friends?”

I smiled politely. “I’m not really in the dating mood,” I replied.

“It’ll be good for you to get out. All you do is work and stay home, Luna. You’re too beautiful to waste away like this.”

My insides shifted uncomfortably.

I didn’t like where this conversation was going, but I let her prattle on without comment, my mind still on Leo.

“Your mate is gone, honey, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still have fun, you know?”

“Yep,” I replied shortly, wishing she’d get the hint.

I quickened my pace as we turned the block, stepping off the curb and into the gutter as a teen on a bicycle flew down the street, his cheeks pink with concern as night fell around us.

Hurry home, kid. Bad things lurk in the dark, I thought irrelevantly.

“Luna,” Etta grumbled, stopping to unhook her arm from mine when she realized I wasn’t paying any attention to her well-meaning blathering.

Stifling a sigh, I looked at her. She placed her palms on my bare biceps and met my eyes seriously. “It’s been two hundred years, honey. You need to move on. Leo isn’t coming back.”

Well, that answered my question. They didn’t know he was in Nampa City.

Inadvertently, I shivered again, this time, the hairs on my arms fully raising to the point that Etta noticed.

“Are you all right?” she demanded.

“You don’t look well.”

I forced another smile. “As I said, I’m just tired,” I insisted. “It’s nothing a good steak won’t fix. Come on, before the meat’s all gone.”

I hurried forward, hoping that Etta couldn’t read my guilty expression.

Dammit, Leo, why did you come back? Why couldn’t you just leave well enough alone?