He laughed. “Is it a punishment if you like it?”
“It is now.”
He lowered the tablecloth to resume his conversation with whomever had come to pay him a visit. I went to work cutting up my steak. “Do you want some? I’ve totally made you hide under a table without offering to feed you.”
“After you return to keeping your husband company, I will dine with Anubis and the Sphinx, as we have much to discuss. In your excitement, try not to forget the investigating you should be doing.”
“I won’t,” I swore. “Morrison is the kind of asshole who’d try to get revenge solely because I still exist. Add in the charges? He’ll be back. I know this, and Quinn probably does, too. I’ll do my best to keep from worrying about it for a day or two, but I don’t want him to get too much of a head start. Since the gorgons were targeted and many of them killed, I’ll get the Quinn family to help. I’m pretty sure the gorgons have a network.”
“Your husband fears the possibility of retaliation, but he is uncertain about the probability of it happening. His grandfather is aware of the certainty of such things, as he saw your memories on the matter.”
“Sariel told you about that?”
“He deemed it to be a wise decision, as I will not be a benevolent being should he hurt you. We are limited in what we can do, but there is nothing in the rules stating I cannot prepare you for what I feel will be an inevitable conclusion.”
“Because he’s an asshole, and that’s what assholes do.”
“Yes.”
I took a bite of my steak, debating how best to handle the situation. “Well, this will be fun.” The instant Quinn perceived a threat to me, he’d freak out. Given ten minutes and an excuse, he’d involve the entirety of his crazy family. If his crazy family joined in, I’d be watching the kids and caring for the pets while they created havoc, which would give me an excellent opportunity to take the kids and deal with the problem myself.
“Your logic concerns me,” my father admitted.
“It concerns overprotective over there, too.” I pointed at my husband’s legs just to make sure my father understood which overprotective individual I discussed. “Worse, can you think of any part of that logic that was wrong?”
“Alarmingly, I do believe your logic is founded on reality, which is as concerning as your general thought process.”
“I feel I should warn you that I’m going to be a pretty terrible daughter, but in good news, the human ones survived me, so that’s something.”
My husband poked me with his shoe, and a moment later, he peered under the tablecloth. “I heard that, and I’m enrolling you in therapy to address your self-esteem problems.”
“What part of that wasn’t true?”
“The part about you being a terrible daughter. The Gardeners are the terrible ones, and I’ll be implementing corrective training immediately.”
I scowled. “Corrective training?”
My father snickered. “I will, with some help from her mother, make certain she realizes she is not the terrible party. I wish you the best of luck with your efforts to correct the self-esteem damage, but given time, I am certain she will begin to see for herself how we view her.”
I pointed at my father with my fork. “You are an unreasonably biased party.”
“You will get used to it, I’m sure. Being the perfect child of divine perfection is challenging to come to terms with. I’m sure your husband will have no difficulties helping you on your quest to accept your perfection.”
With that, my father disappeared in a flash of fiery orange light.
“Huh. They normally poof off in silver or gold.”
“That they do. Are you ready to come out from under the table now?”
I considered it, nodded, and handed over my plate before rejoining him at the table to deal with the endless line of those wanting to wish us well.
As I didn’t want to destroy my wedding dress picking a fight with a gorgon, I changed into a pair of jeans and a black top. Black tended to hide the stains better, especially when covered with pet fur. Anyone who thought I’d resist the furry charms of Sunny, Blizzard, and Avalanche counted as crazy, and I only wanted specific crazy people in my life. As the rescued ocelot kitten needed the most care and attention to questionably count as domesticated, she got the lion’s share of my attention, although the puppies didn’t seem to mind.
Their new toys helped with that.
To make sure I wasn’t late for my date with Quinn’s grandfather and have enough of a fight to please the unicorn in me, Quinn grabbed me by my waist and dragged me out of the suite while the angel watching over our pets gently took my ocelot from me.
“Cruel,” I whined, and as my husband enjoyed when I put up a fight, I grabbed hold of the door frame and made him show off his muscles.
He chuckled, pulled until I lost my hold, and hauled me towards the elevator. “I’m the cruelest of men, taking you from your puppies and kitten so you can pick a fight with my grandfather. You’ll just have to punish me later.”
“Think the hotel will let me do any demonstrations as a fire-breathing badass? Cindercorns are so much better than gorgons.” As my husband was wise, he kept me out of range of anything I might use to put up a fight. I giggled, tried to dig in my heels, and enjoyed making him work for his victory.
“I’m going to let you have that, as I’ve experienced what it’s like to be you—almost. I’ll admit, playing with fire is quite enjoyable, although I’m somewhat saddened napalm doesn’t function like pixie dust for me.”
“Those hangovers are the worst.”
“They’re easily resolved. I just have to make sure you drink enough water afterwards. Your napalm rations will come with plenty of liquids afterwards. You’ll be okay.” Quinn pressed the down button, maintaining his vice-like grip while pinning me to his side. “I am thinking I’ll condition you to accept you’re also Police Chief Quinn through the careful rationing of napalm. I already refused to allow them to call you Police Chief Gardener. You’re mine.”
I loved when my husband became possessive, although I missed when he growled Gardener at me. As it was our second wedding day and nobody lurked nearby to catch me, I asked, “But will you call me Gardener when I’ve been really bad?”
“Call? Or do you mean growl or snarl it at you? There are other options, including purr.”
Yes, my husband could purr, and I loved it. He also hissed nicely, especially when he shifted to his gorgon-incubus doohickey form. “Growl, snarl, purr, and hiss are all good options. Call is so tame compared to those.”
“In private, I’ll do whatever you want me to.”
He really would. “Talk, talk, talk,” I complained, sighing when the elevator door opened. To my amazement, no one was inside. “That might be a first.”
“Well, we’re on the upper floor and there’s entertainment to be had in the canals. I’m betting the hotel is about to make good money off you and my grandfather, and I can’t even blame them for monetizing your little scuffle.” He dragged me inside and hit the button for the first floor. “Your goal is to headlock him and braid his snakes without getting bruised in the process.”