“Sure,” I drew out. “Like you didn’t track me down or anything.”
“What? Me? No.” He pressed a hand to his chest as if he would never—never admit was more like it. Damn, he had me smiling.
“Uh huh, sure. Then what brings you to this exact street at this exact time?”
Váli raised his eyebrows as if to play off his innocence, but then the waitress hurried back over to us and flashed him a welcoming smile. Hiding my own grin behind a sip of the coffee, I had to swallow a laugh at the way she let out the breathiest sigh when he ordered an espresso and some pastries.
As soon as she left us, he flashed another smile at me. “Where were we?”
“You were about to tell me what brought you in search of me, Váli.” The musical play of bells came from a shop across the street, and I glanced toward the door opening to let a little old woman exit with her grandson. The kid was careful with the woman, holding her hand firmly and carrying a sack much too heavy for him.
He didn’t hurry her along, just waited patiently as she cleared the step and then again while she sorted out her purse and her cane. Once she had everything in place, they set off together, and I tracked their progress. That child was so filled with determination to protect his grandmother, he practically radiated ferocity.
Kids were a little bit of my kryptonite. I hated to see them hurt. Adored seeing them happy. This one? This one impressed me, because that level of devotion in one so young had to have been earned. The pair impressed me.
“Perhaps it’s just my good fortune,” Váli teased, snapping me back to the present and sound rushed back in to fill the void created by my focus on the grandmother and her grandson.
“To find me at a café in France? Perhaps.” The corners of my lips twitched as I locked gazes with him. The teasing light in his eyes flared as his pupils expanded, then the waitress broke the connection when she leaned in to set his coffee and pastries down.
Her disappointment wreathed us as Váli merely thanked her and sent her on her way. I’d feel sorry for her, but Váli hadn’t even really noticed her so… Dammit, he was making me smile again. Impossible man.
“I’d think you’d be happy to see me. After all, I was kidnapped.” His mock pout made me laugh aloud. The sound escaped me before I could think twice about it.
“Oh please,” I scoffed. “You were hardly in any danger. If anything, you were the threat in that little ménage.”
A true smile softened his mouth, and he toasted me with his coffee. “I was wondering when you’d notice.”
With a shake of my head, I tilted my head back as though just soaking up the ambience rather than staring at him. When had his eyes gotten that green? Why did I care? “I notice a lot of things, Váli, you forget that about me. I’m very observant.”
“I forget nothing about you,” he countered, the weight of his regard pressing in on me. “I was also enjoying your company when we were interrupted.”
“You’d just won a boon.”
“I had,” he agreed.
“Come to collect then?” And why was I disappointed if he had? Ugh, maybe I needed more of a break. I’d come here to relax, not to pick apart his motives.
“No.” Váli surprised me, and I flicked my attention back to him. “Not yet.”
“No?” Really?
“No,” he said, then smiled before taking a sip of the espresso. His expression of delight filled me with curiosity. More, he didn’t keep talking. He did nudge the plate of pastries toward me, and I selected one, pulling the fluffiness apart and eating it a bit at a time.
I’d forgotten how nice it was with Váli sometimes. He didn’t talk just to hear himself speak. He also didn’t need to dominate a conversation. Only after we’d finished our coffee and pastries did he speak again, then it was only to ask, “So what brings you here?”
A sarcastic remark was on the tip of my tongue, but you know what? Why not tell him the truth? “This is one of my happy places. When I want to spread a bit of good karma into the world, I can always find someone deserving here.”
“Really? I never thought about our grace by location. But your last project, that girl wasn’t here. Is Dallas your happy place too?” His nose scrunched up as if that thought was distasteful.
Laughing, I snorted through my nose. “Dallas? Hell no. I dish out more bad karma than good in that place. But I came across Dahlia, and she was one of the brightest souls I’d ever met and short on time. So I took matters into my own hands.” I shrugged delicately.
He nodded and gazed out over the street with blooming flowers hanging from light window boxes and lush greenery growing up the sides of the old-style buildings that still held the essence of the Middle Ages when they were originally built.
“I heard about her. You really outdid yourself facilitating the first human turned Keeper in our living history.” Pride colored every word that left his mouth.
“Yeah, I did good. It will be hard to top. Maybe I’ll go the opposite way next time to prologue the bad karma. Make it epic,” I mused half-heartedly. Would it have been fun? Sure. But I wasn’t in a competition with myself.
“We’ll go halves. Make it a double play of karma and vengeance. We’ve done that a time or two, and speaking for myself, it was very enjoyable.” He winked.
“Deal. I owe you the boon anyway.”
“It doesn’t have to stop at the boon. I do have fun around you, you know?” He tipped his chair back to two legs, grinning boyishly.
One, he was all muscle and twice the size of normal men. The chair was going to break. I’d let him learn that lesson on his own. Two, his features were so rugged, boyish hit different. Now I had to calm the tingles racing down my arms.
“Fuck it. Sure, why not. We can do it on occasion.” I took another sip from my espresso. Damn, so good. Every drink was a little slice of heaven to my tongue.
My phone buzzed on the table. Quetta.
Holding up one finger to Váli, I picked it up. “Hey, girl, what’s up?”
“Intervention, that’s what’s up.” Her voice was brisk but playful. That alone told me this would be an intervention of the more fun variety. Quetta was always a good time, so I knew better than to expect anything less.
“And who are we intervening with?”
Váli cocked his head. Keepers had excellent hearing, so I knew he’d heard every word Quetta said. And on that note… “Just FYI, Váli is here. If you want this intervention to remain between the girls, you might want to wait.”
“Váli? Why are you with him? He left with Cipher last night. Isn’t anyone on friendly terms with him on your shit list?” Her husky laughter came down the line.
“By that logic, you’d be on that list,” I pointed out.
She cackled. “But I’m his employee. And the Keeper of Excess, so it makes sense I’d work at Sinner’s. Anyway, it’s not a secret. We’re doing an intervention on Kindle.”
The Keeper of Kindness needed an intervention? What did she do, rescue another hideous cat? The hairless beast she had looked so fugly, it was cute, but that didn’t mean I wanted to encourage the behavior.