“And I can’t fire you unless I’m dead?”
He simply nodded his response.
A new thought occurred to me, one I liked even less than the first. “Or… maimed?”
“Now you’re catching on.” He didn’t turn to me, his eyes on the passing cars as Matthias took the next exit.
“Huh.” I considered that for a moment. “Seems a bit unfair, don’t you think? What if you get sick of the job or get cross with me and decide, ‘Eh, I’m about ready to retire anyway. Go ahead and cut off King Malcolm’s ears. He had it coming’?”
“Other people might take that as incentive to behave with more fealty.” This time, he let his eyes meet mine, and I swear there was a hint of coldness in place of his usual dismissiveness. Then he blinked and it was gone.
“Ah!” I pointed at him. “You almost got me there.”
He merely shook his head in one of his various expressions of exasperation and I responded with a shove to his shoulder. I’d win him over eventually.
“Here we are,” Matthias announced from the front seat, and I only then noticed we’d pulled into a parking garage beneath a building. “You two get out here. I’ll find a spot and meet you up at the Triumph offices.”
“Excellent.” If Alice thought I’d give up so easily, she clearly didn’t recall much about me.
After I’d been dismissed the previous evening, I decided the next best move would be to track down Ruby and try wresting information from her. It had been a breeze finding my brother’s girlfriend, as there was only one place she’d be with her uncle Carl resting up after his surgery.
As I approached the open garage door at Crankshaft Auto Repair, it was impossible to miss the lower half of a slim figure clad in dirty coveralls sticking out from under the chassis of a woefully beat-up Ford Taurus. “Hey, Legs! What does a guy have to do around here to get a drink?”
Out rolled the dolly to reveal Ruby’s grease-streaked face, her mouth spread in a huge smile. “Mal! What are you doing here?!” She sprang to standing and threw her arms around me, clearly not caring that my clothes were likely ruined from all the dirt and grease. Not that it bothered me one bit. Then she pulled back sharply. “Wait. Aren’t you supposed to be home preparing for the coronation?”
I bobbed my head from side to side. “Probably. But I had a little business to take care of.”
“Here?” Her hands still gripped my biceps, but as I nodded, she released me and took a step back, the smile falling from her lips. “Oh no.”
I continued to nod. “Oh, yes.” My index finger tapped her forehead. “You and my arsehole brother thought you could keep her whereabouts from me, but I found out all on my own.”
“Have you seen her?” Ruby’s hands perched on her hips as she frowned at me.
My smugness died on my tongue, and it was my turn to step back. Shoving my hands in my pockets, I admitted, “Yes. Kind of.”
Ruby’s smile was back. “She kicked you out.”
“Can one really be kicked out if he wasn’t ever technically in?” I scowled at the harpy.
She covered her laugh with a hand to her mouth. “I think I love Alice.”
“Traitor. You’re supposed to be on my side. After all, we’ll likely be family one of these days. What ever happened to blood is thicker than water and all that?”
“I prefer hos before bros myself.”
I tilted my head. “Did you just call Alice a ho? Shame on you.”
“Good point. Ho fits you a lot better,” she retorted with a shrug.
How Leo withstood this on a daily basis was a marvel. “Pardon me while I pull this knife out of my back.”
“I’m just giving you shit.” She grabbed a rag and began wiping her hands. “Come on. I’ll get cleaned up and we can head down to Benny’s for a beer. Leo should be here later tonight after he wraps up his meeting in D.C.” My brother was collaborating on some environmental initiatives with an American senator and split his time among D.C., North Carolina, and the Feldlands. It meant I didn’t see him as often as I used to, but I was chuffed for him as long as he was happy.
Twenty minutes later, Ruby had transformed into a fifties pin-up model and we were belly up at the bar under the dim lights of Benny’s Bar while Andrew and company lingered outside in the car park.
“Ruby. Leo. How’s it hanging? What can I get you?” the bald man resembling a professional wrestler asked.
“I’ll take a Bud Light,” Ruby responded, hooking a thumb my way. “And this isn’t Leo. It’s the other one.”
The man’s mouth dropped into a frown. “One beer limit for you.”
“Wha—! That’s not fair. What on earth did I do?”
He threw a bar towel over his shoulder and leaned in. “The fact that you can’t remember should tell you something.”
Ruby patted me on the back. “I’ll keep an eye on him, Benny. Don’t worry.”
The giant passed two fingers back and forth between his eyes and mine. “I’m watching you.”
I threw my hands up in surrender as Ruby laughed and said, “Just bring him a beer,” before the bar’s namesake left to fill our order.
“So much for Southern hospitality,” I commented over the warbling country tune playing from the jukebox. “All I’ve encountered since my arrival have been closed doors and angry hitmen.”
“Benny’s harmless. Just leave the waitresses alone and you’ll be fine.”
My eyes skipped around the place, but all I saw were a crowd of drunk locals, a couple waitresses who looked to have been born under a toadstool, and what appeared to be the head of a woolly mammoth. “It’s not waitresses I came for.”
Benny set two bottles of cold beer in front of us and retreated with another flick of his fingers to his eyes and mine.
Ruby lifted her bottle to her lips. “What did Alice say?”
“Nothing much. She refused to talk and locked me out of her apartment.” Not feeling very thirsty anymore, I simply spun my bottle on its napkin and watched the condensation soak the paper.
“You can’t be too surprised. She resigned.”
“Yes, but I still don’t know why. All I know is what Mother told me, which was that Alice took the blame for allowing Leo and me to run off unattended, and she was no longer confident that she was effective in her duties. Which is a load of bollocks, as you well know.” My fist tightened on the bar and I considered ordering a shot instead.
“I know it wasn’t her fault you two escaped your security detail, but she may have a point about not being effective in her duties anymore.” Ruby raised a brow at me and I met it with a frown.
“That’s preposterous.”
Her bottle hit the bar top with a thud. “Why did you really come here, Mal?”
“To get Alice back.” I’d thought this was obvious. Had Ruby been inhaling too many exhaust fumes?
She seemed to consider this for longer than necessary as she picked at the label on her beer bottle. Finally, she asked the odd question of, “You want her to work for you again?”
I was tempted to ask if she’d been to a doctor lately. “Isn’t that what I just said?”