Lupi 09 - Mortal Ties

president herself
     in a few months.
    In short, both of Beth’s sisters were incredibly competent women. She was the cute
     one.
    She did cute very well. It just wasn’t enough anymore.
    But the main reason she was glad she’d picked Bojuka was warm and solid along her
     front. If she’d gone for judo or something, she’d never have met Sean Friar. And that
     didn’t bear thinking about.

FIVE

    N IGHT checked in early at the end of December. It had been dark for hours by the time Lily
     curled up on one of the long leather couches with her warmed-up lasagna. The news
     was on—something about the sidhe trade delegation that had recently arrived in Washington
     via the Edge Gate—but the sound was turned down low, so Lily could ignore it. The
     air smelled of spices and tomato, ashes and woodsmoke.
    The fireplace was dark and cool now. She’d missed the fire, just as she’d missed sharing
     dinner with the man now sitting at the big dining table, surrounded by paper piles
     and focused on whatever business shit he’d called up on his laptop.
    Lily ran her thumb along the band of her engagement ring. She had to quit putting
     this off. The wedding was two months, one week, and two days away. Tonight, she promised
     herself, after she ate. She’d bring it up tonight.
    Rule looked pretty involved with his business shit. “Where’s Toby?” she asked, taking
     her first bite of lasagna.
    “He and Emmy are spending the night at Danny’s.”
    “But he had a spend-the-night here just last night.”
    “It’s Christmas vacation,” Rule said without looking away from the computer.
    Until recently Lily hadn’t known she had a parenting style. After Rule gained custody
     of his son last summer, she’d learned that she did, and it was very different from
     Rule’s. Her parents had seen sleepovers as a privilege to be earned, certainly not
     something that could happen two nights in a row. As for mixed-sex slumber parties…Lily
     had to grin, thinking of her mother’s reaction to that notion.
    But Toby was not interested in girls as girls. He liked Emmy the same way he liked
     Danny and Michael and half-a-dozen others. That would change, and Rule would know
     when it did. The hormonal tumult of puberty was as unsubtle in its scent, Rule said,
     as it was in its effects.
    Lily stopped shoveling in pasta long enough to sip some of a Merlot Rule had thought
     she’d enjoy. This was the lasagna’s second warm-up, but it was still good. After all,
     it was, as Toby would say,
Carl’s
lasagna. Isen’s houseman kept the freezer stocked with dishes like this for when
     he was off, like tonight.
    Having Carl around was a huge perk, she admitted. Not enough of one to entirely balance
     out the loss of privacy, but a huge perk all the same.
    There were others. She didn’t have to dust or vacuum or scrub the bathroom—was, in
     fact, strongly discouraged from doing any of that. Carl had a roster of young clan
     members eager to earn spending money who did most of the cleaning. Plus she could
     grub around in the dirt whenever she had the urge and the time, and if the gardens
     here weren’t born of her planning or planting, destroying weeds was always satisfying.
    In spite of the obvious perks, Lily didn’t want to live with Isen. She didn’t like
     the long commute. She didn’t like the sense of being a perpetual guest, and she couldn’t
     get used to the lack of privacy. But Rule would be much more at risk if they stayed
     at his San Diego apartment. So would Toby. So would the guards who tried to keep thethree of them safe. That’s why, three weeks ago, Rule had sublet his old place.
    No going back. The only direction anyone had was
forward
.
    At least here she could go for a run without wondering if someone was going to shoot
     her or the guard keeping pace with her…and that was the point, wasn’t it? She and
     Rule were prime targets for the enemy, and Friar was still out there, plotting and
     planning on
her
behalf.
    Which was why she needed to talk to Rule. They were targets, and they were getting
     married in two months, one week, and two days, and the whole world knew about it.
     The guest list included her entire family, of course. Also a state supreme court justice,
     a U.S. senator, and a few more state movers and shakers plus some Washington types—including
     Lily’s boss, the head of both Unit Twelve and the Shadow Unit dedicated to fighting
her.
Plus a whole lot of lupi. Nokolai’s