Page 26 of Magical Midlife Rescue (Leveling Up #11)

SIXTEEN

Jessie

“Miss, I really think I should go with you,” Mr. Tom told me as we exited the suite. He’d hung around as I got ready, putting my clothes away and commenting on my choices.

“We’re only going to dinner, Mr. Tom. It’s a family thing. You’d have to wait outside.”

“I am well aware of how family dinners work, miss. I’m fine keeping a lookout.”

“That won’t be necessary,” I said firmly. “Kingsley isn’t bringing any of his people, and neither are we. I’ll call if I need anything.”

Mr. Tom harrumphed but didn’t press me.

“It’s a good thing he can’t read body language, or he might’ve known you’d lied,” Austin murmured as we headed for the stairs.

“It was a little white lie. Kingsley’s only bringing a couple people, and that’s for protection, not as a lookout. Our protection will be casing the whole area, not the restaurant specifically?—”

“Face it, you didn’t want him to embarrass you by hanging around outside in his disguise. What happened to not punishing your people because they might be judged?”

“Okay, first…”I held up a finger, then surrendered. “Fine, I’m the one who doesn’t want to be judged, okay? If we’re being watched by the visiting packs, then I don’t want my first impression to be colored by a butler wearing an Elvis wig. Sue me.”

He chuckled as we met four of the weaker shifters in the pack at the main entrance of the building. Alphas always had a team to walk them places during these things, all to show off the pack’s power. No one tended to challenge at a meeting of minds.

“Not Tristan or Broken Sue?” I asked.

“The other packs don’t know how to size up your people. They won’t understand Tristan’s power, not unless they see him in battle. I want to save the power they will understand for a surprise,” Austin explained.

“Ah.” We passed through the doors and headed along the path to Kingsley’s building. Each pack had their own, and the packs together accounted for fifty percent of the reservations. “You allowed my people to wander because it wouldn’t really matter.”

“I allowed your people to wander because I want the only shock to be the shifter power. The weirdness of your crew will hopefully be a boiling frog situation. If the other shifters get it in doses, maybe your people won’t seem so overboard tomorrow…”

“Sure, yeah. Keep telling yourself that.”

He silently chuckled, looser now than he’d been earlier. I suspected it was because of his brother. Kingsley was well respected in this circle of alphas, and it probably gave Austin some assurance to reconnect beforehand.

Kingsley waited outside the door of his building with his mate, Earnessa, and his kids, Mac and Aurora. He had four shifters with them, only two of whom I remembered from his pack.

“Is he doing the same thing?” I asked in confusion.

Austin followed my gaze. “No. He…did some restructuring. They got a surge of new shifters after the battle. He’s been moving things around. James, his old beta, is no longer living in that territory. He didn’t take the firing well. You know what happened to Bruce.”

Broken Sue had claimed his revenge. Bruce was no more.

“Jessie, good to see you again,” Kingsley said, showing me a slight smile. He put out his arms for a hug, and I glanced at Earnessa with unease. “It’s okay,” he assured me. “She knows this is your Jane thing.”

I accepted the hug, then paused to look at Earnessa again. She gave me a quirk of her red lips, almost a smile.

“Hi, Jessie.” She put out her arms as well.

“Oh, yay, we’re a hugging family now.” I gave her a squeeze.

“C’mere,” Mac said with a huge smile, wrapping me in a tight hug as soon as I’d released Earnessa. I wheezed within his embrace.

“Hello again,” I said to Aurora, whose relieved expression and lack of coiled anxiety made me hug her tightly for different reasons. She must’ve worked things out with her dad, which had to be a relief—she’d hated being cut off from her family.

Austin was giving nods or handshakes, not accustomed to hugging, and Kingsley took the lead. “Okay, shall we?—”

Austin held up a finger to his brother. “Wait. I have something for you.”

A tiny line between Kingsley’s eyebrows showed his confusion.

“Ha!” I pointed at his face in triumph, then ripped my hand down in mortification. Way to go, idiot. Draw all kinds of attention to yourself when people were surely watching out of windows or in bushes or who knew where.

“She’s been learning to read body language,” Aurora offered. “She’s gotten worlds better at it. Kinda worse at not showing her own, though. Somehow.”

Mac started laughing, but Austin took my hand. “Everyone, come with me.”

Tristan waited in the parking lot with his arms at his sides and his gaze directed at a walkway to the right. His bearing suggested someone had been checking him out, and he was ready for a challenge. It wouldn’t come, but he always hoped.

Kingsley swore as Mac whistled. Aurora’s grin said she was enjoying this.

“Tell me that’s not what I think it is,” Kingsley said to Austin, stopping to stare. “Tell me that is not a Ferrari 250 Europa. Tell me this is a dream or a mirage or something.”

“Nineteen fifty-four, yeah. A classic, and in great condition,” Austin replied.

“That car was owned by one of Momar’s and the Guild’s people.

He helped orchestrate the attack on your territory, and now he’s dead.

Sebastian and Nessa are gifting it to you.

Merry late Christmas. We had it shipped to a secure location here so you could see it, and we’ll arrange transport to your garage.

Tristan will drive it back to the secure location when we leave for dinner. ”

Tristan lobbed the keys to Kingsley, who snatched them out of the air but didn’t step forward. “You know I can’t accept this,” he said. “It’s dirty. How they got it was dirty, I mean.”

Austin scoffed and walked closer to the car, a fine-looking thing in navy. Probably horrible to drive, I mused. I liked my plush seats and modern suspension. Kingsley followed him, his gaze hungry.

“How that mage got it was dirty,” Austin said. “That’s what they do—they kill each other and steal their stuff. It’s a mark of…whatever it is, I don’t know. Niamh is figuring all that out. Sebastian and Nessa framed us for killing this mage.”

I sucked in a breath. I really hated hearing that out loud.

“The magical world thinks we took this car,” Austin continued. “But it belongs to you. By mage rules, this is yours, fair and square. Sebastian and Nessa facilitated, we’ll take the heat, and you’ll get compensated, however shallowly.”

“Seriously, Kingsley, this is how they work,” I said. “You insist I follow your rules when I’m in your territory. Well?”

“You’re not a mage, you’re a female sorceress gargoyle,” Kingsley muttered. “Those aren’t your rules, and you never really do follow mine.”

“Maybe, but I’m in that world, and whatever the mages’ reasons for framing us, they were genuine in offering this to you. They thought of you specifically when they saw it. It was meant for you, earned by blood, sweat, and tears.”

“Dad, just take the thing so we can go to dinner,” Aurora said. “You know you’re going to anyway, and I’m starving .”

Kingsley shook his head again, circling the car. His expression was one of blind joy mixed with incredulity. “It’s really hard to do the right thing when this is staring me in the face,” he whispered.

“You need to stop thinking of shifter rules as the only rules in the world,” I told him, peering in the windows. “They aren’t. Right and wrong are defined by a society. In mage society, this is right…and I’m with Aurora. Let’s eat.”

“All right, all right.” Kingsley grinned like a little boy, then gave Austin one of their bro-hugs with much beating on backs.

“ Phew .” He wiped a finger along his jaw before opening a door.

“Thank them. I mean…you’ll obviously have to explain this framing thing—that didn’t get past me—but for this, thank them.

It really is too much. You should’ve kept it for yourself. ”

Austin smiled, filled with joy. “After all you’ve done for me, and still do for me, this is a drop in the well. I’m chipping away at what I owe you.”

Kingsley gave his brother a look , pleasantly exasperated, but didn’t offer a rebuttal. I could tell it was hard for him to tear his eyes away from his new prize.

“C’mon.” Austin slapped Kingsley’s shoulder. “Everyone is hungry. Let’s get this dinner underway.”

A few hours later, Austin and I returned to the resort, aglow with family and good times.

We’d had a fun and lively conversation at a delicious Italian restaurant.

I’d asked after Austin and Kingsley’s mom, who hadn’t come because she’d wanted to watch over the pack in Kingsley’s absence, and they’d asked after Mimi, who’d stayed behind for similar reasons, wanting to manage Austin’s various businesses.

Time passed in a flash, with no discussion about business, per Earnessa’s rules.

“I really would’ve liked to ask a bunch of questions about tomorrow,” I told Austin as we climbed the stairs.

“Me too. But I’ve asked everything we need to know, and we’ve gone over it. He couldn’t have offered any more insight, and we would’ve bored everyone else.”

“Not Aurora. She listens to every word you guys say about business.”

“Earnessa and Mac, then.”

That was true.

Mr. Tom stood from the couch when we entered. “Hello, miss, sir. I trust you had a lovely evening, utterly exposed as you were without anyone to keep an eye out.”

“We managed, Mr. Tom, thank you,” I said. Austin barely paused before heading into the bedroom. “I should’ve told you not to wait up. You can?—”

“Nonsense, miss. Who would pour you a glass of wine if I were off somewhere, freely going about my evening?”

“Riiight… Well, we’re headed to bed, so you can head to your room. Or elsewhere?—”

“Get out,” Austin yelled.

I tried to keep a straight face.