Page 8 of Magical Midlife Rescue (Leveling Up #11)

I laughed. “Yes, I caught that.” I took a deep breath.

“I thought I was doing fine managing my schedule, but there’s a reason Austin told Mr. Tom to help me.

He passed it off as a joke, but clearly, I’m not being as punctual as I probably should be.

Practice, remember? He was probably trying to protect my feelings, but shifters tend to be incredibly punctual, and I allow meetings and trainings and whatever to run long.

I always feel bad cutting someone off, whether it be Edgar explaining his flowers or Mr. Tom trying to give me one more cup of coffee in the morning to improve my mood, or lengthening training when someone is right on the cusp of getting a maneuver. ”

“You don’t like being the bad guy,” he surmised, his eyes glowing brighter.

“I really don’t. I’ve gotten better, but…” I shrugged. “You’re clearly very good at handling people, as I’ve just seen. And you’re always hanging around, anyway, watching. Well…now you get to take an active role. Maybe if you can get me through a day, then you can get me through a battle.”

He huffed. “You’re reaching.”

“Yeah, I am, but I do think I need help with this, and I really don’t want that help from Mr. Tom or Patty.

Aurora is busy, Nessa is gone—and besides…

” I put my hands in my pockets. It was a sign of trust—for shifters, anyway.

Practice. “You’re my flight commander. My beta.

It makes sense for you to give commands for me and organize the day-to-day. ”

He nodded slowly. “I did something similar as the lead enforcer for my old cairn, Gimerel, but only as it pertained to the guardians within the cairn. I didn’t manage Nelson’s personal life.”

“Yeah, well, Nelson probably had a personal life. I am the job. It’ll be fine.” I pulled down the spell and started walking toward Patty. “It’d better be fine, because I cannot have Mr. Tom insulting every person who tries to meet with me. That’ll be a nightmare with the shifters.”

I heard his dark chuckle. Tristan probably wanted to see that.

Patty looked up from a magazine when I entered the room.

She beamed at me and then Tristan. “All caught up?” She didn’t wait for an answer.

“Fantastic. Listen to this, Jessie. Tristan.” She barely paused for a breath, putting down her magazine and leaning forward.

“Nelson isn’t faring well after certain events came to light regarding his mishandling of his production cairns.

The cairn’s finances are down nearly twenty-five percent, which is no small number.

Then there’s the issue of him making people disappear… ”

Austin and I had acquired a couple of Gimerel’s production cairns after Nelson’s mishandling came to light—sussed out by Sebastian and Nessa and “leaked” by Patty.

They were the factions that made Gimerel, the cairn Nelson headed up, money.

Without those production cairns, he’d be limping financially, which was what Patty was saying.

Making people who didn’t agree with his methods or who stood in his way disappear, though…

I barely kept from glancing at Tristan. He’d been the one to carry out those directives, a secret Austin had realized and then told me. Then Niamh. That was as far as the information had gone. We didn’t want Tristan implicated in Nelson’s affairs.

“I can see you grimacing out of the corner of my eye,” Tristan murmured.

Dang it! I tried even harder for a straight face.

We hadn’t told him that we knew. Cat was out of the bag on that one.

“Yes, dirty business, that,” Patty said without blinking.

“But great for us! If the cairn was financially healthy, most people would ignore the transgressions if they didn’t happen again.

And they won’t. Nelson realizes he’s being watched.

He wants to hold on to his leadership role.

But with the cairn struggling…well…” She lifted her penciled eyebrows, her eyes glittering.

“There is unrest. A lot of unrest. Nelson is holding it together—he’s so charming and good at public speaking—but only by a thread.

He’s sitting atop a card house. All that’s needed is a stiff breeze, and it’ll topple over.

And that breeze would want to come quickly, because he’s already acquired two new production cairns that he’s saying will more than make up the difference.

” She shrugged. “They might—he’s good at business.

They need to get up and running, though, and that takes money and time. There’s a small window for timber …”

Tristan gracefully sat on the couch facing Patty. She’d launched into her chat so quickly, and with such gusto, that neither of us had thought to break the string of words by sitting. She hadn’t seemed to mind or maybe even notice.

I took my seat next to Tristan as Mr. Tom reentered the room.

“We could destroy their operating production cairns,” Tristan said while Mr. Tom set down the mugs.

“There you are?—”

“Maybe just one,” Patty said, cutting Mr. Tom off. “A larger one. We’d reduce their income that much more and squeeze the cairn. The desire for new leadership—leadership that might better protect them—would increase. It would prompt Nelson’s critics to get even louder.”

“I know which one to hit,” Tristan replied. “If we do a thorough job, it’d take years to rebuild. It would also show our battle prowess. We?—”

“No.” I tried to keep the distasteful expression from my face.

“I will not make people suffer for my own gain. Besides, there’s no guarantee a new leader would be any more interested in joining our convocation or even giving Austin and me the time of day.

There has to be another way to show our power, something to make the people in that cairn sit up and take notice. To want change.”

Tristan was looking at me steadily now. No expression showed on his face or through his body. He’d gotten too good at that shifter body language training.

“Yes, hmm.” Patty tapped her chin and looked up at Mr. Tom, who was still standing there. “Did you need something, Mr. Tom?”

“If I did, I don’t imagine you’d stay quiet long enough to hear it.” He sniffed. “Miss, did you need anything else? Earplugs, maybe? A timer?”

“No, thank you, Mr. Tom, that’s great.” I smiled at him.

He spun on his heel and left the room.

“Let’s table Gimerel for now,” Patty said. Tristan was still looking at me.

I was about to ask him, “What?” but Patty was away again.

“Now, how about this!” Her smile stretched.

“Remember that little spot of trouble Withor got into? The surrogate for his heir that his mate didn’t know about?

His mistress, in other words. He’d promised that poor woman the world, thinking his mate would die from her sickness.

Well, the baby was born…and the mate didn’t die! ”

“Nikken cairn. I remember.” I’d sent word, asking that she be sent to my territory.

We would look after her so she didn’t have an “accident.” Gimerel wasn’t the only cairn that made people disappear.

So far, we’d gotten no reply. It was time to force the issue.

I’d asked Patty to get more information before we created a plan.

“Well…” She leaned forward and then away again.

The woman was entrancing with her gossip.

“The young woman’s second cousin got wind of all this.

He’s a guardian in a cairn in the Rocky Mountains.

He’d been angling to take the cairn over and make something of it—it’s a medium-sized cairn—but decided instead to travel to Nikken and protect his family’s honor. ”

“He saw an opportunity,” Tristan murmured.

“Yes, he did.” Patty nodded adamantly. “He did, indeed. That’s how these things go.

He called down Withor, talked about the failing finances and the problems with the production cairns and the instability of the cairn, not to mention the lack of an heir, all while demanding justice.

He demanded something be done for the poor woman.

Well, Withor’s mate was appalled. Appalled!

Out came the stories of how horrible Withor had been to her on her deathbed, yelling at her about not being able to produce an heir, and all sorts of filthy things. Nail in the coffin.”

“She saw the writing on the wall,” Tristan said. “She knew Withor’s time was over. If she helped facilitate the new leader, he’d be inclined to look after her.”

“Exactly that!” Patty beamed at him. “Only fifteen years in a cairn and you’re well versed on all the politics.

With her supporting the new guy, and Withor having plenty of naysayers without knowing about the mistress, and the mistress—well, he was basically flung out.

Exiled. The new guy tried to offer him a place, as is decent, but the people of the cairn would not hear of it?—”

“That’s pretty common with a downfall like that,” Tristan murmured to me. “He’ll find a cairn to take him in. He has his riches to offer, not to mention experience. Someone will be glad of his company.”

“Not that he deserves it,” I grumbled.

Tristan’s head snapped my way. This time, confusion poked through his expression. This gargoyle just didn’t get me.

I laughed and so did Patty, though I wasn’t sure what she was laughing at.

“Yes, so that is Withor off his stoop,” she said, clapping. “And do you know what else?” She pursed her lips and lifted her eyebrows before springing up and walking around the couch.

Tristan checked his watch, a Cartier Tank Must, with its iconic rectangular shape and minimalistic aesthetic. He was going for refined simplicity without sacrificing style, a good choice for an everyday watch.