Page 141 of Marked By Moonlight

I didn’t believeanyof them. Well, maybe Marius. Possibly Roux. But not Henrik, anddefinitelynot Bene.

I pointed at him fiercely. “I mean it, Bene. Do not mess this up. Don’t even show yourself — in humanorlion form.”

He stuck up his hands. “Not in my self-interest. Not when the place is crawling with police officers.”

His tone suggested roaches rather than Burgundy’s finest, so I pinned him with a hard look.

“Please. I need to get this business up and running, and this is an important first step.”

Bene looked doubtful. “Sports business?”

I rose to put away the dishes. “Any business! And this is free advertising. People will come away from this event talking about what a great place this is for weddings and other events.”

Roux scratched his cheek doubtfully. “Police weddings?”

I stamped my foot. “Normal people’s!”

Bene cocked his head. “Define normal.”

Simple question, yet I came up totally blank. Six weeks of living with these men — and two missions for Gordon — had warped my sense of normalcy forever.

I gritted my teeth. “It will also give me a sense of how well logistics will work for future events. Road access, parking, toilets…”

A slight exaggeration, because the event organizers had trucked in dozens of portable toilets. But any detail they let slip would reflect poorly on the venue, and my hopes for future business could be marred forever.

“Oh God.” I grabbed for my clipboard. “Spare toilet paper—”

Marius touched my shoulder gently. “Already taken care of, remember?”

Was it? Over the past week, we’d made more runs to thehypermarchéthan I could count, and it was all a blur to me.

“We have enough toilet paper to survive the apocalypse,” Marius assured me.

“Or the next pandemic,” Bene threw in. “Whichever comes first.”

Henrik looked smug, the only one of us immune to both those events.

I carried the plates to the kitchen, then hurried back to the dining room. The event organizers would be here any minute, and hundreds of contestants and spectators would follow.

“Now, listen,” I instructed them. “Roux has a list of jobs I need you to do today…”

Roux leafed through the pages with a dry expression. Yes,pages— plural.

“As soon as you finish one job, you’re to start right on the next,” I went on.

That was my strategy — to keep them so occupied indoors that they wouldn’t find time to sneak outside and mingle with our visitors.

“That’s not a list. That’s a goddamn manifesto,” Bene protested.

“Don’t like it? Move out,” Marius growled.

Bene made a face but held his tongue. That was the nice thing about our new arrangement — I still had something to hold over them. I also had Marius as the ultimate enforcer.

Joy trickled through my veins, and I reminded myself to maintain a sense of perspective. I’d survived a combined vampire/shifter attack and my godfather’s latest sketchy scheme. I could survive hosting a sports event too.

“We really, really can’t afford any trouble today,” I admonished for the last time. “So, please. Stay out of sight. No exceptions — not even for you, Henrik. Not until the last police officer leaves the premises. Understood?”

He shot me a sullen expression but nodded. “Understood.”