Page 15 of Taming the Beasts (Crooked Point #3)

But Kebe blushed. I don’t think I’d ever seen her react to a guy like that, even though she flirted tons. Huh . Maybe she wouldn’t be annoyed when I told her that I’d agreed for her to do a private session with Grudge in exchange for him helping me last night…

“And I’m excited for our private session,” Grudge said.

Kebe’s eyebrows pulled together. “What?”

“Bye, Grudge,” I hung up on him.

“What was he talking about?”

“Nothing,” I said. I’d bring that up later. After I got some straight answers from her. “How much of our conversation were you eavesdropping on?”

“I heard you talking about your client that you think might be a vampire too? So crazy.”

It didn’t look like she was all that shocked by it.

“But you have nothing to worry about,” she said.

“We don’t?” Emma asked.

“Of course not. Even if Zoey’s client is a vampire and comes here?

Which are two big ifs . It’s not a big deal.

We have the cure. Wait, where did I put the coin?

” She turned in a circle, like she thought she’d put it on the carpet last night.

She’d left it on top of her suitcase clear as day. Did she really not remember?

“I’ve got it,” I said, but didn’t pull it out of my pocket. I didn’t trust her. And it was better if she didn’t know where it was.

“Phew, good. For a second I thought I lost it.” She laughed and sat down next to me on the couch. “Also, for the record, no one has ever described me as sinister. I’m not whatever your little furballs are referring to.”

Little furballs? What the fuck? “My boyfriends aren’t furballs. Or little. And they’re not dirty and crass either.”

Kebe laughed awkwardly. “Emma, that was a private conversation. I was just freaking out about everything for no reason. I talked to my daddy and he told me all about the coin again and how it works. So we’re good. And the coin is very easy to use. So let’s hop to it and get it activated.”

Emma and I both just stared at her.

“So now you want to use it?” I asked. “We wanted to use it last night, but you convinced us not to. And then you stole the coin and tried skip town.”

“I did no such thing,” Kebe said. “I just went for a walk around town while I talked to my daddy on the phone.”

“With your suitcase?”

“I’m always on the move. I’m used to taking it with me everywhere.”

I pressed my lips together. That was a bunch of bullshit. I looked over at Emma.

She shrugged.

“And you said all that stuff about how our relationships would change if we used the cure,” I said.

“I’m so dramatic sometimes,” Kebe said. “Sure, maybe things might change. But they’ll probably just change for the better. It’s like you said. Your boyfriends are going to be so happy.”

I did say that. I’d wanted us all to be on the same page and we finally were. But for some reason I still felt uneasy. I thought about what Emma said about Huxley possibly knowing Kebe. “How did you know so much about the coin? Emma and Grudge both looked it up online and couldn’t find anything.”

“Oh, yeah.” She swatted her hand through the air. “My daddy knows the curator from the museum it was stolen from. Did I forget to mention that?”

“You definitely forgot to mention that,” Emma said.

“Sorry, it’s just that they usually keep important relics and stuff under wraps. No one wants to be the curator that let a relic slip out of their grasp. I wasn’t supposed to say anything. My daddy is a curator too and curators talk and he happened to let it slip to me. And you know how it goes.”

I didn’t realize that curators were a bunch of gossips.

“Well, what about Zoey’s boyfriends? It seems like you knew so much about them.”

“No I assumed so much about them. Based off of things I’d heard and seen in movies and stuff. And you know what they say when people assume. It makes an ass out of you and me.”

“I’ve never heard that before,” Emma said.

“You know like…ass, the letter u, and me? It spells assume.”

“Okay then.” Emma looked at me to keep the questioning going.

But I wasn’t really sure what else to ask. I still didn’t trust Kebe. And I’d rather ask King about the coin. “Well…” my voice trailed off. “How do you use the coin?” I wanted to see what she said then cross reference it with King. “We want to show the guys today. ”

“It’s an incantation of sorts,” Kebe said. “Don’t worry about that, I’ll say the words. But don’t you think it would be better to surprise the guys with it? Like maybe a big party. Oh! We could throw it here. Or at the bank?”

Banks weren’t really for parties. And my boyfriends wouldn’t want a bunch of people there snooping around. After all, they’d just been robbed. By me. But still. “Um…”

“We’re going to tell them all today at lunch,” Emma said.

“That’s such a mistake,” Kebe said. “Let’s throw a rager and tell them there.”

That was a freaking terrible idea. They wouldn’t even be able to hear us over the music. “This seems like more of an intimate thing…”

Kebe shook her head. “The bigger the better. I can work on a guest list.”

What the hell? She was new to town. She didn’t even know anyone but us.

Who was she throwing this rager for exactly?

“No, we’ve already decided to tell them at lunch.

” I didn’t really care what Kebe thought about this.

And I didn’t want her to get in my head about this again.

I also wanted to know this incantation myself.

Hopefully King knew it. “If you’ll excuse me for a few minutes, I have to go hop on MyFanatics and tell all my followers that I’m done camming. ”

“Oh, you’re giving it up?” Kebe asked. “Did your boyfriends make you? I’ve heard that cats are very territorial.”

First furballs and now cats? “They’re werecats, Kebe. It’s entirely different.” I think .

“If you say so. Is Grudge going to be online watching? I’d love to come see your whole setup.”

She seemed really interested in my camming.

Huh. I stared at Kebe. She desperately needed a hobby that didn’t involve flirting with Callum and Huxley.

Maybe I could kill two birds with one stone.

“Actually, I really don’t want to have to shut it down.

I’d rather find someone to take it over for me.

I mean…I have so many subscribers. It seems like a waste to just throw it all away. Would you be interested?”

“Oh. Um…” her voice trailed off.

“Not that it’s about all the follows and stuff,” I said. “It’s just fun. It’s such a thrill. Whether you have ten followers or hundreds of thousands.”

Kebe’s jaw dropped. “That many people watch?”

I nodded.

“Maybe Emma can do it,” Kebe said.

Emma laughed. “Callum would murder anyone I spoke to.”

“You’re right,” she said. “He’s so possessive. It’s hot.”

So when Callum was possessive it was hot? But when my boyfriends were possessive they were just being territorial cats? What the hell?

“Just come up and see what it’s like,” I said. If I could keep Kebe distracted and her hands off our men, it was a win win.

My phone buzzed as I pulled Kebe up the stairs. I had a text from Grudge. “Please tell me you’re about to livestream a lingerie pillow fight with your hot friends?”

I smiled. No. I had something better planned.