Page 19 of Taming the Beasts (Crooked Point #3)

“Look, we wanted to talk to you about this all at once,” I said. “And obviously, I didn’t see it going like this.” I gestured to the mess in the bank. “But I was talking to one of my clients the other day and…”

“One you’ll talk to again after your vacation ?” Titan asked and folded his arms across his chest.

For fuck’s sake. Of course he’d been watching my “goodbye video.” And I was pretty sure Kebe had said something about stepping in while I was on vacation. But it was a permanent vacation.

“What is Titan talking about?” Otto asked. “Did you make your goodbye video?”

“Yes,” I said. Kind of.

Titan sighed and shook his head.

“It’s a work in progress,” I said. “I found someone to take it over for me.”

“Okay,” Bennett said. “And you told your fitness clients that you quit, right?”

Shit. “I forgot to do that. I’ll do it right after this. ”

“How long do you see this vacation being?” Titan asked. “Because I have shit to do and I’m over this.”

It felt like he’d slapped me. He was over this? He’d never even been in it. I’d fucked everything up.

“That’s what I thought.” He started walking toward his office.

“Titan, stop! I’m sorry, okay? Everything the past few days has just been a huge misunderstanding.”

He turned around. “The only misunderstanding is that you’ve conned all my friends into thinking you actually like them…”

“Titan!” Bennett yelled. “Seriously, fuck off.”

At this rate they were going to start shifting again. “Titan’s right!” I yelled.

Bennett just stared at me.

My eyes grew round. “Not about the conning you all thing. I’m obsessed with all of you. And that’s why I let Kebe get in my head and…” my voice trailed off. This time I turned to Emma for help.

“Zoey has a client named King and he told her he knew about the cure for werecats and vampirism.”

“There is no cure,” Callum said.

“But there is.” She looked up at him. “There’s a coin with an Anubis head…”

“And if there is a cure, it definitely wouldn’t have anything to do with the Egyptian god of the dead,” Callum said. “Emma, we already talked about this.”

“I know, but…”

“We found the coin.” I lifted up my hand to show them.

Everyone was finally quiet.

“I wanted to surprise you guys. And show you that I could pull off a heist. Which I did prove by the way. And Emma and I were going to tell you right away last night but Kebe…” my voice trailed off.

She’d put all these doubts in my head. And I was worried she was right about all of it.

“Last night went awry. And I’m sorry about that.

But we’re here now. Emma and I wanted to tell all of you guys together. So…surprise!”

No one looked particularly surprised or happy. Except Titan. He had a big smile on his face.

“Told you she took something,” Titan said.

I couldn’t tell if he was smiling because he was pleased with himself, or smiling because of my crazy story.

“I hate to break it to you,” Bennett said. “But Callum is actually right for once. That coin has nothing to do with the cure.”

Callum sighed.

“But King said…”

“She trusts a sex client more than she trusts us,” Titan said.

“Fuck off, Titan,” I said.

He raised his eyebrows at me.

“And it’s not just King,” I said. “Kebe knew all about the coin. Her father is a museum curator. He knows all about relics and stuff.” I hated that Kebe was my reason of logic. Because I didn’t trust her at all.

“Interesting,” Callum said. “Well, we can definitely trust Kebe. We should probably check this coin out of she thinks it could help.”

Emma and I both glared at him.

“If Callum trusts this Kebe person, I definitely do not,” Bennett said.

Well, that was just unreasonable. Although Bennett was correct in that Kebe was sus as hell .

“And I already didn’t,” Huxley said. “Something is off about her.”

“Do you know Kebe?” Emma asked him. “Because it seems like you know each other.”

“What?” Huxley shook his head. “I’ve only ever seen her with the two of you.”

It seemed like he was telling the truth. But if I was being honest with myself, I didn’t know any of my boyfriends that well yet.

“Really?” Emma asked. “Because she was going on and on about you.”

“Was she?” Huxley didn’t look unpleased by that.

“He doesn’t know her,” Ace said. “If he did, I would know her too.”

I could barely even think straight anymore. “Look, we don’t know anything about the coin beyond that we were told it would cure you guys. We thought we could all work together to research it and figure out how to activate it.”

“You want us to work with him ?” Bennett asked and gestured to Callum.

“Whatever happened between you guys in the past needs to stay in the past. Emma and I are best friends which means the six of you need to learn how to get along.”

“Or you could just give me the coin and I’ll go talk to Kebe about it,” Callum said with a shrug. It was like he hadn’t heard a single word I’d said.

And by the way Emma was glaring at him, I was worried she was going to kill him.

“You’re not going anywhere with that coin,” Bennett said. “It’s our property.”

Technically they’d stolen it, but …

“You use that phrase pretty loosely,” Callum said. “I promise to bring it back. I just need to go speak with Kebe.”

We weren’t working in teams on this project. We were fucking working together. “No one is leaving this bank and no one can trust Kebe!” I snapped.

“Why?” Callum asked.

“Because Kebe is clearly the sinister shift in the air!” Emma said. “And you’re too infatuated with her to see it.”

I pressed my lips together. I kind of agreed with all that. But I didn’t dare say it, because Callum looked annoyed.

I turned to Otto. “You said you felt something shift in the air recently. How recently?”

Otto shrugged. “I don’t know. A couple of days ago.”

“Like…two days ago exactly?”

He slowly shook his head. “No, more like three.”

I knew it.

Bennett nodded too. “We all felt it. Three days ago.”

Huxley, Ace, and even Titan nodded.

“Right when we decided to bring you into our lives,” Titan said.

I shook my head. “I’m not the sinister shift in the air. Get your head out of your ass.”

Otto laughed.

“I’ve been in this town longer than any of you. So if I was so sinister, you never would have settled down here.”

“But we did ask you to be our girlfriend three days ago,” Titan said .

“Only Otto asked me, actually. Huxley, Ace, and Bennett asked me later. And you’ve never asked me.”

He lowered his eyebrows at me.

“Besides, there was something else that happened three days ago. Kebe came to town.”