Hell, who was he kidding? He was the one who’d have the problem if he had her alone right now. How was he going to get his watch back without it being awkward for either of them?
Nikoli, the oldest of his cousins, always reminded them of the Benders’ mantra whenever they headed out on a mission. Keep your dick in your pants and your mind on the mission.
Normally that wasn’t an issue for Lucien. Women flirted certainly, and, occasionally, he’d reciprocate. But that was as far as it went until the mission was over and all they’d gone there to accomplish had been completed.
This was different, though. The mission wasn’t “normal,” as it involved the Triad, whom they’d never protected before. It slid off the normal scale with the number of Cartesians they’d encountered so far and the Originals they had to find and protect. All new challenges for them.
As Evee was for him. What he felt for her whenever he was near her was far from normal. She was an extraordinary woman who always smelled like gardenias and daffodils. Her smile melted his heart, and her copper-colored eyes grew so bright when she got excited they could’ve lit up a quarter of the universe. Evee might have come across as the gentlest and quietest of the Triad, but she carried an innate strength that was unmistakable.
“Hey, what’re you doing here?” a man asked, yanking Lucien from his thoughts. The voice came from behind Lucien, which caused him to clap a hand on the sheath of his scabior and spin about.
It was Ronan.
“Aren’t you supposed to be hunting the west side of the riverbank?” Ronan asked.
Lucien slapped a hand over his thudding heart. “Man, don’t you know better than to sneak up on me like that? I could’ve fried you.”
Ronan gave him a lopsided grin. “Nah, your reflexes are too sharp for you to make that kind of mistake. So, what are you doing here?” He took a step closer to Lucien and sniffed. “And why do you smell like...fish and dirty gym socks?”
Uncomfortable with the number of people milling about Toulouse Street, Lucien motioned for Ronan to follow him into an alley just off Dauphine.
“What’s going on?” Ronan asked. “You’re acting weird.”
In the muted silence of the alley, Lucien relayed to Ronan what he and Evee had gone through on the east bank. As he wound down the telling of the incident, even in the faint glow of streetlamps, Lucien saw Ronan’s face turn beet red.
“I told you!” Ronan said. “Didn’t I tell you it was a bad idea to split up? Evee could have died. On our watch, she could have died!”
“Shh,” Lucien warned. “If your voice gets any louder, we’ll start attracting a crowd.”
“Shh, my ass,” Ronan said. “The Cartesian, the water...” He ran a hand through his charcoal-black hair and started pacing in a tight circle. He stopped abruptly. “Where is Evee now?”
“Still at her home, as far as I know,” Lucien said, shoving his hands in his pockets.
Ronan stepped closer to Lucien. “Hang on a minute. What were you doing on the east bank when you were supposed to be scouting the west?”
Lucien lowered his eyes for a second, then shrugged. “Instinct more than anything. I just got a sudden urge to follow her. I’m glad I did.”
Ronan’s eyes narrowed. “So you saved her from the Cartesian?”
“Yes.”
“And from drowning?”
“Yes.”
“Then what?” Ronan asked.
“What do you mean?”
“What happened after you pulled her out of the river?”
Lucien glanced away for a millisecond. “I carried her home. She was in shock, shivering. Couldn’t stand on her own two feet.”
“Then what?” Ronan asked, taking another step closer to Lucien. “What did you do when you brought her home? Just drop her at the front door? Make her tea? Get her a warm, fuzzy blanket to wrap around her shoulders?”
Lucien stared at the fury evident on his cousin’s face. “What’s with the twenty questions and why are you so pissed?”
Ronan turned away, folding his arms across his chest. “You broke protocol. It’s not like things aren’t screwed up enough here. Breaking protocol confuses things all the more.”
Lucien frowned. “Protocol for what? Rescuing a woman from a Cartesian and then from drowning?”
“Splitting up in the first place,” Ronan said, pounding a fist into the palm of his hand. “I could have saved her from that Cartesian and from the water.”
A neon light suddenly went off in Lucien’s head. It answered a lot of questions and made him sick to his stomach at the same time.
“Ronan?” Lucien said.
“What?” Ronan turned to face him, his expression roiling with anger.
“You like her, don’t you?”
“Who? What the shit are you talking about?”
“Evee. You like her, don’t you?”
Lucien saw Ronan’s shoulders slowly relax from their defense position. He unfolded his arms and shoved his hands into his pants pockets. “Keep your dick in your pants and your mind on the mission,” Ronan said, his voice low, resigned as he stated the Benders’ mantra.
Even in the darkness of the alley, Lucien saw defeat dull his cousin’s large black eyes. In all the years they’d known each other, not once had Lucien ever seen Ronan make such a fuss over a woman.
It broke Lucien’s heart to see his cousin look so dejected. The words that came out of his own mouth milliseconds later rattled him to his core.
“If—if you’re interested in Evee,” Lucien said, “you should let her know. Eventually this mission will come to an end and so will the Benders’ mantra. So, good, bad or indifferent, at least Evee will know how you feel.”
Ronan blew out a breath. “I can’t. I’m not good with women the way you are.”
“Well,” Lucien said, “you can either let your shyness rule your heart or take a chance and tell her how you feel.”
Ronan looked him in the eye. “And what if she rejects me?”
“Then she rejects you, and you’ll move on,” Lucien said. “But you’ll never know where you stand or if you can stand beside her unless you try.”
Ronan slowly nodded, yet remained silent.
Now that he’d offered his heart up for slaughter, Lucien squared his shoulders and said, “Let’s make another run through the Quarter, and then we’ll go to the hotel so I can shower.”
Ronan nodded again, still silent.
Although he hadn’t uttered a word, Lucien knew his cousin well enough to know he was pondering what they’d discussed about Evee. Even now he was probably formulating a plan.
With a heavy heart, Lucien steeled his jaw and reminded himself that he was a Bender. He had to find the missing Originals, watch for Cartesians and take care of the Triad. That was his purpose, his innate ability.
And that’s all there was to it.
Squaring his shoulders, he began walking again, and Ronan followed him. They moved along the streets of the Quarter, Lucien using hand signals to guide Ronan in