River Road Read Online Free PDF

dinner date.
    He watched a couple walking hand-in-hand near the river, his brows tightened in thought. “I knew there were some merclans in Southeast Louisiana, but I thought most of them were in St. Bernard Parish and the Atchafalaya Basin. How long have these two clans been there?”
    How’d he know there were merclans outside the Beyond? I handed him the last third of my chocolate. “Jean made it sound like the Villeres just moved in but the Delachaise family had been there since his time. Well, his first time.”
    Speaking of which, I said a quick prayer. “By the way, Jean will be at the meeting today—the mers insisted on it. He’s going to ride with us.”
    I waited for the rant to begin, or at least a smartass comment. Alex pursed his lips, staring at the water. “You run that past the Elders?”
    “I did.” He seemed to be taking the news remarkably well.
    He finally slid his gaze to me. “You could have told me last night. Don’t try to manage me. You’re not that good at it.”
    I thought my Alex-management skills were excellent. “And you weren’t managing me by hiding that little bit about Jake becoming an enforcer? We’ll end up working together. I’d have found out eventually.”
    A mix of emotions played across his face before he clamped down on them, and for the first time this morning I was tempted to try my empathic skills on him. Try being the operative word. As a shapeshifter his emotional patterns took wonky twists, and as an enforcer he’d been trained to shield himself from mental invasion.
    “Is this some kind of competition thing?” I kept my tone light. Alex and Jake were more like brothers than cousins, and had the near-sibling rivalry to prove it. “Why did you want to know if I’d been alone with Jake last night?”
    He rubbed the back of his neck, and I was struck by how tired he looked. Not stayed-out-late-with-Leyla tired, but worried-as-hell tired. “I’m not convinced he has his wolf under good-enough control to be here, especially working for the wizards. The Elders want another enforcer in Louisiana now that the Beyond’s opened up. Jake looks perfect on paper, but…” He trailed off, eyes following a cruise ship as it made its way upriver.
    “He seemed fine last night.” Jake thought this job gave his life meaning again, and I wanted him to have the chance to prove himself. I knew how that felt. “This is really important to him, Alex. He needs it.”
    “I know.” Alex swung his legs over the bench and started back toward his car. “But I still don’t want you alone with him.”

 
    CHAPTER 4
    After a quick shower, I threw on jeans and a tank with a denim shirt on top, scarfed down some toast, pulled my hair into a ponytail, and still made it to my Tchoupitoulas Street office with twenty minutes to spare before the nine a.m. rendezvous. A bracing cup of strong coffee in the peace and quiet of my office would help me prepare for what I expected to be a trying day. Angry mermen plus Jean Lafitte plus Alex equaled a tense DJ.
    I unlocked the office and flipped on the flourescent lights of my generic, rectangular home away from home. A tasteful sign, CRESCENT CITY RISK MANAGEMENT , had been painted on the door, which was protected by a magical security system that would cause discomfort in any human who felt an urge to drop in for a chat about insurance risks.
    I hadn’t felt the need for an office until recently, when the dissolution of the borders with the Beyond had become imminent. Before that, the only thing I’d needed for work was my upstairs library-cum-laboratory, where all the makings of a good potion were catalogued, sorted, and stored. I’d been a deputy sentinel mainstreamed as a risk-management consultant for nearby Tulane University. The perfect geek job.
    No more. Now that the preternatural floodgates had opened and I was a full sentinel, tasked with wrangling misbehaving pretes and keeping the humans clueless, I figured it was only a matter