“Draft, please, thanks.” Her little smile and overly polite demeanor would not help matters.
“And you?” Oliver asked Austin Steele.
“Bourbon, on the rocks, and I’ll get a round for the rest of my people.” He made a circular motion around Broken Sue, Niamh, Phil, Jasper and Ulric before turning and gesturing to the shifters hanging out behind them.
Their show of togetherness would likely worsen the divide between the two packs. This was all going to get worse before it got better. To Niamh’s mind, Austin Steele was the wrong sort for these parts, too powerful, too wild. He was just the type to bring in a bunch of other powerful creatures and upset the balance of this sleepy, entrenched pack. They saw him as a threat regardless of why he was there.
“All of them?” Oliver looked behind Austin Steele, getting the drink list. “Okay.”
“I’m just going to run to the restroom really quick,” Jessie murmured to Austin Steele, tilting her head up to get another kiss. He complied eagerly, not because of the perceived situation with the beta, but because he clearly couldn’t help himself. The two were utterly besotted with each other. It made them volatile.
Niamh liked volatile.
She grinned as Jessie drifted away with her head down. Two of the three interested female parties straightened up and pushed out their boobs. None of them had noticed one another, so focused were they on what they thought was the prize of the bar.
But Niamh had business to handle before the fireworks.
“Austin Steele, c’mere, I got a line on a warehouse,” she said, keeping her voice low. “I met a right wanker down the bar a ways there. Real shady, that lad. He was trying to sell me— Well, it doesn’t matter. They didn’t do a damn thing.”
“Drugs,” Phil said. “He sells drugs.”
Niamh turned to the basajaun with wide eyes. “What are ye, some kind of narc?”
“A what?” Phil asked.
“Yer supposed to keep those types of things to yerself, ya muppet.”
“They did not work, those drugs,” Phil replied, indignant. “He is the muppet, not me.”
She shook her head at him before turning back to Austin Steele. “Anyway, he can get us a warehouse. The people renting it aren’t in the area, so we’ll need to clean up when we’re done, but we’ve got a place for…an interview should we catch any…magical people.”
Austin Steele glanced around the bar, not noticing one of the women start his way, her neckline scooped low and her sparkly dress short. She was probably ten years his junior.
He then glanced in the direction Jessie had gone before pushing in a little closer to Niamh. They all knew Jessie would hesitate at playing dirty with those mages. She’d eventually get there, they’d seen proof of that, but they didn’t have time to convince her. They needed to move fast.
For a wonder, after Austin Steele had learned more about the dirty world mages existed in—
Niamh didn’t keep much back from the alpha—he’d stopped feeling any kind of moral duty to protect them. In fact, he was very much on the “mess with what’s mine, and I’ll ruin your life” train. Niamh knew he could be coaxed into it. Jessie was the sunshine in that pair, no question.
“This is a very delicate situation, you understand that,” Austin Steele told her in an equally low tone. “I’d prefer it if no one knew we gave this command. If you get caught, Jess will have to be the fall guy. Unfortunately, that will make her appear weak, but I’d like to keep in Kingsley’s good graces.”
“Ah, sure, but Kingsley’s people aren’t supposed to leave town, right?” Niamh asked. “That’s easy. They won’t want to get caught any more than we do. It’ll be grand. But what about that warehouse? That lad is asking for a few quid to make the deal. More than it’s worth, surely, but when I called around today, I couldn’t find a better alternative.”
“Try to talk him down a bit, but keep him happy. We don’t need him talking about this deal.”
“Do ye not get people or what?” Niamh asked him, leaning away a bit so she could see his face clearly. “I recorded us buying drugs off him. That’s called blackmail, Austin Steele. If he starts running his mouth, he’ll get Kingsley breathing down his neck. Do ye think he wants that kinda heat?
No, he does not.”
“Can I go?” Phil asked.
“Now yer gettin’ on me last nerve,” Niamh told him. “Even if ye could keep your mouth shut, ye’d scare away all the magical people.”