Not Your Ex's Hexes (Supernatural Singles, #2)(16)
Most of her clients since taking the job had been businesspeople, either hopping from meeting to meeting, or heading to or from the airport. The second most common were tourists. She liked them the best, finding them personable and chatty with interesting stories to tell. It kept her from being bored out of her mind and worrying about her leather seats, which would never be the same again after providing a Safe Ryde to a recent group of hardy-partying NYU students.
Rose glanced at the GPS on her phone, clocking her time until she reached the restaurant to pick up her next clients. As she pulled up to the pickup zone, she turned off the music and rolled her windows back up.
Three familiar women stepped out from the posh eatery, and somehow Rose knew … “Shit a broomstick.”
Of all the people who used Ryde, it had to be the I-Squad: Brandi, Tandi, and Candi. She’d barely tolerated them when she’d had to, and now that she didn’t?
She debated pulling away and dealing with her boss’s anger when Tandi, who was cloned from every mean girl movie ever made, glanced up from her phone. She gestured to her two minions, and they headed her way.
Before Rose could contemplate the use of a Mirage Spell to warp her features into someone new, Candi and Brandi slid into the backseat with Tandi bringing up the rear.
“I hope you know where you’re going.” The redhead’s high voice and snotty attitude instantly grated on Rose’s nerves. “I don’t want to play navigator for you all the way back to Manhattan. Can you manage that? Or should I call for another Ryde?”
“I’ll manage,” Rose pushed out.
Tandi looked at her for the first time, blinked, and then her eyes widened before her pink-glossed lips pulled up in a sly smirk. “Well, well, well. Is this where the elusive Rose Maxwell has disappeared to? And here I thought you would’ve taken the time away to get that little ‘issue’ of yours fixed.”
Minion One’s and Two’s heads spun toward Rose as if just witnessing a fourteen-car collision.
“Hello, ladies.” Jaw clenched, she pulled away from the curb and headed toward the parkway on-ramp. “I’ll get you guys back to Fifth Avenue in no time.”
Rose prayed they’d leave it be and simply talk among themselves, but the whispered mutters in the backseat didn’t stay back there for very long. Tandi leaned forward, catching her eye in the rearview mirror.
“How have you been doing, Rose? Chauffeur any celebrities or anything?” Tandi’s snide comment earned her chuckles from her two friends.
“No celebs, and I’ve been doing just fine. And you?”
“Oh, you know … I’ve been keeping busy. Or maybe you don’t know since you’re not rotating in the same circle anymore.” Tandi paused, slipping a coy glance to her friends and back. “Actually, I think running into you is almost kismet or something because I feel like I owe it to you to reach out.”
The other woman’s smirk couldn’t mean anything good. “Owe me what?”
“To break the news to you personally…”
If Tandi was going for dramatic—which was her MO—all she achieved was getting on Rose’s nerves, but it was obvious she wouldn’t be done until she got it all out. “And what news would that be?”
“I’ve been seeing Valentin.”
Rose swerved, earning herself a car honk from the sedan pacing along in her blind spot. Candi and Brandi screeched until she got herself under control, and Tandi threw her a triumphant smile. She’d gotten her reaction.
Rose gritted her teeth, trying to play it cool. “I’m not sure why you thought I needed to know. Valentin and I ended months ago.”
And months before the official breakup, she’d done her best to find her way out of the damn Bonding Agreement. There hadn’t been any romantic feelings for the French tiger shifter for well over a year, and she’d since concluded those feelings hadn’t been real.
Not in the least.
They’d been the result of stress and a mother who was eager to marry her daughter off to someone rich and handsome so as to elevate the Maxwell family name.
“I didn’t want things to get awkward in case we ever ran into each other at a big social event or something,” Tandi lied through her artificially whitened teeth, “but those aren’t your scene anymore, so…”
“Not really, no. But from what I hear, they’re not Val’s, either … since he lost his European Alpha seat to his Second-in-Command.”
And zing. As Tandi bristled, Rose mentally checked off a point in her column and fought not to smirk. A witch could get used to this loose vocal filter thing. No wonder Vi didn’t usually bother holding anything back. It was refreshing.
One upon a time, the Alpha title came with a family name, a birthright, and a long history of bloodshed and toxic testosterone. But Linc, Vi’s Mate, had volleyed hard for change and with the support of the other continental Alphas, they disbanded the Shifter Elder Board and turned the Alpha-ship into a Shiftocracy.
Alphas were now voted into their position, directly by the people they were to lead, and while Linc’s North American Pack had voted for both him and Adrian to remain in their seats, Val’s pack hadn’t. In fact, they’d all but coerced him and his bloodthirsty belief system out of Europe itself and provided an official escort out of the region.