“Thanks. I was all set to spill everything.”

“He’d have fainted. And then not remembered it. Now he thinks he’s just dealing with old European money trying to solve their problems with bullets.”

“Which won’t stop him trying to put me and Kanesha both into WP, and that would ruin her career.”

“I’ll keep working on him. He might come around some day. He’s not a bad guy…for a cop.”

I grinned. “And you, being a creature of chaos, don’t like cops.”

“I don’t. They’re boring, staid…”

“Mike likes the brownies.”

“Mike is still boring,” he quipped.

“Thea disagrees.” I used that name because I was aware that we weren’t alone. That we were, in fact, being followed.

Not that it seemed to bother Loki. It didn’t even really bother me, except that I didn’t want them hearing that name if it was another hired mundane.

Loki glanced over his shoulder, then turned to me and rolled his eyes. “Let me take care of that.”

I didn’t argue, trusting him not to do anything too nasty to the guy. A moment later, a kid brushed past us, then past him. The man abruptly realized his wallet was missing and took off after the kid.

“Was that real?”

Loki grinned. “It’ll be consistent enough. Then he’ll get yelled at for losing us, but he had about two hundred dollars in there.”

I laughed. “Thanks for not actually hurting him.”

“I don’t like it when people drag in mundanes like that.” He paused. “Kanesha and Mike don’t count.”

“They know what they’re getting into. You’re saying these people have no clue who’s hiring them. Any idea who it is?”

“Oh, it’s Surtur. I know that for sure.”

I nodded. “Figured. I need to work out a good way to get him off my back.”

“He’ll probably stay on your back until you marry somebody else.” A pause. “And not a mortal either.”

My lips quirked. “I’m not running from him forever.”

“I’m not saying you should.”

I caught the implication in his tone. “You know I can’t beat him.”

He lifted a hand. “Yet.”