Players (Lessons by Loki) (2 page)

And it would be his pleasure to guide her every step of the way.

She walked to the door and pulled it open, peering into the hallway. “Grandma?” her voice caught as she whispered the word, yet Loki sensed loneliness not fear. Her life would become a lot less isolated very soon. He just hoped she was strong enough to enjoy the game.

Satisfied that he’d found a situation worthy of his talents, he sent a wave of calming warmth over Katie and then returned to his body on the rooftop downtown.

Lifting the next patient file from the wall bracket,
Katie quickly scanned the form to see what she would need. Basic ankle x-ray, routine,
boring
. She fought back a smile. If she’d wanted excitement in her life, she should have chosen a different occupation. Medical imaging was not known for its challenges. She spent approximately ten minutes with each patient and seldom knew more than their name and the location of their injury.

After
setting up the room for the procedure, she looked at the name on the form and paused. Jon Loki. Wasn’t Loki the Norse trickster god? The smile she’d been fighting all morning finally materialized. Perhaps this day would be more interesting than she’d feared.

She walked down the hall to the small waiting room. There were two women in hospital gowns and a
youngish man sitting in a wheelchair. “Mr. Loki?” She smiled at the man.

“That would be me.” He raised his hand and returned her smile. With
shaggy blond hair and bright blue eyes, his appearance was as Nordic as his name. His jeans had been rolled up on one side, revealing his swollen ankle, and he wore a plain white T-shirt. He seemed ordinary, average, certainly not godlike. Oh well. She hadn’t really expected anything interesting, but a girl could hope.

Slipping around the wheelchair in the crow
ded space took some creative maneuvering. Still, she managed to release the break and roll Mr. Loki out into the hall. “I’d ask how your day was going, but I’m pretty sure I know.”

He chuckled.
“Yeah, this was not what I had planned.”

“Well, I’ll try to make this
as quick and painless as possible.”

The x-ray room was quiet and cool
, as always. She rolled him up to the table and set the wheelchair’s breaks. “Can you hop up onto the table or should I grab a step.”

“No. I’m pretty sure I can do it.” He pushed to his feet, or actually foot, as he kept his weight balanced on his uninjured leg. He was taller than she’d first thought and he easily made it to the tabletop.

She moved the wheelchair out of the way then asked, “Can you swing your legs up onto the table?”

He was staring at her with an odd expression, eyes slightly narrowed. “You look familiar. Do I know you from somewhere else?”

“I don’t think so. Your name is pretty hard to forget.”

Suddenly his eyes widened and his mouth gaped. “You’re not Katie, are you?”

A chill dropped down her spine and her stomach tensed. He made Katie sound like a disease. She slipped her hands into the pockets of her multicolored scrubs, trying not to let her apprehension show. “That’s my name, but I know we’ve never met.”

“
Don’t you live across the street from Chase and Josiah?”

She allowed herself to relax, a little.
His name dropping wasn’t much of a recommendation. Chase and Josiah were her least favorite neighbors. Sort of. They annoyed her, yet fascinated her too. No matter how hard she tried to convince herself she didn’t care what went on in their tasteless house, she couldn’t keep herself from watching and imagining.

“Are you friends with those guys?”

His shocked expression turned into a guilty grin. “I wouldn’t want them as neighbors either. They’re almost too wild for me.”

“Almost?”

He laughed and carefully bent his injured leg so he could pivot onto the table. “Should I lie back?”

“You can stay seated if it makes you more comfortable as long as you can fully extend your leg.”

With a hiss and a muffled groan, he unfolded his leg. “Like this?”

“Almost.”
She carefully angled his foot for the first image then positioned the x-ray arm. “Now hold still.”

He nodded and she moved behind the protective barrier.
She activated the generator and waited for the familiar whir to completely cycle before she stepped out from behind the partial wall’s protection. “Why did you say my name with such dread? Did I do something to offend Chase or Josiah?”

“It’s not what you did. It’s what they… Have either of them approached you in the past
day or so?”

The tightness returned to her stomach. Chase and Josiah had started
irritating her even before they moved in. The developer who bought their lot tore down one of the most beautiful houses in the neighborhood to build a modern monstrosity. And the situation had gone from bad to worse when the party-focused bachelors snatched up the fancy new house shortly after it went on the market. At least she presumed they were bachelors. More than a few of the people on the block were convinced they were a couple. Not that she cared one way or the other.

A familiar ache erupted deep inside her. She’d spent far too many nights thinking about the house across the street
, imagining the sexual excesses indulged beneath that roof. A steady stream of lovers and acquaintances passed through the front door, men, women, in every conceivable combination, all young and beautiful. It made her feel stodgy and old.

“I don’t have a lot in common with those two. Why would either of them approach me?”

“Do you get a break for lunch or something? This might take a while to explain.”

She hesitated. “Unless their choices directly affect me, I’m not really interested in—”

“This directly affects you.” He stared at her, blue eyes wide and earnest. “I know you don’t know me from Adam, but you need to hear this.”

Still, her cautious nature wouldn’t let her agree. As long as they met in a public place
, what did she have to lose? He already knew where she lived and worked. And there was a slim possibility he’d tell her something important.

“All right
,” she finally relented. “I’ll meet you at the Corner Bistro at 12:30. It’s on 17
th
and Clarkson over on restaurant row.”

“I’ve seen it.”

She nodded then retreated into her professional reserve as she finished the procedure.

The rest of the morning was slow, even for a T
hursday. Katie moved through the following appointments on autopilot. She couldn’t imagine what Jon Loki was going to tell her and was anxious for the conversation to begin.

It wasn’t as if Chase and Josiah were the bane of the neighborhood.
Their property was well maintained and they only threw wild parties a few times per year. Still, they had different priorities than many of the more mature residents. Katie smiled. She instinctually lumped herself in with the “mature” residents, yet her actual age was closer to the rowdy bachelors. When had she become such a curmudgeon?

“Are you okay?”
Carla asked as she returned from the outer waiting room. “You look sort of stunned.”

“I’ve been fighting a headache all
morning.” Katie rubbed her temples and closed her eyes. “Can’t seem to get on top of it.”

“It’s been dead today. I can cover for you.”

“Are you sure?” She felt guilty taking advantage of Carla’s generous nature, but she wasn’t sure how long her mysterious lunch would take.

“You’ve covered for me before. Go home.
” She waved Katie toward the exit. “I’ll be fine.”

Katie grabbed her purse from the desk drawer in the com
mon office area then gave Carla a quick hug. “Thanks for this. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

The hospital was on 18
th
and Franklin, so she didn’t have far to go. Avoiding the narrow one-way streets, she drove up Clarkson and pulled into the tiny parking lot behind the restaurant. The Corner Bistro was a local favorite, but few outside the community knew about the culinary treats available in the compact eatery.

Jon Loki had already been seated when Katie arrived. She took off her sunglasses and tucked them into her purse then spotted him at a table near the back of the dining room. He stood and pulled out her chair, a nearly forgotten
show of gallantry.

“
It wasn’t broken, I take it.” She motioned toward his injured ankle.

“Just a sprain.”
He waved away her concern as he added, “They slapped me in an air-brace and sent me on my way.”

“Well, you should still take it easy for a while.
Sprains can be serious. Ice and elevate.”

“Yes, doctor Katie.” He paused for a playful salute. “I’ll ice and elevate.”

She scooted closer to the table and hooked her purse strap over the back of her chair.

“I’m glad you came.” He returned to his seat, his expression watchful. “I wasn’t sure you would.”

The waitress asked for their drink order as they looked at their menus. Katie had eaten at the bistro often enough to know what she liked, so she used the time to assess her companion. His age was hard to determine. Faint lines around his eyes and mouth suggested he was older than his first impression, maybe nearing forty.

“What’s good here?” He glanced up from his menu, gaze
bright blue even in the subdued light.

“Everything.
” She shrugged and closed her menu then set it aside. “Do you really have something to tell me or was this a bizarre pick-up line?”

He closed his menu as well, his lips curving in a secretive smile. “I admit I find you attractive, but I’m not in the market for a relationship.”

Before Katie could respond to the claim the waitress returned to take their order. Katie watched her companion closely as he gathered the menus and handed them to the waitress. His smile seemed genuine and his speech was oddly formal given his casual attire. She was usually a good judge of people, but she couldn’t decide what she thought of Jon Loki.

“
So, Mr. Loki—”

“Just Loki, please.”
He shifted his gaze back to her as he added, “My father is also Jon and I refused to be called junior. Besides I share my namesake’s interest in mischief, so it seemed natural.” He flashed a broader smile.

Katie wrapped her hands around her coffee mug, fascinated by the change in his appearance. With that smile curving his lips and his blue eyes shimmering, she could easily picture him orchestrating all sorts of misdeeds. “Al
l right,
Loki
. Would you mind answering a few of my questions first?”

“Of course not.
What would you like to know?”

“Where did Josiah go to college?”

“A test?” He chuckled and reached for his beer bottle. “I suppose that’s no more than fair. They both went to CU Boulder. As did I. That’s where we met. We graduated in different years, but we were all part of the same fraternity.”

She narrowed her gaze on his face. “I know it
’s rude to bring up age, but you look too old to have attended collage at the same time as Josiah and Chase.”

He shrugged. “
I am a few years older. I spent four years in the Army before I went to college. It was that only way I could afford to go. And then I was a year ahead of Josiah, who was two years ahead of Chase.”

Basic facts were simple to find out thanks to
social networking, but she really didn’t know them that well. “What’s Josiah’s sister’s name?”

“Trick question.
Josiah’s an only child. Chase, however, has an older brother and two younger sisters. Their names are—”

She stopped him with an upraised hand.
“All right.” She didn’t know the names of Chase’s siblings, but she knew the rest was accurate. “You obviously know them, but what do you want with me?”

“It’s not what I want. It’s what
they
want.” He lifted his beer to his lips and took a long drink. “As I’m sure you’ve noticed, your neighbors enjoy the chase. They flirt and seduce with ruthless focus, but once the quarry is caught, they lose interest.”

“A lot of people are like that. Why should
I care what they do in the privacy of their home?”

“Because you
, my dear, are their current quarry.”

She rolled her eyes and sipped her coffee
, allowing the familiar aroma to soothe her. “They’ve each had multiple opportunities to show an interest in me. Trust me, I’m not their type.”

“It
’s precisely because you’re not their usual type that they’ve focused on you now.”

Part of her still feared this was some twisted pick
-up line, but Loki seemed sincere and what she knew about Chase and Josiah made the rest easy to believe. But why her, and why would Loki warn her? “I don’t understand.”

“Do you know who Vanessa is?”

“The skinny brunette Chase has been screwing for the past few months?” Wow that sounded bitchy. Was she perhaps jealous of said brunette?

The corner of Loki’s lips quirked, indicating he’d picked up on the undertone. “
Vanessa broke up with Chase a few weeks back and he didn’t take it well. Half the fun of being the hunter is deciding when to set your prey free.”

“And she beat him to the punchline?”

“Exactly.”