Asima hissed her displeasure. “You are all uncivilized cretins. You have no appreciation of the finer things in life. I was exposing Teddy to some good music.” She lowered her nose to the open book. “And good literature, too. I’m reading one of Shakespeare’s plays to him. No trashy romance novels for him.”

Cinn sighed. Words just wouldn’t come. She looked at Dacian.

He nodded. “I’m putting Vince on the floor under this table. It’ll shield him from anything Teddy can fling his way. Oh, and you might want to figure out how the cactus is managing to move his arms enough to actually throw a part of himself. Must take lots of concentration on his part. You’d better hope he doesn’t figure out how to go mobile.”

“If I knew how to stop this whole nightmare, I would.” She knew she shouldn’t snap at him. He was sacrificing a lot to help her. Lord knew he had his own troubles to worry about.

Then another revelation hit her. She would do whatever it took to protect Dacian from Stephan. Whatever it took. Other than her plants and her family, she’d never experienced that level of commitment.

Cinn walked over to Asima. “Look, I appreciate how you’re trying to help Teddy, but you can’t have the music. Not unless you use headphones. We need Bain to protect the plants.”

“I could protect them.”

Could she? Cinn didn’t know. “But protecting them is Bain’s job right now. He hates the music. So make sure he doesn’t hear it.”

Cinn could see the mutiny in Asima’s eyes, but the cat finally nodded her head. “I understand that you can’t trust me because of what I did to Vince. But Bast hasn’t asked me to hurt any of your plants again.” The thought seemed to cheer her.

A tough question. “What if Bast does ask again? What will you do?”

For a moment, Asima’s gaze looked evasive, and then she seemed to make a decision. “I wouldn’t hurt Vince or Teddy. I can’t make any promises about your other plants, though.”

“Fair enough.” Cinn appreciated her honesty. “I understand your loyalty is to Bast, but you also have to understand why I don’t want you to be alone with my plants.”

Asima nodded, and Cinn turned to Bain. “Will you be okay as long as the music is off?”

“Yeah. But I hope you guys figure out something soon, because a greenhouse guard is not who I am. I destroy, I don’t nurture. This whole gig is killing my street cred.”

Cinn was a quivering ball of stress. “We’re trying, and I really appreciate you giving up your usual wicked activities to help the cause.”

Bain smiled at her, and she thought briefly that for evil incarnate he was a spectacularly beautiful package of temptation.