She batted her silver eyes. “I’ve never seen you this smitten with a woman.”
I snorted. “Smitten? Somehow that word and my asshole nature don’t match, sis.”
She laughed. “Very true, but you like her a lot, Sam. You’re falling for her, aren’t you?”
I pulled on my sweaty hair. “No. Yes. I don’t know.” Hell if I knew what love felt like, and if the pain in my chest or the empty feeling in my stomach were any indication, then fuck love. I didn’t want any part of it. “Look, it’s more than my feelings. I think Layla is in trouble.”
“Then see if you can have our scout in Montana check on her,” Jo said. “Webb or Tripp should have his info.”
My father did, as well, but he was tied up with making sure Roman Brown was shipped off to our vampire prison in Puerto Rico.
I kissed her on the forehead. “Thank you. I don’t know why I didn’t think of that.”
She giggled before she dropped down on the mat and kicked out her legs. “Maybe because you have your head up your ass, consumed with thoughts about Layla. Love will do that to a person.”
I collected my bag and hiked it over my shoulder. “I need a shower before I talk to Tripp.” A renewed sense of purpose overshadowed the brooding feeling that had been making me an ornery jerkwad since Layla left.
She bent her upper torso over her thighs and touched her toes with her fingers. “He was on the phone with Webb when I passed him in the hall outside the control room.”
“Everything okay?” Webb wanted to be part of the team to escort Roman to prison. He wanted to make damn sure he saw Roman behind bars.
“As far as I know,” Jo said. “You don’t have any gut feelings, do you?”
Ben’s situation, the shifters, and thinking about Layla meant I hadn’t thought much about Roman. “Not at all. But now that we’re talking about him, I wouldn’t be surprised if Roman did try and break free. He reminds me so much of Edmund Rain.”
She shuddered as she curled her legs underneath her. “Please don’t say his name.” Jo had nightmares about him even though the vampire was dead by her hand.
“I’m sorry, sis.”
Her silver eyes morphed to violet as her emotions changed. “It’s been five years since I killed him, but I always get chills when I hear his name. We do need to find out how Roman knows about Abbey.”
“For sure, but he isn’t talking. And he blocked Pops from reading his mind.”
She raised her gaze to mine. “I bet I could get in, but Webb and Dad said no.”
I didn’t agree with them. If anyone could break through a memory bank, it was my sister. But I wasn’t in charge. Besides, with Roman locked away to rot in prison, I was sure whoever he’d gotten his intel on Abbey from wouldn’t stay in the shadows too long.
I held on to the straps of my bag. “By the way, how is my niece?”
Abbey was my niece by proxy. Her mother had been murdered by Abbey’s father, Edmund Rain, not long before Jo killed him. There was no other family that we knew of on her mother’s side to take Abbey in. Edmund had a brother and a sister, but he’d never spoken to them, at least since my father had known him. I wasn’t sure how long that was, except that Edmund and my father had been friends for many years before they became enemies.
Nevertheless, after Jo and Webb married, they’d taken custody of Abbey. She needed a parent. As a vampire, Jo couldn’t have kids, so she jumped at the chance to be a mom. More importantly, Abbey was a special little girl who, if the prophecy was correct, didn’t need her father’s blood to turn into a vampire. According to our late grandfather, Abbey would slowly lose her humanity as she aged, and at sixteen would be a full-fledged vampire.
We were watching her change right before us. At ten years old, her powers were getting stronger. Her ability to read the future was becoming sharper. She could open a door with a wave of her hand. Jo had been looking into Abbey’s mother’s family history to see if Rachel had any relatives who were powerful witches.
“She’s good. She’s in the library. Alia is tutoring her.”
I grinned, remembering the days when Alia Costner tutored Jo and me. “Is she still having nightmares?”
“Yeah. But she still won’t talk about them.”
The door to the gym burst open, and Abbey ran in. Her big blue eyes were filled with fear.
Jo was on her feet in a nanosecond. “What is it?”
Alia hurried in, trying to catch her breath, her blond hair swept on top of her head with wild strands around her face. Like Abbey, alarm swam in Alia’s blue eyes. “I’m so sorry.” She rubbed her hands together as anxiety swirled around her.
Tears cascaded down Abbey’s rosy cheeks as she trembled.
