“Hey.”
Damn, it was good to hear her voice. “Are you okay?”
“Yes. The two men who have been chasing me have been dealt with.”
“They’re still alive?”
“Only one is dead. The other ones in the hospital and under arrest.”
Player’s heart raced. He’d kill Cree if he’d put his baby sister in the middle of a shoot-out. “What the hell happened?”
“Cree and Maliki went to get warmer clothes for us. That’s when Dino and Chuckie along with a few local men arrived at the house. I called Cree, and he told me where the guns were hidden and what to do.”
The Native was a dead man, Player thought. “So, what did you do?”
“I climbed to the top of the bathroom closet and hid on the top shelf.”
“Like when we were kids?”
“Yep. Thankfully, there was enough room for me to sit up there. I had to place my feet on the rungs to fit.” Kennedy chuckled at the thought. Now that it was over, the whole thing was ludicrous. She had sat in the dark with a gun in her hand like some female assassin. “I sat there pointing a gun down at Dino’s head when he tried hiding in the closet.”
Player scrubbed a hand down his face as Joker sat down next to him. “He was in there with you?”
“Yep. He had no idea I was above him, ready to pull the trigger.” She said it matter-of-factly and thought if she’d had to pull the trigger to save her life, she would have.
He hated hearing that Kennedy was ready to kill someone, but saving herself made it somewhat easier to swallow. “Then what happened?”
“The door came open, and all I could see were hands grabbing him. I knew it was Cree because I saw his long hair, then a knife. Dino was screaming like a little bitch. Then the door got kicked closed, and I couldn’t see anything else.” The entire story spilled out of her as she talked to Player.
“I’m glad you’re okay.”
“Me too. My boss still needs to be dealt with, but I’m calling the feds to handle him.”
That sounded like a good plan. Player didn’t want her in any more fucking gun battles. “What’s the plan from this point?” He wanted her to come to him. He wanted his family back.
“I told Cree I wanted to see you for my birthday.”
Player closed his eyes at hearing her words. “Your birthday is in six days.”
“You remember?”
“Yeah, I remember. You’re my sister, why wouldn’t I?”
“I’d like to spend Christmas with you too, if that’s okay with you.”
Grabbing a pen from the bar, he wrote on a napkin,I need tobuy a Christmas tree and decorations.He slid the napkin toward Joker. They had eight days to get some holiday cheer at his apartment. “Christmas? Wow. I haven’t celebrated the holiday since I left.”
“I haven’t celebrated it either. Not after I got thrown out of the house.”
They had so much to catch up on. Hearing that she had been tossed away by their mother pissed Player off. If Valerie was still alive, he’d probably make her life miserable for doing that to Kennedy. “Maybe we could start a new tradition for us.”
“I’d love that, Player.” Calling him that felt odd, but she’d get used to it eventually.
“Sounds funny having you call me that.”
“It’s your name, right?”
“Yeah.”
