“Me. I keep seeing myself. It’s happened a few too many times this year, and each time his message is vaguer than it wasbefore.”
His gaze twitches into the woods as he considers this. “You’ve seen yourself,” he says it like a fact. “This must be important. What have you to say toyourself?”
“I don’t know. The first time was that night of the boys’ christening. I passed out. I saw a vision of Gage on a throne. He turned into a dragon, and I said to myself that I was going to help stophim.”
Dudley grunts. “And you need a road map for that one? What else?” He looks both bored and irritated atonce.
“I saw him just now. He was at the bowling alley. He said something about Dominique Winters.” I try to rack my brain for his wording. “Something about not keeping an eye on her? Not taking care of her? And then he said I should love Skyla and Gage—talk to them. He mentioned something about not running from trouble. Running into thefire.”
“Fire?” Dudley’s head ticks back a notch as if I were alerting him toone.
“Fire.” Ishrug.
Michelle Miller lets out a whistle that can wake the dead without Skyla’s magical ring, and both Dudley and I head in that direction. Ezrina and Nev sit center stage next to a pile of oversized presents all wrapped in pastel paper while almost all of the tables Dudley has set out are filled to the brim withguests.
“What do you think itmeans?”
Dudley smacks his lips together. “It means Shelly needs us to move this little gift grab along. Ezrina and Heathcliff will have your basement brimming with all the modern finery this material world offers. It seems children require a plethora of nonsensical items to survive and thrive these days. I suppose that’s something you’ve grown familiarwith.”
“You’re a smart ass. Yes, I’m familiar. And I happen to like all the paraphernalia a baby requires because it makes me happy to see it. What do you think it means that I’m stepping down fromparadise?”
“It means he’ll help you tame that dragon your nefarious nephew is about to transform into. It means you should have dealt with Mrs. Winters now that her daughter was caught in the government snare. I assume she’s furious and ready to point her legal pistols at whomever and whatever she pleases. It means care for Skyla. Don’t bed her. It means talk to that moronic nephew of yours before he falls off the face of this earth due to his own stupidity. And the next time you see flames—run straight in.” He sheds a shit-eating grin as he finds an empty seat near theback.
“Run straight in.” I shake my head as I make my way to Skyla and Gage as he bounces Nathan in his arms contentedly, his miniature lookalike, and it warms me. Something about seeing him as a father makes it feel as if we’re winning the war on keeping him on the right side of the celestial law. I spot Laken off on the other end of the yard holding Angel safe in her arms. And I spot Chloe handing Tobie to Ellis and vice versa as if they were playing a game of hot potato. Kate sits on Skyla’s other side and offers me a quick wave. She has a slim white scarf wrapped around her neck to hide that jagged seam Ezrina gifted her. Ezrina both stitched and glued her back together. Lastly, I spot Wes off to the side talking to—Coop?
“Shit,” I whisper, leaning in to Gage. “Wes and Coop alert to the left.” As far as I see it, Coop has no business simply talking to Wes. An ass kicking is longoverdue.
Skyla cranes her neck, and it’s then I notice the bulge under her shirt, a pair of tired feet dangling lifeless to the side. Skyla is beautiful all of the time, but when she’s nursing, it takes her beauty to a magnificent level. She holds the ethereal charm and calm of a princess, and she mesmerizesme.
Gage flicks his finger over my thigh, painfully, the way we used to when we were kids. “My eyes are up here,sweetheart.”
“Right.” A small laugh pushes through my nostrils before reverting back to Coop and Wes. “You think I should headover?”
“No,” Skyla says without turning around. “It’s been quiet. They’re handling it. Speaking of quiet”—she spins around as much as the baby lying over her will allow—“have you noticed that Wes has been laying low as of late? You think he’s got some surprise attack on the horizon?” Her eyes flit from Gage tome.
“I’ve thought the same thing.” I look to Gage, but he’s suspiciously quiet. There’s no way Gage would hold anything back from Skyla and me. Not yetanyway.
The three of us sit and watch Ezrina glow as she opens box after box of every baby necessity under the sun, but it’s Nev who’s excited. Ezrina simply ogles each item with a morbid curiosity as if it were a piece that belonged in amuseum.
Ezrina opens something that has the entire crowd lost in oohs and ahhs, as if she had somehow produced the very baby she’s carrying. Skyla turns around, her teeth pinning her bottomlip.
“Thank you,” shemouths.
And then I realize Ezrina opened the gift from me. A year’s worth of diapers. The same gift I gave to Skyla and Gage. Yes, I’m still in it to win it. I pay Lizbeth to pick up the goods each time she heads out to Cost Club, and she does. I wouldn’t have a clue what to buy, and Gage is too proud to take my money. I don’t think I’ll stop after the first year. Heck, I know I won’t. It’s the least I could do. I love those boys as if they were myown.
The whoop of a siren goes off near the rear of the gathering, and every head on the property cranes in thatdirection.
Then I see them. I rise from my seat as if rising from my body, every last part of me numb withsurprise.
“Shit.” I hear Gage hiss behindme.
An entire infantry of men in blue jackets, the letters CIA clearly marked on their lapels as they swarm over the property. They’ve come in number, spreading over the landscape like a stampede of buffalo. They arelegion.
One of them jumps on a chair and holds a megaphone to his lips. “Please remain seated. This is strictly precautionary. There is nothing to fear. The use of cell phones or other devices is prohibited from this moment on. You may not leave the premises. We have the propertysurrounded.”
They bleed in from every orifice, cuffs in hand, angry-faced, solemn as shit. I glance to Dudley as a couple of men double-team him, sending his hands forcibly behind his back before shuffling him toward thegate.
I glance to Wes. Samestory.
