“Stop glaring outside and panting like a dog. It’s not a good look. I can smell the desperate on you. Put some ’80s perfume on and get in the mood. It’ll cool you off.” She picks up a pretty pink bottle of Love’s Baby Soft my mother gifted me for my last birthday and proceeds to douse me init.
“Would you stop!” I scoop up both Nathan and Barron in a panic and make a break for the hall. “Perfume is nerve gas for babies in the event you didn’t get the memo,” I bark as I stalk down the fecal-stenched stairs, leaning against the wall with every other step—a trick that’s helped me from toppling with my precious little babes a time or two. There’s no way in hell I’d let Chloe take one from me. She’d probably land the poor kid on his head, on purpose, of course. I may be keeping my enemy close, but I’m not blind to her old tricks. In the celestial mother of all ironies, it’s Chloe and I who areuntil death do we part. In the end, Chloe’s loyalty, albeit bought at a price, is virtuallyindestructible.
“Listen, Messenger”—Chloe pulls me back by the elbow as we hit the foyer—“you and I made a little deal. It’s time we start polishing the details of thatpayoff.”
A ripe anger burns through me. “You are alive. You are in my home, inches from the two beings that represent my beating heart. You are allowed in my presence.” A fire blazes from my eyes. “And yes, you and I will both get what we are lookingfor.”
Those dark soulless pits of hers scour my features. “You’re not really looking for anything from me, are you,Skyla?”
“Just what Iasked.”
A sharp knock erupts, and both boys startle in my arms. Chloe opens the door only to find Laken, whose smile quicklysours.
“I thought we could go together.” She offers a sharp look my way. Laken has completely embraced the ’80s radical color explosion with her psychedelic print miniskirt and mesh net top that accents the hot pink bra underneath. Both Chloe and Laken have gone all out, and all I could piece together was an acid washed jean dress I pulled from my mother’s closet. It’s tight in all the right places, squared off neck, the hemline shorter than anything I could ever envision my mother leaving the housein.
“Yes, for sure. Of course, we can go together. Chloe will have to tag along.” I give a quick wink to the demon to my left. Unfortunately for me, Chloe will be tagging along a lot longer than just one night. As soon as I witnessed Gage Oliver’s demise the night of the christening, I knew my hands were tied. Chloe may not realize it, but she’s the most valuable weapon in my arsenal. In a world where I can’t get a single being to do my bidding, I knew I could rely on my equally desperate and out of control nemesis to step across enemy lines—especially since we have the very same mission in mind. Our goals may not have always lined up, but when it comes to Gage Oliver, we are one in the same, obsessed to a fault, desperately and hopelessly in love with him. Not even our Celestra bloodlines could bond us in the way that Gage has. Apart from one another, Chloe and I were wayward, but together we are a force unstoppable, a nightmare, a blessing, a reign of holy terror—two saviors riding on our white steeds. I’m no fool. I realize Chloe has a heart of destruction when it comes to me and perhaps my family. But for now, with her tethered to my hip, chained to my neck, we are safe from all of her reprehensible harm. I should have done this years ago, but years ago she wasn’t nearly as helpless as she is now. Neither wasI.
“Well, hello, you handsome little men,” Laken coos to the boys as she gives Barron a quick tickle, and they both break out into deep, husky belly laughs that vibrate through me like a current of pure joy. “Oh my God! They’re darling!” She scoops up Barron and touches her nose to his. “I’m inlove.”
“You better watch out. They’re highly addictive.” I give Nathan a quick kiss to the forehead. “I can’t get over how happy they suddenly are. All they do now is smile and laugh.” And my heart melts each and everytime.
Chloe grunts at the thought. “And shit and suck on your tits. I’ve witnessed.” She sneers over at Laken. “You’re not missingmuch.”
“Why are you here?” The joy quickly drains from Laken’s face. “Skyla, I might have to talk to Dr. Booth and have youcommitted.”
I bark out a laugh and spin on my heels toward the family room. “It wouldn’t be the first time. Come on, let’s hand these chunky monkeys off for the night. My sisters are pulling diaper duty until I getback.”
We find Mom doing an art project with Misty and Beau while Tad huddles over a stack of bills along with them at the kitchen table. But it’s that odd speck sitting prominent on Mom’s left cheek that calls myattention.
I nod over to her. “I think you’ve got a chocolate chip stuck to your face.” I brush my cheek in an effort to navigate her to the chocolateyconfection.
She swipes the air with her hand as if it were no big deal. “It’s a new look I’m trying out.” Her eyes swipe over to Tad a moment before reverting back to me. “I hear a well-placed mole drives menwild,” she whispers withglee.
“A what? Drives menwhat?” Why the hell would my mother find it suddenly necessary to beguile Tad with what amounts to a pre-cancerous lesion on her face? I scan my mind for any woman with prominent moles, and all I can think of are a few supermodels. Sure, it’s hot as hell, but on them it’s natural. On Mom it just looks like a bird had a very unfortunate discharge. In fact, the only woman that comes to mind with a mole that size on the island is Dom—I suck in a sharp breath. Dominique Winters! Gah! No wonder my mother is whispering! She didn’t want to arouse Tad’s suspicions or apparently his penis! Anddouble gah! The wordsTad’s penisjust flitted through my mind! It makes me hate Demetri that much more for all the grief he’s given me. Not only is my mother wasting her time trying to beguile him with a knockoff mole—trying to win him back from Dom the Dominatrix—but he’s plummeted my mother into the hell of insecurity. If Demetri really loved her, he wouldn’t give a demonic rat’s ass whether or not she had a mole. And sadly, I suspect it’s true. Demetri couldn’t care less if she had any teeth either—and at this point, her brain is questionable atbest.
I turn my attention to the family room where I find Mia on the couch with—ohshit.
“Rev?” I blink back in horror at the biker wannabe with his shorn head and dirty leather jacket that’s probably crawling with germs and semen because God knows you can’t wash leather. “Do you two have adate?”
“Yup!” Mia springs up and takes Nathan from me while doing a little happy dance. Her lashes look suspiciously long and luscious, and it’s not until I note one sitting crooked do I realize they came from a box. Her makeup is garish, bright red lips, enough highlighter to signal to the moon. MiaLandonisn’t looking to stay home and change diapers all night. “I’ll be right here with these little dudes. Rev’s helping mebabysit.”
“No way, no how.” I pull Nathan right back. “Laken, hold on tight. There’s no way I’m leaving these angels with this hot-to-trot duo decked out in Halloweencostumes.”
Rev gives that perennially bored look he’s famous for. “Tell her I’m good with kids,Laken.”
A breath gets caught in my throat. That’s right! Laken and Rev are practically stepsiblings now that their parents have hooked up for the seemingly longhaul.
Laken squirms a moment. “He really is. Lacy and Marky adorehim.”
Lacy is Laken’s little sis, and Marky isCoop’s.
“Traitor!” I gulp for air at how far the mighty have fallen. “Chloe, take Barron.” Desperate times call for desperate bitches to assistme.
“No.” Laken spins away from Chloe’s purple claws. “Rev is going to do just fine. He’s not a menace, Ipromise.”
“Ha!” Tad leaps from his seat, waving a piece of paper in his hand. “He’s exactly a menace. An expensive one atthat.”
Crap. It’s never a good sign when Tad and I agree onsomething.
