Sesame’s praise seemed to give Tommy extra strength. With a roar, he sent his uncle’s sword flying into the yard.
“Ow,” said the moron in the onesie.
“I told you to get out of here,” Kellen yelled over his shoulder.
Two gunshots rang out, and everyone froze as a hunk of the porch ceiling crashed down.
“Now that I have your attention, I’m going to ask one more time! Where’s the doody?” Mrs. Penny shouted.
“Oh, fuck this,” Royce said, pulling a gun from the sash around his waist and pointing it at the mostly naked woman.
“Nick!” Riley shrieked
On an oath, Nick took one for the team and tackled his nearly naked partner to the ground just as Zorro fired.
“Everybody on the ground now!” barked the voice of authority. A half dozen flashlights winked to life in the front yard as a familiar-looking woman in a flak vest stepped onto the porch.
“Joplin Jones?” Sesame said, squinting at the woman’s shiny badge.
“DEA! Everybody calm the hell down,” Joplin shouted.
There was the sound of screeching tires, and two black SUVs jumped the curb from Front Street and drove into the yard. The doors flew open, and people in suits jumped out, guns drawn.
“FBI!”
“Ugh! What is this? Is this poop? Did you assault me with feces?” Lurlene screeched. “You’ll be hearing from my lawyer!”
41
1:17 p.m., Thursday, October 31
Riley woke to blissful silence and the bright autumn sun. Nick was on his back and she was sprawled over him with her head resting on his chest. Blindly she reached behind her for her phone and squinted at the clock on the screen. It was after one in the afternoon.
After all the arrests had been made, the party guests sent home, and a vigorous round of early birthday sex, they’d managed a solid ten hours of sleep.
She couldn’t believe Burt hadn’t tried to wake them up. She sat up and found Burt’s dog bed empty.
She was sore from her kidnapping, escape, being tackled to the porch floor, and the awesome sex. There was a massive mess downstairs to clean up. And probably some personal relationships in need of repairing. But right this second, she felt good. Damn good.
So good, she didn’t even notice herself slipping into Cotton Candy World until she was surrounded by puffy clouds in vibrant shades of pink and blue. She had to fight back tears of joy as she felt an overwhelming sense of welcome.
“Well, look who’s back,”she said to the clouds.
They pulsed brighter, seeming to almost sparkle with energy in response.
“Yeah, yeah. I finally got that rest we needed. I’ll be more careful in the future.”
The clouds pulsed again, and she said her goodbyes.“I’ll be back soon. We have a lot of work to do. A lot of work and a lot of rest.”
Feeling nine million times better, Riley let herself slip back into her body and the present. It was time to put things right…and have lunch.
Nick’s hand snaked out and grabbed her when she tried to slip out of bed. “Too early,” he grumbled into the pillow.
“It’s after one in the afternoon,” she pointed out, ruffling his hair fondly.
“’s my birthday,” he said, rolling to his side in all his naked glory and staring at her with a sleepy smile.
She was a lucky, lucky girl.
