“I know which one I pick,” I tease.
He ushers me toward the door with a soft smile. “You’ve done good for him. I’m glad you two sorted it out.”
“Are you?” I smirk. “Or are you just glad I’m keeping him occupied so he has less time to harass you?”
He shrugs. “Both.”
I step into the foyer and note my father and his sidekick in the living room to the left with Jinx, Chaos, Flinch, and the three women who stayed downstairs, the girl nestled against one lady’s side. “Where are the other two?”
“Jenna’s in the bathroom. And I think the other one is still sleeping.”
I check my smartwatch. “It’s after ten, Fang.”
“It was a long night. She’s probably exhausted after what they’ve been through.”
Regardless, something doesn’t feel right.
His eyes twitch a little as his frown deepens. “What are you not saying, Kyra?”
My father’s head turns at the sound of my name.
“Let me check on her.” I dash up the stairs two at a time, hand on the banister rail to help launch myself faster.
The door’s shut to the spare bedroom. I rap my knuckles against it. “Kathy. Are you awake?”
She doesn’t answer. Nausea swims in my gut. She was the most withdrawn last night. I should have picked something could be off. I knock again, harder, louder. “Kathy!”
The door cracks open, but it’s not the woman with fiery red hair who answers.
It’s the creepy guy with all the face tattoos: Circus.
Fang joins me at the door with Jenna, fresh out of the shower.
“What’s going on?” she asks. “Is Kathy okay?”
Circus raises a heavily inked finger to his mouth to tell us to be quiet and then eases the door wide.
Curled amongst a nest of blankets and pillows is Kathy, fast asleep and apparently, perfectly fine as she cuddles a black goat plushie with a pentagram stitched on its forehead.
I glance back at Circus as Jenna pushes her way into the room and drops to kneel at the woman’s side.
“What’s the story here, brother?” Fang asks in a low voice.
Circus nods for us to step out onto the landing and pulls the door half-closed behind us when we do. “Nightmares,” is all he says in a deep, raspy voice that feels like the unexpected calm of thunder on the horizon. “She was crying.”
Holy shit.“She was okay with you being there?”
He nods.
“Good work.” Fang claps him on the shoulder and then turns to me. “Crisis averted.”
He makes for the stairs, and I follow, figuring I’m not needed up here, but not without glancing back at Circus.
He’s fucking terrifying, but I guess you can’t judge a book by its cover. The man stares back at me without an ounce of emotion and then turns for Kathy’s room, closing the door behind him with Jenna still inside.
“Everything okay?” Jinx whispers when I tuck myself against his side.
“Yeah.” I guess at some stage these people will stop surprising me, but it’s clearly not today. “Everything’s just as it should be.”
