“I’m waiting,” Crush said.
I smiled. Couldn’t be helped.
Christian folded his arms. “Daddy, don’t cry. You know I love you, and we had the best day.”
Crush smiled in my direction. “Tell your peckerhead never to call me daddy again. That creeps me the fuck out.”
“I’mnot the ghost,” Christian fired back. “I can hear everything you’re saying.”
“Damn shame.” Sighing, Crush gave Harley another scratch on the ear. “So what am I doing here?”
I fell across the bed on my side. “Can you explain everything, Christian? I’m not up to it.”
After prefacing that I wasn’t feeling well after fighting Vampires, Christian filled Crush in on everything, including why he’d kidnapped him. He detailed our limitations and the uncertainty of what would come. Since Crush was under our watch, we didn’t have to worry about him spilling our secrets to anyone.
When Christian finished, a long stretch of silence followed. Crush repeatedly made a fist while staring at his hand. “I need to call Red and tell him to take over the garage. Jimmy has tomorrow off, so Red’ll have to call him in.”
I was relieved he hadn’t put up a fight. Crush could be ornery, and he didn’t like leaving his castle. “Tell him he can have this bed since it’s the clean one with all the new bedding. I’ll take the other one.”
As soon as Christian relayed that, Crush got up and tossed his bag on the other bed. “This’ll do just fine. You better get back to your room.”
“Thisismy room.” Christian was losing his patience, and I adored that my dad knew how to push his buttons.
“What the hell does a Vampire need with a bed?”
Christian quirked a brow. “Do you really want me to answer that?”
“Can she still eat and use the bathroom?”
“Not entirely. She doesn’t require food, not that she can taste it. So there’s no need for using the bathroom. She’s only half-dead; that means she can still move things around and drive a car.”
Something occurred to me, and I sprang to the other side of the bed and opened the drawer.
It startled Crush, and his eyes widened when he saw the pen and paper floating in the air. I scribbled a note and handed it to him.
Crush accepted the paper with trepidation and read the message aloud. “No matter what happens, I’m always listening. PS: Don’t let Harley pee on the floor.”
He sat down and blotted his eyes with the paper.
It killed me I couldn’t comfort him or make him laugh.
I looked at Christian. “I have a concern.”
When he furrowed his brow, I pointed toward Lenore’s room.
“You won’t have to worry about that one,” he said.
Crush swung his head up. “Are you talking to me?”
“You’ll know when I’m talking to you.”
“Keep it up. See what happens.”
I led Christian into the short hall. “What’s going on?”
“I stopped on the fourth floor to announce we’re here and ran into Blue in the hall. After they got back, Viktor went up to check on Lenore, but she didn’t answer. Blue’s falcon looked through the window and noticed her belongings were gone.”
“What belongings?”
