His stomach churned at that as he turned in Mal’s arms. “Jason’s definitely our guy. He has to be. In the end, Amy really did sort of leave a note that said, ‘In case I disappear, X did it.’”
Mal’s mouth formed a flat line. “She just left us to solve for X.”
Nico huffed out a breath through his nose. “Not to victim-blame, but it was a bad plan. Most people suck at math.”
“It was hardlyThe DaVinci Code,” Mal said, kissing Nico’s forehead when he glowered at him. “Math’s just not your strong suit, baby. That’s okay. You have plenty of other amazing gifts.”
“Do any of them take place outside of bed?” Nico sulked.
“That’s an unfair question, Fidget,” Mal said, kissing his nose.
Nico glowered at him. “Why’s that?”
“Because you’re so good in bed, it just overshadows everything else,” Mal countered.
“You’re lying,” Nico pouted. “And you’re mean.”
Mal gave him a dirty smile. “You love it.”
“We still have no idea where she is or if she’s even alive,” Nico said. “I feel like we need to call in an adultier adult.”
“I know,” Mal agreed, expression grim. “Luckily for us, there’s one across the street.”
The little green man appeared, telling them to walk, and Nico let Mal guide him across the street, both of them jogging even though they had the right of way.
“What if we spooked him?” Nico asked once they were outside Jericho’s building. “What if all we did was make it worse?”
Mal didn’t answer him. “We can’t think about it like that. We have to focus on finding Amy, dead or alive. Casey deserves to know what happened to her mother.”
Nico nodded, but Mal was already looking down at his phone screen.
Jericho answered on the second ring. “‘lo?”
“Can we come over?” Mal asked, foregoing the usual pleasantries.
Nico bit his lip to hide his smile, wondering if Mal realized just how much he sounded like a little kid asking someone’s parents permission for a playdate. Of course, when Nico—who was straddling the line between twenty and thirty—thought of a parental figure, it wasn’t his mother he thought about.
It was Jericho. He’d been in Nico’s life for longer than he hadn’t. That made Jericho more of a parent than his mother ever was.
“Yeah, sure,” Jericho said. Just hearing his voice soothed something in Nico. “You know you don’t have to ask, right?”
Nico’s chest grew tight. Jericho was rarely sappy, but it must be in the air because Nico suddenly wanted to hug Jericho and also cry. What was wrong with him?
“We’ll be there in a minute,” Mal shot back.
“You think you found something?” Jericho pressed.
“We think so, yeah. But we don’t know what to do about it,” Mal said.
“That’s why you have us,” Jericho replied, then disconnected without a goodbye.
They waved at the guard as they passed. He saw them often enough to not even question their presence. Jericho, on the other hand, looked very surprised when they let themselves in barely five minutes after hanging up.
“Did you guys call from the sidewalk?” Freckles asked.
Nico turned to answer him but stopped short. Nico had really only ever seen Atticus in his business attire or pajamas, and usually, he looked kind of prickly or exhausted from running after the kids.
Seeing him standing in the kitchen in black Gemini athletic shorts and a sleeveless gray tank top that had the sides slit just like Mal’s favorite shirt had Nico’s head spinning. Nico knew Jericho was pretty shredded. He liked to box and lift weights.But he’d always expected Atticus to be…not pudgy but soft, maybe.
