“It’s fine, Nico. Seriously. Let me know when, and I’ll take care of the rest.”
Maddy and I both sighed with relief. Maddy gave Sinthy a hug. “Thank you for helping my friend.”
I left to give Donatello a call. He answered quickly.
“Nico? I was actually getting ready to call you. The island is prepared. When can you get Abi to me?”
“Apparently, faster than I thought. When’s a good time?”
“I can have a jet ready in two hours. It’ll be at the private airstrip beside Tampa International. I trust the pilot with my life.”
“Okay, let me get everyone ready. We can probably be there by then. I’ll text you a confirmation time.”
“All right.” Without another word, Donatello disconnected.
An hour of chaos followed as I got everyone on the same page, helped Abi pack, and tried to find a basic floorplan for the airport so Sinthy didn’t accidentally teleport us into the middle of a wall.
“I think I know where to put you guys,” Sinthy said after inspecting a visitors’ map we found online.
“You’re sure?”
She nodded. “It’ll be great, wait and see.”
Sebastian sat in the corner of the kitchen, nursing a soda and a bag of chips and shooting sullen looks at us every now and then. Abi was completely ignoring him. His anxiety was palpable. Regardless of what they’d been through or done to each other, Sebastian was worried about her.
He wouldn’t meet my eyes, even though he had to know I was staring right at him. Abi and Maddy were double-checking the small suitcase Abi had packed, but all I could do was worry about my friend. It would be nice if they figured all this shit out soon. If things did end up turning out okay for all of us, that was the first thing I would put my foot down about. Dealing with the two of them was almost as stressful as dealing with Viola.
Maddy wiped a hand across her forehead. “Dear lord, isn’t anyone else hot?”
Living in Florida, I always made sure the air-conditioning was working and turned on. Shifters ran a little hotter than humans to begin with, so my house was almost always set below sixty-eight degrees. It was comfortable.
“No,” I said. “I think it’s fine.”
“Are you serious?” she asked.
Gabriella stepped into the kitchen and eyeballed Maddy as she kept asking Abi and Sinthy if they were hot. Maddy’s cheeks did look a little flushed. Was she getting sick? There was a tug on my sleeve, and I turned to Gabriella.
Without taking her eyes off Maddy, she whispered, “Can I talk to you really quick?”
“Yeah, sure,” I said.
Finally locking her eyes on mine, she added, “In private?”
I led her upstairs to my office before closing the door. “Well? What’s up?”
She chewed at her lip for a few minutes before answering. “Have you noticed anything…offabout Maddy lately?”
“Not really.” My brows knit together as I tried to think where she was going with this.
“I’m pretty sure she’s about to go into heat.”
I froze, remembering the run Maddy and I had gone on. Her scent had been different. Stronger. She’d been uncomfortably hot downstairs as well.
“Fuck,” I muttered as it all came together in my head.
“Exactly,” Gabriella said. “Not a great time for it. I know they make heat suppressants for shifters. I still have my medical license, so I can get them. We’d only have to get off the grounds.”
“Sinthy can help with that. We can teleport out and grab whatever we need.” I raised my eyebrow. “How much time do we have? Best guess?”
