“It’s not a skirt, Doom, it’s a kilt.”
He raised an eyebrow. “No.”
“Kimono?”
“Are you Japanese?” he challenged.
“I could be, somewhere in my history,” I said. “I don’t know. I haven’t done that DNA swab thingy yet.”
He shook his head. “No kimono.”
“Could we discuss lederhosen?”
“Jesus,” he hissed on a laugh. “No.”
“But you’d look so cute in those little shorts.”
Before he could comment, a deafening explosion sounded and I was suddenly thrown against the wall.
* * *
Doom
I turned to answer Lyric and was sent back to my heels by a shockwave that rippled through the room. My first instinct was that someone had driven into the house, but the ringing in my ears told me there had been an explosion.
I ran to Lyric and covered her body with mine.
“Are you okay?” I called out through the thick haze of smoke now filling the room.
“What was that?” she asked, and I struggled to hear her through the high-pitched squeal in my head.
“I have to get you out of here.” I helped Lyric to her feet and shielded her as I guided us to the hallway and to the kitchen. That’s when I saw the epicenter of the explosion. Something or someone had blown a hole through the roof of the garage and part of the kitchen.
“My beautiful house!” Lyric cried.
“Right now, my only concern is for you. Now, stay low. This could all be his way of drawing you out into the open,” I said.
“Hisway?” Lyric asked. “Do you mean, Garrett?”
“Who else is trying to kill you?”
“But he’s in jail,” Lyric said.
“I know, Angel. We can talk about this later. Right now, I need to get you out of this house, so please stay low and don’t make a move or a sound unless I say so.”
I felt her nod her head under my arm.
“Doom!” I heard Dash call out.
“We’re in here!” I replied. “What the fuck happened?”
“There was a drone. It dropped something on the house. Rabbit’s hurt!”
“We’re coming out. Make sure you have your eyes open and keep us covered,” I replied and carefully led Lyric out the front door. Dash and Rabbit were on the front porch, which like them, had clearly seen better days.
The entire right side of Rabbit’s body was covered in black soot, and most of his clothes on that side had disintegrated. He had what looked to me like serious burn marks on his neck, arm and upper thigh.
“I’m okay. Just a little crispy,” Rabbit replied.
