“You what?!” he hissed.
The Dweller's face flushed. “I mean…how many could one child eat? Like, all she can eat surely won’t be that much.”
“You!”
Severo sprinted away.
Seri rubbed his face with a groan. They were going to have to deal with a grumpy baby today because the man made a promise that Seri would NOT let him keep.
Wait…he had just turned the man on, hadn’t he?! Ugh…this was going to be something he had to carefully navigate, so he didn’t reward the Dweller for doing things he shouldn’t be.
“Okay,Skya. You need to be nice and quiet for Oh-Oh, so I can call my boss and talk about bad stuff,” Severo told her as he walked with his laptop in hand into the hallway, the little girl strapped to his chest facing him.
“Gah!” she said with a pointed glare.
He sighed. “Fine…but don’t tell your daddy.” He spun around and headed back into the kitchen, going right to the pantry. Opening the door, he snagged the box of mini cookies and walked back down the hall and into his room. “You can have two…that’s it. Otherwise, it’ll spoil your dinner and I’ll get in trouble.”
Her face pinched, but she reached out. He set his laptop down and settled back against the headboard. Reaching in the box, he snagged two chocolate chip cookies. After setting the box on the floor, he handed her the cookies, before pulling her out of the wrap and setting her into a small play seat next to him that had random dangling toys and noise makers. Seri had set up the seat for him earlier.
With Skya content and distracted with her cookies, he opened the communication link for Cyrus and entered the video chat. He pushed the screen all the way back and waited.
A few seconds later, a hologram of Cyrus floated up. Skya reached towards it with one of her cookies, yelling, “Bah!”
“What…” His boss stared, baffled.
“Seri is working. There are too many dangerous chemicals for her to be in his lab.”
“I see…” Cyrus drawled with a grimace. “Speaking of chemicals, how are you feeling after he drugged you?”
“He didn’t drug me. We tested it on me. And I’m fine. It’s fully out of my system as of this morning. Now, any updates? How are things going on your end?”
“We used that last info you sent us, and managed to take down more of Preston’s associates. Basically, it’s going. Each person the man is cut off from weakens his influence, but it also makes him more dangerous. He is definitely fully aware of what is going on.”
“I mean, he likely knew since the beginning.”
“Yeah. Well, all I can say is that we are getting there. The information we have is good. Some things that we have learned, likely would be hard for him to wiggle out of…yet…”
“There is still a chance,” Severo sighed.
“He still has so many judges and politicians under his control. Until we narrow down who and how, I'm hesitant to put our cards on the table.”
“It has to be enough soon, Cyrus. We can’t stay hidden forever.”
“You could just come out now. We can put you under strict guard. But maybe being more public will make it harder for him to try to take Seri and Skya?”
“His blood relation to Skya will make it easy for him to use his money to try to take her. There are so many ways he could spin the story. I won’t have him slandering Seri. The man doesn’t deserve that. And we both know it will happen the minute we are in the public eye. It’s best that when he starts to act up, he is in prison. At least then there will be no way for even the judges in his pocket to hand Skya over to him.”
“What about your parents, Severo? They could help keep you all safe. To add on, I could ask my cousin, Fleur, for help. She has that private security group made up of just family. No one would betray you.”
“I’m not running to my family for help. They have their own things to deal with. Beside the risk…” He eyed Skya. “We can’t risk Skya ending up in his hands.”
“You’ve always underestimated your family, Severo. But then again, you’ve always been trying to be your own person, separate from them. So, I suppose you just never stayed around long enough to see.”
“I love my family, Cyrus, but you know how they are.”
“I know…it’s you who doesn’t.”
Severo rolled his eyes at this old argument. “Just drop it.”
