He closed his eyes and sighed. “Shit, the car seat. Right.”
All we’d wanted to do was leave the freaking city, and now we were parents. “Please don’t swear in front of our daughter.”
Theo blurted out a laugh, his eyes filled with affection and something softer that made my stomach pitch. “We don’t even know her name.”
The baby shifted in my arms, her body somehow sturdy and fragile at the same time. She looked too young to have a vocabulary of more than a few words, and none of them would have been her name. “Maybe the woman with the tattoos has it somewhere on her body,” I suggested.
She was still desperately reaching into the back of the van, mouth gaping. I turned away and shielded the baby.
“Good thinking,” he said. “I’ll check it out after I’ve taken care of them.”
“I’ll go change her… on the grass over there.” I tilted my head at the slight hill, raised enough that I’d have a view in every direction.
Before we separated to perform the jobs we’d assigned ourselves, I took in the baby’s sweet little face, wondering if it was normal for her not to be crying. “Theo?”
“Hmm?”
“What if she remembers this?”
He had his sword back in hand, positioning himself at the passenger door. “She won’t.”
The baby’s fingers curled into a fist against my chest as Theo prepared to end one of her mothers. She was so young and delicate, dependent on us for literally everything. My chest filled with a shuddering breath, and I tried to smile, but it wouldn’t quite hold.
This was so much on top of everything else that had been piled on us, and I was only human, dammit. One of the lucky few who could still make that claim.
But the adults needed to step up so the baby could feel safe. “Okay, enough with the stalling,” I said, “I can do this.”
“I know,” he said without a twinge of doubt.
Behind Theo, the women grasped at thin air, mindless movements they had no control over. There was nothing left here to save apart from their daughter.
As the van rocked under their rage, I smiled at the baby and wandered over to the clear stretch of grass, leaving Theo to end her parents’ torment.
Thirty-Three
theo
The long grass brushed against my jeans as I stepped up to the van. Sadie had taken the baby—our baby, apparently—over to an open patch of grass, setting up a nappy-changing station where we could see each other.
If anything came at her, one of us would know before it was too late.
“You’ll be feeling better in no time,” she said, her voice drifting toward me on the breeze. “Just… try to keep still. This is about to get messy.”
The baby let out an uncertain whimper, and I couldn’t decide which one of them was more nervous.
Eager to get back to them, I rounded the van and opened the driver’s door. I'd already ended the passenger, and her partner faced the front now, leaning toward me and taking swipes at the air. Her moans grew louder, her movements desperate.
Whether they used to be mothers, partners or friends, it didn’t matter anymore.
“Sorry,” I said under my breath.
One strike through the driver’s temple with the tip of my sword, and she slumped against the steering wheel, arms hanging loose beside her.
After all the persistent thumping and rocking, the silence felt so final, and I set down my sword, taking a minute to reset.
With a sigh, I crouched and drew her arm toward me, pushing up her sleeve and revealing full-colour tattoos. I searched the intricate artwork—a collection of jungle animals with vines running through—and the more I looked, the more hidden animals I found. It was skilled, highly detailed work I would have taken the time to appreciate if things had been different.
When I turned her hand over and examined the underside of her wrist, I expected to find the baby’s name there. I’d done countless tattoos on women in that exact location honouring their kids.
