Think about this. About what could be going on.
N:If Beltran is the one that hired my skills and he’s dead, do you still want me to take out the target?
It was a risky message.He wasn’t supposed to ask questions.
However, he had to know.
N:I’m not doing anything without a reply and confirmation about what is going on.
Fuck it.
Could he deflect without putting Jared and Angie at risk?
What would The Collective do?
Kill him and everyone he loved?
Christ. No matter which way he looked at it, he was fucking screwed.
Deciding he needed to be with Jared and Angie, he started searching through the cameras to find them.
He discovered them in her playroom and headed up that way. He paused at the open doorway.
“No, Daddy. You’ve forgotten what I taught you last time. The knives have to be on the other side. Yes, and Miss Melanie would like some vanilla cake.”
“I don’t think we have vanilla cake,” Jared replied.
She sighed long and loud. “That’s very disappointing, Daddy.”
“I hear you, baby girl. I’ve been disappointed about this fact for the last week. Unfortunately, I don’t know how to make vanilla cake. So Miss Melanie might have to settle for a piece of apple.”
“A piece of apple! Daddy, you can’t have a tea party with apples. Everyone knows you have tea and cake. Not tea and apples. It’s a crime!”
“Pretty sure it’s not a crime,” Jared replied dryly.
“Well, it should be! And the punishment should be high. Like having to spend a hundred years in jail.”
“That is severe.”
North pushed the door open further. “Perhaps we can try and make a vanilla cake. How does that sound?”
It would be the perfect distraction while he was waiting on a reply.
Angie was seated in an armchair that they’d brought up here for her. She couldn’t sit on the floor with her stitches and bruising and the rocking chair wasn’t ideal either.
She clapped her hands in delight. “Northie always has the best ideas.”
“Does he?” Jared said suspiciously. “Does Northie know how to bake a cake?”
North just shrugged. “How hard can it be?”
61
It turned out that it was a lot harder than he’d imagined.
Of course, his helper did get a bit carried away. If North had been allowed to follow the recipe, he was certain the baking would have come out fine.
“Hmm, great at everything you do, huh?” Jared said with a smirk as they all stared down at the flat, slightly crispy cake.
