“You’re right. You’re absolutely right. I’m sorry. I just meant … I don’t want to die,” she cried. “Please don’t kill me. Please.”
Kalani took several steps back and raised her hands in front of her. “I didn’t do anything.”
“Zoe!” Whisker boomed. “Get your ass back to the barn and stay there until I say otherwise.”
Zoe covered her face with her hands and made a show of crying as she left the room with Clover running after her.
Kalani shook her head. “Look what your dick did.”
Whisker laughed first, breaking the tension around us. “Fucking hell. All right, let’s go. We’ve got shit to do.”
Taco and I carried the stretcher down the stairs and wheeled her into the cell. Slit was the next one to come down the stairs, followed by Whisker, Biscuit, and Kalani.
Kalani.
“You can’t be down here,” I told her.
Whisker whirled around and reached for his gun but stopped when he realized who I was talking to.
“One murder at a time, right? Well, if I had stayed upstairs, I might’ve murdered that Zoe girl.”
“Nice try. She was sent to her room.”
“Okay, I’ll go back upstairs—knowing where her room is—with no one to supervise me.”
“Holy fuck!” Whisker shouted. “Kalani, sit down and do not get up until I tell you.”
Kalani moved to the closest chair and sat. “I’ve been on my best behavior, and I’m still getting treated like an errant child. But that’s cool. I’ll sit, and I’ll use my time to cast a spell on you.”
Whisker looked at me. “You wanna rein in your Old Lady.”
“His what?” Kalani shouted.
Closing my eyes, I inhaled deeply through my nose. “I hadn’t told her yet.”
Whisker clapped my shoulder. “Under different circumstances, I might’ve said sorry, but your woman is stacking bodies in our lava tubes as we speak. We don’t have time for extra bullshit.”
He was right. We didn’t. I met Kalani’s angry eyes. “I claimed you as my Old Lady.”
“When?”
“When you weren’t answering your fucking texts!”
“Youwereworried about me,” she cooed.
“Kalani,” I warned and cut my eyes to Whisker.
“Right.” She crossed her legs at the ankles and clasped her hands in her lap. “Play time is over for now.”
Once Ashley was situated, Whisker had Snatch come in to stay with Ashley while the rest of us went upstairs for church.
“Where’s Birdie?” I asked.
“She’s upstairs with Hannah in the med room,” Whisker said.
“You want to stay with her while we’re in church?” I asked Kalani.
“No, I want to go to church.”
