Turnip squeaks in approval before disappearing back into my jacket pocket.
“I am pretty sweet, aren’t I?” I can practicallyhearHayden’s shit-eating grin as he steps behind me.
I roll my eyes. “Mabel is worried about me,” I inform him. “Can you please tell her she has nothin’ to be worried about?”
“Mabes, I watched Fireball take down Kole yesterday. She can handle anything.”
Mabel blanches as she glances across the yard to where Kole is loading up the old reliable pizza van. “Really?”
The grin that stretches across my face is nothing but self-satisfied. “I trained for years, remember?”
Declan passes by, carrying a duffel bag, and mutters, “It helps that she has the blood-thirstiness of a damn wolverine.”
Mabel freezes, but Declan doesn’t stop. He doesn’t even glance at her. He keeps going, straight to another white van where Brooks is currently residing, bound, gagged, and handcuffed to the inside of the van.
Declan insisted we use one of his other vehicles, but I’ve grown rather partial to the pizza van, even if the smell of my heat spike has pretty much faded from the inside.
Good memories and all that.
Mabel’s eyes stay trained on Declan for so long that I have to reach out and touch her arm to get her attention. “Mabel?”
She jumps slightly, then shakes her head. “Sorry. I’m…I’m gonna go inside. Stay safe, okay?”
“I’ll see you when we get back,” I confirm, nodding. “Tomorrow.”
And then she’ll leave. The wave of sadness hits me so suddenly, it nearly takes my breath away. Hayden’s arm wraps around my shoulder in response to the emotion, and in the next ten seconds, Sam and West are with us as well.
Mabel’s face softens in understanding when the guys come around me, but she doesn’t waver in her resolve. “And then I’ll give the guys that five minutes…” Her gaze goes to Declan again, who is disappearing into his house. “And then I’m leavin’ with the twins.”
As much as her words break my heart, I know it’s what she needs to help her heal.
“You will need to have us visit so I can do your tattoos, yes?” Kole asks warmly. “And call if my brothers are unruly assholes.”
Mabel gives him a genuine smile. “I would like that.”
“Any time you need us, you call, okay?” Sam orders gruffly, making me grin. “Even if it’s just to rough up some patron who stiffed you on a tip.”
“I will,” she promises, and then I’m turning around to face my guys.
“She’s not leavin’ until we get back, so why don’t the four of you go wait in the van while I finish up?”
When we’re alone, I turn back around, wrapping my sister in one last hug. “I love you so much. Please don’t get any crazy ideas like runnin’ away while I’m gone.”
Mabel laughs. “I got nowhere to go, Jojo. Don’t worry about me. Besides, I wanna see with my own eyes that you get back safe.”
She lets me go, and I watch as she disappears back into the omega house. Sighing, I turn around to see everyone waiting for me by their cars. Roland, Ozzy, and Fuzzy are by one van, Illya, Luka, and Alexei are waiting by a black SUV, Declan and his pack are in another van, and my guys are standing in front of the “Mission Im-pizza-ble” delivery van.
Helaena holds Fuzzy by the face, kissing him like he’s a man going off to war. When she steps away from him, my brows shoot up when Ozzy takes her hand, pressing a kiss to the back of it. She blushes furiously, but doesn’t pull away.
My eyes dart to Fuzzy to see how he feels about the move Sam’s daddy just pulled, but he only looks at the beta lovingly.
Interesting.
Then Roland puts a hand on her shoulder, saying something so quiet I can’t hear it.
She nods once, looking back at Fuzzy before stepping back.
“Did you see that?” I whisper to Sam as we come up to our van.
