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“You forgot to take—”
The kid, she thought, but he’d swept away.
It looked nothing like her place anymore, not with its colorful swags of fabric, its bold and bright pillows, the scatter of dolls and little toys.
It had to be safe to put the kid down, she decided. She lived here.
At that moment Bella yanked on the chain, mostly hidden under Eve’s shirt, and pulled out the diamond about the size of the kid’s fist.
“Ahhhh,” she said, eyes shining. “Ba-ba!”
“Yeah, I bet. Mine.”
Eve tugged to get it back; Bella tugged to get it.
“Ba-ba! Das!” Then with a flutter of her lashes she stroked Eve’s cheek with the hand not currently in a vise grip on the chain, said, “Das,” again in a seductive tone that made Eve laugh.
“Forget it, kid. I’m not giving you the rock because you’re pretty.”
Through those fluttering lashes Eve spied what she could only describe as fierce determination. “Ba-ba,” she said again, in a tone Eve recognized as a threat.
“Seriously? You’re short and I’m armed. And this is my ba-ba or whatever.” She started to set Bella down, but the kid held the chain in a death grip, leaving Eve the choice of prying the pudgy little fingers loose or going down to her knees.
She went down.
“Come on, give it up.”
With a smile—and damn if it wasn’t sly—Bella popped the diamond into her mouth.
Eve’s brain just froze.
“Jesus Christ! Jesus Christ!”
Bella smiled at her, little pink lips tight as drums.
“Stop doing that. Stop it. You can’t eat that. Open up. I mean it.” Panic sweat rolled down her spine in a thin, cold river. “No kid who hasn’t had her first birthday gets to choke on a diamond. Shit, shit, shit! Spit it out.”
Desperate, she considered turning the kid upside down and shaking the diamond loose, then said, “Spit it out. Please.”
Bella spat it out, said perfectly, “Shit!” She plopped onto her butt giggling madly as Mavis danced in. “Mama! Shit!”
Mavis narrowed her eyes at Eve.
“It’s not my fault.” Jesus God, she thought, she was actually short of breath. “She tried to eat this.” Eve held up the spit-covered diamond. “Why would anybody leave me alone with her?”
“Ba-ba!” Bella made a grab for it, but this time Eve snatched it out of reach. The little chin quivered, tears swam into the big blue eyes.
“It’s Dallas’s bauble.” Mavis plucked Bella up, gave her a swing. How she managed to spin a couple circles in the mile-high red boots was a testament to agility and balance skills. “Go get Bella’s baubles. Sho
w Dallas Bella’s baubles.”
“Ba-ba!” Tears banished, Bella wiggled down and toddled off.
“She likes to play dress-up, so I give her some junk jewelry.” Mavis pulled a pack of wipes out of some hidden pocket, passed them to Eve. “She knows better than to put things in her mouth, but it’s so shiny.”
“She knows how to say ‘bauble’?”
“It’s one of her favorites.” She glanced back, hearing Bella jabber, and Peabody answer. “Are we okay, Dallas?”
