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“The best people are.”
“Moving on. Were you born after Liam?”
“Nope, that honor went to Bane. They’re six years apart. Then my parents went full speed on the baby-making again, pushing me out two years after Bane, then Sunny two years after that.”
“Wow, you are a big family. I can sense how close you guys are, even though your door policy comes with an ass-kicking for your own brothers.”
“They deserve it. You don’t know the disrespect I dealt with. All because Liam let Tricky stay with me for a weekend, and we went on a little bike ride, and she let go of me for like a second, and maybe, sorta, she kinda flew off the back while I was going forty miles an hour.”
My eyes bugged.
“It was nothing,” she said. “She flew into a guy who was kind enough to break her fall. There wasn’t a scratch on her. I’m telling you the little booger was laughing about it. Then here comes Liam saying I shouldn’t be left alone with a hamster, let alone a human, and I’m never babysitting again. Can you believe that?”
Yes, I can.
“The fucking nerve of that guy! Refusing to let me watch my own niece. I’m great with kids, Feisty. Kids fucking love me.”
“Oh, Genny.” I linked our elbows. “I really like you too.”
She winked. “Course you do.”
“Are we getting close?”
“Very close, as it happens. There’s a break in the trees up ahead. You’ll see the heads first, don’t freak out.”
“You don’t start a sentence like that if you don’t want me to freak out.”
“Sunny, we’re almost there,” she threw over her shoulder. “Just so you know, Feisty’s in. If she can hold her own with me, those Backstreet Boys you call a gang are no sweat. But when you talk to Vito,” she said, returning to me. “Make sure you pull the same move. Crowded bar, lots of witnesses.”
“You think he’d hurt me?”
“I know he’d hurt you if he doesn’t buy your story. He’s a stupid, violent, loudmouth banger and that’s what stupid, violent bangers do. He hangs out at Cooper’s most Saturdays, you...”
Genny’s voice faded. My distraction had nothing to do with a wish to get in a bad situation by not listening to her warnings. No, I lost focus on her, because through the trees, I saw heads.
Arm slipping free, I stumbled wide-eyed over the roots, stepping out onto a clearing. A scene both mesmerizing and wrong, I took in the rolling dips and flowered mounds blanketed in living green. It was a scene from a postcard, if not for random shallow craters in the earth, rimmed with dirt and charred grass.
On the far side of the clearing sat a cabin, and on the other side, a pumpkin patch grew up to and out into the tree line. Watching over it were six scarecrows in a row, each topped with creepily lifelike mannequin heads. They were silent sentries hung from their post, perched on bodies of straw, tracking my approach. I wasn’t kidding. Each head was angled our way as if to clock intruders coming in.
I stepped back. “I would like to leave now.”
“Seconded,” Sienna said.
“Chill, guys,” said Sunny. “Bane—”
Fweeeeeet.
High-pitched whistling pressed on my eardrums. I turned as a red streak cut across my vision.
Boom!
I hit the dirt screaming, and was showered in more dirt. A scarecrow sentry on the end was dust—reduced to smoldering remains at the bottom of a new crater.
“What was that?!” I shrieked.
Sienna and I were the only ones on the ground. Sunny and Genny helped us up, dusting us off. “That was Bane,” they said in unison.
“Whoo! Did you see that?” A figure jumped off the cabin porch, wielding a bazooka. “Fucking nailed it at forty yards.”
I darted between the siblings, peering over Sunny’s shoulder. He was their brother, let them face the charging weapon-wielding loon who almost blew me up!
“What’s this? Visiting? To what do I owe the pleasure?”
The assumed Bane swallowed the distance, and another feeling broke through shocked terror. The genes brewing in this family were ridiculous. It seemed no matter which of their fathers Adeline reproduced with, they weren’t capable of having children anywhere short of beautiful.
Sweat glistened on Bane’s bare chest, accentuating the bumps and divots of his tightly honed body. Oh shit, all the things I could say about his body. His skin was penny copper—both from a life in the sun and genetics. He opted to shave his head, but for the unobstructed view it gave me of his Greek nose, lopsided smile, and thick brows, I determined this was the wisest hair decision anyone ever made.
“Little sis, baby bro, get the hell over here.”
My shields left me behind, going up to greet, hug, and slap backs with their brother.
“Wicked aim,” Sunny congratulated. “Nailed it.”
“You like?” Bane rubbed the bazooka like a fond pet. “Put this baby together myself. Won’t tell you what a bitch it was getting the parts out here—won’t tell you now, anyway. I see you brought guests.” Unprotected, Bane latched on me and Sienna. “A present, by chance? It’s been weeks since I’ve known the touch of a woman.”
