AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“And had six guys jump you in the woods and take you to jail.”
“Yep,” I say. “That’s what happened.”
Robin cracks open a fresh new cry, ramping up again.
“Then…” Mason tries unsuccessfully to shush his baby. Robin cries louder. “Then is there a possibility that—”
Hades makes a sound that’s somewhere between empathy and resignation. He pushes himself away from the wall where he’s been leaning, takes a blanket from the arm of Charlotte’s chair with a quietmay I?,and tosses it over his arm. Then he approaches Mason, who’s pretty red in the face, and takes the baby.
He doesn’t seem to be aware that everyone’s staring at him—Lydia with her mouth hanging open—as he kneels down on the carpet, spreads the blanket out, and puts Robin in the middle of it, answering his piteous cries with a series ofshushing sounds andyes, I know, terribles andwon’t take long, you’ll have to trust me.
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anybody swaddle a baby before, but Hades does it like I have to imagine an expert baby-swaddler would. Robin is a tiny blue burrito in seconds. Hades picks up the burrito and turns him stomach-down over his left arm, his head cradled in one of Hades’s huge palms, and then he pats at his back, swayingveryslightly back to his spot near Zeus.
Robin stops crying.
Hades looks up at the rest of us as if to saywhat?
Charlotte leans over and whispersyou have to show me how to do that.
“I know,” Zeus says. “It’s similar to watching a wolf befriend a duckling.”
Hades ignores him and continues patting Robin’s back.
“Her grandfather’s coming after her,” Jameson says into the silence. “He’s coming after both of us, I think.”
Zeus frowns. “I agree.”
Mason narrows his eyes at him. “What?”
“After you left the jail, the prosecutor came by. He wasn’t discreet. An interested party wants movement on the case.”
Everything about this feels scarily surreal. I don’t realize my lips have gone numb until I go to take a drink of tea and screw it up. I wipe my chin with my sleeve, my heart pounding.
There’s some discussion of legal strategies and next moves.
“—public perception,” Gabriel is saying, when I get myself together enough to listen. “Send the message that we’re not going to let this asshole intimidate us. Or have someone shoot at his own granddaughter, for fuck’s sake.”
Charlotte claps her hands. “Then we know what we have to do.”
Everyone in the room stares ather.
“What?” Mason asks.
Her entire face lights up, and in the space of a second she looks so determined it’s almost dangerous.
“We have to throw a wedding.”
13
JAMESON
This is not how I planned to get married.
I didn’t plan to get married at all. That’s howthatwas supposed to go. And now I’m back at Mason’s, beat to shit and having to painkiller my way through wedding planning.
Weddingplanning.
Because I’m going to marry Lily.
