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I nod my head in agreement, even though I can’t stomach the idea of something happening to one of them. No wonder Jake’s been on edge since finding out about me. “Good call.” I close my eyes, regroup my thoughts with a head shake, and turn to Rory. “Rory, you need to know something. It’s about me, but, it, it relates to Eliza. I think…I’m pretty sure.”
Rory’s red-rimmed eyes look into mine. His brow furrows but just barely. He’s too tired to give me more than that. “What are you talking about, Miranda?”
My entire body turns tense, and I intertwine my fingers before me, my subconscious attempt at a shield. “I think you should probably sit down.”
He sits at the edge of the bed, a heap of meat and anguish. I want to look at him when I tell him this. That had been my plan. But seeing him there, so lost, my heart starts to race, and beads of sweat break out on my brow. My limbs are restless. I have to struggle to keep myself here because my legs want to run the rest of me as far away as they can. I clench my fists so tightly, needing to hit something, that even my bitten-to-the-quick nails dig little crescent moons into my palms.
“Okay, so, there’s something about me you need to know.” As I speak, I feel Jake move close behind me, feel his breath on my shoulder. I finally feel like he is supporting me, like we’re on the same team. Now I know I can do anything.
But before I continue, Rory speaks. “I know you’re some kind of superhero, Miranda. Eliza doesn’t keep secrets from me. I know you protect the world from mythical creatures and goddesses and shit.” His voice is dull, monotone, like he’s reading off movie times or the weather report. He doesn’t make eye contact with me, just stares ahead.
I stop look to Jake, whose eyebrows have shot upward. Then I look back to Rory, my jaw slack, my eyes squinted. “You…know?”
“Yup. You can’t be that surprised. She had to tell me when she went to watch the kids so you could go to Vegas to save him from that pop band of muses that had kidnapped him and replaced him with the sex demon guy.”
“I’m sorry, WHAT?” The door slams open, revealing Jessie with her mouth agape and eyes bugging out of her head. “What happened in Vegas? And don’t you dare say anything about it staying in Vegas!” She withers me with the stare she throws my way.
I drop my finger and close my mouth after Jessie called out for the crack I was about to make. “Okay, here’s the thing. I will explain it all to you. I promise.”
She crosses her arms and wags her head around, ever the Jersey girl. “Oh, okay. So glad you’re willing to tell me the truthnow, after I overheard it all and left you no choice.”
I draw in a deep breath and literally bite my tongue before I level her with my own glare. I use my fingers to enumerate my points in my own Jersey girl way. “First of all, there is a difference between overhearing and eavesdropping. Second, I know you don’t want to hear this, but this is not the time for this conversation. Eliza has been seduced by a siren, and we need to get her back before it’s too late.”
Rory seems to wake up at these words. He stands and takes a step toward me, his shoulders hunched forward. “I’m sorry, what? My wife wasseducedby a siren? How? How do you know? And how do you know it’s not too late already?”
I widen my stance, and my nostrils flare as I brace myself for impact. “I don’t know that it’s not too late.”
Rory’s shoulders straighten, making him five inches taller than me. We stare at each other while Jessie’s and Jake’s eyes ping pong between us. I take in his dilated pupils, the sweat on his forehead, the blush in his cheeks. In my periphery, I see Jake’s body tense as he gets ready to defend me incase Rory attacks. At the same time, my own jaw clenches, and although I’m trying to stand tall, it is taking everything in me not to curl into the fetal position right at Rory’s feet.
Part of me wants him to hit me, the part that doesn’t care how much it would hurt, because it will help dissolve some of this guilt. Because in my mind, I hear that voice I have been trying to shut out for years, the one telling me I deserve it. Telling me everything is always my fault. That everyone’s pain is my fault. And I know he’s right, this time at least. A siren captured my best friend because of me, and I don’t know anything about how to help her. I don’t know where she is. I don’t know how to get her back.
But I also know this voice doesn’t have the same power over me that it used to. What I do know is that I will figure this out. I have to, and fast.
Chapter 18
Jake
Thewholeroomseemsfrozen in time. Rory, standing over a foot taller than Miranda, could probably crush her in a second if he wanted to, or so it would appear. I naturally fear for Miranda, but I should be more worried about Rory if they were to fight. Rory hasn’t sparred with Miranda at the dojo. He hasn’t seen how quickly she can dodge a punch and return with a counterattack that leaves a bruise for weeks. I rub my side from the memory of one such blow.
Despite Rory’s puffed out chest, Miranda holds her ground. She’s stands as tall and strong as she can. But I know her too well to believe what I see at first glance. When I really look at her, I see her lips pressed together so tightly that they are tucked in on themselves, and the corners of her mouth are pulled down and quiver almost imperceptibly. I know that mouth. She is trying not to crack into a puddle of a thousand tears. Her eyes get glossier, and if the tears filling them leak out, she may never stop crying, or at least not in any sort of time to save Eliza.
I open my mouth, not sure what I’m about to say, but Jessie is the one to break the silence. “Um, this is stupid.”
Fuck. I can’t believe Jessie decided to eavesdrop on this of all conversations. I had momentarily pushed it from my mind to focus on the tableau of a confrontation in front of me, but now the truth hits me: One of our kids knows. Fuck.
“Mom, Uncle Rory, I need to ask: What the fuck is wrong with you guys?” Her language surprises Rory enough that he breaks his stare to look at her. Rory’s face hasn’t changed though. His brow, red now like the rest of his face, still has tiny beads of sweat. His nostrils are still flared. At least his eyes soften a bit when they light on Jessie.
I, on the other hand, am not so pleased with the interruption, afterall.
“Excuse me, young lady?” I say to my oldest child.
Jessie rolls her eyes. “Oh, get over it, Dad. That was nothing next to the vocabulary Mom uses! Also, in this moment, with Aunt Eliza who-knows-where with a siren, is this what you want to be focusing on?”
Miranda looks down and away from Jessie. Her entire face relaxes, and I worry she’s going to break. She closes her eyes and bites on her lips. Then she looks at Rory again, but without any façade of strength. “Rory, we need to figure out how to get her back. You can be mad at me later.”
“Did you call George?” I’m still not sure why I was the one to suggest that. My wife needs backup, and I don’t care who that is, so long as they can kick ass. I sigh and close my eyes for a moment. Damnit, I don’t think I can stop training. I may hate everything about this entire Guardian thing, but we need that kid. We need what he has to give Miranda. And if we can’t go longer than six months without a new crisis popping up, then I need to stop hiding behind my emotions and avoiding him. I cannot let my wife and kids down again. “Is he on his way here?”
“How is your personal trainer going to help?” Jessie looks between us with her arms out, waiting for an explanation like she’s the parent. Miranda raises one eyebrow and bunches her mouth to the side. Jessie closes her eyes and runs her fingers through her hair, grabbing it like she needs to pull it out or she’ll lose her mind. “Oh for fuck’s sake! He’s a part of this too? Of fucking course!”
