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“We do. But not because I think you need him to run down here and check your boo-boo,” Bishop explained, flicking through the numbers before hitting the one he wanted and pressing it to his ear. “This is me just letting my brother know that shit happened, but his woman handled herself. Because that’s what we do... it’s what family does.”
I was still learning.
Learning what it felt like to be a part of something bigger than my tiny bubble and have people around me who actually gave a damn about my well-being.
And right now, instead of the voice of independence screaming like a siren inside my head, all I could think was how good it felt to know that I had people—family—watching my back. Out there at the bar, in here, at home with Kadey.
A family who had lightened the weight I was carrying so damn dramatically over the past month.
A real family.
HAWK
“Balloons!”
I chuckled, scribbling balloons onto the list as Kadey lifted her juice box, humming happily and swinging her legs as she sucked at the straw. “You have anything you want me to add to this, Calli?” I questioned loudly, tapping my pen as I eyed the almost page full of Kadey’s demands for her birthday.
It took a minute or so for me to realize that Calli hadn’t answered me from the kitchen, so I got to my feet and hefted Kadey onto my hip. We walked around the dining room table and through the archway to the kitchen.
Calli stood at the counter facing the window, gripping a large bowl with one hand while the other held a thick wooden spoon, but she wasn’t mixing or folding or stirring.
She was dead still.
“Calli?” I tried again, taking another step forward. Still no response. “Calli, what the hell—”
Reaching out, I gently touched her shoulder, and the bowl instantly went flying. Chocolate cake mixture sprayed from the bowl as it flipped through the air, coating the floor, the ceiling, the counters and appliances before the now mostly empty metal bowl clattered onto the ground.
“Oh my God!” She gasped, covering her mouth with her hands while Kadey let out a loud cackle of laughter and threw her arms into the air.
“Yay,” the little girl exclaimed. “Again!”
I placed her on the floor, allowing her to bounce around happily while I tried not to look at the absolute mess, instead focusing on my cousin. “I’m so sorry,” she said with a heavy sigh, instantly turning and pulling open the cupboards below the sink to grab the bucket of cleaning supplies. “I’ll clean it up.”
I stepped around the dancing toddler and gently removed the bucket from Calli’s hand, placing it on the counter. “What had you so distracted? I called out to you like three times.”
She shook her head, though it didn’t remove the worried frown that had settled into her brow. “It’s nothing.”
“Calli,” I warned. “Tell me.”
She pulled her lip between her teeth and glanced at the window she’d been staring out a few moments before the cake batter disaster. “I thought…” she started, pausing to scrunch up her nose. “I thought I saw a face.”
There was nothing like the idea of someone wandering around my fucking house at night to light a spark under me. I took one step toward the fridge, throwing open the cabinet above and reaching for the handgun I’d recently stashed up there.
With Kadey and Missy hanging around, I’d had to rethink where I kept emergency weapons.
“It was probably nothing,” Calli said, her shoulders slumping. Though the way her eyes kept flickering back to the window let me know it wasn’t. It had scared her. Enough that she had frozen up and blocked out everything else around her for those few minutes.
“Kadey,” I announced, drawing the little girl’s attention. “Just stay in here with Calli for a few minutes, okay.”
“Why?” she asked in this sing-song voice that almost made me crack a smile.
I gripped my gun tightly, trying to hide it slightly behind me, so it was one less question I had to answer. “Because… we’re playing…the floor is lava.” Calli rolled her eyes, but at least the worry seemed to be gone, replaced with an amused smile. “And the kitchen floor is safe, but the carpet is not.”
Kadey’s eyes grew wide as she looked at both the exits to the kitchen, one into the dining room and the other into the living room—both with carpet. “We’re trapped.”
“I’m gonna go see if I can find something to help us, okay?”
She nodded, and Calli scooped her up off the floor. “While Hawk is finding a way to save us, how about we wipe up some of this mess, huh?”
