Leave it to Maggie. She always knew the exact right thing to say, her eulogy more fitting than any words that would be spoken at his funeral. I didn’t want to hear how sorry people were he was gone. Sorry wouldn’t bring him back. Sorry was a two-syllable copout when you had nothing original to add.
“We handled recon on Mrs. Trudeau last night.” She traced the stitching on the quilt with her fingertip. “There were concerns after the Uptons that they might both be compromised.”
“I didn’t…” A shiver blasted down my arms. “It didn’t cross my mind.”
“She’s still your Aunt Nancy,” Maggie said softly. “She’s one hundred percent human.”
Grateful tears stung the backs of my eyes that I wouldn’t lose her too. “Thanks.”
“That’s what friends are for, right?” A wince tightened her features, and she sucked in a breath that whistled through her teeth. “I can’t stay much longer.” She braced her palms on her thighs. “I don’t have the strength yet.”
“I’m glad you came.” I reached for her, and she let me take her hand. “I want to see you again.”
“Count on it.” A shiver rippled over her, and her posture changed. Her entire bearing altered until I had no doubt she had lost the grip on her body. “Sorry about that.” Portia withdrew her hand. “She’s getting better, but control takes time.”
“Thanks for helping her visit me.” I twisted the sheet around my finger until I lost circulation. “Thanks for everything. I didn’t get a chance to say that earlier, but I owe you big.” I glanced up at her. “I don’t know if I made the right call or the selfish one, if there’s even a difference, but I know you put yourself at great risk to make it happen. You gave me a chance to save my best friend that I never would have had otherwise, so yeah. I’m in your debt.”
“Fair warning, I will be taking that favor and banking it for later. How often does a member of the cadre offer you a blank check?” She patted a breast pocket she didn’t have. “I won’t be cashing this baby until I’m ready to make a big purchase.”
“Stop feeling yourself up and get a move on,” Santiago muttered from the doorway.
Portia smashed Maggie’s small breasts together. “You want to feel me up instead?”
Reflex primed me to slap her hands down, but it was Portia’s body too now.
He lifted his left foot and circled his ankle. “You want me to plant my boot up your ass?”
“He missed me,” she announced. “Cuddled with my stuffed pony every night I was gone.”
The wattage of Santiago’s glower flipped up to full blast. “Thom put that on my bed.”
“Mmm-hmm.” Portia stood with a shade less grace than she once had, the only indication she was still getting used to sharing too. “That’s what Cole told me when I caught him squishing the stuffing out of her.”
Thom had been to blame for Cole waking up with the pony that time, but I wasn’t about to interrupt them.
Issuing threats was how Santiago told the people who annoyed him least that if they were on fire, he might piss on them to put out the flames. And Portia combatted his aggression with snark just to keep him off-balance enough he didn’t notice that maybe she wouldn’t stroll past his flaming corpse either.
Bickering all the way downstairs, they left me alone in my room to formulate my plan of attack.
First things first, I checked my email and located the promised information from Kapoor. Figuring I would cut out the middle man, I called the physician assigned to Dad’s case instead of his room. Dr. Levine fed me the update I was craving then punted me to admissions to make visitation arrangements.
While I had my finger on the pulse of the system, I quizzed the administrative assistant on Wu. At first, she demurred, all polite but firm on the patient confidentiality front, but I pressed hard with what leverage I had as his partner. With a few clicks of her keyboard, she served up the shock of my morning by informing me he had listed me as his emergency contact. The woman, happy now that I had passed muster, patched me through to his room.
Wu answered on the first ring. “I was wondering when you’d call.”
I considered hanging up on him to prove a point but held strong. “How did you know it was me?”
Amusement licked at my ears. “Who else would it be?”
“Your co-workers? Your boss? Your father?”
“There’s only you.”
Careful not to trigger a landmine, I buried the pity welling in me under a layer of annoyance. He had made his choices, and I had made mine, and we both had to live with them. “Are you guilt-tripping me because I didn’t send you flowers?”
He huffed out a laugh. “I prefer balloons.”
“I hate to burst yours, but the facility where you are doesn’t allow deliveries. I was going to send Dad an arrangement, but they vetoed that idea.” And, okay, I might have sent Wu one too had it been allowed to show there were no hard feelings for how things had gone down. “How are you?”
“The doctor told me I can leave in forty-eight hours.”
“Nine hours ago, you were paralyzed and couldn’t breathe on your own.” Charun healed fast, but they didn’t heal that fast. “What’s your doctor’s name?”
“Worried about me?”
Yes. No. Maybe. I hadn’t known Wu long enough to decide if I liked him, but I was relieved Famine hadn’t killed him, and not only because he was my Get Out of Medical Testing Free card. “I just want to make sure that quack isn’t the same doctor treating Dad.”
His soft laughter ended on a hiss of pain, and that was my cue to make a stilted goodbye and hang up before we ran out of things to say.
After yanking on fresh clothes and twisting up my hair, I hit the stairs on a mission. I bumped into Miller and Thom in the living room and cast them a wave as I followed the smell of coffee into the kitchen. For what came next, I required caffeine. Lots of it. I drank it hot, and it burned all the way down, though if I’d hoped the scalding might cleanse my mouth for what came next, I was wrong.
I dialed up Elliot, the eldest Trudeau son, and offered up condolences that burned to ash on my tongue. Oblivious to the truth, he thanked me for all I had done, not realizing his loss was all my fault, and he ended the call after extracting a promise from me to stay with his mother until he arrived.
Jamal, the youngest, who was still older than me, rushed out a few words between panted breaths as he ran to catch his flight. A local friend had called him with the news last night, and he was already on his way home. We arranged for me to fetch him from the airport later, and he hung up without saying goodbye.
Mentally ticking off items on my to-do list, I cut through the living room only to grind to a halt on the threshold.
“Mom isn’t thrilled with you right now.” Sariah leaned over the couch, holding a dagger similar to the one Famine had wielded to Miller’s throat while he sat on the cushions. “And when Momma ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.”
Thom stood at the base of the stairs, too far away to help without costing Miller his life. Or, if the warnings were true, costing us ours when he imploded.
Hands flexing open at my sides, I advanced on her. “Lower your weapon.”
“Nah.” She eased the edge along the underside of Miller’s jaw, careful not to pierce the skin, a silent warning I had gotten close enough. “Let’s call this insurance.”
One wrong move and Miller would be the recipient of an unscheduled tracheotomy. She left me no choice but to listen to her spiel until I figured out how to disarm her. “Maybe you should talk to your dad if your mom’s happiness quotient isn’t getting met.”
“My parents breed like rabbits. Her home life is not the issue.” She wrinkled her nose, the gesture so normal it was hard to believe her true identity. “I told you to expect a house call. Ring, ring. Pick up the phone.”
“You want to talk?” That seemed unlikely. “Let’s start with Famine.”
“Ah, so you do know about the double breach. I wondered. Sadly, I can’t help you there. That’s your realm of expertise, not mine. All I can tell you for certain is Famine was given a choice between early entry or her coterie. Mom spotted an anomaly and wanted to take advantage for tactical purposes, but the final decision belonged to Famine.”