Page 171 of Deceit

“I won’t shoot you,” a female voice chimes in before the phone shifts and is picked up to show off Blue on the screen.

I can’t help my frown at her not only being there but taking the camera off my daughter.

“Hey girl,” she greets with a smile. “How’s it going in exile?”

“As good as it can be,” I reply.

“Yeah, I guess it would. Don’t worry about a thing, we got shit handled.”

I perk a brow. “Really? I heard—“

She waves a hand dismissively in the air. “You know how the guys are. It’ll blow over.”

“I hope so.”

“Did you want to see Alaric sleep?” I see her walking through Mills place and, I have to admit, I’m surprised she even thought of it.

Blue isn’t what I would call a motherly figure. She does hard drugs, can drink more than a man, and gives zero fucks about consequences. She’s brave and confident, things I may have faulted her for in certain scenarios, but I can’t judge her too harshly when I really don’t know her.

I have no clue when her birthday is, if she has family, a boyfriend, where she’s from, or anything of significance.

I never asked.

“Now that we’re alone for a second—“ She lowers her voice into a whisper. “—I wanted to have a girl chat.”

“Uh…sure.”

“I meant what I said with the guys, don’t worry about it. Kyson won’t let anything happen, and neither will I.”

I perk a brow. “Since when do you play devil’s advocate?”

“Never,” she honestly conveys, popping a piece of pink gum in her mouth. “But this is…different.”

I want to ask her why and how, but we don’t have time to bullshit.

Or maybe it’s because I don’t prefer to admit I was completely wrong about her. I cast her out as Bishop did to me with not belonging within our family but for entirely other reasons.

“Did you find out when his next outing was?”

“He has a meeting at a club that he’s trying to schedule. I figured we could off him there.”

She smiles wickedly. “Let me know when and I’ll meet you.”

Yes, ladies and gents, I may be working with Blue on an undisclosed case. The world has gone crazy.

“Here he is,” she whispers, flipping the phone’s camera around to show me a crib. She hovers the phone over the side and displays my handsome little boy bundled up in a blue blanket with his mouth open.

He looks great, breathing perfectly on his own as he peacefully sleeps with his arms hung over his head.

He looks like Bishop.

How he used to sleep and appear serene while in his dreams or lack of. Such a strong boy with a special name after a man who will never forgive me after this.

“You make pretty babies, Emmy Lou Rhodes.”

The tears that form in my eyes at the sight of Alaric, I let fall. They hit my cheeks, reminding me that there is still a guy who tried to kill us. That has to die, or we’ll never see any rest.

“I promise, nothing will happen to your babies.”

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