Page 14 of Vail

“Are you seriously getting flustered? She’s a tiny thing who can’t even speak.”

“Vail, help me,” he panicked, eyes wide.

“Can’t,” I said and closed my eyes, leaving them open in small slits so I could watch the scene before me unfold. “Too tired to move.”

“This is ridiculous,” Cat muttered and pushed Ivy toward Sheldon, until he had no choice but to take her. Ivy whimpered, turning her head toward Sheldon.

“Jesus fuck,” he whispered. Before he could hand her back, Cat bolted down the hallway. I heard a door shut a second later. “Vail,” he tried to yell softly. “Come get this baby.” Poor Sheldon was frozen on the spot. The man was skilled in so many areas and completely deadly, yet a baby rendered him useless.

Before he could say anything else, the back sliding door opened. Oleander and Carson entered, along with a burst of cold air pouring through the kitchen. I caught the edge of it where I was on the couch. I heard the rustling of clothes, no doubt Carson taking off his snowsuit and Oleander shedding his coat.

Oleander was the first into the room. He stopped the second his eyes landed on Sheldon. A slow smile spread over his lips. “Whatcha doing?”

“Shut up,” Sheldon growled.

“I don’t think I will.” Reaching into his pocket, Oleander pulled out his phone to take a quick photo of Sheldon. “This is going to look so nice on the family Christmas card. Or maybe I’ll create a profile for you on a dating site and use this as the picture. The possibilities are endless.” It was heartwarming to see the way Sheldon and Oleander interacted. The more time I spent with them, the more their true selves came out. Together, they really brought the other one out of their deadly shell.

“I’m going to kill you in your sleep,” Sheldon hissed. “Set any trap you want. I’ll still get to you.”

“What’s that? You want me to print this out and put it up in the gym for others to see?”

“Bully.”

That got a full belly laugh from Oleander. “Not once in my life have I ever been called that, and you know it.” He turned to me. “I was the scrawny one until junior year in high school. That was when I started to fill out. Before that, Shel was my protector. Every time someone messed with me, all he had to do was stare them down. It didn’t matter that he was leaner than most of the football team. One fight and he got a reputation.”

“What did you do?” I asked Sheldon.

“Found the biggest bully in school and put him on his knees.”

“That’s more than I wanted to know.”

“Not like that. I got him on his knees, fisted his hair, wrenched his head back until he howled in pain, and told him if he ever messed with Ollie again, I’d take out his kneecaps. He couldn’t tell on me. What would he say? He regularly threatened half the school while I had an impeccable record.”

“You have a heart, after all.”

“No, I just didn’t want anyone screwing with my best friend.”

“That’s so sweet,” I heard from behind me. Cat had returned.

“Take the baby back,” Sheldon pleaded.

“No, I’m going to get Carson a snack.” Fortunately, Carson was too involved with a video on his tablet and didn’t care about the conversation in the living room. My sister and Dana had figured out early on they could say just about anything, and he didn’t hear them if he was on that.

The bickering between my sister, Sheldon, and Oleander continued while I closed my eyes and let the sound of family and friends soothe me. It wasn’t the same as having Hartley and Jordan with me, but it was close. I could relax and, for a little while, forget about the hell that awaited me. Gil was still out there, and I had no clue what he was planning.

7

JORDAN

If I thought I felt genuine anger before, it would have only been when I was betrayed. Right now, with Vail’s ex in the fucking wind, I shook with the need to wrap my hands around his fucking throat so I could choke the life out of him. He’d better be dead somewhere.

“And you went through all of our contacts?” I asked, barely containing my anger. It wasn’t her fault. There was no need to take my mood out on her.

Kayli nodded. “Anyone who wasn’t a cop, I’ve talked to. I even found people you haven’t spoken to in years. No one has seen or heard about Gil, outside of his disappearance on the news and in the papers.” She twirled a piece of her blond hair as she glanced at a bookshelf in my office. To look at her and think she was harmless would be a foolish mistake.

“I spoke with Barrett. He said the cops don’t know where Gil is. They want him found just as badly. They can’t hold me. They can’t get him. I keep the streets cleaner than they do.”

“They look more incompetent every day.”

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