Page 24 of The Devil's Ice

Vixen watched the other woman walk over, holding Keira’s hand, and she smiled. Despite herself, she adored that little girl and to her utter astonishment, Keira loved her right back. Keira looked at her and looked right past the revealing clothes and bleach-blonde hair and high heels, and she didn’t care about what Vixen did or didn’t do in the bar back rooms. Vixen had no idea what she’d done to win Keira over, and she didn’t care: she was just so damn happy that she had. She was even more happy that Zoe had no problem at all with Vixen spending time with her daughter.

“Hey, Zee,” Vixen said, then turned her brilliant smile at the little blonde girl. “Keira cutie.”

“Hi Vixen!” Keira burbled. “Did you hear about the babies? They have names now? Hannah and Joe?”

“I did. It’s great news, huh?”

“Yes. Can you come to my party?”

Vixen stared down at Keira. “Ummmm. What party?”

“My birthday party!”

“Uhhhh.” Vixen felt her forehead wrinkle in confusion. “I thought your birthday was in May?”

“It is.”

“Oh. Oh, right.” She looked at Zoe and met her amused eyes. “So – so you’re just planning things a bit early?”

“Yes,” Keira huffed. “So can you come?”

“Of course,” Vixen said, deliberately ignoring Ice who’d just appeared in the bar. “I appreciate the super-early invitation, so I can write it in my calendar six months in advance.”

“You’re welcome.” Keira did a pirouette on the spot. “So can you help me go get Peach?”

“Ummm. Yes.” Vixen knew that she should be used to Keira’s lightning-quick changes in topics by now, but shestillgot taken by surprise every once in a while. “Where is she?”

“Over at Blue Dragon.” Zoe stepped in to take over the conversation, which Vixen knew would speed things up a bit, and make them considerably clearer. “That’s why I wanted to talk to you. Keira forgot Peach, and I need to talk to Scars about something before she and I head home. If you’re leaving and going that way anyway, would you mind taking her over to the tattoo parlour and getting her bunny? I’ll meet you out in the parking lot in three minutes.”

“Yeah, of course.” Vixen hitched her purse and smiled down at Keira, who beamed and took her hand. “Let’s go find Peach. What do you think she’s doing over there on her own?”

“Getting a tattoo,” Keira said solemnly. “She told me that she wants one.”

“Oh, really?” her mother said. “What’s she getting done?”

“It’s a surprise.”

“Ohhhhh, OK.” Zoe shook her head with affection, winked at Vixen. “Is it really fine to go over there, Vixen? You’re not in a rush to get home or anything?”

“Not at all,” Vixen said firmly. In actual fact, she was grateful that she now had an iron-clad excuse to not have to speak to Ice. She started moving towards the bar doors. “Let’s go, cutie.”

Keira giggled, and skipped beside Vixen as they crossed the parking lot holding hands. She was humming something that had very little real melody, but was beyond adorable anyway. That was the thing about kids: they were just beautiful in their lack of self-consciousness.

“Scars gave me Peach, you know,” Keira said, announcing it as if she’d never told Vixen this before. “I don’t remember ‘cause I was only one, but he told me so.”

“Really?” As always, Vixen pretended to be enthralled by this information, as if it were her first time hearing it. “That was so nice of him.”

“Yes,” Keira agreed. “He’s very nice. I love him.”

“I bet you do,” Vixen said, glancing to their left to make sure that no vehicles were coming up between the parked cars. They were about sixty feet away from Blue Dragon by now, and through the front window, she could see Saint standing at the front desk talking on the phone. “He’s a good man. You’re very lucky.”

Keira was just starting to hum and skip again when it happened.

With a squeal of tires, the black van shot out of nowhere behind them, going shockingly quickly considering that it was in a crowded lot. Vixen stopped dead in her tracks, automatically gripping Keira’s hand harder, and turned around to look at the vehicle. For a few precious and blissfully unaware seconds, Vixen was just puzzled by what she saw – it didn’t make any sense that the van was going as fast as it was, nor that it was coming straight at them.

That was when reality jumped up and screamed in her face.

Holy Lord. It’s coming straight at us.

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