Page 77 of Sunflower

“Dad, come on. Pick up. Pick up, pick up, pick up.”

Seven. Eight.

“Callum…” My eyes met his as more tears fell. He had his phone plastered to his ear and was running his fingers through his now-messy hair as he, too, now paced. “Why aren’t they—”

“Mam! Oh, thank fuck,” Callum said, collapsing in a heap on the ground in front of me.

My heart dropped as some sense of relief poured through my system.

“Is Barry with you?” Callum asked, staring at me as he reached for my hand. “Mam. Stop. Just tell me if Barry is there with you or not.No, Mam! You tell me right now!”

I went willingly, my hand grabbing his as I sunk to the ground with him. I heard my phone still ringing, but I paid it no mind while I waited for Callum’s next words.

“He is?” Callum’s shoulders relaxed as he closed his eyes in sheer relief and clung to my hand. “Oh, thank fuck.”

I fell into him with a heaving sob of relief. My dad was with Erin. He was safe.Theywere safe. They were alive, and they weresafe.

Without letting me go, I felt Callum move around me to hang up my phone that was now going through Dad’s voicemail message. “Mam, I’m going to put you on speaker, okay?” He pulled his phone from his ear and swiped at it until Erin’s voice came through, loud and clear.

“—still your mother and I don’t care if you’re twenty-three or sixty-three, you’re never too old for me to bend over my knee and whip your ass for talking to me like—”

“Petrichor, this is George, and you’re on speaker.”

At George’s deep, serious voice, and the startled silence that came immediately after, I looked up and found him bending over Callum’s phone. Callum slid it onto the table so George could sit down and talk more freely, then wrapped his arms around me, rocking me slightly as he whispered, “They’re okay,mo lus na gréine.They’re okay.”

There was a stilted pause where the only sound we could hear were some footsteps, then a door snicking shut, before Erin said in a quiet, but very tense voice, “George, I want immediateanswers to two questions. Why is my son with you on a Saturday night? And whythe fuckare you using my code name in his vicinity?”

I grimaced and burrowed into Callum some more. I’d heard this tone of voice before, and it never boded well at who it was directed at. Erin was gearing up for a brawl.

George seemed to know this just as much as Callum and I did, because he ran his slightly trembling fingers through his hair before he leaned his elbows on the table and buried his head in his hands. “Actually, I have your stepson here with me, too.”

A glacial silence was his only response. I could well imagine the look that was on Erin’s face right now.

“Petrichor, can you confirm your husband is in your vicinity?” George asked, choosing to ignore her silent fury. “I currently have two operatives on the phone with a third as they head to your property in an ongoing situation. I need to know that you and your husband are safe and nowhere near there so they can both work freely.”

There was another beat of silence before Erin said in a much more professional manner, “Yes, I can confirm my husband is with me and neither of us are home. Who have you sent?”

“Boogeyman and Hellhound.”

Erin let out a whistle. “The big guns, huh? Okay. What protocol do you want us to follow?”

“I want you to come in immediately,” George said, still hunched over the phone. “Both you and your husband, until we can confirm the situation is safe. Prepare for a long night.”

“I assume our children are to follow the same procedure?”

George glanced at both Callum and me apologetically. “Correct.”

Callum grimaced. He knew as well as I did that our immediate future was going to comprise much shouting and anger from our parents.

“Good. We’ll be on our way in five and there in thirty. Zookeeper, I expect answers when we arrive. Petrichor out.”

After Erin hung up, George ended the call and handed Callum’s phone back to him. “Prepare yourself well, boy. She’ll be on the warpath as soon as she arrives at HQ.”

“Yup.” With a ton of resignation, Callum pocketed his phone and stood before helping me up. “I guess it was only a matter of time before she found out. I would have preferred it under different circumstances, though.”

George patted him on the shoulder in sympathy. “You’ll be okay. Just be honest with her. She can’t ask for anything more than that.”

Pressing his lips together tight, Callum sighed. “I guess.”

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