Page 90 of Hell Hath No Fury

Antoinette turns her glare on Tony. “Don’t even get me started on what Carolina will do with you once she’s been updated. The lot of you thinking you can just run off into battle, leaving the poor womenfolk at home.”

“Me? What did I do?” Tony asks.

Antoinette gapes at him, then crosses her arms over her chest. “Don’t play games with me, Tony Andersen. I know you far better than that.”

Squinting, he pauses, obviously considering his next words carefully. Then, he sighs. “How’d you know?”

Antoinette holds her phone up. “Some idiot accidentally sent a message to the wrong group chat.”

I laugh, shaking my head. “Seriously, guys. I told you this was a stupid fucking idea, but you were like, nah, it’ll be fine.”

“You knew this was a mistake,” Lilith retorts. “But still, you went along with it?”

“He said if I didn’t, they’d go without me and not give me any details,” I confess without hesitation. My ass is cooked already, but I’m not ashamed to try to lower the level of the hot water I’m in.

“Is that so?” Lilith asks, her eyes moving to Matt.

“Traitor,” Matt mutters, his elbow jabbing me in the side.

“Where’s Darius?” Antoinette asks calmly—a bit too calmly.

Tony and Matt look at each other, and there is an obvious silent conversation. After a significant amount of back-and-forth miming, Tony says, “He’s in the car.”

“Is that so?” Antoinette mutters.

Lilith and I look at each other, wide-eyed, knowing the sentence to be the red flag it is. But Tony just nods.

“Since you’re good and busted,” Agatha says nonchalantly. “Why don’t you guys go on out, and we’ll meet you in just a moment.

I hesitate, recognizing this for the setup it is, but unsure how best to proceed, given I’m most certainly in trouble. Again.

Lilith gives me a pointed look, and I shake my head, not wanting to allow her to do what they’re obviously going to do. “Since we now have time, I’m going to take advantage of the restroom again. Old man bladder, you know.”

I don’t wait for a response; I just take off back the way I came, as if the hounds of hell are nipping at my heels. No sooner am I out the door than a hand touches my back, making me jump, and I turn to find Mickey there, grinning. “This way.”

He maneuvers me out the back door, around the walkway to the side driveway where a car is parked. He opens the back door for me, and I give him a questioning look. “What’s going on?”

“Just them getting a taste of their own medicine,” he responds good-naturedly, motioning for me to get in the backseat.

I climb in without comment, and, sure enough, the girls come running out a moment later, laughing wickedly.

They pile in, shoving me over as Lilith settles in the middle, and I twist around so I can look at her and Agatha seated on her other side. “What did you guys do this time?”

Antoinette cackles from the front, putting her seatbelt on as she replies, “Hey, you guys wanna start shit, so you can’t get mad when we finish it.”

“I’m not arguing that fact, but maybe this isn’t the best time to divide and conquer.”

Antoinette twists around in her seat and squints at me. “Whose side are you on,Dad?”

As far as I recall, Antoinette has never called me any variation of dad before, so I gape at her, officially at a loss for words. Antoinette continues to stare at me, obviously waiting for me to say something, but I just stare back with my mouth dropped open, searching for the right words.

Lilith’s elbow hits me in my ribs, drawing my gaze to her. She’s smiling softly, her eyes warm as she tilts her head toward Antoinette, urging me to say something, anything.

My mouth curves up, warmth rushing over me at the amused expression on my daughter’s face. “Yours, dear heart. Always yours.”

39

We Win Some, We Lose Some

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