Page 53 of Controlled Chaos

When he pulled away, I remembered. “What about the girls? Did they find them and save them?”

“Everyone was taken off the island. The plants are being destroyed, and they even got the guy in the hole.”

I leaned back into my pillow, thankful that fate had thought twice about taking my life. Trusting that, even if I didn’t have all the answers, Porter had tried to stop my demise.

“Get some rest. I need to go make peace with your brothers, since one day we’re going to be family.”

“Good luck with that.” I chuckled as I slowly closed my eyes. Tiredness washed through my soul.

I heard the door shut behind him, and five minutes later, before the REM cycle had even kicked in, I heard it open again.

“Did you forget something?” I asked before opening my eyes.

“No, I think we got them all. Thanks to you,” Frankie said in a singsong voice from across the room.

I snapped my eyes open. “What are you doing here? Did you come to steal something?”

Her lips twisted into a smile. The dress she was wearing was nothing like the clothes I’d seen her in on the island. Her hair was pulled back out of her face. She no longer looked like a disgruntled twentyish girl and more like a young adult.

“How old are you, really?”

“Old enough to know you never ask a woman that question,” she said, walking around the room and glancing down at the street below. “I just wanted to let you know that we took care of your other problem.”

“What problem was that?”

“Carlos,” Dakota said from the doorway. “He won’t be bothering you anymore. He knows the truth.”

“What truth? And how do you and Frankie know each other?” I asked, sitting a little taller in the bed, wishing I didn’t feel so vulnerable.

“Frankie and I just met, if you don’t count the years, we’ve been friends online.” Dakota said.

“Of course you’re friends.” I complained.

“That’s not important to focus on. What is important is that Carlos no longer blames you for his brother’s death, because you saved his sisters.”

“Come again?”

“Debbie Drake and her twin.” Frankie said from across the room.

Dakota’s eyes twinkled with mischief. “I might have put a bug in my husband ear that you’d be the perfect agent to help my brother.”

“How is it that you knew that Carlos even had sisters much less that they were on the island. There was nothing in Carlos or Raul’s file to suggest they had sisters.”

“Yes, well. You know men and their secrets.”

“Apparently their secrets can’t be kept from you.”

Dakota’s smile turned bigger. “My mother must have mentioned it to Thaddeus. That’s why he instructed my mother to fight with me. He didn’t want me around to spoil his deceptions.”

I was rapidly forming a positive opinion about Fillpot’s wife. If Porter had the love voodoo, what exactly was Dakota’s superpower?

“The men in your life severely underestimate you.” I chuckled.

“Like I underestimated you,” Frankie said, crossing the room. She put a card down on the table with nothing more than a number emblazoned on it. “If you ever need a friend, call that number and leave the message that you want to reorder your favorite pair of butt-hugging jeans.”

I chuckled as Frankie left. Dakota wasn’t as fast to leave. She rested her palm on my arm. “You and I are going to be great friends.”

“You know that how?”

Dakota winked. “And the answer is yes.”

“What was the question?” I asked.

Her grin grew. “Yes, I’d love to be your baby’s godmother.”

My eyes widened and my mouth parted as I rested a hand on my stomach. No way had I heard her right. “My what?”

Her gaze landed on my hand, and she chuckled. “Not yet, but soon.”

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