Page 23 of The Wayward Sons & The Vampires of Fortune
Ryder was fine. Or at least as fine as he could be for a man sitting in an interrogation room with his hands cuffed to a table. I wanted him out of there, but at least I knew he was safe. We were just biding our time. Biding our time as a whole bunch of pieces were put on the board—whatever the hell that meant. This plan of Sam’s was a little confusing. Ryder as a serial killer. FBI agents. People from Chicago. It all confused me. Maybe if he would’ve clued me in entirely, it wouldn’t have been so bad.And why couldn’t I know everything?What the hell was that all about?
To be honest, everything about Sam was confusing. I wanted to hate him—to be pissed about the whole goddamn thing from start to finish—but I was having a real hard time with it. I hadn’tthought about Sam in years. Life with Ryder was good.Minus this whole being hunted by vampires thing obviously.
That initial surge of anger had faded fast. Maybe I just had too many other things to be angry about, or maybe I just couldn’t stay angry at him. Lord and Uriel knew that I couldn’t when we were young. And he’d done a lot of awful things while high that should’ve kept me mad at him.
“Morning,” Sam mumbled around a yawn as he came out of one of the bedrooms. Fuck, he looked good like that—all scruffy and relaxed in a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt.Yeah, there were a hell of a lot of confusing feelings where he was involved.
Was I a bad guy for being a little turned on and a bit interested in my ex-boyfriend at a time like this? I wanted to say no, but that shit was a little confusing too. Ryder was safe. There was an escape plan. We just had to buy some time. Wait it out.
And I was stuck waiting it out with Sam.Who looked really damn good first thing in the morning.Yeah, I had to stop thinking so hard about this shit. It was making my head spin.
“You have to turn it on, Gray,” he said. Reaching around me, he flipped a switch on the coffee pot, and I tensed at his presence invading my space.Fuck.His nearness set a spark of sensations off in my body—ones I didn’t need to be feeling.
“Yeah, well,” I sighed, “it ain’t like I got a whole lot of experience with fuckin’ coffee pots.”
When was the last time I used a coffee pot? I couldn’t think of a single time.
“You sleep okay?” he asked.
“Eh.” I shrugged. “I’ll sleep better when he’s safe. You?”
“My daughter blew up her aunt’s gnome collection and had a meltdown at one am. Spent most of the night trying to smooth that one over.”
I blinked.His what?I knew I needed coffee but shit. Was my brain just plain making up things at this point? Had I heard him wrong?
“You have a kid?” I demanded.
“Five-year-old daughter.”
“You have a kid?” I repeated with disbelief. The idea of Sam as a dad wasn’t registering with me.Not one single fucking bit.
“Yeah.”
“You? A dad?”
“Yeah.” He laughed.
“Who the fuck let you be a dad?”
“That’d be my wife.”
“And your kid is blowin’ up gnomes?”Yeah, my brain was struggling with this one.“I have so many fuckin’ questions.”
“Witches don’t have a magic puberty like hunters do,” he explained.Oh, shit.“They’re born with their magic, which makes toddlerhood interesting. And while my wife had a coven, they’re not keen on me. Her mom didn’t like me. So, I’m winging it mostly.”
“Shit.” I whistled. “That’s some bullshit right there. That’ll test your goddamn sanity as a parent.”
“Well, she’s broken… like ten TVs at this point and blown up a few things. There was also the goat incident.”
“Goat incident?”
“And the elephants.”
“What the fuck?”
“We aren’t going to talk about the lion cubs.”
“Oh, your life sure as hell ain’t borin’, is it?”
