Page 77 of Deadly Target
19
Two weeks later
Victor’s home
“I like Solar Flare,”Brenda said.
Victor’s other sisters looked on, staring at the living room wall where he’d painted six different shades of orange.
Nikki shook her head. “Hawaiian Sunset is the one. It has enough orange, but not too much yellow.”
“Are you kidding me?” Danille stomped over and tapped a finger on a different swatch. “Victor needs more earth tones, like this.”
Brenda rolled her eyes and Nikki laughed. “That’s Dragon Fire, Danille. Who paints their living room Dragon Fire?”
“It’s only a name,” Danille argued.
Victor turned to his youngest sister, Ruth. “What do you think, kid?”
She glanced at him with a sullen teenager expression, even though she’d turn thirty soon. Somehow, she’d never quite outgrown looking and acting much younger. “I vote for plain old sky blue. Keep it simple.”
Out of all of them, she was the artistic one, the one who wrote poetry and grew herbs in her backyard. He’d expected her to come up with something even wilder than Dragon Fire. But that was his sisters for you—he never could outguess them.
Outside in the backyard, their families were talking, laughing, and the kids were playing. Brenda put a palm to her forehead as if searching for patience. “What do you think, Mama?”
Their mother always had the final say. She’d moved out of her wheelchair and into Victor’s new La-Z-Boy that Taz seemed to spend more time in than he did. Her feet were up, and she had a margarita in one hand, smiling at all of her children. “Victor’s girlfriend is right. With the lighting in here, something like Dragon Fire is probably perfect. ‘Fiery,’ isn’t that the term she used, honey?”
Yeah, he told her about Olivia and their conversation concerning the paint colors for his living room.
“There you have it,” he said to his sisters. “Mama knows best.”
Victor bent forward and kissed her forehead, careful to avoid hitting his recovering arm on the chair. He still wore a sling but planned to ditch it soon. He only had to suffer through another week of physical therapy. “Dragon Fire it is,” he said to the room at large, and then under his breath to his mother, “and I no longer have a girlfriend.”
Danille sidled up to him and wrapped her arms around his waist. “You don’t know that. You said things have been hectic for her, dealing with her father’s injuries and working a deal with the DA not to send him back to prison. Give her time, she might surprise you.”
Outside, an SUV pulled in, followed by a sports car. “Looks like our guests are here for the picnic,” Victor said. “I’m really glad everybody could make it today, especially all of you guys.”
His sisters huddled around him and their mother, smiling and laughing, in one of their famous family hugs. Ruth pinched his side. “You just wanted help putting together a party for your friends, and you couldn’t do it with your banged-up arm.”
“That’s what sisters are for,” Brenda said, patting Victor’s shoulder. “We’re glad to help any time. You and your friends have been through a lot in the past couple weeks.”
They broke apart and Nikki lead the entourage to the kitchen. “And it’s about time we got to see the house, but I draw the line at helping you paint the living room Dragon Fire. Every time I walk in there, I’m going to feel like I’m entering a Tolkien fantasy story. At least if you went with Hawaiian Sunset, we could feel like we’re on vacation when we came over.”
Victor laughed, enjoying the constant bickering and arguing as the four women filed out. “Let’s get you back in your wheelchair, Mama, and I’ll take you out to the backyard for the picnic.”
“You go meet your guests. I’ll be fine here for a few minutes. You can send that Thomas fellow in to get me.” She winked at him.
She might be closing in on sixty, but she was as full of spunk and silliness as her daughters. “Yes, ma’am.”
It was great to see Cooper up and about, carrying his daughter through the front door as Celina dropped a kiss on Victor’s cheek when they entered. Thomas and Ronni came in, bearing baskets and platters of food, and Victor directed them to the kitchen and out to the patio,
For the next twenty minutes, he ran back and forth making sure everybody had drinks and had been introduced. Every few minutes, he checked his phone to see if there was a message or call from Olivia. He’d invited her, but she hadn’t responded to any of his texts or voicemails.
Hence, his certainty he didn’t have a girlfriend.
She’d visited him once in the hospital, shortly after some minor surgery on his shoulder. He’d been looped out on medication, and even now couldn’t quite recall the entire conversation, but had sensed she carried a heavy burden of guilt. Something she had said to him in the dining room the night Alfie took her hostage kept chasing around in his brain as he lay in that sterile bed, but he hadn’t quite been able to put his finger on it. He’d thought everything was okay between them, but then she’d disappeared.
The day he’d been discharged, he kept thinking she was going to show up to help take him home. Instead, it was Thomas and Ronni who picked him up and made sure he had his prescriptions filled. His sisters had taken turns visiting every day, bringing food and fussing over him, until he finally insisted he was okay and could handle normal life again. It was hard having them constantly checking on him and hanging around when he knew they were so busy with their own lives, but in many ways, he’d enjoyed spending time with each of them. He only wished Olivia had been around to do the same.
