Page 37 of Ice

“Ice called them?” she questioned, thinking the man barely knew they were in school, let alone where, but she had passed that information on to him at some point.

“Yes, a bit confused on consoling, which he rudely rebuffed,” she countered. “That being said, are they at your home now?”

Unease bubbled in Bree’s gut as she leaned against the counter in the bathroom and tried to find an explanation that wouldn’t get the babies taken away permanently. How do you tell a social worker Ice’s trailer has no running water, so you went to your house, only to be attacked by some man nicknamed the Doctor set on killing everyone around Misty? As she replayed the last few days, she only needed wiretapped lamps and black helicopters to make the conspiracy theory stick.

“No, we went for McDonald’s,” Bree lied. “I know, not the healthiest, but they needed to run around those tubes.”

“Which one? I’ll meet you there.”

“Um.” Bree picked with her fingernail, the urgency and shift in the woman’s voice made Bree uneasy.

“Ms. Stanton!” The harsh bark made Bree’s back stiffen, and now she was sure something wasn’t right. “These are young children; they can’t be dandled about willy-nilly. They have lost their mother; their stepfather is on death’s door. I trusted you with their charge in an emergent situation, and now I’m questioning my decision.”

Bree hated when people questioned her intentions or follow-through with a promise. Failure wasn’t an option when it came to Bree Stanton. An A minus had been tantamount to an F in her book. Now she worked with weapons and jets where a two-millimeter piece of fuzz lying across a sensor could cause a catastrophic deficiency. The bile rising in her throat, she had to let go of. This woman wasn’t her mother, preacher, or God. She was a social worker demanding to see children she’d abandoned at the first home that took them in and now was acting as if Bree had somehow failed her due diligence.

“We could come to you,” she offered, fear pooling in her belly as her need to please and accommodate authority figures had her kowtowing in the way she’d been raised to. Elders, clergy, police, teachers, all of them never one to accept a doctor using his first name or her so much as walking out when they spoke, even when every part of her disagreed with their words. It made no damn sense. She’d fought her way to the table in a male-dominated field, could dress down and reposition anyone when they got out of line, but not here. Here there was a pinch of doubt floating inside her, and it didn’t matter the size, it was enough to land on a nerve. “Since we’re out and about anyway trying to distract the twins.”

“That is not acceptable. I need to be sure their basic needs are being met. Now where are they sleeping? Bathing? And eating beyond fast food?” she questioned. “I need the exact location. Give me the address of where they are staying.”

The woman had the address to Ice’s trailer. She knew where he worked, and more importantly, she knew how to find him. Something was off, and her asking for an address sent a stinging fission reaction through Bree that had her stepping from the bathroom to motion to Shadow.

Abandoning the two kids jumping on the bed he’d been standing guard of to avoid tumbles that required ice packs later, he stepped to her, and she held her finger over her lips.

“Mrs. Parker,” she said, “we’ll be taking off from here in about ten, maybe twenty minutes to head back to the trailer. How about I’ll text you the address? That way we’ll not have any confusion on the address and we can see you in an hour or so?”

“That sounds fine,” the older woman said with a hitch in her voice. “It’ll just be you and Mr. Winter with the kids? No one else?”

Both adults knitted their brows together at that comment. At least Bree wasn’t getting a case of the worries on her own. She mouthed the wordsyou hear it too, and Shadow nodded.

“Of course, it’s tucked behind a big building, so there shouldn’t be anyone to bother us. It really is a nice place for the kids.”

“One hour, Ms. Stanton,” she said with another hitch and a sound near to tears in her voice. “Don’t make me regret my trust in you.”

“I have to make a call,” Shadow said once the line was disconnected, and he disappeared into the room.

“Wait,” she called after him. “What is going on? Where’s Ice? And tell me I’m not crazy?”

“I have no fucking clue, he went to find answers, and you’re not crazier than the rest of us assholes walking around,” he said.

“Did you just quoteCuckoo’s Nest?”

“Ha, good ear,” he said, and as the phone connected, he spun his back to her and headed to the hallway.

“What’s going on, Auntie Bree?” Aiden questioned, and he leapt from the end of the bed, making her have to catch the heavy rogue missile. “We gonna go see Daddy?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know anything right now.”

“Bree,” Ice said as he rushed into the room and caught Jane one-handed as she followed her brother in jumping at the adults. “Janie, warn a guy.”

Ice flipped his daughter as if his arm was a jungle gym and not a necessary limb. The girl squealed before bouncing on the bed when he tossed her back.

“You two done?” he asked as Aiden leaned back and Bree plopped him on the bed. “I’m going to head to the trailer. I just needed to see you first.”

“Okay, I’ll grab my stuff,” she said, heading into the other room, only to be caught by Ice once she crossed the threshold.

He spun her around and slammed the door shut between the two rooms. Pinning her to the heavy door, he pressed into her, his hands moving to cup her face as he claimed her lips. Once again she’d been taken on a roller coaster of emotions that soon would be sending her tumbling over the edge and hanging on for dear life. How was this productive? He needed to know, to understand her fears, and instead his tongue was delving deep inside her mouth to the point she no longer fully understood where he began and she ended.

“Ice,” she moaned, fighting the heat building between her hips as he knocked her knees apart with his. “Ice, please.”

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