They all stared at me, Dad’s dark gaze the heaviest.
“I didn’t mean to cut you off,” I hurried to explain. I knew better than to interrupt him or Mom when they were speaking. “You two don’t need to go anywhere. And you don’t need to send any groups of anything. I’ll go.”
“You’ll go?” Mom asked at the same time Butcher said, “You?”
I could have turned and strangled him.
“Yeah, why not?” I asked with a slight shoulder shrug. “I have a good idea of where they’d go. Besides, you don’t want to send groups of acolytes to find three rebellious teens.
“That’s not a good look. It’s rather embarrassing, actually.”
“Well,” Dad murmured. “That’s the way I should have thought of it.”
I was going to point out something like; he couldn’t because he was a parent now. He wasn’t just, Romero Deville, the devil in the flesh and self-made king of the Badlands, but family was never to be used as a scapegoat.
“Sooo does this mean I can go?” I asked instead, struggling to keep the excitement out of my voice.
“What do you think?” he asked Mom.
Her blue eyes swept over my face, and for a minute she almost looked sad.
A small smile touched her lips. “I think she’s more than capable of handling this.”
Dad ran a hand down her hair and pulled her further into his side.
“Then obviously I have to go to protect you,” Luce interjected.
“Uh, I don’t think so,” I shot back, making Mom laugh.
“It almost sounds like you don’t want me there. That hurts,” Luce pouted.
Hurts my ass, I thought.
“Go load up some gear; I’ll have the XL brought around to the front of the house. Make sure you take your acolyte.
“And you,” Dad turned his head to address Luce.
I bit back a snappy retort that my acolyte had a name.
Annie had been brought up different than all the other acolyte children. I knew she didn’t mind the title. She was the one who signed on to become my guard, but I never referred to her as just an acolyte.
She was my friend—practically an older sister.
“Come on,” I said to her, stepping away from the conversation Mom and Dad were now having with Luce and Butcher.
I fastened my knife holster beneath the small of my back, and then slid the Kambit dagger into place before pulling both of my shirts over it.
My Glock was the next piece I added, placing it in a side holster. Crouching down, I tightened the shoestrings of my boots and checked their zippers.
Mom came in just as I was standing back up.
She clasped her hands behind her back and leaned against the wall, silently watching me finish getting ready.
I glanced at the Sigil Of Baphomet tapestry hanging behind my bed. A goat head similar to the one tattooed on my right arm, stared back at me—his empty eyes as answerless as I was.
“I’m sure Bella’s fine mom. And I’m going to bring her back,” I said, slipping my arms through the straps of the gear bag Dad had brought to me a bit ago.
“Is that why you think I came in here?”