Chest tight, I let out a shaky sigh. “You know what, Dad? Yes. That’s exactly what I’m going to do.”
And with that, I ran back into the house. Back to Fluffy and my dog.
* * * *
Lila wasn’t amused.
“Queen B came to your home?”
I nodded, watching the paramedics work on Fluffy.
“Did you just nod, Veronica?”
Heat filled my cheeks and I hiccupped out a little laugh. “Sorry.”
Mom, I noticed, hadn’t left Fluffy’s side. Groot was now at her feet, watching everything going o. I think asking her to help with Fluffy had given her mind a way of coping with the surreal insanity she’d walked in on. Mom was one of those people who set themselves on a path and stayed on it, no matter what. Unconscious Supreme Court judges, bullet holes, cops and ranting husbands would not stop her.
“Okay, so the authorities have taken Lucas and your father back to the station house. Which one?” Lila asked.
“I don’t know.”
“And Queen B is still unconscious on your living room floor?”
“Yes.”
“And Fluffy is still alive?”
“Yes.”
“May I speak with him, please?”
Apologizing to the paramedics battling with Fluffy’s bullet wound, I handed him my phone.
I don’t know what Lila said to him. I didn’t understand his mumbled responses. What I did understand was the worried looks the paramedics gave each other over him.
“Sir?” the paramedic taping a fat white bandage to his shoulder said, her voice soft but firm. “We need to get you to—”
Fluffy held up a finger.
Mom murmured something that sounded like I hope William is okay.
“Yes,” Fluffy said into my phone, his gaze finding me. “Yes. I will.”
He handed the phone to Mom.
Mom?
What the hell?
“Hello?” Mom always has this way of sounding like she’s expecting to be attacked through the phone whenever she answers it. Right now was no different, although to be fair, she and Dad had walked into a situation straight out of a crazy action movie, so who knows what was going through her head at the moment.
Whatever Lila said to her, it made her frown. And then shake her head. And then nod. Yes, I take after her. Quite a bit.
With an uncertain “yes, I can do that,” she handed the phone to me.
I took it and pressed it to my ear. “What—”
Okay, so Lila had disconnected. I frowned at Mom, then at Fluffy. “What did she say?”