“You gonna be alright out here?”
“Yeah. I’m gonna go home and get changed, okay?” She takes her purse from the desk drawer and turns back to her computer. “Dolly’s in mourning, so I need to change my outfit.”
“Whatever you need to do, sweetheart. Whatever makes your heart ache a little less.” Phones ring as she packs her purse, but no one gives a shit. Emails pop on the computer screen, but they go unchecked. Dolly’s long fingernails incessantly tap as she leans over her computer and sets up an out-of-office auto-reply. Then with a dramatic sniffle, she lifts her head high and walks away. “I’m gonna go shopping for a bit. I wanna buy some cute outfits for the Bishop baby.”
“Okay.”
“Probably gonna go to the salon, too.”
“Okay.”
“Tell the boss I’m using the company credit card.”
Chuckling, I watch her walk through the front door and away, then I turn back to the still wild chatter going on just twenty feet from where I stand. Laine, Jess’ twin sister, bustles around in search of snacks and water. Ang is back, but he doesn’t get so close. Kane sits on a chair in the middle of the room with Jess pulled into his lap. Soph has walked away and eats with her feet up at a desk. But Jay, technically our newest and youngest recruit, sits with his elbows on his knees, his chin in his hands, and his eyes trained on the couple in the middle. He watches them in silence, in awe, as they whisper between themselves, and everyone else is a storm moving around them.
I always considered Jay a kind of child. He’s a trained assassin, a ruthless hunter and killer when he needs to be. He can break into just about anywhere, hotwire just about anything, and seduce just about anyone. But deep inside, he’s a curious boy, and now he watches his big brother with a kind of hero worship.
“You’re gonna be an uncle.” I drop down in the chair beside him and wait for his eyes. “Kinda wild, right?”
Giving a slow nod, he goes back to watching his brother stroke Jess’ stomach. An hour ago, I would have sworn it was as flat as always, but now that Iknow, I can’t not see the slightest curve. It could be my mind playing tricks and showing me what I want to see, or it could truly be Kane’s four-month-old fetus barging its way in on our world.
“Another Bishop is coming,” Jay murmurs. “That’s probably a really scary idea.”
I chuckle.I haven’t met a Bishop yet who isn’t dangerous.
“He’s half-Kane, so he’s gonna be a prick,” Jay continues. “But he’s half-blond, so he’ll be psycho, too. I get you guys think this is exciting, but that baby’s genes aren’t being watered down by her. They’re being punched up todefconlevels. We’re all gonna die.”
Laughing, I clap the back of his head and pull him in for a fast side hug. “It’s exciting. You’re gonna be an uncle. Kane’s gonna be a dad. He’ll either mellow out, or turn fullSpenceover this.”
“I think it’s gonna be a little of both,” he ponders. “I think becoming a daddy will slow him down. Like, instead of going to the shooting range on a Saturday, he might hang out at home and play blocks. But then if anybody looks at that kid the wrong way, he’s gonna go to war, and we’ll all be standing right beside him.” He blows out a long breath. “She’s baking a time bomb right now, Cap. And it’s kinda scary, right?”
“I mean…it doesn’t have to be scary.” Glancing down, I study the guns strapped to this guy’s thighs and chuckle. He’s scared, but he’s already been through the fire. “A cute baby isn’t something to be afraid of. Your family is growing. This is a good thing.”
“You’re gonna be an uncle, too.” Turning his head only, he flashes a grin. “Bet Kane’s gonna let his brute tear Uncle Eric’s place up. You ready for it?”
“It’ll be fine. I’m happy for him.” I watch the couple whisper and smile. We’re supposed to be working, but this place hasn’t had any kind of routine since the day it was created. We do whatever the hell we want to do, we pull in the cases, solve them, collect our cash, and keep on doing whatever we’re doing. “I think it’s exciting. Jess is a sweetheart, so I think this is awesome. He deserves happiness.”
“Do you ever…” Hesitating, Jay nervously reseats the beanie on his head and kind of avoids my eyes. “It’s scary loving someone, ya know? When we’re alone, we’re unbreakable, but when we find someone we love, we become weak.”
“Uh-huh. I know that better than anyone.”
“Right. But the women we chose, they’re warriors, so they don’t really slow us down. We worry for them, but we don’thaveto worry, ya know? Because they’re pretty capable. We teach them, so they’re capable.”
“Right.”
“A baby can’t be taught, Cap.” He runs a frustrated hand over his jaw. “A baby makes us weak, and I just don’t know how to be a Bishop at the same time I have a weakness. I just got Kane back, and now he’s gonna be distracted, and well, what if… I’m just…” I feel for the guy whoknowswhat he wants to ask, but isn’t sure how to ask it. “How did you deal with it after… How did you come back from that?”
“Well…” I blow out a breath to buy myself time. “I just did what I had to do. I worked; I kept my head down, and I didn’t talk about it.”
“You think that’s healthy?”
I snort. “Not even a little bit. But the past is the past, ya know? I can’t change it, and it’s part of my history now, so when someone tells my story someday, I mean, ithasto be in there. So I guess the answer is, I don’t get a choice but to deal. The Earth still orbits the sun; the stars still come out at night; time continues moving forward; babies are born; cases are solved, and our brothers fall in love and create babies. Whether I stop or not, the rest of the world won’t.”
“I don’t know if I could ever be that strong,” he whispers. “If Soph ever left me…”
“She’s capable, Bish. She’s badass. Gemma wasn’t part of our world like Soph is; she didn’t understand, so when the heat came for us… Well…” The breath still stops in my lungs when I think of the woman I married fresh out of high school. The pain slices through my chest and clogs the oxygen in my throat. “Soph is different. That’s all I’m saying. You’re fine with her, so you shouldn’t worry so much.” I slap his leg and stand, because I’m not lifting the no-talking-about-Gemma ban I’ve had in place for so long just because today is a special occasion. “It’s a happy day. Be happy.”
Raising my voice, I walk through the crowd and pull Jessie out of her man’s lap so I can lay a wet kiss on her cheek. “Congratulations, Jessie. You captured the elusive Kane Bishop, and now you’re incubating and making more.” Kane stands with a wide smile. For just this moment, he’s so happy and distracted, he doesn’t even shoot me when I pull her in for a second hug. “I hope you realize you two are solely responsible for the end of the world when your spawn arrives. Ever watched any of those Lucifer movies with the evil child tearing cities apart? Unquenchable thirst for blood, uncontrollable desire for violence?”