I move around until I find Sean. I grab his arm. “Oh my God, there you are! What happened?”
He pulls me in, hugging me hard. “There you are. I got worried when I couldn’t find you.”
“Had to hurry, so I went to the downstairs bathroom.” I laugh. “Good thing, because bam, lights out.”
He puts his hand on my neck and squeezes. “Should we head out? The party was winding down even before the power went out.”
“Yes, please. I’m exhausted.” I tug on his hand and he follows.
He motions to his driver and she pulls around the drive. He opens the door and I’m getting in when I hear commotion near the house.
“Sean,” I call.
He leans his head in, looking at me.
I pat the seat and nearly cry with relief when he gets in instead of following the sound of the cries by the house. My ears are tuned to what’s happening back there, but he seems oblivious. He shuts the door and I wilt into the seat. I deserve to burn in hell, but I clutch his hand and twist my neck to face him.
“Thank you for bringing me this weekend. It was fun seeing you in your element.”
TWENTY-SEVEN
JACKAL
The male antechinus has so much sex that he disintegrates.
I’ve never held one of my own babies, but here I am holding Folsom’s.
They’re squirmy, all octopus legs and arms, with cries so shrill they make your eyes bug out. I take special care with him because he belongs to two people I love. The drive to the meeting point is ten minutes away. I lay Rebel in a box and place the box carefully on the floor of the car. The car belongs to Aries and I have to have it back in thirty minutes, just in time for the ensuing chaos to unfold when they find Rebel gone. The ignition kicks on, and I pull onto the road without turning on the headlights. The drop-off spot is a secluded dirt road five miles away. I miss it in the dark and have to circle back around, wasting at least five minutes. The baby screams from the box, and when I glance over, I see flailing arms and angry fists.
“Me too, little dude,” I say.
The road is bumpy, but I don’t slow down until I see the flash of lights from the waiting vehicle. I jump out as soon as I’ve put the car in park and run around to the passenger door, lifting Rebel from his hiding spot.
“He’s hungry,” Sylvia says as I pass him to her.
They’ve come prepared. She pulls out a bottle and Rebel’s cries are cut off.
“He’s about as loud as Gwen when she’s pissed off,” I say.
She starts cooing immediately and gets him secured into a protector. Bisa keeps watch in the driver’s seat.
“Aries pull through?” Sylvia glances at me.
“We wouldn’t be here if he hadn’t,” I say.
Other than loaning me his car, Aries’ only job was to arrange the after-party at the Villanova house to keep Langley occupied—which so long as you have a dick is an easy feat. I owe him a solid.
“Good luck,” I say, closing Sylvia’s door. She grabs my hand through the window.
“You’ve taken a lot of risks for the people you love,” she says. “I guess you have a heart after all.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” I say. “I’ll see you in an hour.”
I tap the hood of the car and they take off.
When I get back to the Villanova estate, all the lights are back on and the front lawn is teeming with people. I don’t pause to see what’s happening. I drive around the back and pull Aries’ car into the spot where he’d left it. I have twenty minutes to get back to my mother’s house on foot. I’m going to have to run.
Rachel is waiting to drive me to the airstrip when I get back. I pretend to be drunk, slurring my words and knocking into my mother’s china cabinet. She rushes me out of the house before I can wake my mother. I slide into the backseat of my mother’s car. It smells of her—perfume and the illegal cigarettes she buys on the black market. I open the window slightly.