We looked at it in silence for a moment.
“It’s an apple. In what appears to be sterling silver.” There was puzzlement in his voice.
“It is.” And it was exactly the kind of thing they’d buy, because that’s who they were.
“I suppose it’s the thought that counts?” Ethan said, sounding not entirely sure.
“I guess so,” I said, then walked through the sitting room to the doorway that led to the newest part of our rooms. The wall between our apartments and the suite next door had been knocked down, the space turned into a bedroom and attached bath for the baby. There was thick carpet, a rocking chair, and a pretty crib topped by a mobile of spinning animals that Mallory had felted from wool. The colors were soothing, the fabrics soft.
I put the apple on the dresser, then walked to the crib, ran my fingers over the soft, brown bear that waited in a corner. I heard his footsteps behind me.
“Are we going to be able to pull this off?”
“Finding the attacker?” he asked.
“No,” I said with a chuckle, well aware he was being purposefully obtuse. “Raising this child, who now owns a sterling silver apple and lives in a mansion. Making sure she’s kind and empathetic and brave and can stand on her own two feet.”
“We will almost certainly screw some things up,” Ethan said, coming toward me. “But we both love her already, and I suspect our being guided by love will go a long way. And even if we are the worst parents imaginable, she’ll probably be smart enough to find a way around us.”
He put a hand on my belly, smiled at her responsive kick.
“She knows you’re there,” I said. “Oh, and while we’re discussing small parasitic creatures, Mallory’s pregnant!”
His eyes went wide, then narrowed. “Does Catcher know?”
“Ha ha. Yes, and she said he was excited. In his, you know, Catcher way.”
“I know they love each other, and I know she loves you. But I have a difficult time imagining them as parents.”
“She can use magic to warm the bottles, and he’ll get a snarky T-shirt,” I said. “And like us, they’ll probably figure it out.”
I wrapped my arms around him, although I had to turn to the side to do it. “I love you.”
“And I love my girls.” He dropped his head atop mine. “Until you both gang up against me. Which I assume is inevitable given I’m going to be outnumbered.”
“We’re going to paint Cadogan House pink and cover it in glitter.”
He snorted a laugh. “I doubt pink. But possibly yes on the glitter, especially if Aunt Mallory is involved.”
I couldn’t fault his logic.
“Now,” he said, pressing a kiss to the top of my head. “Let’s go check Margot’s nighttime basket and find you a snack.”
I grabbed his tie, pulled him down. “I have something different in mind,” I said, and kissed him hard and lavishly, with plenty of promise of things to come.
His eyes silvered. “I’m yours, Sentinel. But be gentle.”
“No,” I said with a grin, and proceeded to show him just how ungentle I could be.
5
Dusk fell again, and I refused to give up my nightly walk. But I agreed to tone it down a little.
I told myself I was just trying to avoid a battle with Ethan, but as time passed, the more the Incident began to bother me—and scare me. I didn’t scare easily, not anymore. But it wasn’t just me I was protecting, it was her. And something about the way the attacker had looked at me, the way he’d looked at my belly, made me uncomfortable in retrospect. I didn’t know if one failure would be enough for him. So I’d be careful.
I got dressed, confirmed with Luc there’d been no communication from him, and walked outside to the front portico. I stretched my calves along the edge of the bottom step and waited for Margot to switch from clogs to tennis shoes. Then we took the sidewalk to the trail that bobbed and weaved around the edge of the property just inside the fence. Not the most exciting walk, but likely a safer one.
“How are you feeling?” she asked.
“Like I always have to pee.” And like my own personal rebellion, I took another drink of the chocolate banana “health” smoothie she’d made for me.
She grinned. “I mean about last night.”
“Nervous,” I admitted. And confessed I was feeling more uncomfortable about it tonight.
“That strikes me as an entirely logical reaction. The baby is your new House.”
“I think you have that backward?”
“No, I mean now you’re protecting the baby, where before you were protecting the House. You may be on Sentinel hiatus, but you’re still protecting something.”
Even as she said it, I was surveying the top of the wall that surrounded the lawn, checking that the security camera lights were green and ready. You could take the sword from the Sentinel, but you couldn’t take the Sentinel from the girl.
“We’ll find him,” I said, and that I believed one hundred percent. I just didn’t know the how or when.
“How are you doing?” I asked. There’d been darkness in my friend’s eyes this week, shadows that I thought originated from her heart, but I wasn’t sure. Margot was bright and charming and thoughtful, but she was also guarded.
I still wasn’t entirely sure why she and Jonah hadn’t gotten together. He’d refused to talk to me about it given our past non-relationship, and Margot had been just as mum.
“Did Jonah find you last night?” she asked, trying to sound casual and not succeeding very well.
“You mean, on the street?”
She laughed, as I’d meant her to. “No, after that. After he’d talked to, I think, Malik about negotiations with the city. I told him you were in the apartments.”
“No, he didn’t come by. But you saw him?” I asked, trying to hide my enthusiasm. We were both playing coy.
“Just for a second. He came by the kitchen to say hello.”
So he was interested, I deduced. I just wasn’t sure where she was.
“Cool,” I said, and then failed at being nonchalant. “And are you two . . . ?”
“We aren’t.”
“Okay. Are you not feeling it, or . . . ?”
She ducked to avoid a flowering limb that dipped over the trail. “It’s just . . . I’m working through some stuff from a previous boyfriend.”
I stopped short. “Oh, damn, Margot. I’m sorry.”
“No need to apologize,” she said. “I told you I was ready to start looking again. And I like Jonah. But when we went out, I wasn’t as ready as I thought.” She started walking again, and I let her set the pace.
“I’m sorry I shoved him at you when you weren’t ready.”
She arched a gorgeous, dark brow. “Shoved?”
I grinned. “Gently nudged. Trust me—those wheels were already greased. You’re sexy and gorgeous and smart. And I think he likes food nearly as much as I do, so the fact that you’re a chef is probably a plus.”
She lifted a shoulder. “I’m just trying to figure some things out right now.”
“Totally fair,” I said. “And a good thing we’re immortal.”
“Preach.”
We’d made our third loop around the property—and avoided any further talk about romance, even though I wanted to burrow into the subject like a honey badger—before my phone rang.
I pulled it out, smiled at the name on the screen.
“Hi, Grandpa.”
“Hey, baby girl. How are you feeling tonight?”
“Very secure,” I said, as we rounded the corner to the front of the House and the bevy of watchful guards. “And fine other than that.”
“We’ve got a potential development.”
I stopped, motioned Margot to do the same. “The gun? The pizza box?”
“Neither, unfortunately. The gun doesn’t have a serial number. We found plenty of fingerprints, but they don’t match anything in the human or supernatural databases. No DNA, presuming we’d be able to match it. But when we find him, they’ll be nails in his proverbial coffin. Oh, goodness. No offense meant there.”
He sounded horrified by perceived slight. “None taken. So what’s the development?”
“I think we’ve found the getaway car.”
“You aren’t going.”