Chapter 22 Bruno
brUNO
Logan and Vivian were both waiting in the hallway to collect their own kids as Bruno hurried up to the classroom door.
There was no time for more than a polite nod before the bell rang and there was a surge of shrieks and yells and a sea of tiny people hit the halls, poorly contained by the few harried parents and even more harried teachers.
“No running!” “I forgot my lunchbag!” “BYE!” “Remember your homework!” “MOMMY I ATE A BUG!” “ME TOO!”
Fortunately, the bugs turned out to be cookies decorated like ladybugs for one of the kids’ birthdays.
Bruno shared a relieved laugh with the other parents, then said, “Train to Tiny Paws, heading out of the station!” to get Gil to follow him down the crowded hallway instead of getting distracted by a hundred shiny diversions.
“I’M AN AIRPLANE!”
Bruno got him herded to their car and had to wait while other parents chased their offspring across the lot behind his car.
He ended up following Vivian’s van down the street, and he frowned as he thought again about how much extra work it was to ferry three kids from one place to another in three separate vehicles in the middle of a work day.
He liked half-day kindergarten and was glad that Gil was getting to transition to a human-heavy elementary school instead of transferring all at once, but it was a definite disruption to his working rhythm.
He’d gotten spoiled, leaving Gil at Tiny Paws all day.
He glanced into the mirror. Gil was drawing in the frost on the window. “I’m going to be A BASKETBALL.”
“A basketball player?” Bruno quizzed him. Neither he nor Gil inclined towards tall or athletic. If he had to guess a sport, he’d have chosen soccer or softball.
“NO,” Gil corrected him. “A BASKETBALL. Other kids can throw me around, but I’D MAKE THE SCORE.”
Bruno snort-laughed. “Well, I guess you would. Except…”
Gil sighed. “I can’t be a ball at school. School is for HAVING a ball. Not BEING a ball. Tara says a ball is a party where people dance in big dresses. Can I have a big dress?”
Bruno wasn’t sure how serious the request was. “Big dresses are expensive. How about a little dress?”
“I GUESS.”
Gil had forgotten about dresses and basketball by the time they got to Tiny Paws and was back on a favorite subject: dinosaurs.
“Why aren’t there any DINOSAUR shifters?
” he wanted to know. He didn’t wait for an answer.
“I bet there are, they just have to live in special houses with HUNDRED foot roofs.”
“We’re going outside now,” Bruno reminded him. “Ixnay on the iftershays!”
Gil had taken to pig latin like he had to swimming; he was enthusiastic, but Bruno was pretty sure he would drown without the floaties. “Iyay antway offway onutday inyay morfday.”
Bruno couldn’t pick a sentence out of the soup. “We gotta go inside so I can get back to work, pup.”
“Iyay amyay otnay ayay uppay. ENNIFERJAY ISYAY AYAY UPPYPAY.”
“Fine. Let’s go.”
Gil drug his feet going down the sidewalk, stepping with unnecessary caution around clumps of snow until he found one that was just right and went in to the tops of his boots.
“Gil!”
“I wanted to see if it was DEEP!”
“It was, now get inside!”
Vivian was just coming out the door as he went in, and they exchanged busy nods.
“Boots off, Gil.” Bruno commanded. “No, don’t leave them in the middle of the way! And, you’re gone.”
Gil was already over the gate into the playroom, loudly declaring, “I ATE BUGS. FOUR OF THEM!”
Bruno handed his lunch bag over the gate to Alan.
“How was the date?” Alan asked.
“Does everyone know?” Bruno groaned.
“It was the topic of a security briefing last night,” Alan said dryly.
“Are you allowed to tell me that?” Bruno wanted to know.
“You’re considered an asset for this one, so I insisted on keeping you in the loop.”
“YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO SAY ASS!” Gil interrupted loudly, returning to the gate.
“Asset,” Bruno groaned. “Go play.”
“WHAT’S AN ASS IT?”
“It’s a boring grown up thing,” Alan said. “Sort of like responsibility. Do you want to go see if Jackson will play hide and seek?”
“HE ALWAYS TELEPORTS! IT’S CHEATING.” But Gil was willing to go to where Jackson was being dressed up by Jennifer and Tara, rather than staying to talk about his least favorite words.
“The agency wants to know if you’d be willing to use your…relationship…with Clarice to get some information for us.”
“You want me to snoop for you? Clarice and I don’t really have a relationship yet. It was one date.” Bruno felt unsettled, and he paused to investigate his emotions. “And I don’t feel comfortable using her.”
“Of course,” Alan said quickly. “We wouldn’t ask you to. But we’re finding that Veronica has some powerful friends. She could definitely be a threat to our secrets, and we’d just…like to know what her next move is going to be.”
“What are we talking about? Planting bugs? Tapping her phone?”
“Nothing so crass,” Alan promised. “We’d need a warrant for anything to be permissible, and we can’t get anything to stick.
We just want to know where she’s going. If it comes up in conversation with Clarice, let us know if she has travel plans.
That sort of thing. Very low-key. You don’t have to tell us anything she asks you to keep a secret, we’re just asking you to pass on anything that might be significant or seem unusual.
Late-night house showings. Unexpected clients.
Plane tickets for Spain. That sort of thing. ”
Uneasy. Bruno definitely felt uneasy, but he wasn’t sure it was instinct.
“I’m not going to grill her,” he said firmly.
“And I’m not going to betray her confidence.
” He tested the air, metaphorically, considering outcomes and feeling for any clues from instinct.
“But if something comes up in conversation, I’ll pass it on.
” That was reasonable. It was logical. It didn’t leave him feeling uncomfortable.
“You’re going to see her again, then?” Alan looked pleased.
“I was going to anyways,” Bruno said. Instinct hummed happily. “It’s been a long time since I clicked with someone like I do with her. Like, maybe ever. I don’t think she’s in cahoots with Veronica, and I bet she’d be willing to help us if we just asked her.”
“We can’t do that,” Alan said swiftly. “You know what’s at stake, how much you’d have to explain to her. You absolutely can’t trust her like that.”
Bruno’s armadillo unexpectedly offered, Yes, we can.
Bruno was not sorry when a small toddler tornado came to distract Alan, and he made a quick goodbye. “I gotta get back to work. Be good, Gil!” Bruno called.
“Ifway ALWAYAY oodalayway!” Gil yelled back incomprehensively.
Bruno left the day care and trudged back to his truck.
Logic was on Alan’s side, even if instinct wasn’t.
Bruno had to think of Gil, and of all the kids at Tiny Paws and their shifter parents.
The last thing they needed to do was fuel a witch hunt.
“Don’t scare the normals,” was a constant shifter reminder.
Scared people did terrible things that they didn’t mean to.
Fine, his armadillo scoffed. Run scared. Stay alone forever.
I’m not running, Bruno protested, and to prove it, he took out his phone and texted Clarice. I’d love to go out again soon. Are you free this weekend?
Only after he sent it did he remember that he’d need to find a babysitter again.