5. Vortex #2
Connie takes a spoonful, blows on it, and takes a bite. “Oh, that’s so good,” she says. “And hot. It needs to cool a bit.” She smiles at Seven. “Good job, you made your first mac and cheese.”
“Maybe I’ll make it for Caleb, since he doesn’t cook,” Seven says. “We’ll have to get him a casserole dish.” He glances at me. “I think we’d need more than that, though. Does he even have spoons like that?”
I chuckle. “I don’t even know. We can make a list of things and place an order with his credit card.”
“I don’t mind paying!” Seven says, but he relents under my stare. “Okay, okay.”
Connie takes the bag of shredded cheese out of the fridge and dumps the remainder into the casserole dish, then stirs it. “I guess if you want a crispy top, you shove it into the oven again, but I’m starving and don’t care.”
“Shouldn’t you follow recipes?” Seven asks.
“Cooking is an art, not a science,” Connie quips. “Once you know the rules, you can bend them to your heart’s content.”
Seven looks blankly at her.
“It’s something people say,” I tell him. “Cooking is an art; baking is a science. You can mess around with savory cooking more than sweet. Maybe we’ll watch one of those cooking shows so you can see. People can be very creative.”
“There’s that one cooking anime,” Seven begins, only to look self-consciously at Connie. “Anyway, it’s fine. I’m hungry, too.”
The cheese Connie added has quickly melted, and the resulting dish is gooey and warm and smells delicious. Connie serves all of us a bowl before sitting down again.
“Baking has some leeway too,” Connie says.
“But you have to be way better at the basics before you can get really creative. Like, this mac and cheese. I used pre-shredded cheese that probably has a bunch of wood filler in it, but I could have bought expensive cheese that requires hand grating. I didn’t feel like grating a pound of cheese. ”
“What?” Seven asks, alarmed as he stares down at his bowl like it’s going to bite him.
“It does not—” I begin, shooting a glare at Connie. “Okay, a little bit, but it’s not like you’re getting wood chips in your cheese. It’s not going to hurt you.”
“It’s food-safe cellulose. A perfectly legal food additive,” Connie says as she takes a bite of her hot pasta. “Anyway, eat up. It’s best while it’s warm.”
Seven says abruptly, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to get you caught up in anything.” He stares down at his bowl instead of looking at either of us.
Connie gives Seven a crooked smile. “It wasn’t your fault.
I’m pretty sure it was those guys with guns.
” She sighs. “I hope the cops catch them. I gave them all the info I could, but who even knows with the Calamity City PD. There’s better chances since they grabbed Caleb too, I guess.
They’ll do anything for the rich douchebags.
” She glances in my direction. “No offense to you, all the offense to Caleb Spade.”
I frown at her. “The CCPD talked to you?” I ask.
Something nags at me about that. Our contacts there hadn’t said anything about an investigation, and no one has come around wanting to ask Caleb or Seven any questions — which isn’t a bad thing, per se, but it is strange.
Seven looks wary, but then, he always looks wary when the police are mentioned.
“Yeah. Caleb’s driver told the emergency team what happened, and I guess one of them must have alerted the cops.
They interviewed me at the hospital.” Connie takes another bite of her mac and cheese.
“They mostly asked what the guys looked like, and whether I knew if Seven had family who needed to be alerted. Standard stuff? I don’t know.
I had a massive headache and the pain meds hadn’t quite kicked in. ”
“Did they ask anything about Caleb?” I ask slowly, a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. No. I must be paranoid. There’s no way the Lockwoods could be absolutely everywhere like that, especially not this fast.
But they had been nearby, or at least, close enough to plan a pickup from Earl. And Seven had seen someone in the bar he’d recognized.
“I was surprised it didn’t make the news, actually.” Connie smiles at Seven again. “I am, honestly, glad that you’re okay. I’ve been giving Sebby a hard time but nobody deserves that kind of shit.”
“Thank you,” Seven says automatically, but he’s abandoned his mac and cheese. “And I didn’t mean to be rude to you, either.”
As glad as I am that they’re getting along, something about this stinks.
“Connie,” I begin, only to hesitate. Then I shake my head.
I haven’t gotten this far by ignoring my instincts.
“What would you think about a vacation to the Roi de Pique for a few days? Getting poolside drinks, maybe having a spa treatment?”
Connie raises her eyebrows. “Uh. Who’s paying for that?”
“It’s the least Caleb can do, after everything that happened,” I say. “I know how you feel about him, but he is sorry you got wrapped up in all of this.”
Seven is giving me a weird look, but I shake my head slightly. He and I can talk about this later, when the situation isn’t raising alarm bells.
Connie starts stirring the pasta in her bowl.
“It sounds nice. I guess. But…” Her expression turns vulnerable.
“I don’t know if I want to go to the casino right now.
” She notices my frown and adds, “That’s not because of Caleb.
It’s… um, okay, it’s dumb, but I’ve mostly stuck to this neighborhood and even going out yesterday to do groceries was a bit hard, and I think I’ll be fine if I stay here. ”
“What about going to my apartment for a few days?” I ask. “It’s just that they haven’t found who did it, and I don’t want anyone harassing you.”
I see it when Seven clues in to my suspicions, and his eyes go wide.
Connie’s lip wibbles, and I can see she’s torn. “They’re still out there? You think they’d come for me?”
Well, that was the wrong thing to say.
“I don’t think so,” I say, trying for comforting but pretty sure I miss the mark. “But I wouldn’t mind having you somewhere safe while we— while the police do their work.”
“If you come to the hotel, we could hang out or something,” Seven offers.
I blink in surprise at him, but I’m grateful for the assist, especially since I fucked up and made my sister’s trauma that much worse. “And in the meantime, maybe I hook you both up with some therapy.”
Seven shoots a glare in my direction.
Connie hunches down, and she looks so much smaller than my loud, boisterous sister who doesn’t take shit from me.
“I guess,” she says quietly. “It’ll be nice not to have to cook for myself. And I’ll try out every single amenity on your dime.”
“That’s the spirit,” I say with false cheer. “Well, on Caleb’s. You can stick it to the man by taking advantage of the generous tab he’s going to set up on your account.”
Seven snorts. “I can tell you which restaurants are the best. He doesn’t cook, so I get to try everything,” he says. “And room service is pretty good.”
Connie nods along. “Yeah. And maybe I can sell some of my stuff to the tourists. They’ve got plenty of money to spare.”
“Um.” Caleb definitely would not appreciate it if I let my sister try to sell to the tourists. “How about we let this be a work-free vacation?” I suggest. “Come on. Why don’t you get packed up, and we’ll head back?”
I pull my phone out to text Caleb.
While I do that, Connie and Seven pack up the leftover mac and cheese. “I’m not leaving this behind,” she says to Seven with a big grin. “Not after all that hard work you put into it.”
Seven smiles at her, but I can tell it’s forced. He’s spooked, but he’s trying not to show it. For my sake or Connie’s, I’m not sure, but I’m glad for it. He can break down later when we’re safe, but I need Connie to think this isn’t all that serious.
The last thing she needs is to realize how bad this is.
“Clothes,” I tell Connie firmly. “I’m not buying you a whole new wardrobe, too.”
“Of course I’m taking clothes,” Connie answers. “I’m not going to buy new stuff at the casino gift shop and look like a walking advertisement.”
Seven looks down at his shirt, which has a Roi de Pique logo on it. He shrugs. I wait until Connie leaves the room, then go to him, wrapping an arm around him. “You okay?” I ask quietly.
“You think it’s them,” he says more than asks. “My family. Not the police.”
I hesitate, then sigh. “Yeah. I do.”
Seven nods, but all of the progress we’d made this morning seems to have vanished. He looks sad and withdrawn again, and I’m reminded of how hard he’d panicked the night before.
I hadn’t wanted to leave him alone with Caleb, but I’d respected them both enough to go when Seven had seemed like he was going to keep escalating. “Okay.” I kiss the top of his head. “Thank you, by the way.”
He blinks up at me. “For what?”
“I know you don’t like Connie—” I begin.
“It’s fine,” he says. “I feel bad that she got caught up in all of this.”
I nod, squeezing him. “Still. You didn’t have to offer.”
“Who says I’m gonna follow through?” he asks with a tiny smile.
I roll my eyes, brushing my lips against his forehead this time. “Don’t make me spank you.”
“Promises, promises,” he says with more spirit than I’ve seen all day.
It makes me chuckle, and I start to pull him down into my lap before remembering where we are. Later. I can cuddle him to my heart’s content once he’s safe at the Roi.
“Are you two going to keep flirting out there, or are you going to help me pack?” Connie shouts from her bedroom.
Seven smiles at me. It’s soft, but it looks genuine. He kisses me lightly on the lips before heading in the direction Connie’s voice had come from.
I hope this is the right call.
I don’t need Connie in the line of fire either, but I’ll feel better knowing exactly where she is.
Right now, that’s all I can ask for.