Chapter 15
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
N ooooo! This is not the way to wake me up every morning.
Especially when I get home after midnight and then the depot sends me to a den of iniquity before I can even get my shoes off.
It was a nursing home, by the way, and Fox killed a non-literal angel of death—you know, the serial killer kind.
Now everyone’s forgotten relatives won’t die at the hands of their nurse.
Ok, I am a little cynical about nursing home facilities, not because of the staff, but because of the little shits who put their parents in a home and then never visit them. I might have volunteered at a couple of facilities because volunteer work is a good way to get a free meal.
Damn, I’m bitchy this morning.
The text from the depot informs me I have an hour and a half to get across the city, so I get my crabby ass out of the warm bed and into a hot shower.
When I get out, a steaming cup of creamy coffee sits on the counter, waiting for me, and I swear that’s the moment I fall in actual love with Arlington Fox.
Coffee is apparently the way to this man’s heart, so clearly the old adage is true.
I’ll have to see if it's also true for Fox, but since he eats without appreciating the taste of his food, it might be hard to convince his stomach to let me squirrel into his heart. I’m up for the challenge, though; no way am I giving up a man who knows how important my coffee is.
Especially now that I’ve discovered fancy coffee comes in multiple flavors.
Toasted almond should be on everyone’s coffee wish-list.
As soon as I’m dressed and decked out, I head to the front room, where Fox ambushes me with hot, needful kisses before I even see him. He groans as our tongues meet and greet each other and pulls me into his erection. This is almost better than coffee, but he’s going to owe me another cuppa.
Arousal flushes through me as he thrusts his hard-on against mine, nearly convincing me to forget that we have work to do, but the timer on my phone going off reminds me that there are people to kill. With a growl of annoyance, Fox steps back from me, holding me at arm’s length.
Feel free to send me another dick pic.
I wink at him as his dark eyes heat with predatory arousal. He reaches down as he stares at me and adjusts his cock in the yoga pants he’s wearing. Ok, I can see why he might want to rub one out before going into public.
“Third date today,” Fox informs me as I back up to my shoes.
I nod an enthusiastic agreement, then get my boots on and head out to the cab awaiting me. The driver is the same one that I’ve had a couple times now, and since he’s becoming a familiar face, I lean between the seats to read his name on his ID: Belaphor Betelgeuse.
Nice. That’s a name to remember.
I show him the address from the depot and sit back, pulling up my book because I’m not in the mood to talk to anyone. At least not until I get a dick pic from my boyfriend.
Ungh. His cock is delectable. I’m so going to get it in my mouth tonight. And so help the depot if they interrupt...oh. Hmmm. I wonder if that will work?
Me: I am getting laid tonight, so if anyone needs to die, they’ll have to wait for Fox until tomorrow or die by someone else’s hand.
Depot: What time?
Me: Starting at 8 PM.
Depot: Until?
Me: 8 AM?
Depot: Noted. Twelve hour sexcation confirmed.
Huh. It worked. I totally got us off the clock for twelve full hours! Go me!
Fox: Did you tell the depot we’re taking a sexcation?
Me: Yup!
Fox: …
Fox: Good call.
Me: *grin* *peach* *eggplant* *waterdrops* *drool*
Fox: Emojis exist.
Me: But this way you know I’ve intentionally sexted you.
Fox: Valid.
Confirmed: I adore this man. I love that he validates my wonderfulness.
Who could possibly resist this kind of unconditional support?
Not me; I’m not even trying. I’m going to have to tell him I love him someday.
Maybe when he gives me my big ass diamond ring.
That’s the right occasion to tell someone you love them, right?
I pull my book back up and dive back into the nerd-jock ridiculousness.
FYI, jock did in fact have a gay freakout.
It was as funny as I thought it would be.
I’m now at the eighty-percent break-up. You know what I’m talking about: the characters break up for a couple chapters because of some stupid miscommunication.
These two are doing the overheard-something-out-of-context break-up trope.
It’s fun. I mean, I’m no expert on healthy relationships or anything, but it feels like if you break up once over something this stupid, you’re not likely to end up with an actual happily ever after, right?
I have zero experience in this arena, but I hear that marriage is even harder than dating, and if you’re breaking up while dating.
..well, I’m not going to assume these guys are going to make it to the whole until death do us part thing.
Just saying, this is their first long term relationship, probably not their last.
I would never let Fox break up with me over something stupid. I mean, it’s not like he’s ever going to overhear me talking about anything out of context. Snicker. Benefits of being mute.
“We’re here. Do you want me to wait?” Belaphor asks as he pulls to a stop in front of an alley.
I glance at the address on my phone and back to the alley, noting that the GPS on the dash says we’re exactly where we’re supposed to be. I pat Belaphor’s shoulder to thank him and nod. I wouldn’t mind not being surprised by another potentially kidnapping cabbie.
Stepping out of the cab, I look at the addresses on either side of the alley and then sigh, walking down the damp corridor until I reach a well-hidden stairwell that leads to the basement of the building on the right.
The numbers on the wall match the address, so I descend into the dim stairwell and walk through the loud, creaky metal door at the bottom.
I enter an empty hall lit by flickering fluorescent lights.
Four doors evenly spaced along the walls tell me nothing about what I’m supposed to do here.
The hall ends at a T with more of the same emptiness broken by unmarked doorways.
I can’t announce Fox’s imminent arrival if there’s no one to see me, but no one gave me any instructions.
Turning, I study the halls and doors, wondering if I should just start knocking, but I dismiss that thought when it clicks in my head that the little black domes in the ceiling between the fluorescent lights are cameras.
I look up at the one above my head and smile up at it, waving my fingers.
That’s a good enough announcement of my presence. The rest is up to Fox.
I lean up against the wall at the end of T, keeping my ears open for any noise from any of the three halls around me. Well, I suppose it’s two halls that intersect, but geometry was never my thing, so it’s three halls.
This is boring. I pull my phone back out and start reading again. I’m almost done with this book anyway.
I get all of two and a half sentences read before one of the doors down the hall in front of me opens and a head peeks out close to the floor.
Curly black hair styled in a fluffy afro surrounds the most cherubic little face I’ve ever seen in my life.
Big brown eyes stare at me in surprise, then another angel face with shiny floofs of puffball pigtails pops out of the door above the first face.
This one has the prettiest hazel eyes and a smile so full of joy it literally brightens the corridor with its brilliance.
The children exchange a smiley glance and then dart out of the doorway, running straight to me and crashing into my legs as Fox walks out of the same doorway, short knifey sword in hand and dripping with blood. I guess he took a different route into the building.
I put my phone in my pocket and crouch down, grabbing both toddlers and standing with them, kissing each of their cheeks before looking back at Fox with a question on my face.
He rolls his eyes, exaggerating the movement. “They’re older than you,” he reminds me before breaking the knob off the next door and kicking it in.
A screech sounds, but it’s cut off fairly quickly after Fox disappears.
I look down at the cherubs in my arms, smiling my amusement at Fox’s insistence that I remember these cuties are older than me.
They giggle with me, scrunching up just like toddlers do when they laugh, then Fox emerges from that door with two more cherubs in tow.
Since this looks like a cherub rescue mission, I sit on the floor and pull all the babies to me.
Fox looks between me and the four baby cherubs and points at the baby with the pigtails. “She has two doctorates.”
My jaw drops, and I look down at the toddler in my arms. Her delightful smile turns decidedly mischievous. “I still a baby,” she assures me in toddler speak.
I look up at Fox again and point at the girl.
He shakes his head. “Two. PhDs,” he emphasizes.
The girl sticks her tongue out at him and blows a raspberry. “Baby PhDs!”
One of the other cherubs whispers in my ear, “She’s still a baby. She’s a baby with doctorates. Our parents encourage us to fully explore our interests. She likes school.”
This one looks about two years old but talks to me like a dry professor or boring doctor. Wow. I don’t even know what I would say if I could speak, so I just hug the babies to me and pretend they aren’t older and more educated than me.
Fox decides to leave me to my own devices and proceeds to continue the rescue mission, opening door after door until the puppy pile of cherubs surrounding me is sixteen strong.
He disappears at the end of the hall to my left for a while, and when he returns half the babies are asleep, and the other half are running along behind him.
That’s right, all sixteen of my cherubs decided it was naptime, and he brought sixteen more with him from wherever he disappeared to.
I frown at the thirty-two cherubs in the corridor and send Fox a text message.
Me: I am bothered by how many cherubs we’re rescuing today. How did this many kids go missing before you were called?
Fox mustn’t like the answer because he texts me rather than speaks.
Future Husband: That is a very good question. Cherubs are used for their brains; every one of these kids is a genius. It’s hard to believe that 1. No one reported any of them missing before all of them were missing, and 2. None of them were clever enough to escape on their own.
Me: The cherubs from the other day were being held hostage by only two men, why didn’t they escape?
Future Husband: They were in magical manacles; they were weakened by the magic, which for cherubs means they were rendered stupid.
Me: The manacles are magically spelled to make whoever wears them weak, and for cherubs, their brains are their strength, so the manacles make them stupid. Did I interpret that correctly?
Future Husband: Yes.
Me: So ask one of the cuties why they’re still here and why no one reported them missing.
Fox’s lips turn down for just a flash of a second before he turns to the cherub clinging to his pant leg. “Why didn’t you escape before I got here?”
The cherub looks up with huge, watery eyes. “Gorgons scary.”
“How long have you been here?”
The cherub shrugs. “Long time.”
Me: Gorgons as in turn-you-to-stone?
Future Husband: Yes.
“They took us from boarding school in the fall,” a little voice chimes in from behind Fox.
They’d been missing for months? It’s already close to summer. What the hell?
Me: Is it our job to investigate this?
Fox: No.
I arch a skeptical brow at him.
Fox: But it may behoove us to follow up.
That’s what I thought.
Me: Is anyone coming for these babies?
Fox: At least seventy years older than you.
Me: You baked for a hundred years before you were born. I think age is just a number at this point, don’t you?
Fox: Yes. A bus is coming to take them to the processing center where their parents will be able to pick them up.
Me: Parents who didn’t report them missing?
Fox: We’ll follow through.
The door creaks open and Annette walks in, power red stilettos clicking on the tile, followed by a cadre of uniformed people wearing cargo pants and long sleeve t-shirts. Annette stops outside the puppy pile, angry face studying the toddlers around me and behind Fox.
“This is unacceptable.” She snaps her fingers to a man standing on her left and behind her.
“ Jameson! Find the headmaster. I want an accounting. Interview all the teachers, parents, everyone you can. I want to know why no one reported these cherubs missing. Which one of you sent the SOS?” she questions the kids, all of whom awakened at the first bark of her angry-voice.
My two-PhDs tot raises her hand. “Me, Miss Killian.”
I turn wide eyes onto my favorite little cherub. No one reported her missing? She had to orchestrate her own rescue and it took her months to do it?
White-hot anger rises in my chest for these kids. I don’t care how old they are, they should never have been abducted and certainly not forgotten or deliberately hidden.
Annette picks the cherub up and hugs her. “Good job, baby. I will make sure you are all protected. None of you will be leaving my care until we figure out how you were taken without anyone reporting you missing.” She turns her furious gaze on me and Fox. “Heads will roll for this offense.”
Fox dips his chin once as I nod vehemently; whoever took these kids will rue the day they got on Fox’s radar. Annette will make sure of it, and I’ll be right there to witness the fruits of their regret.