Chapter twenty-three
Juan smiled as he unpacked the cooler they’d taken on the boat that afternoon.
Two pans of Dottie’s lasagna were cooking in the oven, fresh bread sat cooling on racks on the counter, and he’d bet his bike a huge salad waited in the fridge to be dressed just before dinner.
In the meantime, the kitchen was quiet and all his as he cleaned up from their day’s outing.
And in the peace, he let his mind wander to the night before.
It turned out that when you trusted the right person, talking about feelings and hopes and dreams and all those sorts of things wasn’t quite as hard, or as terrifying, as he’d thought.
He and Amber had stayed awake long into the night, tossing out ideas and options.
Discarding many but picking out the pieces that fit both what they wanted and what they thought they could each manage.
By the time their conversation slowed and grew quieter, the intimacy arcing between them was too intense to leave at just words.
Slowly, they’d explored each other’s bodies again, a journey that ended in a roll of pleasure so drawn out, so powerful, that if he lived to be a hundred, he’d never forget it.
His phone dinged with a text pulling him from his memories, and he set the cans of sparkling water he’d been unpacking on the counter and pulled the device out.
Demon child: Going in tonight. We’ll talk tomorrow
He chuckled. Years ago, when he and his brothers had first met Toni, she’d plugged that alias into all their phones. Different phone now, but same name. It still fit.
He didn’t bother responding. She’d probably already turned her phone off. Picking up the cans again, he walked them into the pantry, glancing over his shoulder as the kitchen door swung open.
“Need a hand?” Viper said.
“Nah, I got it. Not much left,” he replied, reentering the kitchen.
“Have a good day?” Viper asked. Juan nodded. “Where’s Amber?”
The grin formed before he could stop it. “Resting. I left her and Zoe napping upstairs.”
“Long day?” Viper asked, leaning against the counter.
“And night,” he said. One of Viper’s brows lifted. “Talking about how to make all this work. You know, her new job, Zoe, me,” he clarified. Viper’s other brow lifted. Juan chuckled. “We covered a few other things, too.”
“You both good?”
Juan inclined his head as he wiped down the inside of the now-empty cooler. “We are.”
“Good,” Viper replied, a man of few words. “I saw Leo in town, and he and Callie are planning to come over after dinner.”
He looked up. “They have an update?”
Viper nodded. “I’m guessing so. Who all is around?”
“Mantis will want to be here, not sure about Charley. Philly will come with Callie, and you know Juliana won’t want to miss it.”
“Which means Stone will be here, too.”
He nodded. “North and Marley are at Rita C’s tonight,” he said. “And Monk went down to Napa today to help Helia load a bunch of her stuff to bring up for her final trip.”
“Kendall?”
“She’s here since she has school tomorrow. Wesson picked her up today, and Hawkeye will drop her off tomorrow morning. They’ll both be here, too.”
“Did Superman leave this afternoon to pick up that new bike job?” Viper asked.
Juan nodded. “Einstein went with him, and they won’t be back until the day after tomorrow. Scipio is around, not sure if he’ll join, but Lovell will come with Daphne, and Dulcie will definitely be here.”
Viper grinned. “I assume the intriguing Agent Perry will be here, too?”
Juan chuckled. “I haven’t called her, but I expect Callie did.”
“Ten of the fifteen of us. Plus our bonus family,” Viper said. “Glad Dottie made lasagna. I hear Clara’s been helping her out, but I’ll drag a few of the guys in here to clean up so she can have the night off. I heard you talked to Toni.”
Juan crossed his arms and leaned against the counter. “Possibly a mistake, but I don’t think so. She just texted. She’s going in tonight. She’ll have an update tomorrow.”
“Wanna place bets on whether Anthony is breathing tomorrow?”
“I’ll take that bet,” Scipio said, walking in.
“Bold move,” Juan said with a grin.
Scipio shook his head. “Nope. A man like Anthony Ely? Toni will want him to suffer. Offing him in one night won’t be satisfying.”
The uncomfortable truth of that pulled chuckles from all three. “What are you all laughing at?” Mantis asked, joining them from the hallway that led to his office.
“Toni,” Juan answered.
Mantis groaned as he walked to the sink and poured himself a glass of water. “Do you remember that time she commandeered the Black Hawk and rescued those hostages?”
Scipio snorted. “The best part was when she tossed the lieutenant general from the passenger seat.”
“I think she’d been waiting to do something like that for a week,” Viper added.
“The dick deserved it,” Juan said, the memory of that moment rolling over him again.
How hilarious it had been and how serious they’d all had to pretend to be.
“And then she flipped him off on a flyby,” he said, unable to keep from laughing as he remembered the officer’s face.
His brothers soon joined in, and for the first time in what felt like too long, he let go and laughed, really laughed.
The kind of laugh that comes from the belly and fills the body.
And as they stood in the kitchen reminiscing, reliving the ridiculous and hilarious, his world tipped to rights.
Unknowns still underscored so much, but this was only a point in time, and his foundation was solid.
He and Amber and the family were solid. However the future unfolded, he was more than ready for it.
***
“Do we have some fun stuff for you tonight, ladies and gentlemen,” Callie said, waltzing into the clubhouse, followed by Philly and Leo.
“Fun enough that we can get Anthony arrested already?” Amber asked, looking up from the game of Clue they were playing with Daphne and Lovell.
“Not that fun, but close,” Callie replied without skipping a beat. “Gather round, everyone, we don’t want to have to shout.” She paused and looked around. “Especially not since we’d wake Zoe. Is she down for the night?”
Juan reached over and massaged Amber’s neck as she nodded.
“We had a long day,” she replied. “Zoe didn’t nap on the boat; it was too exciting.
Then we had a late nap that wasn’t nearly long enough.
She made sure we all knew it at dinner. Good news is I survived my first tantrum without bursting into tears myself. ”
“You did great,” Juan interjected. It hadn’t been easy.
He’d seen her struggling with her emotions as she tried different ways to calm Zoe.
He’d offered to help, however she needed, but what she’d needed was to figure out how to move through the imaginary milestone—that felt very real to her—on her own.
So he’d kept her dinner warm, and when she finally managed to sit and eat, he stayed beside her.
“Bathing and a warm drink before bed made the world a better place for her. Me, too,” Amber added, pointing to her wet hair, then nodding to the hot toddy he’d made her.
Callie grinned. “So much to look forward to.”
“At least we’re bringing good news. Or potentially good news,” Leo said, dropping his computer bag on the floor before taking a seat on the couch.
They abandoned the board game and joined him and Callie in front of the empty fireplace.
The others did the same, pulling additional chairs over as needed.
Juliana let out a tiny yelp as Stone tugged her onto his lap, nudging the chair she’d been about to sit in toward Grace, who’d arrived ten minutes earlier.
Lina perched on the arm of Viper’s chair, her legs draped over his lap and her bare toes tucked between the arm and the cushion.
“Who’s going to start?” Callie asked Leo.
“Ladies first,” he replied.
“I took a look at Bios’s purchasing history.
They don’t technically purchase scopolamine because, unlike most pharmas, they grow their own plants and manage the extraction process themselves at one of their manufacturing facilities.
But the research branch of the business does have to place an order for it.
They track it for internal financial reasons, not because of the substance itself,” Callie clarified.
“In the past year, they ordered a new shipment of fifty grams, on average, every twenty-eight days.”
“That seems like a lot, but is it?” Juan asked.
“What was their average the year before?” Grace chimed in.
Callie winked at the agent. “That’s the right question.
In the prior three years, they ordered the same quantity an average of every thirty-five days.
As to your question, Juan, it is a lot from a layperson’s perspective, but it’s around average for a research facility that conducts the type of research Bios does. ”
He nodded. “Are there other reasons why they’d be going through more per month now?” he asked.
“Another good question,” Leo said. “I scanned their research, and if anything, their use should be going down. Two scientists who used it for their research have moved on to different projects. One’s work proved too inconclusive to continue, given his target market.
And the other’s research has gone into development.
It’s in the testing phase now, so fewer lab trials. ”
“Do we know how long Anthony and Johanna have been seeing each other?” Grace asked.
Callie glanced at Amber. Juan picked up her hand in preparation for whatever shit update Callie delivered next. “I’m sorry to say this, Amber,” she said. “But I found more unexplained expenses today that Leo chased down. It looks like he met Johanna about six months before you left him.”