Getting to Yager’s room was simple. Getting inside…another matter all together.
“Should we knock?” Mike asked.
Tye shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t want to startle anybody…if ya know what I mean.”
He knew exactly what Tye meant. So, silently, Mike eased Yager’s bedroom door open.
Then he stared. So did Tye.
They were everywhere. Just sitting there. Yager was out cold in his bed, but Neecy sat by the window. One enormous crow on her shoulder rubbing her head against Neecy’s cheek. A giant raven on her knee. Neecy reached over and rubbed her index finger over the bird’s head.
Mike and Tye looked at each other. After a moment, they turned to Yager. They waited and, suddenly, he snapped awake. They knew Yager would sense their presence. It was part of their training.
Yager’s eyes immediately focused on them and, a few seconds later, the birds that had invaded his room.
His eyes grew wide as he surveyed his room while slowly sitting up.
“Uh…baby? Is everything okay?”
She nodded without looking at him. “Sure. I was just thinking I wanted to see them…to thank them. And they came.” She smiled. “Like they always do.”
“That’s great, baby.” Yager slid off the bed, very careful of where he stepped.
“Neecy. I’ll be back in a sec.”
She nodded as the raven gripped her index finger with its talons.
Moving carefully, Yager walked across his bedroom and followed Mike and Tye out into the hallway. He closed the door behind him and then all three men let out huge breaths.
“That didn’t happen. And we’re never discussing it again.”
“Good plan,” Mike choked out.
“What ya got there, princess?”
Arri, kneeling on the living room floor, gasped in surprise as Liar-‐Mike Molinski snatched Neecy’s cell phone out of her hand. She’d pulled it from Neecy’s torn and blood-‐encrusted jeans, going through the last incoming and outgoing calls, when Molinski took it from her.
He dropped onto Yager’s couch, his inhumanely large feet up on the fine leather.
Growling, Arri reached over and tried to grab the phone back. Without much effort, Molinski held it from her grasp simply by holding it over his head and moving it around.
“Come on, sweet cheeks. Tell me what’s going on.”
“Give it!”
To her utter horror, Molinski held the phone in one hand—and still out of reach—while he used his other hand to hold Arri at bay…by pushing back on her forehead.
Suddenly she felt eight years old again and the school bully had once again singled her out.
“Tell me what you’re doing and I’ll give it back to you.”
“I don’t have to tell you anything!” She tried to force Molinski’s hand off her head, but it was useless. Not surprisingly, he was seriously strong.
Seconds away from bursting into frustrated tears, another hand reached over her and snatched the phone from Molinski’s grasp. Arri looked up in time to see Janelle ball up her fist and punch Molinski over and over again in his stomach.
By the sixth hit, she pulled away then suddenly swung back again, nailing Molinski right in the groin.
“Ow! You bitch! ” He doubled over and turned away from both women, his head buried in the couch cushions.
“Here.” Janelle tossed her the phone and Arri caught it, almost dropped it, caught it, dropped it, and crawled after it as it skipped across the floor.
She didn’t even have to look at Janelle to know the woman probably rewarded her with one of her patented head shakes. She seemed to save those only for Arri.
When she finally got her hands on the phone, Arri found herself kneeling in front of Delia.
“What’cha doin’?”
Arri took a deep breath, working really hard to put those frustration-‐tears right back where they belonged. She cried enough in front of these women. “I found Neecy’s phone in her clothes. I was checking the incoming and outgoing messages from Friday night. Thought it might tell us something.”
Delia stared at her in surprise. “Good move, Arri-‐girl. Find anything?”
“Yeah. You called her.”
Delia blinked in surprise and glanced between Arri and Janelle. “That night? No I didn’t.” She shrugged at Janelle. “I was waitin’ for the fireman to call.”
Janelle shook her head. “You and your thing for firemen.”
“Hello? They’re hot!”
Arri opened the phone, found the last incoming message in Neecy’s caller I.D., and handed the device to Delia. “Isn’t that your number?”
Delia stared at it. “I don’t get it. I didn’t call her. Really.”
Janelle walked up behind Arri, grasped her under her arms, and easily lifted her to her feet. “Then how does her phone have your number?”
“How the hell should I know?”
Arri had a good idea, but before she could say it, Molinski barked from his huddled position on the couch, “They cloned it, you idiots!”
“Shut up!” Janelle screamed it so loudly, her voice even dropping a few octaves, Arri was ready to bolt out of the room. But when she turned back around Janelle had the prettiest grin on her face. “They must have cloned it, Dee.”
Delia grinned right back, both of them thoroughly enjoying torturing Molinski.
“You’re right, Janelle. You’re so smart.”
“Bitches,” Molinski muttered from the couch.
Janelle gave Arri a quick affectionate head scratch before stepping away from her. “And if they could clone your number…”
“They’ve been listening to us for months…at least,” Delia finished.
The realization of what had been going on for quite sometime hit both women hard. Their smiles faded as Janelle’s head dropped slightly. “Holy shit.”
Delia closed the phone with an angry snap. “We are such dumb asses.”
Arri folded her arms in front of her chest. “We didn’t know.”
“Didn’t know what?”
Tye walked into the room and Arri watched in fascination as Janelle’s punky, tough colors dramatically shifted as soon as Tye appeared. Of course, his did, too, once he realized Janelle was standing there. Their colors swirled near and around each other, still testing but, unlike Neecy and Yager’s, they hadn’t quite begun to flow together. Still, Arri knew it was only a matter of time.
Delia, unaware of the growing tension between Tye and Janelle, held up Neecy’s phone. “The Hunters…we think they’ve been monitoring our calls. Cloning our numbers.”
Tye shrugged his enormous shoulders. “Makes sense. Don’t worry about it. I know…well…somebody who can get all of you new phones, new numbers by tonight. I just need a list.”
Nodding, Delia tossed Neecy’s phone back to Arri. She almost had it, but it slipped out of her hands, flew across the room, and binged Molinski right in the forehead as he’d been sitting up.
“Ow!”
As habit, Arri immediately went to apologize, but Tye’s giant hand gently covered her mouth. “Why do I bet he somehow deserved that?” he muttered softly.
Arri looked up at him and nodded.
“I don’t want anymore soup. And if you don’t make a move. I’m going to chop all your pieces in half.”
Yager looked up from the chessboard sitting between them on the bed. “Don’t rush me. When I play chess I take my time. I savor the game.”
Growling out, “Again with the savoring? What is it with you?”
Rolling those gorgeous steel-‐grey eyes, Yager looked back at the chessboard…and stared.
She glared at the top of his head. She’d been staring at the top of his head for fifteen minutes now.