Holy fuck!

Susie was throwing down.

For me.

“So you two are Denny Lowe sisters, is that it?” Mia bit back.

“Yeah,” Susie whispered. “Yeah we are. We don’t wanna be, but we are. And, just in case you aren’t getting this, because we are, you don’t fuck with us.”

Whoa.

Susie was totally throwing down.

For me.

I was attempting to process this and how I felt about it when I braced again. This was because Susie’s eyes lifted from Mia and she tensed.

Visibly.

Susie visibly tensed and I watched the blood drain clean from her face.

Then she started backing up.

Her mouth moved.

It moved again.

No sound came out.

“What?” I asked.

Her mouth moved, and again, no sound came out.

“Susie, are you okay?”

She looked to me.

Then she screamed, “Run!”

And that was when the gunshots exploded.

* * * * *

Garrett

“Pink.”

Garrett turned in line at Mimi’s Coffee Shop to see Cal behind him, his baby son asleep and strapped to his chest, his little girl in front of him in a stroller, the key fob to Cal’s truck half an inch from Angela’s face, a clear object of fascination.

“What?” he asked.

“Pink,” Cal repeated, looked to Mike at Garrett’s side, his eyes fucking alight with humor.

Shit.

“And, I hear, some purple,” Cal went on.

“What are you talkin’ about?” Garrett asked.

“Vi reported in. The ornaments for your tree. Brace, man. Cher’s testin’ you,” Cal told him.

Pink Christmas ornaments.

Did they even make pink Christmas ornaments?

“They do that,” Mike muttered.

Garrett turned to his partner. “They do what?”

“Test you,” Mike said.

“Now what are you talkin’ about?” Garrett asked.

“Pink ornaments. Purple sheets. Shit for the kitchen you do not need,” Cal answered the question he asked Mike. And he wasn’t done. “Wait until you get in a discussion about who’s gonna pay what bill. Vi gave it her all to unman me with that one, brother. Cher sinks her teeth in you, you give in even a little on that, she’ll have your balls and she’ll be payin’ your mortgage.”

Fuck.

“And toss pillows,” Cal kept at it. “So many toss pillows, it’s borderline insane. They got some for summer. Then, for some Godforsaken reason, they switch them out for winter. They add some for Halloween. Thanksgiving. Christmas.” He shook his head, but his eyes were still full-on amused. “They use this shit to test you. See how tight a hold they got on your dick.”

Garrett stared at him.

Angela whirled her dad’s key fob in the air and shouted, “May-May!”

That meant Merry.

He grinned down at her, bending to touch the tip of her nose with his finger. “Hey, sweetheart.”

When he straightened away, she twisted to try to see her father. “Want May-May!”

Cal bent over the stroller. “Merry’s workin’, baby. Today, you got Daddy.”

“Daddeeee!” she yelled, a big grin on her pretty face, clearly not too cut up she couldn’t have Garrett.