“She’s okay,” I murmur back. “For now.”
I surreptitiously hand him the phone. Once he’s got it, he can just pretend it’s his, so he lifts it up, blatantly reading the text before handing it to Maxx.
“Wonder what’s going to be different this time,” he murmurs, putting the phone in the pocket of his white jacket.
I don’t have any answer for that.
Once again, the idea that I might have to kill the Seattle Slayer myself comes to mind.
This really is a never-ending cycle. I’m not surprised. I just … wish it didn’t have to be Maxine. She’s too sweet, too gentle, too trusting. She won’t last weeks in a dungeon with bloody wounds all over her chest; she just won’t.
“You need to be seen by a doctor,” Tess persuades again as Paul looks his son over with a physician’s eye, probably wondering if he can ‘fix’ the scars that Parrish will undoubtedly have after his wounds heal. He gives him a hug, even as Parrish stiffens up slightly, and then relaxes, putting one hand on his father’s back.
“Fine, I’ll go,” Parrish agrees, looking up as the two FBI agents I’m now familiar with approach. The dark-haired one, Itsumi Takahashi, is the first to speak.
“How are you doing, Parrish?” she asks, and I let out a long sigh as I close my eyes.
This is going to be a long night, that’s for damn sure.
I stand there, a dichotomy of hot and cold, happy and sad.
Makes sense, considering all that I know about Justin Prior.
Nothing that man ever does is singularly focused, is it?
I open my eyes again to see Tess, Paul, and Parrish begin a low conversation with the two women. Tess breaks away slightly, but she doesn’t move more than a foot past her son.
“Paul and I are going to ride with Agent Takahashi and meet the ambulance at the hospital. I hate to ask this, but could each of you drive one of the cars home? Dakota, you’ll be in charge of your brothers and sisters.” She holds out a pair of key fobs. Maxx takes one while Chas grabs the other.
Kimber moves up to stand beside us, arms crossed over her chest, eyes downcast, but she doesn’t argue.
“We’ve got this,” Chasm agrees, his eyes flicking to Parrish’s yet again. Parrish meets his friend’s gaze before looking over at Maxx, and then down at me. He maintains eye contact with me, dragging that tension out between us. I missed him so much, I think, realizing that the feeling is entirely mutual.
That beautiful energy we shared our first night together, when we reluctantly slipped away into our separate bedrooms, it’s still there. It’s there, and it’s poignant, and it fucking burns.
“I’ll see you three later then,” Parrish tells us, but then Tess is grabbing his arm and encouraging him to climb into the back of the ambulance.
“See you soon,” Maxx agrees, squeezing the key fob in his fist. He offers me a smile, but it isn’t much different than the one he’s been wearing for weeks.
Because Parrish is back, and my sister is now the one in trouble.
After a quick round of rock-paper-scissors between Maxx and Chasm, it’s agreed that I’ll ride with Maxx and Ben while Chasm takes Kimber, Amelia, and Henry home. The younger kids are so excited, it’s like Christmas when they burst in the door of the Vanguard house, laughing and screeching and racing around. Even Ben is participating. Well, okay, he follows his younger siblings with a smile and keeps adjusting his glasses, but he’s there. He’s happy.
We all end up sitting together in the living room/kitchen area while Maxx whips up something quick to eat and feeds the kids. Chasm and I stay seated at the table together, observing Kimber as she curls up in a chair and scrolls her phone while the other three immerse themselves in a game on the large TV above the fireplace. I can’t lie: it makes my fingers twitchy.
It feels like it’s been eons since I had time to game properly, I think, biting on my lower lip.
“Hey,” Chas says softly, drawing my attention over to him. My Maxine-phone lies in the center of the table, screen black, just waiting for Justin’s next message. “It’ll be alright. We got Parrish back; we can do this again.”
“I know we can, but … what’s the endgame here?” I ask, reaching out a hand to touch his. He stiffens up slightly, and I remember the way Parrish’s eyes landed on our entwined fingers earlier. Chasm tightens his mouth into a thin line and then grabs my hand in a tight grip, brushing his thumb over my knuckles.
In a video game, the word endgame means a lot of things. It can be the final boss, it can be the content that happens after you’ve completed all of the game’s preset challenges, it can be the player versus player action when you achieve the highest level.
