Blood and Fire (McClouds & Friends #8)(103)

Lily shot her a grateful, if watery smile. Edie applied gentle pressure with her arm, coaxing Lily toward the door. “I know it makes you feel useless,” she said. “But you’re not. You’ll get your chance to have plenty more dangerous adventures before you’re through, I bet.”

“Hey, hanging out in Zia Rosa’s clutches is a dangerous adventure in itself,” Tam spoke up, her voice smoky with amusement. “Gird up your loins, girlfriend. That woman is going to take you to pieces.”

They squeezed out into the corridor. Edie gave Tam a teasing look. “Seems like you and she get along better these days.”

Tam rolled her eyes and indicated her swollen belly. “Of course. I’m engaged in repopulating the earth. So I’m now in the club of people who have the right to exist.” She paused and swept her eyes over Edie’s long, slender body. “You’re not in that club yet, are you?”

Edie made a noncommittal sound. “Don’t think so.”

Tam turned her gaze on Lily. “How about you? Being careful?”

Lily didn’t have a hope in hell of hiding the blush.

Tam smote her brow. “For God’s sake. What are you thinking?”

“Leave her alone,” Edie scolded. “It’s a tough time for her. And it’s not about thinking, Tam, it’s about feeling.”

“Feel all you want with your legs in the air and an implant in your arm!” She turned to Lily. “Do you want a morning-after pill?”

Lily faltered, stammering. “Ah . . .”

“Let me tell you something, Lily,” Tam said. “I’ve been on the run for my life alone. I’ve been on the run for my life with my kid. Alone’s better. Running for your life with a kid is hell on earth. Think about it.”

Lily nodded, cowed.

Edie frowned at Tam. “Let’s change the subject, please,” she said. “Come on. Let’s go up to the kitchen, make some tea. We can try another one of Zia’s cupcakes. She made some with chocolate frosting.”

Lily froze in her tracks. “I hate it,” she burst out. “I’m here, sipping tea and nibbling cupcakes while Bruno’s out there? What, should I maybe crochet a white lace doily while I’m at it?”

Tam and Edie exchanged glances.

Tam spoke, her voice dry. “Shot of bourbon, then?”

That hit her funny bone, hard. Lily laughed until her eyes filled with hot tears, and let them lead her inside.





23


It had started to rain. Hard, half frozen, dripping steadily into the neck of his jacket. His boots were drenched,





his feet so cold he couldn’t feel them. Bruno pried up another shovelful of rocks and dirt, and flung it up onto the heap of slop that had once been the pile of earth and was now threatening to ooze right back down into the hole from whence it had come. His shoulders burned; the blisters on his hands stung, gloves or no gloves. He wiped sweat off his face with his jacket sleeve, realizing too late that there was mud smeared all over it.

Davy worked alongside him, wrapped in his usual silence. Just monosyllabic grunts when speech was necessary, which, where Davy was concerned was rare. Amazing, that such a verbally challenged dude had managed to court and marry such a smart, pretty woman as Margot McCloud. And father children with her, too. The mind boggled.

All in all, after having worked for ten hours, since five o’clock that morning, with brief pauses for sandwiches, energy bars, and water, Bruno was starting to half hope that the mysterious attackers would put in an appearance. Anything at all would be a nice break from what he was doing, even a pitched gun battle. The hole was waist deep, which was as deep as it would go. They’d hit bedrock a while back and had started digging laterally. It was nine feet wide, almost as long, and still no sign of the pissed-upon bones. And it was filling with water. He’d have to dive for the skeletons soon. Search by Braille, with a snorkel. Tony was probably spinning in his own grave. He imagined Tony’s rough voice. Four feet to the right, jerk-offs!

“Give me the shovel. You go guard. I’ll dig.” It was Kev, waterlogged and stoic. He hoisted the rifle, offering it to Bruno. “Go on.”

Bruno drove the shovel into the soil, feeling the metal ring against stone. The shock vibrated through his body. He leaned on the shovel and checked his watch. “I’ve only been at it for forty minutes,” he said. “You took a two-hour turn already. Come back in an hour and twenty.”

“I asked Tam about your bruises,” Kev said. “She said you looked like shit. Get the f*ck out of that hole and take the gun.”

Bruno met his adopted brother’s eyes. “I’m fine. I’d rather dig.”

The silence was charged. Then, amazingly, Davy spoke up.

“Well, now. Isn’t that just touching as all hell.” His gravelly voice dripped irony like a row of icicles.

Kev’s gaze slashed over to his older brother. “What?”

Davy flung his shovelful of mud insultingly close to Kev’s boots. Kev let himself be spattered to the knees without flinching. He stared down at his oldest brother, waiting for an answer.

Davy straightened, taking his time to shake out stiffened muscles. “It warms me to the cockles of my heart when you coddle him like that.”

Bruno’s jaw dropped, but Kev beat him to it. “Coddle?” Kev snarled. “What the f*ck? The kid’s been fighting for his life!”