Vendetta in Death (In Death #49)(65)

With her mind spinning it, she was almost surprised to drive through the gates. Maybe working while driving was her baking and thinking.

Green stuff speared up along the drive, and more green hazed the trees. Maybe, just maybe, despite the chilly rain (because of it?) spring was pushing winter aside.

She parked, grabbed her stuff. She decided she’d take a break, hit the gym for a sweaty workout to thoroughly clear her head before she got back to work.

An insult for Summerset regarding stick-up-the-ass-replacement surgery at the ready, she walked in.

But rather than his looming in the foyer, she heard his voice from the parlor. And a quick belly laugh she knew well followed by quick, cheerful gibberish.

She tossed her coat on the newel post, left her file bag on the steps, then crossed over.

In a frilly pink sweater and blue pants with frills of pink lace on the hems, Bella sat on Summerset’s bony lap. Her golden curls bounced in a pair of miniature ponytails secured with rainbow bands.

Mavis’s nod to pink fountained around her head in hair as bright as candy. She wore the rainbow in a swirl of a dress that floated over the tops of her thigh-high pink boots.

Barely.

The three sat in front of a quiet fire looking absurdly and happily domestic.

Bella let out a squeal—the sort that, if she hadn’t come to expect it, would’ve had Eve reaching for her weapon. Bella scrambled out of Summerset’s lap and charged—in that stunning toddler speed—across the floor.

“Das! Das! Das!”

She flung herself at Eve’s legs like a mini-defensive tackle. Galahad, who would normally stir himself to greet her by winding through her legs, just blinked his eyes and stayed on the arm of Mavis’s chair.

Whatever Bella babbled with her seriously pretty face tipped up to Eve would remain a mystery. But Eve understood the meaning of the upstretched arms and had never been able to figure out how to refuse them.

She hauled the kid up, got the loving and sloppy kisses, then the long, sighing hug.

What the hell were you supposed to do?

Curious, Eve took a sniff. “You smell like chocolate.”

Bella tossed back her head, gave her wild and happy laugh.

Babble, “Someshit,” babble babble, “cookies,” babble, “yum!” babble, “Das.”

“Got it.” Sort of.

She would have put the kid down, but Bella clung to her like a barnacle to a hull. So Eve just shifted her as she glanced at Mavis.

“How’d you know I was heading home?”

“I didn’t. Bellamina and I came by to hang with Summerset.”

“Someshit,” Bella said, very fondly.

“So it’s luck to the ult,” Mavis continued, “you hitting the home fires early while we’re hanging. Take off the load, join the hang.”

Work, Eve thought. Murderers to catch. But the kid was locked around her, and Mavis’s smile shined like half a dozen suns. Trapped by joy, she carted Bella over. When she sat, Bella nuzzled in, jabbering.

Eve caught “Ork,” “Gahad,” something about Mommy, something about Daddy. Somewhere inside the chatter and embraces, Bella got a hand on Eve’s sidearm.

“Uh-uh.” Though it was secured in its harness, Eve firmly removed the curious little hand.

“Toy!”

“No, it’s not.”

“Bella toy!” Big blue eyes batted. “Pease!”

“Forget it. It’s not a toy. It’s my weapon.”

Charm vanished. Big blue eyes hardened like steel. “Want toy!”

In Eve’s mind two little horns popped up through the golden curls. A forked tongue darted out between the rosy lips.

In the next chair, Mavis—no help at all—sipped something that smelled like tea.

“You think that’s going to work?” It was pretty damn scary, Eve admitted privately. “I kick ass for a living, kid.”

“Share!” Bella demanded.

“No. Think of something else.” Desperate to change the focus, Eve boosted up a hip, dug out one of her cards. “Here. You get in trouble, tag me.”

Bella took the card, studied it with her lips pursed, her eyebrows drawn. Then she nodded, used her finger to jab the words.

“Bella Eve.”

“Right. Great.”

All charm again, she fluttered those eyelashes. “Mine?”

“Yeah, all yours.”

“Ace on the distract, Dallas,” Mavis complimented as Bella cuddled against Eve and jabbered at the card. Then batting her own baby blues, turned to Summerset. “Do you think you could take her back, maybe give her one more you-know-what before we take off?”

“Delighted. Bella, why don’t we go to the kitchen and see what we might find?”

“Ooooh, Someshit cookies! Das! Mommy.”

She all but leaped to the floor, would have wound up Summerset’s bony body like a snake up a tree if he hadn’t bent down to pick her up.

She waved Eve’s card like a flag, chattering away at Summerset as he nodded soberly and carried her off. “Yes, of course we will.”

“No way he understood that.”

Mavis let out a happy little sigh. “She said we need to share cookies with you and me, and get a treat for the cat. We’re working hard on the whole sharing deal.”