Rock Chick Reckoning (Rock Chick #6)(113)

“Ms. Mason?”

“Cal me Lana.”

That was nice too.

“Lana, do you talk to Mace?” I asked.

“Mace?” she sounded confused.

“Erm, it’s what his friends cal Kai here. Mace.” There was a pause then I heard her say quietly, “That doesn’t sound like my son. He’s not a Mace.” This made me sad. In the picture I saw that day when Mace was holding his sister, he didn’t look like a Mace. He looked like a Kai.

He was definitely a Mace now.

“Do you speak with him?” I asked.

“I haven’t heard from him in nearly seven years.” Gut kick, sure and true. In fact, it was the gut kick to end all gut kicks.

It made me hurt, for Mace and for Lana.

“Oh, Lana,” I breathed when I found my voice.

“Why are you cal ing?” she asked, her voice getting stronger.

“I…” I didn’t know what to say then I did. “I need your help.”

Then I told her about what was happening. Everything.

Sidney Carter. Linnie. Preston Mason. Even my parents.

And even Mace and my history.

I figured she had a right to know. Mace was her son. I took a chance and didn’t sugarcoat it either. I figured since Mace was her son, she had to make him who he was at least partly and I was guessing she gave him the good parts since Preston Mason didn’t have anything good to give and Mace had a lot of good parts so I was thinking her genes had to be stronger so she could hack it.

When I was done talking, immediately, Lana asked,

“What do you want me to do?”

I looked at Hector. He’d moved away and was sitting on the platform, watching me and scratching Juno’s head.

“I need you to come to Denver,” I told Lana, taking my eyes from Hector.

“Then what do you want me to do?” Lana went on.

“Nothing. Just come to Denver. I’l do the rest.”

“What’s the rest?”

I had no effing idea.

I decided not to sugarcoat that either. “I don’t know. I’m making this up as I go along.”

She laughed quietly and it sounded like a pretty song.

“That doesn’t sound like a very good plan.” I smiled at the phone again. “It isn’t.” I leaned back in the chair and put my heels up on its edge then I shared, “But I have to do something. He takes good care of me. It’s time someone took care of him. And this, al of this… with his Dad, Caitlin, wel , it has to stop.”

Silence again but I felt her warmth coming at me from the phone line.

Then she said, “Stel a, you should know, he loved Caitlin more than anything else in this world. She didn’t have a Dad, neither of them did, not real y. Kai did everything he could so she wouldn’t feel that loss, not the way he felt it.

When she was taken –”

“Lana –” I cut in.

“No, sweetie, let me finish.”

I shut up mainly because her cal ing me “sweetie” felt nice. My mother or father never cal ed me anything like that.

It was one of the reasons why I liked Mace cal ing me

“Kitten” so much.

I wondered if she cal ed Mace “sweetie”.

Lana went on, “When she was taken, I watched my son die.”

I sucked in breath, my body got tight, I felt my throat close and my eyes flew to Hector as she continued.

“Kai disappeared. This Mace person has taken his place. You need to understand that he might not want me there. Caitlin, her Mom, Chloe, Kai and I used to do holidays together. We even did vacations together. We made a family out of what Preston left behind. We al got along great, even if at first, Chloe and I…” She stopped then started again, “Kai did that. Kai built our family. Kai wanted that for Caitlin and for Chloe and for me.”

“And for himself,” I cut in.

“And for himself,” she agreed softly. “But that’s gone now. He wants it gone. And he might not want it back. Not without Caitlin.”

“You’re his mother,” I told her.

“I am but –”

“And Chloe is al that’s left of Caitlin.”

“Stel a, sweetie –”

“I need to cal her too,” I said, a half-baked plan forming in my head.

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” Lana replied quickly.

“He can’t go on like this.”

“My son’s a pretty strong guy. He always was. He can do whatever he wants. He’s always done that too,” Lana told me and she sounded resigned to that.

I wasn’t resigned.

“That’s true. But now, he has to do whatever Caitlin wants. And I don’t know Caitlin but I can’t imagine that she would want this. Not for Mace, not for you and not for Chloe.

You need to be a family again.”

Lana was silent.

“Can you give me Chloe’s number?” I asked into the silence.

There was a pause, I heard a deep breath and then, hesitantly, “I’l phone her.”

My eyes came up and I smiled at Hector. “That’d be good,” I said into the phone.

“I hope you know what you’re doing,” I heard Lana say.