Tall, Dark & Heartless (Pyte/Sentinel #3)(136)

"I was afraid of that," Izzy mumbled pathetically as she took a long swallow from her can of Coke, probably already knowing that it would be off limits the second Chris got back and discovered that she was pregnant.

"When's he getting back?" Danni asked as she laced up her boots.

"Tonight," she said with a sigh.

Chris and Ephraim left a few days ago to check out a tip Kale managed to get for them regarding Joshua's location, but last she heard it was a dead end. She didn't know the man and had no clue where he ended up, but she knew the second Chris found him that he was probably a dead man.

Thankfully Izzy and little CJ, Chris Junior, survived, but the man couldn't seem to get over the way he just abandoned Madison and Izzy like that, not to mention the damage he did to Izzy's leg. Thanks to Joshua she had a pretty nasty scar and had problems walking. Kale wanted to kill him as well and when he wasn't working, which wasn't very often, he was searching for Joshua. Ephraim of course still had hopes for Joshua and continued to search for his son, but she knew the way the man looked at his wife and sometimes watched Izzy struggle to walk that he was probably going to beat the hell out of his son before he dragged him back home.

Her game plan of course was to find Joshua, beat the shit out of him for hurting her friends and drag his ass back into custody. Granted, it was the only thing she had to focus on besides patrolling so she probably put in more hours than anyone else on this little project. It was the only thing that helped her get through the day and not miss Caine. Okay, so she missed him every second of the day, but it gave her a purpose and right now she needed that or she wouldn't be able to get out of bed in the morning.

"Someone's pregnant," Madison announced as she walked into the room.

"Shut up," Izzy said, pouting.

Madison didn't take any offense as she laughed. "Then I guess I shouldn't tell you that this time you can expect one of each," Madison said, laughing harder as she ducked away from the empty Coke can Izzy threw at her.

"Take it back!" Izzy demanded, looking truly frightened, and she really couldn't blame the poor woman. As a female Sentinel carrying twins she'd be huge in no time.

"Sorry. No can do," Madison said with a shrug as she shot her a curious look. "Going patrolling?"

"Yup." She went patrolling every night when she wasn't looking for Joshua and since there was no news about his whereabouts she was going patrolling.

It didn't matter that they lived on the edge of a small town that had ten Sentinels and hadn't seen a vampire, demon or shifter since they moved here, she still patrolled. It kept her busy and she really needed to stay busy.

"Have fun," Izzy said, picking up the baby monitor for the babies nursery and attached it to her belt as she carefully stood up. "I'm going to go find every last drop of caffeine and inhale it before Chris comes home and-"

"Izzy?" they heard Chris yell from somewhere down the hall.

"Damn it!" Izzy snapped, reaching up with one hand and yanking free her ponytail so that her hair covered the mark ratting her ass out as pregnant. She slapped a hand against the wall for support as she tried to quickly make her escape before Chris found her, but unfortunately for her she had a very serious limp and a mate desperate to see her.

Chris walked into the room, his expression turning murderous the way it did every time he saw Izzy walk before he managed to pull it back and plaster a carefree smile on his face. "Hey, Munchkin, did you miss me?"

Izzy smiled hugely as she threw them a look that clearly told them to keep their mouths shut. "Of course I did, baby, but do you think we could have this little reunion with a couple of Cokes?" she asked, sounding hopeful. "I'm really thirsty."

"Okay," Chris said, probably not giving it much thought since the woman was a junk food addict. He paused long enough to give Danni a loud smacking kiss on the top of her head that had her chuckling and rolling her eyes and did the same for Madison before he walked over to his mate and gave her a sweet kiss as his hand snaked between them and stole the baby monitor off her belt.

He pulled back and raised the volume, which of course bugged the hell out of her ears and Madison's. He placed the monitor next to his ear for a minute as he listened to all four babies sleeping before thankfully lowering the volume and placing it on the back of his pants.

"Let's go get you something to drink," he said, giving Izzy another kiss before scooping her up in his arms and carrying her towards the door.

"Coke, remember, I need Coke," Izzy reminded him, overstressing the point.

"Yes, you little junk food addict," Chris said with a chuckle as they disappeared through the doorway.

"Ten minutes," Danni said as she grabbed her jacket and headed for the door.

"Five," Madison said with a smile as she waved goodbye. Any other night and Danni would have bet that Chris wouldn't notice the mark for two minutes, but the man had been gone for a week and she doubted that he was going to focus on anything other than getting Izzy naked.

"You're on," Danni said, laughing as she headed for the front door. Living with the Williams family was nice and for the first time in her life she felt like she finally belonged somewhere, but that didn't make up for missing Caine.

She loved and missed him and she knew that one day that she'd find him. Izzy was using her program Tattletale to look for him, but so far they hadn't had any luck. One day she'd find him, but for right now she kept herself busy. It was either stay busy or go crazy.