Leave a Trail (Signal Bend #7)(116)

“Isaac!”

In the living room, Isaac was setting Lilli off his lap and standing behind her. “What’s up?”

“Hav’s folks are coming up.”

“Fuck. Lilli, take the women and kids into the kitchen.”

“No way, Is—”

Before Lilli could finish his name, Isaac grabbed her arms. “Just f*ckin’ listen, woman.” Badger saw Lilli’s grey eyes go glassy with cold fire. Isaac gentled but stayed firm. “Baby, listen. I need you safe.”

She stared a moment longer, then nodded curtly. The women gathered up the children and went back to the kitchen. Nolan stayed with the men. Cory had tried to get him to go back, but when he’d refused, she nodded and, with a glance at Isaac, went to the kitchen with Loki struggling in her arms.

Isaac went to the front door, but Show pulled him back before he opened it. “You don’t know what you’re going out to.”

“I’m not pulling a gun on Hav’s father, Show.”

“No. But don’t go out there alone.”

The Horde were standing in the front hall. When Isaac looked around at his brothers, they all nodded.

“Okay. I’ll leave the door open. Len, you come out with me.” Len stepped forward, and Isaac opened the door.

But it wasn’t Don Mariano walking up to the porch. It was Hav’s mother, June, carrying three wrapped packages in her arms.

Isaac stepped out, and Badger saw him cast a scanning glance around. “June. Merry Christmas.”

She nodded. “Thank you. And to you. I’m sorry to bother you on a family day, but I was hoping I could leave these for Cory and the boys?”

Isaac turned back to the men in the hallway. “Nolan. Get your mom.” Everybody relaxed about halfway.

Don was still unaccounted for, but June seemed harmless. “Sure, June. Here, let me take those.”

As Isaac carried the presents into the house, and June waited on the porch with Len, Cory came in from the kitchen. Isaac gestured to the gifts he’d just laid at the foot of the tree. “It’s up to you, sweetheart. What do you want to do?”

Cory went to the front door. “Hi, June.”

Her eyes red and brimming, June smiled. “Cory. Honey, hi. Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas.” Cory breathed a thoughtful sigh. “Would you like to come in and sit with Loki while he opens his present?”

“Oh, mercy. Oh, Cory,” June was all but sobbing now. “Yes. Yes, thank you.” She looked over her shoulder and then back. “Thank you. What a gift.” When Cory stepped back, June crossed the threshold and passed a row of large, suspicious men.

Isaac went back onto the porch and looked around. “He’s still in the truck. I’m gonna go talk to him.”

“Dammit, boss,” Len muttered. “So he can shoot you through the window? If he wanted to talk to you, he’d be here with his wife. I’ll watch him. But you know you should leave him be. There’s mending fences and there’s asking to get shot again.”

“Maybe he’s not coming up because he’s worried what we’d do to him. He did shoot me the last time we were really face to face.”

“Exactly. So he’s a threat. And if he’s not, these aren’t the conditions to find that out. Even if you go out there with your piece drawn, you can’t see what he’s doing. And that’s not the way to start a productive conversation, regardless.”

Isaac glared at Len, then nodded and went back into his house.



oOo



June stayed for an hour, holding Loki on her lap most of the time, brushing her fingers through his dark curls. He was a good-natured kid, boisterous and unhappy to be restrained, but friendly with everyone.

When June had helped him open the fairly large package and he’d seen the photo on the outside of the box, he’d clapped giddily, opened his eyes wide, and pursed his lips to say “OOOOH!” It was a little plastic tool bench with a set of little plastic tools.

Cory smiled as she helped him open the box and pull his new toy out. “Like your daddy, Loki. Your daddy had tools just like this.”

He nodded seriously. “Like Daddy.”

As Badger watched that sweet and sad moment play out, Adrienne came up to him and circled his waist with her arms. “Do you think they’re making up?”

He shook his head, hooking his arm around her and pulling her close. “I don’t know, babe. Mr. Mariano is sitting outside in his truck, probably freezing his ass off out there rather than come in with us. I don’t think there’s a way to make up if he doesn’t want it.”

“Makes me sad. She looks like she’d be a good grandma. I miss my grandma.”

She used to talk about her grandmother in Jamaica a lot. “You could call her.”

“No. I lost her when my dad drove away.”

He didn’t agree, but it wasn’t his call to make. So he just held her close. The Horde family could fill a lot of gaps. They could fill the gaps in Adrienne’s life. He thought that, for the most part, they already had.



oOo



Time was short after Christmas. Isaac and Len were surrendering themselves two days into the new year. So the day after Christmas, the Horde met in the Keep for Isaac’s final meeting as President. He’d taken the gavel eighteen years ago, at the age of twenty-seven.