Page 62 of But For You

“Sam—”

“Jory, there’s a police outline in the room that our kids were in. You and Kola and Hannah are going home tomorrow.”

“Sam—”

“I mean, you called Dane, right?”

I groaned.

He cackled. “You’ll be lucky if he spares you the yelling.”

Crap. “Why did I do that?”

“Because after me, it’s Dane, and you couldn’t get me.”

“But I can’t ever unring the bell, you know?”

He was laughing. “Yeah, I know, and right now, I’m really fuckin’ happy about that.”

And I got kissed some more, so I was pretty pleased as well.

SIX

Iwas sitting in the lobby the next morning with Kola and Hannah, both of them quiet and entertained for the moment. She was coloring, and he was playing something on his DS.

“Jory?”

I looked up and found Milt standing over me.

“Hey,” I greeted him. “Sorry about last night. It just got weird.”

“You and Sam—that’s kind of volatile, huh?”

Not how he thought. We were only explosive in bed.

I shrugged.

He gestured at Kola and Hannah. “Why are you guys all packed up? Are you leaving?”

“Yeah,” I told him. “We’re going home early. Sam needs it that way.”

“So, he says jump, and you say how high?”

“Not quite.” I chuckled because what would Sam actually pay to make that the case?

“Then why are you going?”

“Because we’re not safe, and Sam needs us to be so he can concentrate on what he needs to.”

“Oh my God, Jory, what⁠—”

“Jory?”

Regina and Thomas were cutting across the lobby toward me, and when they got there, with the others in tow—the whole Kage clan that was mine—I tried to force a smile for Regina.

“Honey, where are you going?”

“Home,” I explained, soothing her at the same time. “But technically, just a day early. We were all leaving very early on Monday morning. You can’t really count that.”