Page 146 of Priest

The nurse’s mouth flattened so hard I had to look away to keep from laughing.

Blue finally let him hold the baby, and Deacon’s whole face changed when Jackson settled into his arms. Softer. Older somehow. Touched by something he didn’t know how to defend himself against.

“Hey there, little man,” he murmured. “You keepin’ your mama on her toes already?”

The nurse made a strangled sound somewhere behind him.

That was when Ace slipped into the room again.

Castor, I corrected automatically, though the name still felt strange in my head.

He moved like a man who knew he was pushing his luck and had made peace with it anyway. I saw him first, and then so did Blue. Her brows rose slightly.

“You came back,” she said.

He gave the smallest shrug. “Couldn’t leave without meeting him.”

His eyes dropped to the baby in Deacon’s arms, and something in his face went still. Not blank. Not hard. Just… caught.

Deacon looked from him to me and then, because he was incapable of letting a charged moment go untouched, said, “Come meet your nephew, dumbass.”

Castor stepped closer slowly, like he didn’t quite trust his own feet. Deacon transferred the baby with surprising care, and the second Little Jax settled into his arms, Castor exhaled a breath that sounded almost like pain.

“He’s tiny,” he said, voice rough.

Blue watched him for a moment, then looked at me.

I nodded once.

“His middle name is Ace,” she said softly.

Castor’s head came up. “What?”

“Jackson Ace Adams,” Blue told him. “You saved us.”

For one rare, unguarded second, he had no words at all.

Then Nora appeared in the doorway behind him, exactly on time to see him holding the baby he had no business visiting.

Her expression darkened instantly.

“You,” she said.

Castor didn’t even turn around. His eyes stayed on Little Jax, and a slow smile tugged at his mouth. “Hello, Agent Miranda.”

“Not my name,” she bit out, stalking into the room with the resigned fury of a woman already drafting paperwork in her head. “And you were explicitly told to go back to Fallen Harbor.”

He glanced over at me, then back at her. “Counterpoint, there’s a baby. Don’t I look good with a baby in my arms?”

Nora planted her hands on her hips and looked like she was deciding whether federal handlers were allowed to physically tackle witnesses in a maternity ward.

Blue, bless her, started laughing so hard she had to wince and clutch the bed rail.

I shook my head and clapped Nora lightly on the shoulder as I passed her. “Good luck,” I said. “You’re still gonna need it.”

She shot me a look that said she deeply resented how correct I was.

The room stayed warm for another little while after that. Little Jax got passed back to Blue. Evan kept talking to him like they were already conspiring. Rook pretended not to smile. Ink hovered at the edge like he wasn’t hovering.