Chronicles of Devon Page 16

  “It’s fine,” she soothed. “Just take a breath.”

  He took several in rapid succession, racing manically around the room. “Yeah, that’s totally what I meant...”

  The pair watched with amusement as James latched onto one of his favorite toys, one that came with a demonic ‘child-friendly’ voice that sang little proverbs and poems. He’d gotten it from Beth and Carter last Christmas. Devon thought it was a punishment. Rae thought it was a joke.

  “When nothing is going right—go left!”

  “Where’s Arie?” Gabriel asked.

  “Who knows,” Devon replied despondently, still bustling around. “Gone. Lost. Misplaced,” he settled on decisively. “Misplaced would be a better way of saying it.”

  Molly glanced between them, fighting a smile. “She’s at daycare with Benji. Rae told me this morning.”

  “Live, laugh, love—REPEAT!”

  “You talked to Rae this morning?” Devon surfaced from behind a nearby plant, yanking a shoe onto his foot. “She called you? I’ve been trying to get a hold of her since yesterday.”

  Molly shrugged, while Gabriel flashed a wicked grin.

  “They say distance makes the heart...forget.”

  “Even monkeys fall from trees.”

  “When is she coming back exactly?” Molly interjected. “I keep forgetting.”

  “You tell me.” Devon yanked his other shoe on with a vicious glare. “You’re the one she checks in with. Her raison d’être, her better half.”

  Gabriel lifted his eyes to the ceiling. “Says the man who’s in love with Julian...”

  “The flowers sin in the sun.”

  The conversation paused as all three adults glanced towards the infernal box.

  “They sin in the sun?” Gabriel repeated curiously. “Exotic toddler-ware.”

  Molly snorted with laughter, shaking her head. “I think it’s supposed to be spin. Aria dropped it from the stairs.”

  “It’s in my dreams,” Devon muttered, raking back his hair. “I can’t get away from it.”

  He stalked away a second later—muttering under his breath about the green pacifier as he completed his sweep of the house. A phone was grabbed off the counter, along with a lone sock.

  Gabriel watched every moment with an amused smile. “He’s really cracking up then, yeah?”

  Am I wearing pants?

  “Be nice, Alden,” Molly warned.

  “Should have found him a baby years ago.”

  “When life gives you lemons—"

  “Molly, please.”

  She fired a bolt of lightning at the toy.

  “All right—we’re ready.” Devon scooped up the baby, paling in panic when he glanced at the time. “I’m already on thin ice with these bloody case reports. If I’m late to this debrief—”

  “Don’t fret, sweetheart.” Gabriel took the keys from Molly’s hand. “I can get us there in twenty minutes.”

  Devon gave him a hard look. “My son will be in the car.”

  There was a pause.

  “Thirty minutes, just to be safe.”

  EXACTLY THIRTY MINUTES later, Devon walked into Carter’s office—a dozing baby strapped to his chest. It had never been his intention to bring James into the actual room. The Oratory was usually filled with people ready and willing to play with the child. But the pyrokinetics were doing a drill, the rest were spectating, and the domed chamber was already filled with ash and smoke.

  “Just be quiet, okay?” he whispered, stepping inside. “Just go to sleep—”

  “Jamie!”

  No sooner had he spoken than Carter spotted the child and leapt from his desk—rushing forward with the kind of smile the agents training tirelessly in the Oratory would never see. He cooed and fussed at the boy for a full minute, studiously ignoring his awkwardly-adjacent son-in-law before sweeping abruptly to the desk and gesturing for him to take a seat.

  “I didn’t think you were bringing him today. I would have brought candy.”

  Devon paled at the very thought.

  “...that was a joke, Wardell.”

  He smiled nervously, still feeling decidedly out of sorts. “Right, of course. The sitter fell through this morning, but we can carry on just the same as usual. He’s on schedule to sleep through the whole thing.”

  “Oh, it’s no problem. We can do this a different time—”

  “Please,” Devon interrupted, a little sharper than he intended. “There’s no need to make special accommodations—I’m an agent, it’s a standard debriefing. We can...we can do it now.”

  Carter leaned back in his chair, lips twitching with a smile.

  “Proceed.”

  Why does this feel so strange?

  “We, uh...we reached the club at o-eight-hundred-hours, parked five blocks away to keep clear of any security feed, then proceeded on foot to the location.”

  The baby squirmed and he started rocking—playing absentmindedly with his feet.

  “At that point, Julian approached the back entrance and I went in through the front—making myself clearly visible to Gambetti’s team as I awaited further instructions. Approximately twenty minutes later, I made contact with—”

  There was a plaintive wail and he sacrificed a finger, letting the baby cram it voraciously into his mouth. The chewing began a moment later. Furious and impotent, and improbably loud.

  “—with Gambetti’s woman on the inside and proceeded to the meeting. Julian was already inside and the fence’s team was in the process of authenticating the jewels. We started a—”

  There was a sudden lurch and something warm slid down the side of his neck. Something that felt terribly familiar to the situation they’d just been in before. He lowered his gaze, only to see his son staring up at him with an angelic smile—fresh spit-up dripping from the sides of his mouth.

  ...again?

  Carter pursed his lips, then slowly pushed to his feet.

  “Let me get you a wipe.”

  TRUTH BE TOLD, IT WASN’T the strangest debriefing Devon had experienced.

  But it was most definitely top five.

  “I’m so sorry about the carpet.”

  The men had cleaned in total silence, except for Devon’s perpetual apologizing. Scrubbing on their hands and knees as James spun about happily in his grandfather’s chair.

  Carter leaned back on his heels.

  “Would you stop apologizing? That’s my grandson. He’s entitled to make a few messes along the way. At any rate, that case summary lasted a good minute longer than I thought it would.”

  Devon dropped his towel with a sigh. “I’m sorry about that, too.”

  He suddenly felt ridiculous to have come at all. What was he thinking, bringing a baby to a debrief? He was about to suggest they reschedule after all, when Carter waved him to a chair.

  “I’ve actually been wanting to speak with you.”

  Devon pushed nervously to his feet, angled across from him.

  “If this is about Mason—”

  Carter held up a silencing hand. “That’s coming along in its own time. Either he’ll join or he won’t, but you’ve done a good job with him, Devon. You should be proud of that.”

  He hesitated a moment, then continued.

  “...it’s about Barnes.”

  Of course it is.

  “What do you think of him?”

  Devon leaned back in surprise, not expecting such a candid opening. His mind raced for something appropriate before he settled on something true. “I think he’s dangerous.”

  Carter nodded slowly.

  “You know...six different people have asked me about Uganda since that meeting.”

  Devon’s skin prickled with an abstract dread. “Barnes doesn’t give a toss about Uganda.”

  “No, he doesn’t,” Carter agreed. “But he’s got some people’s attention.” He let that settle for a moment before gazing with fresh interest at his protégé. “I heard you spoke with him the other day.”

&
nbsp; Devon’s head snapped up, and he hastened to clarify. “No, that was just...he dropped by without invitation right before Beth happened to walk through the door. I know how it must have looked,” he continued nervously, “but he only stayed a few minutes. It was just some really bad timing—”

  Carter held up a hand, chuckling under his breath. “Relax, Devon. I don’t think you were colluding behind my back. You were my Best Man,” he added suddenly. “And that happened long after I started to think of you as a son.”

  An unexpected silence fell over the room as Devon looked up in surprise.

  Over the years both men had leaned into the dynamic, but with rare exceptions it was all under the guise of strict professionalism. Therefore, such a thing had never expressly been said.

  He took a second to find the words, then ended up saying them to the floor.

  “Thank you...that means a lot.”

  Carter stared a moment with unguarded affection before straightening in his chair.

  “It’s purely narcissistic,” he said briskly. “You happen to remind me a lot of myself. Driven, selfless,” the two shared a smile, “incapable of asking for help...”

  The smiles faded, but Carter continued to stare.

  Like a sudden cloud, the weight of the last few months hung heavy between them. All those pending case reports and sleepless nights. All those moments of quiet desperation so riddled with feelings of guilt and inadequacy, he thought they might tear him in two.

  “I’m fine,” Devon said quickly. “Everything’s fine.”

  “So you keep saying,” Carter murmured. “But it makes me wonder why you wanted to arrest Lansing by yourself. It makes me wonder why I let you.”

  Devon bowed his head, playing it back in his mind. “I didn’t think it would...” He trailed off, remembering the exact moment he realized that he wasn’t holding a gun. The terrifying paralysis that had stolen the breath right out of him, rooting his feet to the floor. “I thought it would be easy. I thought I could do both.”

  Carter nodded slowly, letting him talk it out. “I think you’ll realize that you can. I think you’ll find that things will never feel as impossible as they do in this particular moment. When things are new. When the children are young.” He paused a moment, then added, “I think it will help to replace the giraffe with a gun.”

  Devon laughed in spite of himself, still staring at the floor.

  “No need for a lecture, Julian was a nightmare...” He glanced up suddenly, sensing a potential threat. “But I know he’d never tell my wife.”

  Carter kept a strict poker face.

  “I didn’t tell Rae.” He paused ever so slightly. “...I told Beth.”

  Devon let out a breath of laughter.

  As if that’s any different.

  “Traitor.”

  “That’s traitor, sir.”

  Both men shared a genuine smile, then Carter dismissed him with a wave.

  “We’ll finish the debrief at a later date. Take that baby back to London and get some rest, Wardell. I can’t have my best agent falling asleep on the job.”

  Devon hid a smile, making his way to the door.

  “Yes, sir.”

  ARMED WITH THE PERFECT rationalization of ‘following orders’, Devon drove back to the city and did exactly what Carter had suggested—put himself and the baby down for a long nap.

  They woke up several hours later, seeing the world through fresh eyes.

  “Today’s the day, Jamie.” Devon stood in front of the bathroom mirror, shaving the cream from his face. “You’re going to take a step, I’m going to record the whole thing on my phone, and you and I are going to watch the footage for years to come—discussing what a great father I am.”

  The child peered up at him, smeared with a generous helping of cream himself.

  “Don’t worry about your face,” Devon assured him, toweling himself dry, “we’ll clean all that off before it happens. But it’s important to—” There was a sudden clatter as the boy knocked a pair of diamond earrings to the floor. “Careful, buddy.” Devon knelt to retrieve them. “Those are your mama’s favorites...”

  He trailed off with a frown, searching the floor. He’d found one of them without difficulty, sparkling in the middle of the floor. But the other...?

  His gaze rose with dread, looking at his child.

  “Jamie, you didn’t...”

  The boy beamed up at him.

  No!

  Five minutes and ten frantic internet searches later, the pair was sitting on the edge of the bed. Having exhausted the usual options, Devon was scrolling through his friends instead.

  Molly might know what to do, but she was training and didn’t answer her phone. Luke might know as well, but he was at the Abbey and away from cell service. Angel would make a joke about the baby upping his street value, then return to her bat-cave, while Natasha would suggest using a robot. Neither set of grandparents was to be informed ever, under any set of circumstances. And while he wanted to ask Julian to scope out the immediate future, he quickly realized that would involve some of his son’s most intimate bathroom moments.

  He considered it anyway.

  Yeah, I’m not above that.

  He started to call, then remembered the psychic had been recently forced to hitchhike across London and was most likely in the middle of the same debriefing he’d escaped that morning.

  ...which left a single alternative.

  “YOU JUST COULDN’T STAY away, huh?” Gabriel stepped inside with a bright smile, pointing to a spot of cream Devon had missed on his face. “I knew that hug meant something.”

  The door swung shut behind him, and Devon gritted his teeth.

  “Could we just suspend the usual banter and—”

  “Absolutely!” the assassin interrupted cheerfully, kneeling down to stare at the child. “What fine mess have we gotten ourselves into this time?”

  Left with no options, Devon confessed with a sigh.

  “He knocked a pair of Rae’s earrings onto the floor, and I could only find one of them. You need to scan his stomach and see if the other one’s inside.”

  At which point, I’ll probably just kill myself.

  Gabriel’s eyes twinkled with a smile. “Standard hero-work. Of course you sent for me.”

  “Can you just—”

  But the man was already hoisting James onto his lap, surrendering his phone as a distraction while absentmindedly running his free hand from head to toe.

  “You going to tell Rae about this?”

  Devon gave him a scathing glare.

  “What do you think?”

  “I’m going to tell her.”

  “Gabriel—”

  “What kind of friend would I be if I didn’t?”

  “I’m serious—”

  “Her own child, Devon!”

  “Gabriel!”

  A ringing silence fell between them, one that Devon was expected to break.

  “...what do you want?”

  Gabriel lifted his chin with a triumphant smile, bouncing the baby in his lap.

  “First, I want to save your son’s life. Then I’ll consider future payment...” He released the child with no further delay. “He’s clean, the little klepto. He probably stashed the diamonds to pawn once he can drive.”

  Devon laughed shakily, kneeling beside them in relief. “That’s a chilling thought...”

  Gabriel watched carefully as he lifted the baby, running a trembling hand through his dark hair. It was quiet for a while before he leaned back on his arms.

  “You know that Rae co-parents with the internet when you’re not here, right?” he asked plainly. “She once called me over because Aria had wedged a piece of cardboard up her nose.”

  Devon flashed him a tentative look, but was quick to hide it.

  “Cardboard is tricky.”

  Gabriel rolled his eyes with a grin.

  “Good talk.”

  The crisis was over, but neither man was in a particular
hurry to end their little powwow.

  After a few minutes of idle conversation Devon wandered to the kitchen and made a cup of tea, leaning against the wall and watching as Gabriel and his son tumbled around on the floor.

  It was a begrudging point of respect.

  When the kids wanted to play with Gabriel...he played.

  There was no sense of dignity, no sense of pride. Nothing was too revolting or too fanciful, the man was committed. It was one of the unforeseen tragedies of Devon’s life.

  His children adored his great rival.

  Case in point.

  Devon watched with a grin as Gabriel took an extended pacifier and bit down on the handle, shaking his head with wild screams when the baby tried to take it back. This went on for several minutes until James was literally breathless with laughter, at which point Gabriel spat it back into the air and tackled the child around the waist—somersaulting them both into the couch.

  “Careful with his—”

  “I’m being careful with his neck.” Gabriel resurfaced, holding the boy by the sweater like a prize. “I’m always careful with his neck.” He flashed Devon an appraising look. “What’s with you today? You’re more dick-ish than usual. I thought you were actually going to cry this morning.”

  Devon opened his mouth to deny it, then settled beside them on the floor. “I need this month to be over. It’s been a harsh mirror,” he continued dryly. “Shining a light on all those places in my life where I’m screwing up.”

  Gabriel frowned with concern, placing a hand on his knee. “Hey...you have me for that.”

  Devon laughed in spite of himself, warming his fingers on the mug of tea.

  “James is swallowing earrings, Aria’s staging a tyrannical overthrow at her school. Carter let me off easy today with the Lansing case, but if they hadn’t picked up the harbor master...”

  He trailed into silence, staring with sudden certainty at his friend.

  “That was you.”

  Gabriel glanced over in honest surprise.

  “Why would you possibly think that?”

  “It was you,” Devon repeated, putting it together at the same time. “You flew out to Munich, tracked the guy down and arrested him. You covered my mistake.”