Carlos nodded and set his jaw hard as fellow Guardians came to a halt at the kitchen's threshold.
"What the f-" Rider stopped mid-expletive as he spied Inez's mom and toddler, and he held out his arm to bar them from fully entering the kitchen. "Sulfur's so thick in here you'd think we'd entered a hellhole."
"Jesus H. Christ," Berkfield muttered as his gaze scanned the black pockmarked kitchen cabinets, floor, counter, and appliances.
"I'll just be damned." Marlene's words seethed between her teeth as she entered the kitchen with Inez, both women placing their hands on their hips. Marlene's gaze narrowed as she surveyed the damage. "Up inmy laboratory . . . where I do my sacred work?"
"Aw, hell to the no," Inez said, unable to curtail her rage as she walked across the smoldering floor and folded her arms over her ample br**sts."A breach in here,my kitchen , where I feed my family?"
"What happened?" Shabazz said, putting the safety on his Glock 9mm. His long dreadlocks were static-charged with fury and the muscles in his toned arms, shoulders, and back kneaded like that of a stalking panther's as he walked deeper into the abused room.
Yonnie's and Carlos's eyes met.
"Were they looking for me?" Yonnie asked, making the group turn and stare at him." 'Cause if it's my time, I'll go out there and let them take me rather than bring this bull on the family, yo." He glanced at Valkyrie and lifted his chin. "Bound to happen sooner or later, so if they're-"
"They'll always be looking for you, man," Carlos said in an angry rumble."Just like they'll always be looking for me and everybody else on this team. We ain't sacrificingno family to appease the Beast-got that, man?"
"Cool. Then I'll take that as a no, this wasn't personal then," Yonnie said, sniffing the air and retracting his fangs.
"Oh, it was personal," Carlos assured him. "They personally want me, you, and everybody else on this team dead."
"Yo," Damali said, frowning, and then nodded toward Ayana.
Carlos paced to the window and sent his gaze beyond it."My bad.Team meeting in the Situation Room."
Rider and Jose walked to the sliding-glass doors, opened them, and then hocked and spit out over the deck rails.
"Definitely in another room,holmes ," Jose said, shaking his head. "You know us guys with the noses for sulfur can't deal with this."
"Mom," Inez said, looking at her daughter. "Why don't you and Yaya go put on some cartoons . . . I'll fill you in later."
The child shook her head and rushed to hold on to her mother's leg. "Don't wanna go with Nana. I wanna stay with you, Mommy! I'm scared!"
"C'mon, boo," Big Mike said, lifting the child up and giving her a hug. He held her high off the floor, his six-foot-eight cinder-block frame of solid muscle a promise of sure safety, and he looked at her with a tender smile. "Did Uncle Mike ever tell you a lie, suga?"
The patience of the team's gentle giant who doubled as a killing machine held the group in thrall. Inez's eyes conveyed such a level of intimate gratitude that Mike simply traced her cheek and pushed her long microbraids behind her ear before turning to her daughter again.
"DoUncle Mike lie to his Yaya?" Giving the three-year-old his complete focus, Mike waited until the child yielded and finally shook her head.
"Then I'm not gonna tell you a lie right now. You trust me?"
It took a moment, but Ayana nodded.
"We gonna be right in the next room. In fact, we'll keep the door open while you put on your shows with Grandma. I bet she's sorta worried and needs a big girl like you to sit on her lap to make her feel better."
"I sure would like that, honeybird," Delores said, coming in close to rub her frightened granddaughter's back. She looked up at Big Mike's towering frame."Thank you for such a good idea, son."
"See," Mike said, nodding with confidence, his voice steady and soothing as he spoke to his stepdaughter, "then, when we finish, Mommy will be right there to scoop you up . . . but smell it in here," he added, wrinkling up his nose. "It's all stinky, making Uncle Rider and Uncle Jose sick . . . Aunt Damali ain't looking too good neither . . . so we need to go where it don't smell so bad. Does that make sense? We need to let Uncle Carlos air this room out and fix it nice and pretty again. Is that okay with you, little lady?"
Ayana popped her thumb in her mouth and hugged his thick neck, mumbling over the digit. "Yup, it stinks."
Big Mike forced a laugh to ease the child's very real fears."Eiiieww."
The moment Ayana giggled, the team let out a collective sigh of relief and started walking to the new location. Mike's diplomacy had worked. Inez and Damali mouthed a silent thank-you toward the huge Guardian, while Inez's mother simply hugged herself as she walked-clearly too terror-stricken to do much more.
Within five minutes, the group had settled into the Situation Room with the blare of cartoons coming into the room from the hall. Damali scanned the team, giving each person a knowing look to be cool, lest little ears overhear. They all understood that they needed to give it a few minutes before launching into gory details of death, Hell, and destruction. The kid needed to relax and be otherwise engaged. Nobody wanted her psyche scarred by the insanity of the life the team lived, but it seemed like it was becoming increasingly difficult to avoid that.
Although expressions conceded to Damali's silent terms, each pair of eyes held a different mix of emotions that she knew she and Carlos would have to wade through during the discussion.