Shadow of Doubt - Hailey Edwards Page 0,64
got into a brawl with Theodore Posy. The little imp was gnawing on his throat, trying to rip it out, when Grier intervened. After that, Grier suggested the citations. Even bought her a flipbook from an online cop supply store.”
Theodore Posy.
Three hundred pounds of scarred-up, pissed-off gwyllgi who hated everyone and everything except for the angora rabbits he bred for their silky wool. He also enjoyed knitting and had stabbed more than one person with a knitting needle for laughing at him for either or both. He tried to teach Lethe once, but her temper was worse than his, and she had less patience.
Their mother hadn’t been sad when he gave up the Atlanta pack to move to Savannah.
“Does she have all her teeth?” Unfamiliar with the stages of child development, he had no clue.
“Yes.” She held up her left arm, which was covered in pinkish half-moon-shaped grooves. “She’s a biter.”
Already challenging her mother. “You must be proud.”
“I’m grateful every time I get the chance to tell her not to eat the neighbor’s familiar’s kittens, which are living under our porch, or to put my bacon down or I’ll eat her instead.” Tears glimmered in her eyes. “I’m thankful I got to be a mom. Whatever comes next, I’m glad I got to know Eva.”
That right there, love for her child, was what had outweighed her already thin patience. Eva’s condition tipped the scales for Lethe. Living in Savannah meant easy access to Grier, and to Linus. With a miracle child, they had expected the miraculous developmental progress, but it was one thing to have an emergency and bundle your kid up for a three-hour drive from Atlanta to Savannah and another to scoop her up and run next door to the only person who could help.
Reminding himself of that, that Lethe’s ambition wasn’t to blame for his current predicament, he made a bit more peace with his situation. He loved Eva too, and he would do anything for her. Even give up his best friend and take on her role to free Lethe up to walk her own path for the sake of her child.
“I’m glad too.” He spotted the imp stalking her mother in the background but didn’t say a word. “I should let you get back to mothering.”
“She’s behind me, isn’t she?”
“Yep.”
Lethe exhaled and counted softly under her breath, a habit he had picked up from her. “I have to go.”
Her finger slipped off the button, and the call continued as she set down the tablet. He heard her roar at Eva and stomp off bellowing about monsters who ate little girls who interrupted sibling bonding time.
Midas listened until the room went quiet then ended the call with a sigh when he realized Lethe hadn’t told him why Hadley required a warning label. She had used his adorable niece against him, and he fell for it.
He wasn’t brooding in the quiet for long before the bedroom door swung open and his mother swept in.
“I heard the most peculiar thing,” she said, flipping on the lights and joining him on the bed. “It can’t be true, but I thought I would ask.”
Midas no longer indulged in any of the activities that might cause a mother to enter her adult son’s room with caution. The worst she expected was to wake him from a nap. He flushed, embarrassed for no good reason, annoyed with himself when it had never bothered him before.
“Ask away.” He set aside his tablet. “What have you heard?”
So far, there had been no fallout from his botched date with Rebecca. Granted, his mother hadn’t expected it to go well, so she might simply be relieved it didn’t go worse. Or Rebecca might have been too ashamed to admit how badly she had been treated and decided to edit the details.
“That you granted Hadley Whitaker certain privileges.”
“Where did you hear that?”
“Ares mentioned you performing a Care Bear Stare on Hadley. She could barely keep it together long enough to explain what in god’s name she meant.”
“A Care Bear…” Midas rested his head against the wall. “Hadley called it that?”
His mother’s lips pursed. “Apparently.”
“I didn’t see the harm.”
His inner beast wouldn’t quiet until it could look its fill, and for that to happen, she had to be his.
No.
He quelled that primal urge before it could rise. She had to be…given certain allowances.
“Your professional relationship with her is whatever you choose it to be.” An elegant shrug lifted one dainty shoulder. “Linus and I shaped ours how it