pulled the covers back over my head and started counting. More giggling followed, and I figured she was just trying to hide behind one of her toys. Then I heard the door open.
“Emily!” I jumped up. “You’re not supposed to be outside of here. Stay in.”
The little girl took off out the door and into the hallway, running and giggling all the way.
I followed. “Emily! Will you stop? Mindy doesn’t want you bothering her right now.”
She turned the corner and went into another room, me hot on her heels. Great.
“Did you make a break for it from the mean old lady, kiddo?” Cyrus asked, looking up from a computer.
I frowned at him. “We’re playing hide-and-seek. Or chase the Emily. Whatever keeps me from having to watch stupid cartoon monkeys.”
“Did he sing the ‘Song of Friends’ yet?”
“I do believe the virtues of friendship were extolled, yes.” My half sister crawled around the computer desk and onto Cyrus’s lap, and I warned, “Emily, leave him alone.”
“She’s fine.” He watched as she reached for the computer keyboard.
“I don’t want her to go around climbing up on strange men’s laps.”
“Don’t want her to end up like her favorite babysitter, you mean?”
“So funny.”
“Besides, I’m not a stranger, am I, Emily?”
“Unca C!” Emily said, cheerfully beating on his keyboard.
“Go easy on that,” he said. Turning to me he added, “See? I’m Uncle C.”
“And Wesley and Lainey are okay with that?” I quirked an eyebrow. “Somehow I doubt it.”
“I think it’s growing on them. Much like I am.” He smiled at me, that same expression full of mischief that made my stomach flip. The corners of my mouth turned up, totally unintentionally. I don’t have a maternal bone in my body, but seeing a big, tough guy like him sitting with my baby sister on his lap did warm things to me. No guy is ever more attractive than when he’s showing he’d be a good father.
I tried to shake thoughts like that away. It’s an animal instinct for preserving the species, I reminded myself. Nothing more.
I tried to get back to more comfortable ground. “Interesting, how you compare yourself to a fungus,” I said, and walked around the desk to stand behind Cyrus. He hurriedly went to click something off the screen, but not before I could see a picture of a young girl at a softball game.
“Wait, is that—?”
He clicked to another page. “Trying to find an old sports score. Got a bet on an upcoming baseball game and wanted to see how the teams were doing.”
Uh-huh. Sure. “Is betting on baseball games on the approved activities list for a legit guy? I’ll bet the EHJ are overly moralistic about gambling.”
He shrugged. “What they don’t know won’t hurt them. Gotta make a little side cash.”
“Uh-huh. Come on, Emily, let’s leave Uncle C to his unsavory business practices.”
“She’s fine, Fantazia. She can play on the computer if she wants. Not everyone is fearful of technology like you are.”
“All that technology has ever done for the world is make it easier for people to spy on each other.” I nodded to his computer. “Like you were just doing.”
He frowned and said, “So you should love it, since you like to stick your nose in everyone else’s goddamn business.”
“Don’t swear in front of Emily. What kind of role model is that for a little girl?”
If looks could kill, his would have obliterated me. “Whoever said I was a good role model for a little girl?”
“Not me.”
“And not me either.” His eyes narrowed. “And neither are you, the way you act. Emily doesn’t need to be around a coldhearted bitch who cares for nothing and no one other than herself. All you want is power.”
That really stung and it shouldn’t. It was nothing I hadn’t heard. I’d worked hard to build that power-hungry rep. It kept people from expecting anything I didn’t want to give, because everyone always seems to expect something. And they never want to give in return. If that’s the image I want to project, then why did it hurt that it was what he thought of me?
“I thought the Old One had something over you, what with you both having long pasts, but maybe I was wrong. Maybe it’s the other way around: you’ve got something over him, and you’re using it to get close and corrupt his only daughter.”
I clenched my jaw and looked away so he wouldn’t see how much that barb hit home. Clearly I’d struck a nerve and now he was