Page 80 of Missiletoe
I got up and limped back to the house.
I had my crows keep an eye out for witnesses, and when someone was about to see me, my crows caused a commotion in the opposite direction from me, so I made it all the way back without getting caught.
When I saw the house getting swarmed by emergency vehicles, I froze. I was covered from head to toe with blood that wasn’t mine, and cops were big on asking bloody people lots of questions. I considered leaving, but I was already in the yard and got spotted by a cop before I could.
I put my hands in the air and tried not to fall down. I was getting tired from all the excitement and thought Vix had the right idea with the whole falling asleep thing. I wondered what would happen to me if I fell asleep right then.
Probably nothing good.
There were a lot of questions for a while. Some of them were asked in a really mean way, but those stopped pretty fast when Gareth came over and showed surveillance footage of Mike planting explosive stuff all over the house. Then he magically produced more footage of Mike’s car losing control without any help from Vale at all.
In fact, Vale was conspicuously absent from any footage at all. Instead, the footage showed me rescuing Mike from the wreckage, patching him up, and then getting stabbed by Mike right before he ran away. It made me look like a hero instead of someone who was seriously considering allowing my future husband’s family to murder my stalker.
I was about to ask something I probably shouldn’t have about how Gareth had managed to get a doctored video so quickly when Vix waved his phone at me and winked.
My bunny was so amazing. I waved and started to go to him but was stopped by the cops. Oops. I’d forgotten I was still being questioned.
I hadn’t needed to deal with it for much longer. Gareth and Baz did an amazing job of deflection, and I was left alone to get patched up by a paramedic while Vix took a nap in the dog bed I’d given him. He was on the porch because the fire was out, and Love had promised that area was structurally sound.
I was pretty sure it was Vale who’d retrieved the bed for Vix, because everyone else was caught up with the cops and other emergency teams, but I couldn’t be certain. After watching him walk away from me and Mike, he hadn’t shown his face again, and I noticed no one in the family even mentioned his existence.
When the police were finally done with me, I shifted Vix from the dog bed to my lap. Baz joined us shortly after and used Vix’s stomach as a pillow.
“Did you all see what really happened?” I asked, trying to be as quiet as I could so the cops didn’t overhear us.
“Yep. We got to see it all live. Vix nearly popped a gasket when that car blew up. He tried to get Gareth to go after you, but Gareth said you could handle it. Personally, I think Gareth meant he wanted to seeifyou could handle it. Vix trusts Gareth more than he should.”
“I noticed that.”
“You should probably help him with it.”
“I plan to.”
Baz yawned and said, “Vix loves Disney movies.” It was completely out of the blue, so I listened carefully. It sounded important. “And hot chocolate. And cake.”
Ihmmed and let him continue.
“He loves stuffies too, but he’ll probably try to hide it from you. Get him something huge and cute, and he’ll know it’s okay to let you see him play with his collection.”
I put a hand on Baz’s head and stroked his messy curls, smiling when he made a surprised happy sound.
“He cries all the time. Basically, anytime he has big emotions, even the happy ones. Don’t make him feel bad about it because he’s always worried it makes him seem like a child. He usually forgets to dress appropriately for the weather, so always make sure to bring an extra jacket with you. And make sure he has on shoes. He never remembers to put them on.” Baz poked Vix’s bare feet to make his case, and I immediately felt like garbage for not noticing.
“Thank you. I’ll remember.” I moved all of us around until I was able to wrap part of the fleece dog bed around Vix’s feet. It wasn’t a perfect solution, but it was the best I could manage at the time.
Once we were all back in proper cuddling positions, Baz continued. “If he has multiple sleep attacks more than two days in a row, get him to Vale immediately. It means there’s something wrong, but don’t worry if he naps all day and still sleeps at night. That’s normal for him.”
Baz spoke faster the more he spoke, and I could tell he was just getting started with an important speech he’d prepared just for me.
“He also believes he’s not special and that he doesn’t belong in our family. You need to tell him he’s special every day. Every single fucking day, Paris, and don’t you dare forget.”
Baz gave me what I was now beginning to think of as his serial killer expression before continuing. “He gets caught up in his work and forgets to eat or sleep and then he collapses. You can’t let him do that because then he gets really sick, also—”
I continued to smooth Baz’s curls as he spoke, telling me dozens of important things I needed to know about Vix. He was uncharacteristically serious for the entire speech, and I realized why when he ran out of steam and finished with, “And he loves me a lot. He needs me in his life. I know you can give him things I can’t, but please…don’t take him from me.”
I examined Baz, taking in his sudden shyness. His larger-than-life personality had shrunk to almost nothing. It was a terrible thing to see.
“You love him,” I stated.
