Page 82 of Married into the Mob

While I’d been slaving away in the kitchen, Odell had been learning survival skills from Dad, or he had until the later stages of pregnancy. He wanted to experience some of what I did when away from people and a bustling city.

He yawned, and I put out the fire and took him home, settling him in bed before returning to pack up everything.

When I climbed into bed, Odell was asleep, and I checked my phone. There was message after message from my family asking how the night went.

Did Odell survive eating your so-called food?That was Ranger, of course.

It went perfectly.

Uncle Arnie deserves a medal,he replied.

There were emojis from the kids and encouragement from my brothers-in-law.

If you ever get tired of running the club, you can work for Uncle Arnie in his food truck, Ranger told me.

Nothing wrong with that, I texted.

Not that I’d consider cooking a full-time job. I loved my work, but I’d enjoy making meals for my family.

And how are your cooking skills, bro?

There was silence from Ranger.

Ha! We could have a cook-off, and I could finally beat his ass.

THIRTY-ONE

ODELL

“You want to do what?”

Hunter had shifter hearing, but he was shaking and banging his head as if he had water in it.

“Visit the panic room.”

He sat me down. “The place where we stayed after I kidnapped you?Thatpanic room?”

“How many do you have?” Technically, the huge underground bunker contained more than one room, but we always called it the panic room. No “S.”

“Dellie, you had a panic attack down there. More than one.”

I parroted the expression I’d coined: panic in the panic room. Sounded like a band name.

“I want to see it before the baby comes, say goodbye hopefully, and move on to being a family.” I patted his arm. “You’ll be with me, and the door will be open so I can leave if I’m claustrophobic.”

I needed to do this, and it’d been on my mind for a while. That scary part of my life was over, and while I couldn’t predict what the universe would throw at me, at us, I asked it not to send another Stefan on our journey.

“Okay.” Hunter made a call to Ranger, asking him to stock the fridge.

“Why me?” I could hear Ranger’s irritated voice through the phone. “Why can’t you have one of our guys do it?

“You know why. They can’t access the panic room. You and Flint insisted both of you and Uncle Arnie should have your retinas added to the scanner in case of an emergency.”

“I didn’t expect you and Odell to be popping down there for a baby moon.”

“A baby moon?” Hunter mouthed at me.

“A holiday before the birth.”