Page 54 of Mimic

“How do you tell them apart?” I asked, looking at the little girl who looked exactly like the baby I held yesterday.

“Their bracelets have their names on them. Eventually, they’ll get too small and have to be removed though, so we’ll have to find another way.”

“I saw Johnny sporting a black eye this morning,” Jack said.

I grunted, not wanting to give him an answer to the question I knew he was asking.

“Did something happen, Mimic?” Sam asked, and I looked up at her.

“Difference of opinion.”

“What difference of opinion could be so wrong you had to hit him?” she asked.

I took a deep breath. I knew once I told her, she would be upset with me. “We worked it out.” It was all I could give her.

“Mimic,” she warned.

Jack chuckled and added, “I’m guessing Johnny was of the opinion that Indie was available, and Mimic disagreed.”

Sam gasped, and I glared at Jack. Jack always had to stick his nose where it didn’t fucking belong. Now Sam would be mad, and not at Jack like it should be. I didn’t want her mad at me.

“Now we agree.” I shrugged.

Jack threw his head back and laughed, startling the baby in my arms. I bounced her the way I’d seen Blade do with Silas, and she settled back down. Rosie looked up at me with wide eyes. I stared at the miracle in my arms, and visions of Indie flashed in my mind. Her belly swollen. In a hospital bed, holding our child. Breastfeeding as I looked over her shoulder.

Things I would never see. Experiences she would never get if she were mine. For the first time since he’d done it, I wanted to kill George Stone for taking something away from me I never knew I wanted.

Chapter Twenty

Indie

“Hey, Indie, you ready to get out of here?”

Kytten stood at the table where I ate my breakfast, her hands on her hips, waiting for me to respond.

“I get to leave?”

“You aren’t a fucking prisoner,” Gunner growled from the other side of Haizley, who sat next to me.

“Really? Could have fooled me,” I grumbled.

His growl intensified, and Haizley sighed. “You two are insufferable.”

I opened my mouth to retort, and she held her hand up. “Nuh-uh, do you want to go with Kytten?”

I narrowed my eyes at her briefly before turning back to Kytten. “Where?”

“I need to get my hair touched up, so a stop at the salon, then coffee,” she said.

I looked back at Gunner, who was looking everywhere but at me. It felt like a trap. Like, if I said yes, he would jump out of his seat and tell me I was grounded.

“I would very much like to get out of here.” I stood up, gathering my dishes to return them to the kitchen.

“Leave them.” Haizley’s hand on my arm halted my progress. “I’ll take care of it.”

“Thank you.”

I followed Kytten outside. “We have to take your car unless you want to ride bitch on my bike.” The sarcastic smile on her face had me laughing.