Page 54 of Ranger's Rise

“Roger, Pres. Strong. Safe.”

I smile at that and spin Juan again.

~*~*~

Freedom

I am so fucking late. I get into the house and hear the kids laughing in the pool. I guess I didn’t miss it all. At the porch door I freeze, Ranger is holding Jacques on the stairs, talking to him and Jacques is smiling moving his arms and legs. Cort has Mateo, Amos has Marco and Banks has José. They’re all animated surprising the hell out of me. Daniel looks happy with the As watching out for him.

“You should have seen them earlier. I swear every one of them had tears in their eyes. Banks and Web were all-out crying. Jacques said, ‘swim Web’and the Brothers lost it.”

Tears are in my eyes. Jacques talked. “I’m sorry I missed it. Where’s Caelan?”

“I just came back. Ant Irma has him. He can’t be over here. I’m staying away from the kids, but really want to hug them all. What happened? I thought your classes were done at three.”

I give her a hug, something about breastfeeding and Caelan’s shots is stopping her from being close to the albinos, but I don’t understand. “Victory is in a universal cyclone or something. Dana is helping her pack up the hippy shit in the store.”

She shakes her head. “I told her I’d help and get some Prospects in to move the boxes for us.”

“I don’t know. She thinks she needs to do it now. The universe has spoken and she’s listening. She freaked the fuck out because I put crystals in the box wrong. Now they have negative energy and she must have felt it because she threw me the fuck out.”

She laughs. “Sorry. Even I know you can’t mix the crystals.”

How the fuck does she know? “Whatever. I need to get out there. Are you coming or staying in?”

“I have a chair out there.” She walks out and I follow.

“Boss Freedom!”

I wave to Allen. He’s got Maddox looking my way. “Hi, Maddox and Allen. It looks like you’re having fun.”

“Swim, happy.” He’s smiling like I missed it.

“It looks that way. I’m glad you’re having fun.” I sit by Ranger and Jacques. “It looks like you’re having fun too, Jacques.”

“Nager.” His voice sounds like he’s talking through water, but his little feet kick letting me know I’m right, he’s having fun.

I laugh. “Swim is the way to go with you guys.”

Ranger leans over and I bend to kiss him. “It fucking is. They’re having a blast. Allen dragged Daniel over to Web to be tested so they knew he was safe in the deep end. If you come in, you may be required to get tested before they let you go deep.”

The shit going through my head is not kid-friendly. “I don’t have a suit. I was late enough, so I drove straight here.”

He looks up at me. “Is everything okay?”

I shake my head. “I have a lot to tell you, but this afternoon Victory was freaked over the universe’s command. Her meltdown had her throwing me the fuck out.”

He looks shocked. “Do you need to go talk to her. We can do dinner another time.” He’s so good about my time with her.

“No. She really did throw me out. I need to let her calm down.”

“Cort, your phone is making weird noises. There’s a Badass logo, but it’s not yours.” Seren is holding the phone and yelling loud enough that everyone stops.

Raid takes Mateo and Cort hops out of the pool. I shake my head. The man looks like a Norse God.

“Should I be worried?” That’s a new growling sound.

I pull my eyes away smiling and bend to kiss those pouting lips. “Did you notice that Seren is beautiful?”