Page 22

Chapter

Eighteen

S ebastian waited with Abby out at the little play area off the hotel parking lot. It was just a slide and a playhouse and little ball pit, but she loved it. Right now, it was just her size, and it was guaranteed to occupy her for a bit.

The text had come from Colton just as they were about to have lunch, asking what Abby wanted from the Mobile Moo. So they were waiting on lunch. Apparently, they were going to expense the whole hotel’s food on the show.

Martina at the Moo would be ecstatic.

“Daddy, look at me!” Abby kicked up her feet and swung hard, which made Amanda and Tori’s little weenie dog, Oscar Meyer, bark like a maniac and run in circles, chasing his tail.

He was one of Abby’s biggest fans because she tended to drop Cheerios all over the floor and the ground and everywhere…

The vehicles pulled up, and Abby hopped off the swing. “Papa Colton!”

“I know, right? He brought us lunch.”

“He did?” She frowned. “For Xavi and Xander too?”

“Uh-huh. And Amanda and Tori and all the guys on the crew.”

“Yay! What food?” She came to take his hand, and he put Oscar back on his leash so they could all cross the parking lot.

“Hamburgers and milkshakes and fries from Moo.”

“Yum! I like her ham-murmurs.”

“Me too.” She just got ketchup. He got pickles and onions and tomatoes and her super-special sauce. And a strawberry shake.

“Yay!” She was in such a good mood. While he? Was a nervous wreck about how it had gone with the medium.

“Hey, guys.” Colton waved at them, smiling. “Hey, Miss Abby, how are you?”

“Papa! Papa! I played. Did you see?”

“I did! I’ll have to come play afterward, maybe? I got you a hamburger with just ketchup.” Colton beamed at her and offered him a wide-eyed smile. “Hey, you. What an afternoon.”

“Cool.” Also unnerving a little bit, but cool.

Colton nodded. “Let’s all go have lunch, and we’ll have a chat.”

“No, Papa. Naps are for after lunch,” Abby informed them. “After lunch is naps.”

“That sounds great, sweet pea.” Colton grinned at her. “I think that after-lunch naps are the best.”

Abby wiggled, so proud of herself.

Sebastian just wanted to know how it went at the house. He wanted to go home. He wanted to sit on his sofa. He wanted to be in his own bed. He needed to go back to work. “Was it a good…filming?”

Colton stared at him for a second, eyes huge and excited. “Yes. Like, yes. Whoa.”

He was fairly sure he’d never heard Colton say whoa outside of sex, so that was kind of entertaining. “Are we going to get to go home?”

“I actually think so, yes. I think maybe yes. We’ll talk to Thierry and everybody and see, but—” Colton took a deep breath and stopped. “I tell you what, let’s eat, and after lunch we’ll show you everything.”

“Okay.” Like he was going to be able to eat. He was never going to be able to eat again.

Well, except the hamburger smelled really, really, really good. The fries smelled even better, and he did love a milkshake. So okay, he could eat and then just be queasy afterward.

Or maybe not. Who knew?

“Wow,” Xander said as they all trooped into the banquet room they had commandeered. “You brought me food too?”

Iago bounced over to hand him a bag. “What? You’ve been feeding us for days and days.”

“Thanks.” Xander peered into the bag. “Oh, a double with bacon.”

“Yep. And we got shakes for all.”

Sebastian cleared his throat. “Look, I need to know what happened.”

Xavi held out his hand to Abby. “Want to sit and eat with me over at your table, Abby?”

Abby shook her head. “No. Want Papa.”

Xavi blinked. “You don’t want to come with me?”

She shook her head, her little pigtails whipping around. “No. I want to sit with Papa.”

Xavi glared at Colton, pointed one finger. “I blame you for this. She never once ever told me no before.”

“I’m sorry.” Colton didn’t look sorry. In fact, Colton didn’t even look the slightest bit contrite, like he was absolutely one hundred percent overjoyed about this particular situation. “We’ll talk after lunch, okay? Someone needs to sit with her Papa right now.”

“Don’t make me hurt you.” Sebastian muttered at Colton, under his breath. “I’m going to go sit with Xavi.”

“Oh no. No, no, no. We are not playing this game.” Xander, in his whole bizarre-assed alpha weirdness, kind of scooped them both up and sat them both at the table with Colton and Abby. “We are all being a family. The biggest family ever.”

Abby’s eyes lit up. “Everybody’s my family here?”

Xander looked around. “Yes, ma’am. We are all your family, and so we are all going to sit and have lunch together like a family and not be pouty. Right, Daddy?”

“Uh-huh.” What was he supposed to say to that? No?

Colton wrapped one arm around him and scooted him closer. “Sounds perfect to me.”

Abby ate, happily chatting to Colton the entire time, only stopping once when Thierry walked in with Mason. “Who are you?”

“I’m Thierry.” The man was pale, dark shadows under his eyes. He looked shaken, to be honest.

“I’m Abby. Are you my family too?”

Thierry nodded. “Yes. I do believe that after this afternoon, I most definitely qualify as family. What say you, Hank?”

“Bring it on. It takes a village.” Hank winked at him.

Sebastian fought not to roll his eyes. “Yep. A whole village plus another town over the mountain.” Hank enlisted all sorts of folks to help, and he knew it.

“Yep!” Hank dug out his burger, smacking his lips, which made Abby giggle madly.

Xavi was kind of picking at his fries, so Abby leaned over to poke him. “Hey! I love you.”

Xavi just beamed at her and poked her back gently. “I love you too, Ladybug. So much.”

She nodded. Then she looked at Colton. “Dis my Xavi, and dis my Xander. They’s my goddaddies.”

“You’re so lucky you have two goddaddies.”

She nodded. “I am. I have them since before I was born out of Daddy’s tummy.”

“You are the luckiest little girl ever.” Colton looked at Xavi and then it Xander. “I’m so glad that you and your daddy had both of these guys to help out. They are good friends.”

Xavi shrugged. “It was important.”

“It still is.” Just because Colton was here didn’t mean that Sebastian didn’t need Xavi and Xander to death.

Maybe he was going to add Colton into his life, but it didn’t mean less for everybody else.

Even if he and Colton didn’t do whatever he and Colton wanted to do, the man was still Abby’s dad.

And obviously Colton wanted to be part of her life.

This was about what was best for Abby at the very top level.

“Okay, so wild intensity around the table.” Law frowned at them all. “That seems ridiculous for lunch, especially when milkshakes are involved. So let’s let that go, and let’s talk about what happened at the house.”

Sebastian looked at Law over the top of his glasses, and Colton cleared his throat. “Think we’re going to save that for after our naps?”

Law sighed, and Iago was bouncing.

“This is big, boss. This is really big. They should oh—” Iago’s eyes lit up. “We should Zoom in Gent, and we could all talk together after naptime.”

“Perfect. That’s just great.” Colton waved a hand. “I bet Gent will love that.” Something about Colton’s wry grin made him wonder what it was that Colton was going to say that Gent wasn’t going to like.

Maybe that he was going to stay in Hot Springs Junction for a bit?

Almost an hour later, they settled around the room. Tori was watching Abby while she slept, saying it was good practice. Hell, he thought at this point, the ladies would do just about anything for Colton, he’d brought them so much money.

“Okay, so tell me what happened!”

“Wait! Let me Zoom Gent in,” Iago squeaked.

Colton rolled his eyes, wrapping an arm around Sebastian, and he let himself lean. God, that felt so good. Colton might have a bum leg, but he was so damn strong. And he smelled like heaven. And a little like cheeseburgers.

“Hey, Gent!” Iago bounced. He did that a lot. “Can you hear us?”

“Yeah. I can see you. A lot of you. Wow.”

“Be nice, Gentry,” Colton said, his laughter teasing. “This is the homeowner, Sebastian, his friends Xavi and Xander, and I think you know Hank Vargas and Thierry?”

“We’ve talked on Zoom.” Gent nodded. “Pleased. Now, what the hell is going on? You got a live one?”

Colton glanced at him. “Well, it’s certainly been busy. Let’s run down what happened today, huh? Sebastian hasn’t heard it yet, as he stayed up here at the hotel with Abby.”

Gent raised his eyebrows. “Abby, huh?”

“Yep.” Colton didn’t elaborate, but he had a feeling that he and Gent would end up on a private call soon. “Anyway, we’ve had activity for days, and we sent you the report about the axe incident…”

Sebastian shivered, and Colton gave him a gentle squeeze.

“Yeah, I read that. Mason, you’re not feeling murderous, are you?”

“Nah, they got me a cheeseburger.”

Gent let out a bark of laughter. “Okay, so what happened today?”

“Oh, not much. Cold air bursts, floors shaking, lights flickering, medium getting possessed by an axe-murdering alpha.”

Sebastian gasped and turned to look at Thierry, who appeared much better for his cheeseburger, caramel shake, and a piece of cheesecake from Xander’s stash in the kitchen. “Oh my God, are you okay?”

“I am. It was quite a ride, though. Horus Marken was quite angry.”

“No shit?” Gent sounded impressed, and he made that stank sort of face, the lips pressed together, nose-down wow face.

“Do you think he’s gone now?” Sebastian asked, his heart thudding.

“I think so. Every other spirit in the house seemed intent on kicking him out, and I think we succeeded.”

He slumped against Colton, relief making him dizzy. “I—how do we know?”

“We go back tomorrow and try to provoke him. We’ll take the axe.” Colton glanced at Mason. “But not you.”

Mason raised an eyebrow. Maybe both of them. “Why not?”

“Because while you manfully resisted the urge to whack us, he seemed to fixate on you.”

“Good point,” Law murmured.