Tsuki barks in agreement, still sitting nonplussed where Nix had last seen her before this had all begun. “What a mess.”
Finn’s phone rings with the sound of a vintage bell telephone. “Shit, that’s Jay. Do you think he knows?”
He answers it anyway.
Nix actively tunes into his bond with Jamie when he does, and it is snapping and fiery red. Yikes.
“Jay? Wha—slow down? He’s here. He brought Tsuki. Whoa.” He looksat Nix. “Nix, did you leave your phone at home?”
Oops—and after he promised to be more careful, too. “I’m sorry. I have Luca’s, though?” Nix smiles and digs it out of his pocket.
“He says it’s at home. He’s very sorry.”
He rolls his eyes at Nix before Jamie’s next words have his jaw clenched hard.
“How bad is it? Are you guys okay? Yes, okay, we’ll leave now. Bye.”
Finn stands and brushes the glass dust off his pants and then Nix’s. “We need to get home stat, there’s trouble at home. I’ll tell you on the way.”
This isn’t just about him leaving the house or even that he’d forgotten his phone again. Jamie’s bond is still burning hot, and Gideon’s is ice-cold, snapping energy.
“Yeah—uh…should we…” He gestures vaguely at the wreckage that is med-bay one.
The sink is hanging off the wall and there’s a steady stream of water trickling down from the pipe in the wall, so they use that to rinse their hands. All the paper towels are spread uselessly all over the floor, so they just wipe them dry on their pants.
Nix fully expects to see the rest of the ER in a similar state, but the damage is limited to just their med-bay.
“What the fuck, Finn.”
“I don’t know. Not sure we should think too hard about it. It was…It feels like a dream.”
Even though it doesn’t look like one.
The fluorescent light crashes to the floor.
It’s enough to get Tsuki to pick up her leash again.
When she does, Dennie bursts through the door from the waiting room with a look of absolute shock on his face.
“Finn? What did you do?” Hands on his hips and left foot tapping his pink Croc in a rapid staccato.
“Sorry, Den, we gotta go. It was a mechanical malfunction. Send the bill to the Rhodes’s.”
Nix tries not to laugh at the pink-cheeked nurse and the flustered Finn.Nix waves as they run out the doors with Tsuki in the lead. Finn pulls up his ride-share app, and there’s a car sliding up to the doors in minutes.
Once they’re seated, they giggle as Tsuki lies across them in the back, despite the dubious face of the driver.
“Wow. That was close. Will you get into trouble?”
“Riordan will no doubt have words for me. But we couldn’t stay. Jay was totally losing it.”
“I’m sorry, I forgot my phone again. I’m not used to carrying one, and I wanted to get to you as soon as I could. But it wasn’t just that, was it?”
“It was better when you got there. I feel better than I have in weeks. It’s good.” He kisses Nix’s cheek. “You’re right—that’s not what’s got him worked up.”
Arm over the back of the car seat, Finn leans in so only Nix can hear. “Someone broke into the house. They didn’t trash the place, but Gideon thinks they were looking for something and didn’t find it.”
Chapter Sixteen: Gideon
