บท 23: Sweet Indeed

"Somebody wanna tell me just what is gonna on?" demanded René as his gaze flicked back and forth between his teammates. "Because I need a damn good reason for the fact that all of my team is currently in the women's bathroom with that thing."

He and Salvatore had spent the better part of four hours clearing the lower levels of whatever fuckery was out, killing people. They looked like the zombies he used to watch on TV as a kid, but that was impossible. Zombies weren't real.

Fuckin' gris-gris.

And then, as soon as they arrived back on the top floor, he saw practically all of his friends making googly eyes at something that looked to have crawled out of a grave herself. Now he had to deal with a woman screeching like a fucking Banshee, teammates that were thinking with their dick, and fucking gris-gris.

As soon as he spoke, the weird staring contest going on between Dimitri and Luca broke as they both turned to look at him. "Would you like to try that sentence again?" asked Luca softly, his head cocked to the side as he stared at René.

René scoffed at the look his best friend was giving him. Although he had seen what Luca could do to an outsider, he had no reason to worry. The two of them were closer than any blood; he wouldn't touch him.

"I be thinkin' I was clear," he grunted his reply, his O City accent slipping more than he wanted. While Luca turned posh when he was pissed, the team Captain went the other way. "You have people outside that be needin' ya, and yous all here… in a bathroom."

"Yeah," nodded Désiré, "That's what I thought you said." The man was leaning on the countertop, his arms folded across his chest and the sleeves of his uniform rolled up enough to show off his extensive tattoo. "I dinna realize that you had that much of a death wish. Yous know, there be easier ways to die."

"Fermez-la," snarled René, not in the mood to deal with this shit. He had enough on his plate and more paperwork to do, thanks to this little detour. The Sergeant would be looking for them soon, and he wasn't in the mood to be shit on.

"It was a friendly reminder, mon amis," shrugged Désiré. "Not any of our faults if yous have yer head so far up your ass you can't see what be gonna on in front of you."

"René?" murmured a soft voice behind the giant of a man, and he could feel a burning sensation of a hand on the back of his bulletproof vest. "Please tell me it's you." The voice caught itself in the woman's voice as she tried to hold back her fear and her tears.

"Alicia," breathed René as he spun around, taking the delicate woman in his arms. She was a fraction of his size, maybe around 5'8", with long blonde hair falling down her back in loose curls. She was only wearing a thin sweater and a skirt, and it broke René's heart to feel just how cold she felt in his arms. "How?"

He wanted to demand a bunch of answers from the one woman who was his world for the past six years. She had stood by his side through thick and thin, never wavering in her dedication and care of him. Part of him hated the fact that she was stuck in this mall with those creatures hunting, but a bigger part of him was glad that she was somewhere where he could protect her.

"Your birthday is coming up in a bit, and I wanted to find you a present," replied Alicia, her voice like the sweetest of honey. It was so potent that René could feel all the stress and tension melting from him at her nearness.

The fact that she could keep the voice away was that much more of a bonus.

"Whose she?" drawled a man standing against a far wall beside the hand dryer. His words were slow like every letter took forever to come out of his mouth. His hooded eyes looked closed, but everyone in the room knew that that was just a guise.

Ronan Pothier could move fast when he wanted to; he just chose not to more often than not.

"Short Stack," replied Luca at the same moment that Dimitri answered, "Kitten."

"Does she have an actual name? Or are we just making up one for her? Because then I be callin' her Cher." The way he said cher sounded more like 'sha' and was drawn out so long that it was almost a sentence in and of itself.

It was also possessive, which rubbed Dimitri the wrong way.

"Hattie LaRue," answered Max as he picked up one of the curls flowing over Dimitri's arm. All of the men looked the same, except for Luca with their black hair, muscular body, and tattoos, but they had grown up in the same foster home, so it was no wonder they looked like they could be brothers.

Luca raised an eyebrow as he watched René murmuring soft words to his fiancé. He had honestly thought that the Captain would have reacted to her name, but he either wasn't listening, or he had completely forgotten about that night.

Either way, it was one less bit of competition.

"Give 'er to me," called out Ronan as he pushed off the wall and walked toward Dimitri. At Dimitri's challenging gaze, Ronan rolled her eyes. "Yous be wantin' to set up someplace more comfy-like for her to sleep. She might be a little thing, this fille, but she has needs. Of course… if yous donna be wanting to meet those needs…"

He let his voice trail off as he gave Dimitri a look of challenge. No man could take the insult of not meeting his woman's needs, and Dimitri was no different.

Now, Ronan was more than willing to let the others do all the work while he reaped the rewards.

And the rewards from this little fille were going to be sweet indeed.