“You shot me!”
“Yeahhh,” Pet drew out the word on a wince. “Sorry about that, kiddo. It was an accident. I was shooting at the mutants and your big butt got in my way.”
“Yeah? Well this is an accident too,” Parker snapped, turning his gun on her character.
“Oh, come on!” Pet squawked, quickly moving her character behind the cover of some trees to avoid the rapid-fire spray of bullets. “It was an accident,” she protested. “Gees. I thought we were on the same side.”
“You shot me first,” Parker pointed out, making his character rush after hers.
“Friendly fire. You’ll never make it out of the next level without me, Parker. Just—” A shriek from downstairs caught her ear, and Pet lowered her game controller and glanced toward the bedroom door.
“Is Oksana watching TV or some—?” she began, but stopped when the shriek ended and the housekeeper began shouting, “Home invasion! Home Invasion!”
“Crap!” Dropping her game controller, Pet jumped up from the floor and rushed to the door. Once there, she hesitated though, and then cracked it open to listen. A frown claimed her lips when she heard the deep rumble of an unfamiliar male voice below and then silence.
Reaching for her cell phone, Pet glanced around for Parker and scowled when she saw that her nephew hadn’t moved. The eight-year-old was busily shooting her video game character while she was distracted.
“Parker!” she hissed punching in 911. “Stop that! We have a situation here. Didn’t you hear Oksana yelling home invasion?”
“She always yells home invasion,” Parker said with a shrug. “Oksana forgets to close the front door after checking the mail, grabbing the newspaper, or sweeping the front porch. Everyone from neighbors to delivery guys have come in afraid something was wrong ’cause the door is open. When they do, she shrieks home invasion every time. She even yelled home invasion when Mr. Purdy’s cat came in yesterday. It’s her thing.”
“Oh,” Pet breathed, relaxing a little. She didn’t hit the call button on her phone, but she didn’t delete the numbers she’d entered on the keypad either. Oksana still hadn’t spoken again. Pet was debating whether she should call out and ask if everything was okay, or keep their presence in the house a secret and tiptoe to the end of the hall to get a look at who was in the entry, when she heard a soft whisper and then a deep male voice boomed, “Hello? Neighbor!”
“That’s not a neighbor.”
Pet jumped a good foot in the air when Parker spoke those solemn words right next to her. Clutching her chest, she briefly closed her eyes before letting out a slow breath and asking, “How do you know?”
“Because no one in the neighborhood has an accent like that. At least I don’t think anyone does,” he added with a frown.
Pet hadn’t noticed an accent. It had only been two words for heaven’s sake. How had he picked up an accent in two words? She gave her head a slight shake. The kid was just . . . different. Super smart and different. Letting her hand drop from her chest she said, “Well, could it be a new neighbor then?”
“I guess,” Parker agreed dubiously.
“But,” Pet added, debating the matter aloud, “it’s hard to imagine Oksana mistaking a neighbor for someone committing a home invasion.”
Parker arched his eyebrows. “You heard the part about Mr. Purdy’s cat, right?”
Pet merely scowled and shifted her feet as she listened anxiously for Oksana to say something. When there was nothing but silence, she glanced to her phone and then hesitated. She didn’t want to call the police only to find out that it really was a new neighbor just checking on them. Sighing, she asked, “Do you have a phone in here?”
“Yeah. I got a cell phone for Christmas.”
“A cell phone?” she squawked. “You’re like eight. Who the hell buys an eight-year-old a cell phone?”
“Mom and Dad,” he said with a grin.
“Right,” she said with disgust, and then added, “Fine. Then grab your cell phone and stay here. I’m going to go downstairs and see what’s happening. But if I say ‘Spidey, come on down,’ lock your door, hide, and call 911. Okay?”
“Spidey?” he asked, wincing slightly. “Seriously?”
Pet rolled her eyes at the complaint. “If they know your name is Parker Peters they’ll just think it’s a nickname. Get it? Parker Peters? Peter Parker? Spiderman?”
“I got it before you explained it,” he said with derision. “But it’s just so juvenile and lame.”
“Are you calling me lame?” she asked with amazement, and then realizing this wasn’t the moment for this discussion, muttered, “Whatever. Look, sweetie, this is serious. Just call 911 if I call you Peter then, okay?” She waited for him to nod, and then turned and eased the door open, pausing only to hiss “stay here” before sliding out of the room.
The hallway was surprisingly dim for seven o’clock in early June when the sun stayed up until nine or so, but it was light enough to see still. Pet had crept about halfway to the stairs at the opposite end of the hall when a voice called out, “Hello?”
The voice this time was female . . . but not Oksana’s. Pet paused to snatch up a crystal vase from a side table, hid it behind her back and moved to the railing that overlooked the front door entry.
Her eyes widened slightly when she saw the group of people crowding the large entry. Four men and a woman surrounded Oksana, and every one of them was dwarfing the housekeeper, who was a few inches taller than Pet’s own five foot two. They were also all staring up at her, she noted and then her gaze settled on the couple next to Oksana.
Pet felt her shoulders relax as she recognized the pair; Marguerite and Julius Notte. They’d been on the front porch talking to her sister, Quinn, when she’d arrived that afternoon, and had stuck around long enough for introductions before heading back to the Caprellis where they were staying for a couple of weeks. They were house-sitting while the older couple visited their daughter in Texas.
Her gaze slid to the other three men now, and her eyebrows rose slightly. All of them were big, but while two were just tall and muscular, the third was a complete behemoth, taking up twice as much space as anyone else in the entry. He was the biggest man Pet had ever seen, and that was saying something. She dealt with a lot of jocks in her work, but not one of them could have measured up to this guy. The shoulders on him! Good Lord! She’d heard black was supposed to be slimming, but the black T-shirt he wore just seemed to emphasize the width and muscle it was stretching to cover. His black jeans, on the other hand, were making his hips look tiny, or maybe they just were tiny in comparison to his shoulders. She followed the line of the jeans down to the black Doc Martens he wore and then slid her gaze back up again, taking in his shaved head and the fact that he wore rings on every one of his fingers. They could have been mistaken for brass knuckles except that they were silver. All told, the guy definitely didn’t look too safe to be around.
“Hello, Petronella. How nice to see you again.”
Pet forced her gaze back to Marguerite and almost sighed aloud with depression. Honestly, the woman was everything she wasn’t but had always longed to be—tall, curvaceous and beautiful with long, wavy auburn hair, and perfect pale skin. Marguerite was wearing a pretty summer dress and sandals that just emphasized her femininity and made Pet feel like a slob in her T-shirt and shorts.
Realizing they were all waiting for her response, Pet forced a smile and murmured, “Hello, again.”
“We just came by to introduce you to our nephews and their friend. The boys stopped by on their way back from the east coast and have decided to stay awhile. We didn’t want you to be concerned if you saw them coming and going,” she explained and then smiled wryly and added, “But we got here to find the front door wide open. When we didn’t see anyone around, we thought we’d better make sure everything was all right. I fear we startled your sister’s poor housekeeper.”
“Oh,” Pet breathed, her gaze sliding back to Oksana. A frown curved her lips downward when she noted that the woman was just standing there, staring straight ahead at nothing. Although, she could be watching out the side window for her husband, Pet supposed. Oksana’s husband was supposed to pick her up at seven. Pet shifted her attention back to Marguerite, stilling slightly as she noted her eyes. Marguerite and Julius had both been wearing sunglasses when she’d met them that afternoon. They weren’t wearing them now, though, and she could see that Marguerite’s eyes were blue while Julius’s were black, but both had silver flecks in them. It was as if someone had blown glowing silver glitter into—
“You know these people?”
Pet turned in surprise to see Parker at her side. The boy was frowning down at the people in the entry with Oksana. Taking her nephew by the arm, she gave him a push, trying to send him back the way he’d come. “You were supposed to wait in your room.”
Ignoring her urging, Parker held his ground and said, “They don’t live on this street.”
“Your mother introduced me to them when I got here. They’re house-sitting for the Cabellies,” she explained, still trying to urge him back toward his room.
“Caprellis,” he corrected even as Marguerite did.
“Jinx,” the woman said lightly, her smile widening. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Parker. Your mother and aunt were bragging about you this afternoon. Were your ears ringing?”
Parker shook his head, and then asked, “Who are you?”
“Marguerite Argeneau Notte,” she introduced herself solemnly, and then began introducing the others. “And this is my nephew Zanipolo Notte,” she gestured to the man on her right who was tall, and slender with lean muscle and long black hair pulled back into a ponytail. Gesturing to the man just past Zanipolo, she continued, “And a family friend, Justin Bricker.”
Pet noted his short dark brown hair, handsome face, and laughing green eyes . . . again with silver flecks.
“Our nephew Santo Notte,” Marguerite added, gesturing to the bald behemoth.
Pet slid her gaze over the taller man’s eyes. They were as black as Julius Notte’s, but there was much more silver in his eyes, and the lighter color seemed to be growing, she noted grimly.
“And, of course, my husband, Julius.” She turned and placed a hand on the arm of the man on her left. He was the only man here not wearing black. The other three men were decked out in black jeans, black T-shirts, and black Doc Martens. It was almost as if it were some sort of uniform. Julius, however, wore the same blue jeans and white T-shirt he’d had on when she’d met him earlier.
Every one of the men were over six feet tall, but Justin Bricker and Zanipolo were closer to six feet, while Santo and Julius were at least six-foot-six or better. The two shorter men were also lacking a lot of the muscle Santo had. They were still muscular, but with a leanness to them rather than the solid bulk he had. Julius was somewhere in the middle.
“Where are the Caprellis?” Parker asked suddenly, sounding suspicious.
“Texas.” The answer was a rumble of sound from the behemoth Marguerite had introduced as Santo. Pet had always gravitated toward deeper voices, and his seemed to vibrate right through her.
“They wished to visit their daughter,” Marguerite added now, drawing Pet’s reluctant gaze away from the big man. “I gather she moved there last year and they’ve been missing her and their grandbabies, so they put their house up on the House Swap exchange. We saw it and applied for a trade.”
Parker immediately relaxed and began to grin. “I signed them up on the House Swap site,” he announced gleefully, and was suddenly racing eagerly down the stairs.
Cursing under her breath, Pet immediately gave chase. She caught up with Parker as he reached the group in the entry, and started to reach for him, only to realize she still held the vase. Flushing guiltily, she set it quickly on the hall table and then caught Parker by the shoulders and dragged him back until his back bumped against her front.
Hardly seeming to notice the protective maneuver, her nephew exclaimed, “I didn’t think it would work this quick, though. So you guys are from Texas?”
“Italy,” Santo said, and Pet couldn’t keep from looking at him again. He really was beautiful, with high, carved cheekbones, and full sensual lips. She avoided looking at his eyes and glanced down at her nephew as he asked, “Italy?”
She noted the suspicion returning to his face, and unconsciously tightened her hands on his shoulders, drawing him more firmly back against her.
“There was a couple in Texas who wanted to see Italy,” Marguerite explained with a shrug. “And we wanted to come to New York, so we did a three-way swap. The Caprellis went to Texas, the couple from Texas went to our home in Italy, and we came here.”
“Oh,” Parker breathed, his eyes wide. “I didn’t know you could do three-way swaps, but that’s cool.”
“Yes,” she agreed. “But I understand and appreciate your concern for the Caprellis. They were waiting to give us the house keys when we arrived, and they seem like a very nice couple.”
“Yeah, they are,” he agreed.
“Are all your neighbors as nice?” Marguerite asked.
Parker nodded. “Yeah. But the Caprellis and Mr. Purdy are the best.”
“Mr. Purdy?” Marguerite queried with interest. “Where does he live?”
“He’s our neighbor on the other side,” Parker explained, but his voice was quiet now, almost fretful, Pet noted with concern. She peered at him for a moment, and then glanced to Marguerite, whose expression was oddly concentrated as she looked at Parker. So were the men’s, Pet realized, and had to fight a sudden urge to drag her nephew upstairs and away from these people.
“Ach,” Oksana said suddenly. “There is husband. Time to go.”
Pet blinked at that announcement from the housekeeper and turned to see her gathering her purse from the hall table.
“We should probably go too now that we’ve introduced the boys,” Marguerite announced as Santo opened the door for the housekeeper to leave. “As I said, we just wanted you to know who the boys were if you saw them coming and going.”
Pet shifted her gaze from the old Ford truck that had pulled into the driveway, and to the others as they now followed Oksana out of the house.
“Make sure you lock up,” Marguerite suggested as she led the men across the porch. “This is a nice neighborhood, but leaving the door wide open is a bit risky.”
“Yes. Good night,” Pet murmured as she watched them leave, but doubted if they’d even heard her. There hadn’t been much power behind the words. She watched Oksana hop up into the truck, and that pull away, and then followed Marguerite and the men with her eyes until they disappeared around the hedges that lined the driveway between her sister’s house and the Caprellis’.
“Come on,” Parker said, heading back upstairs as she closed and locked the door. “I left the game running and we’re both probably dead by now. We’ll have to start from the last save.”
“Are you sure you want to play with me? I mean, if I’m so lame . . .” Pet drawled dryly, still smarting from the earlier comment.
“Well, it’s not like there’s anyone else here to play with,” he said, pausing on the steps to grin back at her.
“You hugged me when I got here and said I was your favorite aunt,” she reminded him with exasperation. “Now I’m lame?”
“You’re my only aunt,” he pointed out, rolling his eyes. “That makes you my favorite, lame or not. Duh.”
Pet’s gaze narrowed. “When did you become such a little smart as-aleck?” she ended, catching herself before she finished the cuss.
But not quick enough. She could tell by Parker’s knowing look before he shrugged and said, “I don’t know.”
Scowling at him, she started up the stairs.
“But Dad blames you for it,” he added.
Pet stopped, her head snapping up with shock. “What?”
Parker nodded. “He thinks I spend too much time under your ‘undo influence’ and it has led to a bad attitude.” Shrugging, he added, “His words.”
Pet ground her teeth with irritation. Her sister was married to an arrogant asshat. Pet had never liked him and had no idea why Quinn had married the man.
On the other hand, if she hadn’t, there would be no Parker, and Pet did love the little smart ass dearly, so . . . Giving him a push to get him moving up the stairs again, she growled, “I’m so gonna shoot you in the butt. On purpose this time.”
“You can try,” Parker taunted, rushing eagerly up the rest of the stairs.
Pet followed more slowly, her smile fading and gaze sliding back to the front door as her troubled thoughts returned to her sister’s temporary new neighbors . . . and their glowing eyes.