The boy studied him for a moment, then asked, “Don’t you mind being here?”
“No.”
“Is that because you’re a lot like Kyle?”
That made Bo smirk. “No.”
Freddy walked over to Bo until he stood only a few inches away and gazed up at him. Then he waited. At least that’s what it felt like. As if the kid were waiting for something. Bo didn’t know what but it felt weird just standing there, so he said, “You’re up kind of early.”
“Not for me.”
After that statement, the kid said nothing else but continued to stare. Finally, Bo couldn’t take it anymore.
“Is there something you want to ask me, Freddy?”
“Can I stand on your shoulders?”
“What?”
“Can I stand on your shoulders? Just for a minute or so.”
“Why?”
“I want to know what it’s like to be tall.”
Bo was about to explain that the chances of a jackal being as tall as him—a lion-polar bear hybrid—were impossible but decided against it. In fact, he could actually hear Blayne in his head telling him not to tell Freddy that. So, Bo instead crouched down and held his arm out. The boy grabbed it with both hands and Bo lifted him, placing his small feet on his shoulders. When he had the boy secure, Bo’s hands wrapped tightly around Freddy’s ankles, Bo stood tall.
“Wooooooow,” Freddy sighed out. “I can see the entire world from here.”
That made Bo grin a bit.
“I bet you love being this tall, Mr. Novikov.”
“I don’t mind. It makes it easier to find Blayne in a crowd. She tends to bop around when she walks. Like she’s on springs or something. So I just look for the top of her head to suddenly appear and I can usually track her down in a timely manner.”
“I like Blayne. She smiles a lot.”
“She does.”
“And she’s good at keeping me calm.”
“That’s very important for you, isn’t it, Freddy?”
“It is. Otherwise I do things I’m not supposed to. Toni’s excellent at keeping me calm but Blayne’s good at it too.”
Of course, Blayne’s calming abilities probably came from the years of anger management classes she’d been forced to go to—usually by court order.
Bo didn’t know how long the pair stood there, but it was a nice, easy way to start the day.
“Bo?”
Hearing his fiancée’s voice, Bo glanced over at Blayne. “Hey. What’s up?”
“Everything all right?”
“Just staring at the world,” he replied.
Grinning, Blayne walked over, clapped her hands together, and held her arms out to Freddy. “Your mom is looking for you, Fredster.”
“Okay.”
The boy leaped from Bo’s shoulders and into Blayne’s arms. Thankfully, Blayne was on a derby team, so she managed to easily catch Freddy and not fall on her ass even though he was leaping from such a great height.
She placed Freddy on the ground, and he charged toward the back door. “Thank you, Mr. Novikov!”
“You’re welcome.”
Blayne smiled up at Bo.
“What?”
“I’m just so—”
“Is there a reason you came out here,” he cut in before she could tell him once again how proud she was he had managed to not kill any of the Parker children, “or was it just to make sure I hadn’t stomped on the small ones?”
“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. You don’t always watch where you walk. But that’s not why I’m out here.”
Bo sighed. “Then why?”
Taking Bo’s hand, Blayne led her mate and future husband back into the Jean-Louis Parker house and to the ballroom on the first floor. Right where Kyle had had workers set up a giant block of white marble. And standing right by that were an arguing Kyle, Troy, and Oriana. Those three argued all the time. Really. All. The. Time.
“You are such a little shit, Kyle!” Oriana yelled at her brother.
“I need the space!” Kyle barked back.
“So do I!”
“What about me?” Troy demanded.
“You do equations,” Oriana reminded her brother. “What could you possibly need all this space for?”
“Wall space. So I can put up my equations,” he said, his hand gesturing down the long hall, “and see them in one long stream.”
“You’re an idiot,” Oriana sighed. “Just a big-headed idiot.”
“And you’re an uptight little—”
“That’s it,” Bo cut in, impressing Blayne with his no-nonsense approach to children cursing at each other. “Enough of this.”
“You might as well forget it, Novikov,” Kyle said, rocking back on sneakers that lit up when he walked, reminding Blayne that this confident little kid was only eleven. “The workmen have already gone. So the marble stays put.”
Bo snorted. “Really?”
Walking over to the enormous piece of beautiful marble that Blayne assumed Kyle was planning to whittle down into a statue, Bo gazed at it a moment. He moved around it. Then he grasped the marble from behind and, with a grunt, dragged it across the floor like he was moving a filled refrigerator.
Blayne covered her mouth with her hands when she saw that Bo was leaving deep gouges in the hardwood floor.
Once across the room, Bo released the marble and came back over to the kids. They were gawking at him, fear mixed with envy mixed with admiration.
“Do not bring any more giant pieces of marble in here, Kyle. Understand?”
“Do you know how much that weighed?” Kyle asked, still gazing.
“In fact,” he told all three, “no more trying to claim this room for yourselves. I’m taking it over for now. I need more space than the library.”
“It took ten full-humans to move that,” Troy added. “Ten.”
“Full-humans are naturally weak. You shouldn’t hold that against them.”
“We’re not,” Oriana muttered. “You’re just freaking us out.”
“Then you better not piss me off.” Bo looked at each child before asking, “Understand?”
All three nodded.
“Good. Now, I’m hungry. Let’s feed.” He walked out, winking at Blayne as he passed by.
The two boys followed after him, Kyle noting that Bo was “Magnificent.”
Oriana stopped by Blayne. “I know,” she said about her brother. “I know.”
“Well . . . Bo is magnificent.” She’d just never expected an eleven-year-old boy to be comfortable enough to say that out loud.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
By the third day, Toni truly thought her head might explode. For three days she’d been forced to sit in this room. For three days, she’d been forced to wait for hours until someone came in to tell her to “try again tomorrow.” And for three days she’d been forced to keep her temper under control.
Although Toni hadn’t realized she had a temper quite like this. The more they made her wait, the worse it was getting. What made it even worse were the two males she was stuck with.
She looked across the room. First at Vic Barinov. He was reading a book on the Teutonic knights and their battles.
Really? Really? Was reading about Teutonic knights seriously that important? When her entire life was falling apart around her?
Knowing she was moments away from biting the man’s nose off, Toni turned her gaze to the wolf. Unlike the hybrid, he wasn’t reading anything. He was just sitting there, placidly staring at the wall. How did he do that? How did anyone do that who was not already in some sort of catatonic state?
This whole situation was insane! And making her absolutely crazy. Even worse were the regular texts from her family. Text after text after text with just enough information to have Toni seriously worried for their collective safety.