“Hank behave! Hi Todd I’m Cierra, I’ve heard so much about you, it’s nice to finally meet you.”
“Thank you ma’am.” I’m not sure what to make of the look that passed between Mancini and Mr. Lyon but since nothing else was said I figure I’m safe.
“Come on Todd, let’s go set the table.” She took my free hand and I moved to put the baby down but she clung to me and made a disapproving sound, which I took to mean she didn’t want to let go. All this under the watchful stare of one Colton Lyon.
I was a mass of confusion as we walked out of the room. What’s Mancini doing here? He couldn’t have followed me, could he? And why when I told him I was coming here didn’t he mention anything about coming here himself? What the hell is going on?
“Todd are you okay?”
“What? Oh yeah, sure I’m okay, just afraid of dropping this little one.”
“Let me have her.” She tried taking her sister from my arms but the baby wasn’t having it. She started screeching loud enough to hurt my eardrums.
“Leave her, I’ll just be careful.” Damn, now I’m lying to her, but it couldn’t be helped. Until I know what Mancini was doing here and what if anything it had to do with her, I’ll keep shit to myself. Looks like today’s the day for revelations.
As we moved around the table in sync, with the kid hanging off of me I was suddenly hit with a clear vision of her and I doing this same thing, only the kid on my arm was mine. Mine, and hers!
MANCINI
“Whoa Katarina, your son in law is beautiful. You didn’t tell me he was that handsome.” I hid a smile behind my hand as my woman tried to get Colt riled up. She had a point though-the boy is handsome, and tall. And he’s giving Lyon fits just breathing.
“She doesn’t have a son in law. Kat, the fuck you been telling people?” She huffed and got to her feet ignoring her husband.
“Come on Cierra, come with me to the kitchen, don’t pay grouchy no mind. And thank you, Todd is indeed a very nice looking boy.”
They left the room leaving just me, Lyon and one of my favorite people alone in the room with the three babies who were playing on their mat. “Uncle Hank guess what.”
“What is it beautiful?” I ran my hand down her hair as she grinned up at me. I listened to her go on and on about some new thing she and her grandpa were working on. Just then the phone rang and Lyon left to go answer it.
As soon as her dad left she moved in closer. “Uncle Hank, do you remember my friend Lily?” I vaguely remembered her telling me about some little girl she’d met in the chat room I’d turned her onto.
Of course this was not your usual online community, but a collection of the most gifted children from around the world. Something I’ve been paying close attention to since meeting her. I don’t think her dad or even her teachers really understand just how amazing her mind truly is.
I think Lyon just might be a bit afraid and that’s why he steers clear of her and what she’s up to. I don’t blame him; a child like her is literally one in a million, or even a billion.
There’s no rhyme or reason as to why someone like her is born into the world, and sometimes it has nothing to do with the parents’ own intelligence, it just is. But of all the kids I know with this level of intelligence I’d have to put her at the very top.
“What about Lily?”
“Well, we found out something about the bad men.”
“You what? Catalina, I thought I told you I’d take care of it.”
“But you never said I couldn’t do it and you were taking too long. Now Todd’s here and…” She stopped talking when her dad came back into the room.
Lyon
When I left the school earlier I was distracted by the boy being back but not too distracted to forget to give Jared a little side job. I needed to know what it was that had happened to the kid that made the idiot principal think that Mengele had done something to him.
It hadn’t taken Jared long to get the details but the shit didn’t make any sense until I remembered a conversation I’d had with Mancini a while back. Could she really be that diabolical? At her age could she have the kind of patience it would take to pull off something like this?
The fuck am I saying? Of course she can, it’s Mengele for fuck sake. Now I need to know what she did with the rest of that shit and get it the hell out of my house. Obviously she hadn’t used it all or the asshole kid would be dead. Damn!