All Seeing Eye (38 page)

Her smile changed. It was the first uncertain
flicker I’d seen on Glory’s face in my life. “Like you have the balls.”

“Ask Boyd about that.”

A liar at the genetic level, she knew the truth when she heard it. I closed the door in the face of a Reaper walking the earth. Seconds later, I heard a car drive away and felt the shadow of death that had hovered overhead pass away to let the light of a sunset shine through again.

A small gurgle drew my attention to better things.

I looked down at the baby in my arms, sweating lightly over how many times I’d almost dropped it already. Blue eyes, skin the deep golden blush of a ripe peach, and a thick head of curly black hair that was destined to test any brush or comb under the sun. I doubted that Glory had known who the father was, but, like with Hector and Charlie, you get something unique when you mix the best of worlds. Not that Glory was the best of anything, but you couldn’t judge a baby by what her mother had done.

I liked babies. Hector would no doubt laugh in disbelief when he heard that, but it was true. People I could often take or leave, but babies, yeah, I liked. They were new, and their feelings all began and ended in wonder. Unless a dirty diaper was involved, but that was easily fixed. I held down a finger to let the small hand wrap around it with a grip of silk. I felt the sheer marvel at everything new and clean in its eyes wash out from it—no,
her
, definitely
a girl—as I always did with babies, and then I felt something else. Something so familiar that my chest ached more than it had when I’d been hit with the shotgun blast. My life was changing yet again. It was a phenomenal change and a terrifying one to prove I was up to it.

Second chances come hardly ever. They were miracles in the truest sense of the word. Was I able to handle a miracle?

Have faith, Jackson.

I would. If I couldn’t find faith for anything else, I’d find faith for this.

Five years is too short a life, no matter how much that person loved and lived that life to the sky and beyond. You should get a do-over. The rules of childhood games didn’t apply to life, but what about after?

Birthday party.

She’d said “birthday party” while pulling Charlie out of thin air:
I’m going to be late for my birthday party.

“Well,”—I smiled as the grip tightened on my finger—“Happy birthday, Tess.

“Welcome home.”

To the incredible woman who birthed me (the world isn’t certain she did it any favors, but what does the world know?); Jeff Thurman—my guy in the FBI for the customary weapons, explosives, and general mass-destruction advice; Linda and Richard, whose generosity of spirit knows no bounds; agent Lucienne and editor Adam, without whom this book wouldn’t exist; Nini for everything under the sun; Wendy Keebler—copy editor extraordinaire; and, finally, to one of my favorite couples and gurus in all things of geek nature, Michael and Sara.