Bittersweet

29| Peanut Butter Truffles

"Gage?" her tone didn't hide her confusion.

Instead of answering right away, I placed my cheek on top of her blue head allowing myself to take in the moment. I didn't know when I would be able to do something like this again. I wasn't sure what Saturday would bring. But I'll be damned if I couldn't hold on to my sister one last time. She was all that was left of my family now, and to me she was still the little girl that ran around getting peanut butter stuck in her dark brown curls. Paxton and I were probably not the best duo to raise her, but we were her greatest guardians.

"Gage?" she repeated. "What's going on?"

"Nothing. Nothing, I just . . . wanted you to know that I love you, Vi."

She remained still until moments later her arms went around my torso. Even though I couldn't see her, I knew she was smiling. "You know I love you, too."

I did know that she loved me, but still it melted my heart to hear those words. When I pulled away from her, I saw her happy expression shift into one of concern.

"Is . . . everything okay?"

"Yeah," I smiled, assuredly. "Everything will be fine."

Afterwards I picked up Katy and we spent nearly two hours with Mr. Phillips who was as cheerful as ever. He apparently had a promising job lined up, so I gave him my best clothes since he wouldn't accept any money. It was nice to laugh like everything was normal, but when Katy's eyes met mine, we both knew otherwise.

Friday came without warning along with Armita who called Katy to let her know she would be at our place in fifteen minutes. That gave us enough to gather our belongings, but thankfully not enough to dwell on the situation. Armita had booked us a hotel in Jacksonville the night before the Christmas party and go over our strategy which I was grateful for. It was odd how normal everything felt as we loaded our things up in Katy's car, almost as if we were going on vacation. I could almost imagine it, until the sound of a loud truck interrupted any and all thought including my illusion. I turned to glare at the vehicle when I froze up after recognizing it.

Katy paused what she was doing to look at the vehicle loudly backing into a parking spot between Armita and Katy's car in confusion. I, too, was lost, thinking that I wasn't seeing this correctly until I saw the figure with an eyepatch come around, duffle bag in hand.

"Afternoon, everyone," Jason greeted. "Sorry I'm late. I had to make a few calls before heading over."

Katy blinked a few times then looked at me, who shrugged and looked at Armita, whose expression gave away nothing when she eyed Jason up and down. Apparently everyone but Jason was confused at his arrival who kept idly fiddling with his bag as if we weren't gawking at him. I was about to say something when Armita spoke up.

"Jason Reynolds," she crossed her arms in front of her chest. "May I ask what you are doing here?"

He looked up at her, confusedly. "Wait, have we met?"

"Armita Kumar. Now why are you here?" But he didn't answer immediately. He was too preoccupied scanning her figure up and down slowly. Too slowly because seconds later Armita snapped, "I am not going to ask you again."

Jason held his hands up in surrender. "Fine, fine. But I figured it was kind of obvious." He paused to let us fill in the blanks, but when we didn't he added, "I'm coming with you guys."

"What?" I couldn't hold back my surprise any longer.

"You seriously think I'm going to sit around while you are trying to take down those assholes? Nah," he threw his bag over his shoulder. "I'm tagging in on this."