“Do you believe this?” Redmond caught my gaze and shook his head before focusing on Lily. “Shots aren’t always going to be a bad thing. When you get older, shots will be fun. I’ll even take you to get shots, as long as you’re twenty-one and have hot friends.”
Cillian cuffed Redmond, hard. It wasn’t enough to stop Lily from sniffling again, her eyes glassy as she turned her pathetic stare to her grandfather.
“Oh, it’s okay,” Cormack reassured her, hugging her tight. “You ignore Redmond. He’s definitely not my favorite today. Do you want more whipped cream?”
Aisling opened her mouth — to warn her father about getting Lily sugared up, I assumed — but ultimately didn’t say anything. Given Mary’s death, she was probably choosing her battles. “It’s going to be a rough day. Griffin is taking the morning off so we can do this together.”
“I think you’re being a little dramatic,” Cormack chided as he gave Lily more whipped cream, grinning at her delighted expression. “We had five of you and managed to get through ... those things ... without a lick of trouble.”
Aisling shot him a dirty look. “Were you there when we got those things?”
“I ... .” The look on his face told me Aisling had pinned him.
“That’s what I thought.” Aisling dumped a mountain of syrup on her pancakes. “Griffin and I are a team. We’re doing stuff like this together.”
“We certainly are,” Griffin agreed. “I’m not just saying that because she’s making me go either.”
The Grimlock brothers laughed, amused. Aisling’s gaze was scorching, though.
“Keep it up,” she warned. “I’m going to make you sleep alone with a crying baby if you’re not careful.”
Griffin immediately straightened. “We’re definitely a team.”
Cormack chuckled as he handed Lily her plug. The baby shoved it away and gestured toward the whipped cream. “Oh, I think you’ve had enough,” he said.
Sure enough, Lily’s eyes glassed over yet again when she realized her grandfather was going to deny her.
“Or maybe a little bit more,” Cormack acquiesced, shooting Aisling an apologetic look before turning serious. “What were we talking about again?”
“The safe house,” Griffin replied.
“Right.” Cormack looked thrilled to have something to talk about other than Lily’s impending day of doom. “They’re bringing in outside council to serve as the head of the new revenant task force. That’s one thing I learned this morning during our conference call.”
My eyebrows drew together. “I don’t think I understand.”
“There are whispers,” Cormack explained. “Everybody in the home office is saying something but nobody is saying the same thing. One of the rumors — one of the more persistent ones, at that — involves higher-ups on the council being involved with the revenant problem.”
“That’s not really a rumor, though,” Aisling pointed out. “We already know that’s true.”
“We do. What we don’t know is who is involved, because it can’t be everybody. A conspiracy only works if you keep the numbers small. That means that only a few people in the home office are involved. Despite that, we have to be suspicious of everybody.”
“What about the guy on this independent council?” I queried, nodding in thanks when the chef delivered my pancakes. “Awesome. Thank you so much.”
Braden was equally thrilled with his delivery. “You’re missing out not eating the gummy pancakes.”
I had to look away from what looked like a weird fruitcake concoction and focus on Cormack. “Do you think we can trust the guy they’re bringing in?”
Cormack vehemently shook his head. “Absolutely not.”
“Well, that was succinct,” I noted. “What can you tell me about this guy?”
“His name is Adam Grimaldi.”
I almost choked on my first bite of pancakes, to the point where Braden had to thump my back to help me swallow. My eyes were watering when I finally managed to talk again. “What?”
“Wait, why is that name familiar?” Griffin queried.
“Because Adam Grimaldi was the father of that Sandy Weaver woman,” Aisling replied, her expression grim. “You remember the woman with the crazy cult, right?”
“Oh, right.” Griffin turned thoughtful. “I thought you said Adam Grimaldi was booted from the reaper council a few years ago, Cormack.”
“He was,” Cormack supplied. “He was suspected of stealing artifacts from one of the storage rooms. He denied he was doing anything nefarious — said he was trying to help with an ongoing organizational effort — but he was fired all the same.”
“And now he’s back in a position of power?” Griffin looked dumbfounded. “That can’t be a good thing.”
“It’s not, but we need to be very careful.” Cormack tried to give Lily her pacifier again but the baby stubbornly pointed at the whipped cream. “Oh, just one more dollop.”
“You’re going to have to go to the doctor with us if you keep that up,” Aisling warned.
Cormack merely smiled. “She’s a good girl. She should get what she wants.”
I shifted my eyes to Braden and found him smiling. “Total monster,” I whispered under my breath.
Braden didn’t look bothered by the possibility. “Are we going to have to interact with this Grimaldi guy, Dad? I mean, are we supposed to pretend we don’t know he had a hand in that religious cult?”
“Technically we don’t know if he had anything to do with that,” I reminded him. “We know his daughter was involved — up to her neck in magical misdeeds, really — but we have no proof he was involved as of now.”
“It seems too farfetched to think otherwise,” Braden argued. “I mean, it’s way too much of a coincidence for him to suddenly be back on the scene given what happened at the gate.”
“I agree,” Cormack said. “We still need proof. As for Grimaldi poking his nose into our business, I can guarantee it’s going to happen. As of right now, the home office is operating under the assumption that the safe house was attacked by revenants. Grimaldi has been put in charge of the task force. That means he’ll be sniffing around before the end of the day.”
“What’s the plan?” Griffin queried. “I mean ... how
