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"Me, too But it is what it is" She turned to leave

"Kody?"

She looked back at Cherise with an arched brow

"Nick is very hot-tempered … like me It’s that spicy Cajun blood that flows thick in our veins Give hie his mind, Mrs Gautier You and I both know he’s too stubborn for that Once hehe comes by honestly I’d so hoped he wouldn’t inherit some of my less than desirable traits"

Kody s with being passionate about things"

"Passionate," hisout her biscuits "You take care, honey If you need anything, I’m still here for you Nick or no Nick"

Those words touched her deeply And they made her ache for her own est heart that Kody had ever seen She was an easy woman to love

"Yes,door that led back into the public area, she looked back at Cherise

She had flour smeared across one cheek and her blond hair was pulled up into a bun Even so, she was incredibly beautiful In the back of her mind, Kody saw Cherise’s alternate life Had his mother put Nick up for adoption as her parents had wanted, she would have gone on to Tulane University and would have beenthe life of a rich socialite Instead of an only son, she would have had three daughters who looked just like her Cherise would have never known the degradations and poverty she’d faced with an infant and no place to call home

But to Cherise, Nick was so worth every bit of it and then some You could see it in her eyes every time she looked at her son She loved hirets inside her at all

And if I kill him, it will destroy her

Cherise wouldn’t be able to function without her son Not after she’d suffered soand pushed her thoughts from this realm, into Sraosha’s so that her Guide could hear her words We are never to har of innocents My orders contradict each other

Sraosha’s response was cold and brittle His life or yours It’s that si she’d ever had to contend with

But there was no need to keep postponing the inevitable No erous to live with the powers he’d a

And once he was gone, she’d have to deal with his son Nick could never turn into the monster who’d fathered him She couldn’t allow that Not if she was to save her own family

One way or another, Nick would have to be stopped And she was the only one who could do it

CHAPTER 8

Sitting on a locker rooony After tackling him with a vicious blow, Mason had discreetly stomped him hard in the ribs--done in retaliation for Stone’s detention that had kept hiame And with every minute that passed, it ached more

At its current rate of expansion, he should be fully incapacitated within an hour

Maybe tento live?" Caleb asked as he stopped by Nick’s side

Nick glared at the bulging black backpack on the floor at Caleb’s feet that he really didn’t want to pick up "Probably not"

Caleb snorted "Well, if you plan to die, give o into hiding to save my skin"

Oh, that just warer that" Nick’s phone started ringing again Sighing, he glanced down to see who it was… As if there was any doubt in his mind

"Casey?" Caleb asked

He cut the sound "Who else?"

Caleb flung his towel over his shoulder and shut his locker door "Dang, Nick, she’s like some crazed celebrity stalker"

"Yeah, well, I said I wanted a norirlfriend who had no real probleet it"

A chill went down his spine He snapped his head up to aze "What’d you say?"

"Be careful--"

"Yeah, no, I heard you It was just … eerie I’ve been hearing that a lot lately"

Caleb pitched his towel into the laundry basket "Well, you knohat they say … Echriana verti yana"

Nick scowled as he gingerly rubbed his injured side "Um, yeah I hear that one all the ti, Caleb picked the backpack up with an ease Nick envied and set it on the bench beside hie It means, when the universe speaks, listen It’s coods send us onize theony"

"Do you really believe that?"

"Honestly? I think they just like screith our heads But there is so in your world that’s redundant"

His phone rang again

"Ugh!" Nick silenced it

So she texted hiirls do this?"

Caleb shrugged "Hoould I know? I don’t hook up with girls"