Chapter 18 - Rosa

"Gods, Bryon, you are such a cheater!" Olivia cries as she has to hand over more money to him. I watch Byron slip Kaila part of the money under the table and stifle a laugh. She's right that he's cheating, but it's not in the way she thinks.

"That's what sore losers say," Byron says, pursing his lips and re-arranging the money in his hand. "Just admit it, Ollie Pop."

"Do not call me that."

"Losers don't get to pick their nicknames," Byron says, making Kaila giggle. I'm about to roll the dice, taking my turn, when there's a knock on the door, and Linnea opens it, peeking her head in before I can even get up to answer it.

"Hey, guys," she breathes, "Rosa, any chance you can come out here, quick?"

I glance at the others around the table. Kaila looks between me and Linnea curiously but doesn't say anything. After a moment, I stand, sharing a look with Olivia. I trust her to put Kaila's safety above everything else if something goes wrong here.

"Hey," Linnea says, putting a hand on my arm when I come out to meet her. "I didn't want to alarm you, it's just—"

There's a loud growl from outside the garage, and I look at her wide-eyed. I recognize that growl. I turn, sprinting outside, ignoring her calls for me to wait.

Bigby is standing outside of the garage, and Ado and Aris are both corralling him, keeping him from moving forward.

"You need to calm down, big guy," Aris warns.

"Don't fucking challenge me to a fight," Bigby warns.

"Nobody is challenging anyone!" Linnea shouts, running out and past me, putting up her hands. "Please, Bigby, let's just count—"

"I'm fine !" Bigby roars and the sound bounces off the houses around us. I stare at him, at how his chest rises and falls, at how unhinged he looks, his eyes darting around. "Get out of my way so I can go into my fucking house. "

" Bigby ," I say, pushing past Ado and going to stand right in front of him.

"Rosa—" Aris starts, his hand darting up like he might pull me back, away from Bigby, but I'm moving too fast. Bigby lets out a growl, but I come to a stop in front of him, placing a single hand on his chest.

His eyes go dark, and he licks his lips.

"My daughter is inside that house," I say, staring at him with my lips pressed together. "I have never known you to be a violent man, or to act aggressive like this. But I am telling you this right now —I don't care what you're feeling or how bad it is. The second you scare my little girl, we're done. Do you understand? You will never use your size or your aggression in a way that scares her. I grew up with a dad like that. I will not allow her to."

The implication of this hangs in the air around us. I've just admitted to everyone standing here that Bigby is Kaila's dad. And I've acknowledged that I'm considering allowing him into her life.

Bigby lowers his head, staring at me through his lashes.

"Rosa," he says, his voice in that same rough tone as the other day when I closed the door in his face. I stare at him, thinking about what Linnea said about him being a good man. He had never been anything but that up until the night he left. Maybe it's time I heard his side of the story.

"Bigby," I say, sliding the hand on his chest up and over his neck, which is hot to the touch. I cup his cheek, and he closes his eyes, leaning his head into my hand. His breathing slows, and his arms come around my waist slowly as though he's afraid I might pull away.

My breasts are pressed firmly to his chest, and every time he takes a breath, we get impossibly closer. I snake my arms around his neck and bury my face in his shirt, taking a long breath.

After a moment, Bigby seems to remember that we're standing in his driveway with an audience, so he releases me, clearing his throat.

"I'm sorry, everyone," he says, his voice low. Linnea, Aris, and Ado are staring openly at us. Apparently, none of them thought I would be able to slow him down.

"That's okay, man," Aris says, coughing. "I have never seen you like that before."

Aris's eyes flick to me with a question. I shake my head at him. Bigby may be intimidating to other people, but I know him. He would never, ever hurt me. Or Kaila.

"Are you coming inside, or what?" I ask, crossing my arms as I look at them. "We're playing Monopoly."

***

" How does she keep winning?" Linnea asks, throwing her cards down and playfully poking a finger at Kaila. "We have got a Monopoly genius on your hands."

"She's just a regular genius," Bigby says, grinning at Kaila, who tilts her head. I raise my eyebrows at Byron, who gives me a shrug like I don't know what you're implying.

His entire strategy was to make sure Kaila won so Olivia wouldn't, and now Olivia is outside, sulking. She never lets anyone else win at Monopoly, so she's taking it pretty hard.

"I love this game," Kaila says, dancing a little in her chair.

"Yeah, well," I say, taking her money from the table and stacking it neatly. "It is way past your bedtime. You're not a real estate tycoon just yet."

Surprisingly, Kaila doesn't put up much of a fuss, stifling a yawn with one hand as she waves goodnight to everyone and heads down the hall to the bedroom we're sharing.

"Brush your teeth!" I call, which makes Kaila groan and everyone else laugh.

Byron goes outside to find Olivia, and I follow Aris and Linnea to the door. Linnea hugs me tight and says, low enough so nobody else can hear, "Talk to him. Please."

I release her and give her a little nod, then, to my surprise, Aris gives me a hug, too, nodding once before following Linnea out the door. Just before I close it, I hear Linnea say, "The nanny is going to be so mad."

I laugh as I close the door and turn to head back inside, where Bigby is in the kitchen, washing up the dishes from dinner. Wordlessly, I join him, grabbing a towel and drying as he washes. I guess it depends on the location of each dish, and most of the time, I'm right.

"You don't have to help," Bigby says quietly, "you've already done enough today."

"I know," I say, throwing him a grin. We finish the dishes, then I walk over to the chess table, raising an eyebrow at him. "Ready to lose again?"

He cracks his knuckles as he comes over.

"You only beat me last time because I was distracted."

"That's what all the best chess players say."

He rolls his eyes and takes his place across from me. I always play white, so I open the game, and we get into the rhythm of it quickly. Just like yesterday, I'm the first one to take a piece. I give him a grin.

"I wanted to thank you again," he says, his voice rough, "for earlier. I don't—I know it was unacceptable, it's just—" he sighs, then scrubs a hand over his face. "You know that team member we lost during our last mission?"

"Percy," I say, moving my rook and looking up at him. "I remember. It's who Linnea and Aris named their son after."

"Right," Bigby says, clearing his throat, "well, it turns out there's some evidence pointing toward Percy not actually being dead."

"That's great news!" I say, momentarily forgetting about the chess game. "You found him?"

"No," Bigby says, clearing his throat and moving his piece. "We found some of his fur, but it implicates him in the human disappearances."

"…what?"

"It was in the window of a human who went missing," Bigby says, clearing his throat.

"Was Percy—I mean, why would he do something like that? According to Linnea, he was a huge softy."

"Yes. He was—is. But Percy was poisoned with the serum. That's why he took his own life. Because we had heard about what it did to other shifters, how it drove them out of their minds."

"So, you think the serum is driving him to abduction?"

"Hopefully, abduction is the least of our worries."

I move my queen, chewing on my lip as I ponder the implications.

"That's what upset you? Earlier?"

"That and everything else. I knew one of the humans who went missing—and that's not to say that's what makes it important; it just hit me a little closer to home."

"Understandable. I—I want you to know that I'm working on the antidote, and I think I may actually be successful. I have a prototype almost ready."

Bigby looks up from the board, meeting my eyes squarely. What I see there almost makes me falter, but I hold steady.

It's love. Just pure, stable, consistent love. In this moment, I realize that Bigby has always believed in me. This is a perfect moment to bring it up, to ask him, for once and all, why he ran the night he found out I was pregnant.

I stare at him. I take a deep breath. I open my mouth.

"Your go," I say.