Alien Proliferation

like pissing each other off. I guess I’m lucky you’re both straight, or you’d be married to each other.”
    Chuckie laughed. “Maybe, couldn’t tell you.” He sighed. “Any chance I can hold the baby before he gets back and accuses me of trying to steal both of you?”
    “Sure.”
    He got up, and I handed Jamie to him. He held her well. “She really looks like you. Beautiful baby.”
    “I still don’t see it, but I’ll take the compliment for both of us.”
    He held her for a few minutes, walked around the room with her. He finally handed her back to me. “Thank you.”
    “For what?”
    Chuckie kissed the top of my head. “For letting me pretend.”

 
    CHAPTER 23
     
    C HUCKIE HAD JUST STEPPED AWAY from the bed when Jeff came in the door. “Out. Now. I’m not kidding.”
    Chuckie chuckled. “Oh, yes, sir.” He looked at me. “See you in a while, Kitty.” Then he sauntered out.
    “What was he doing?”
    “Oh, God, Jeff, not now. How’s Christopher?”
    He closed the door, heaved a sigh, and came to the bed. “He’s a mess. I think he’ll be okay. I don’t know if he’ll be the same or not, though. He’s been shooting that poison into his system for weeks.”
    “Yeah, I could tell from the needle marks. Was he shooting in adrenaline, too?”
    Jeff nodded. “Not too much, enough to just counter the drug. So he wasn’t going to the superlevel I got to.”
    “He was on the Serene method, not the Incredible Hulk method, yeah.” Jamie started fussing, and we fed her again. Jeff held her and rocked her when she was done. She gurgled at him. I snuggled next to him and got a kiss. “Jeff, I’m going to say something, and I really don’t want you freaking out, okay?”
    “Ronaldo Al Dejahl is Ronald Yates’ son that no one knew about. And he’s after you for killing his father.” Jeff sounded matter-of-fact. I managed not to faint.
    “Wow, yeah. You’re so calm.”
    He sighed. “No, but I don’t want to upset you or Jamie.”
    “I thought you said you didn’t think she could pick up emotions with the blocks you put in.”
    “I don’t think she can. However, she can still hear, and if we start getting upset, she’ll hear it and see our body language.”
    “Oh. Good point. So, back to the latest bad guy du jour.”
    “Right. I assume we figured it out the same way—Sheila’s family being targeted.”
    “Yeah. Mom checked them out a long time ago. So did Chuckie. Her husband’s a computer programmer, she’s a housewife, they are exactly what they appear to be. So the only reason to target them would be to use them as bait. And they were being kidnapped, not killed, meaning they were going to be more useful alive, at least initially.”
    “Yep.” Jeff shook his head. “I know Reynolds suspects Amy. I hate to say it, but I can’t argue with that theory, especially if you’re the target.”
    “I hate to admit it, but with Caroline not being a target, at least as far as my mom and the Sao Paulo teams can tell, but Sheila and Amy being in danger, it does seem like someone is going far back. But I can’t believe Amy would willingly do something that would endanger me. We’ve been friends too long.”
    “Maybe. But people change.”
    “Not that much.”
    “Yeah? Christopher’s a drug addict. Let’s discuss the idea of ‘not that much.’”
    “Okay, point taken. But he did it to make himself a better protector, and that’s not a change at all.”
    “I suppose.” He kissed Jamie’s head. “The doctors said it’ll take less time to flush the drug out of him than it did me or Serene. They’ve made a lot of advances over the past few months.”
    “That’s a relief.” I leaned my head on his shoulder. “I’m so worried about him.”
    “Me, too. I should have noticed something was wrong, and I didn’t.”
    “I know, I feel the same way.”
    “You’re the one who figured it out. Thank God.”
    “Yeah, but I’ve seen him every day since he started using, and it took seeing his eyes look as if he hadn’t slept for weeks to make me notice anything.”
    “At least he didn’t fight it.” He was quiet for a moment. “Is that normal? For drug addiction, I mean? We don’t have a lot of experience with it.”
    “I don’t either, at least not personally. For some, though, no. I knew some druggies in college who are probably dead now. Once hooked, forever hooked sort of thing. But I think Christopher’s been scared. I don’t believe his eyes are red