Hearts and Aces (Kelsey's Burden Series Book 7) by Kaylie Hunter (great books for teens txt) 📗

“No clue,” I said, pulling the list out and handing it to him. “Beth read the list and said Carl shouldn’t get it.”

Nightcrawler whistled after reading the list silently. “I only know what two of these are, and definitely they should not be left out in the sunlight or given to Carl.”

He handed the list to Renato who laughed as he read it. “I thought you had to be a chemist to get this shit.”

“Carl is a chemist. And a biologist. A linguistics expert. A computer science engineer. And he has several other PhDs that are way above my understanding.”

Nightcrawler rubbed his neck muscles as he glanced at Renato before he looked back at me. “You should know that some of these ingredients are used to make meth. Some of the others are used to make bombs.”

“He likely wasn’t planning on making either—intentionally, that is.” I nodded a greeting to Eloise as she passed us on her way into the house. “Carl has no concept of dangerous. He’s driven by curiosity which is why we secretly get texts whenever he charges anything. Usually we know a good week in advance when something is being shipped, but I’m guessing he used overnight delivery for this stuff.”

“They’ll ship some of this in a frozen nitrogen tank,” Renato said. “I’ll text you when it shows, but they might not let a biker sign for it.”

“Hattie will be home. She can sign. If they require Carl’s signature, then you can explain to the driver that Carl can’t legally sign for anything.”

“Got it. Anything else?”

“The guys ran into some trouble. Grady will need a few days to recover before he can come home. Same for a woman they rescued. Still no word whether the cartel identified anyone on the rescue mission. Until you hear otherwise, stay alert and expect anything and everything.”

“Do you need to fly out to meet Grady?” Nightcrawler asked.

I shook my head. “We have a rule that if there’s a threat to the family, one of us stays home with Nicholas. It’s not always ideal, but we try to make it work.”

“Makes sense,” Renato said. “Besides, by the looks of those black bags under your eyes, you’re not in the right condition to travel yet either.”

“The whole family lost sleep last night, but I’ll nap this afternoon.” I rubbed a knot in my shoulder muscle. “I’m beyond tired.”

We turned, hearing the front door open. Pops stepped out and walked over. “Nick and Sara are fighting again,” Pops said, shaking his head. “I swear they quarrel worse than Reggie and Wild Card did at their ages.”

I sighed as I moved back toward the house. “I can’t decide if they fight like that because they’re so much alike—or because they’re complete opposites.”

I started to jog when I heard the high-pitched yelling. As soon as I walked into the house, the kids and everyone else went silent.

“Brush your teeth—all of them!” I ordered, pointing to Nicholas. I turned to Sara. “Young lady, you need to go back upstairs and brush your hair! You look like a ragamuffin.”

“What’s a rag-a-muffin?” Sara asked as she stuffed her laptop into her backpack.

“An urchin.”

“Huh?”

“Just go brush your hair, and be quick about it.” I heard everyone laughing quietly as I walked down the hall to check on Nicholas. “Back teeth too! All of them!”

He glared at me in the mirror, but brushed his back molars. When he was done, I stopped him from wiping his mouth on his sleeve and also made him rinse the sink. By the time we left the bathroom he was stomping down the hall, arms crossed over his chest, and into the garage.

Hattie laughed as she passed me the car keys on my way out of the house. Sara scrambled to catch up, climbing in behind Nicholas into the back seat. Carl ran into the garage next, sliding in beside Sara before I closed the door.

I opened the back hatch and whistled. Storm ran around the outside corner of the garage and performed an eight-foot leap into the back of the SUV. I checked to make sure his tail was clear before closing the hatch. Beth slid into the passenger seat as I got behind the wheel. After I backed out of the drive, two motorcycles pulled ahead of the SUV to lead us.

The kids started to argue, and I slammed on the brakes, looking over my shoulder at them. Both of them pressed their lips together and looked downward.

“Beth, if the kids continue down this bickering path today, find me. I’ll handle it. I don’t pay you enough to listen to it.”

“No problem,” she said, glancing back at the kids, ensuring they heard her. “Is Carl with us today?”

“Carl, what do you think about hanging out with the guys? Maybe running the remote while they practice on the Circle of Hell?”

“That sounds fun.”

I glanced over my shoulder at Carl. He had his face pressed to the passenger door’s window and was making puffer-fish faces against the glass.

He paused his game to look over at me. “I should’ve worn my costume.”

“What costume?” I asked as I focused on catching a break in traffic to cross the highway. The two lead bikes had already crossed.

“My superhero costume.”

“When did you get a superhero costume?” I asked, making the turn onto the highway before turning a few yards later to the left into the Headquarters’ drive.

“UPS delivered it yesterday. Alex helped me pick it out. He says I’ll get a lot of bang for my buck with it.”

“That kind of scares me,” I mumbled.

Beth leaned around her seat to look at Carl who was sitting behind her. “You should wait until this weekend to wear it,” Beth told him. “More people will be