I lay back in bed and Juno jumped up and started to settle at the foot.

Then I took a deep breath, quit planning my upcoming War with Mace’s Demons Strategy and thought about my night.

Hector had walked me up to my apartment and he’d given me a cel phone to use, saying my cel and land line may be being monitored by Mace’s Dad.

I found this creepy as al get out but then again, Mace’s dad was a creep so that wasn’t a surprise.

Then, to my shock, Hector stayed. I thought this was a nice thing to do. I wasn’t a person who couldn’t be alone but at that moment I didn’t want to be alone. Normal y, I would choose a Rock Chick to be with me during this, my first, important maneuver in my War with the Demons but since I didn’t have that luxury, Hector would work.

I looked at the piece of paper Hector had given me and saw that Mace’s Mom’s name was Lana. I thought that was a beautiful name. She’d kept the last name Mason so I was guessing she never remarried. I supposed if you were screwed over by the Supreme Asshole of Al Time, you wouldn’t be keen to jump back into the game.

I dialed her number, got cold feet and hoped she wasn’t home.

I had absolutely no idea what to say.

Then I got worried she wouldn’t be home and I had absolutely no idea how to leave a message.

“Hel o?” I heard in my ear.

Oh shit.

Too late.

My eyes flew to Hector. He was standing beside me as I sat in my armchair.

He gave me a nod.

“Um, Ms. Mason?” I said back, dipping my chin to look at my knees and I heard Hector’s boots on the floorboards as he walked away.

“Yes?” she answered.

“This is Stel a. Stel a Gunn. You don’t know me. I’m a friend of your son’s. I’m a friend of, um… Kai’s.” Sheesh but it was weird cal ing Mace “Kai”.

Silence.

Or, I should say, loaded silence.

“Hel o?” I cal ed.

“Kai?” she asked and the way she said his name made it sound beautiful. She had a gorgeous voice, soft, feminine, melodic. I liked her just by the sound of her voice.

But I real y liked her by the way she said her son’s name, like it was magic.

“Yes, Kai,” I told her.

“Is he al right?” I heard a tremor of fear sift through her voice.

“Yes,” I said quickly then I went back on that word. “No. I mean, he’s fine but he’s not fine.”

Effing hel , this was hard.

Get on with it! My brain shouted at me.

I don’t know how! I shouted back.

Well, think of something! My brain wasn’t having any of it.

“I don’t understand,” Lana said in my ear. “You’re the girl in the papers, right?”

Oh hel , she’d seen the papers.

Beautiful.

I wondered what she knew.

“Yes,” I told her. “We’re kind of… erm, special friends.” Special friends?

I was such an idiot!

“I was getting that from the papers,” she said softly then she informed me, “You’re very pretty.”

That was a nice thing to say so I smiled at the phone.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

What now?

Bloody, effing hel .

“He doesn’t know I’m cal ing you,” I told her.

Silence again.

I took a deep breath and forged ahead. “I know about Caitlin. I just found out.”

More silence, again it was loaded.

“Ms. Mason?”

“Cal me Lana.”

That was nice too.

“Lana, do you talk to Mace?” I asked.

“Mace?” she sounded confused.

“Erm, it’s what his friends cal Kai here. Mace.” There was a pause then I heard her say quietly, “That doesn’t sound like my son. He’s not a Mace.” This made me sad. In the picture I saw that day when Mace was holding his sister, he didn’t look like a Mace. He looked like a Kai.

He was definitely a Mace now.

“Do you speak with him?” I asked.

“I haven’t heard from him in nearly seven years.” Gut kick, sure and true. In fact, it was the gut kick to end all gut kicks.

It made me hurt, for Mace and for Lana.

“Oh, Lana,” I breathed when I found my voice.

“Why are you cal ing?” she asked, her voice getting stronger.

“I…” I didn’t know what to say then I did. “I need your help.”

Then I told her about what was happening. Everything.

Sidney Carter. Linnie. Preston Mason. Even my parents.

And even Mace and my history.

I figured she had a right to know. Mace was her son. I took a chance and didn’t sugarcoat it either. I figured since Mace was her son, she had to make him who he was at least partly and I was guessing she gave him the good parts since Preston Mason didn’t have anything good to give and Mace had a lot of good parts so I was thinking her genes had to be stronger so she could hack it.

When I was done talking, immediately, Lana asked,

“What do you want me to do?”

I looked at Hector. He’d moved away and was sitting on the platform, watching me and scratching Juno’s head.

“I need you to come to Denver,” I told Lana, taking my eyes from Hector.

“Then what do you want me to do?” Lana went on.

“Nothing. Just come to Denver. I’l do the rest.”

“What’s the rest?”

I had no effing idea.

I decided not to sugarcoat that either. “I don’t know. I’m making this up as I go along.”

She laughed quietly and it sounded like a pretty song.

“That doesn’t sound like a very good plan.” I smiled at the phone again. “It isn’t.” I leaned back in the chair and put my heels up on its edge then I shared, “But I have to do something. He takes good care of me. It’s time someone took care of him. And this, al of this… with his Dad, Caitlin, wel , it has to stop.”

Silence again but I felt her warmth coming at me from the phone line.

Then she said, “Stel a, you should know, he loved Caitlin more than anything else in this world. She didn’t have a Dad, neither of them did, not real y. Kai did everything he could so she wouldn’t feel that loss, not the way he felt it.

When she was taken –”

“Lana –” I cut in.

“No, sweetie, let me finish.”

I shut up mainly because her cal ing me “sweetie” felt nice. My mother or father never cal ed me anything like that.