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"Okay that rocked." Amanita's first thought was how incredibly badass Dani was for utterly eviscerating Whispers without even needing to pull that trigger. Her second was how much Nomi would freak out over him getting the jump on them. Especially after the whole raided by the police thing.
Stopping Dani at the cellar door before they rejoined the others, Amanita quietly said, "As cool as that was can we not say anything about it until at least after the exchange because Nomi will lose her mind."
"Oh my God so will Lito and Hernando!" Dani whispered with her usual barely restrained enthusiasm. "I was just going to say that!"
"Are you worried Whispers saw your face?" That was something that Amanita used to lose sleep over, long before they flew to London and kidnapped two people. But she wasn't millions of hits on YouTube and movie star arm piece level famous. "I mean you and Lito are very much in the public eye."
Dani scrunched up her nose. "I don't think Whispers is surviving this. From what I understand, Wolfgang is a maniac."
"Yeah." Wolfgang. It was so strange to consider Nomi knew what it was like to murder people. A lot of people. And here Amanita thought the hacktivist thing was wild. "I'm not sure we have a contingency plan if he gets loose and turns the club into another BPO bloodbath."
"Right," Dani said with a wince. "It felt really good to hit him though, didn't it?"
"Amazing!" Despite all the times she threatened to punch a bitch, Amanita hadn't actually hit anyone since preschool when she got an unjust and obscenely lengthy ten minute timeout for absolutely walloping a little boy over claiming nobody had three dads. Stabbing Whispers with a needle wasn't bad either. "How was kicking him in the face?"
"So good!"
"I can see why Sun beats people up so much." Her hand didn't even hurt. At least not yet.
"Totally. What an asshole. That bullshit about you being a Labrador bitch!"
"Yeah," she sighed. Being in the heads of so many people definitely helped Whispers get deep into hers. And Nomi had enough to worry about without constantly having to reassure her fiancée that they'd actually tie the knot. Some day.
"He was right about the desire for shopping though."
"I know." God, Paris. How could she miss something that much when she was right there? And once Wolfgang was free, they would presumably all go back to their lives. But Amanita vowed to at least buy Dani lunch first. She owed her one for having her back, and she was dying to hear more about her tía. "We should go in before they start worrying."
Dani nodded and mimicked zipping her lips, then they both took another moment to grab hands and silently squeal at each other before heading back to the others.
As they entered the main room, all eyes were on them in absolute silence. "Did something happen?" Amanita asked, the entire group's grave expressions making her forget all about what they weren't going to talk about and immediately imagine the worst.
"Is Will back?" Dani looked around, still getting used to the invisible sensate thing.
The group turned to Nomi, who opened her mouth to speak but needed several seconds for the words to come out. "You know I put a camera down there, right?" Nomi asked.
Amanita and Dani gaped at each other. So much for keeping it a secret. "Um…"
"Neeeeets!" She ran over to hug her with relief, while Lito and Hernando did the same with Dani, pressing her between them.
"We're fine," they both said, trying to reassure their partners as they were fawned over after what would've probably looked even more terrifying on camera than it had been downstairs.
Then the applause started.
It was a slow clap from the perpetually stoic Sun, followed by Kala and then Rajan. Bug cheered loudly, exclaiming "Angels!" over the newly anointed crime-fighting trio and running over for a group hug.
"That was very cool," Lito said proudly.
"It was," Hernando agreed.
But Nomi did not clap. This was exactly what she'd feared.
"It's my fault." Amanita reassuringly stroked Nomi's hair. "I shouldn't have let him get under my skin."
Nomi sighed. "To be fair, he's ridiculously skilled at it. And ridiculously wrong. About everything."
"Except the shopping," Dani said.
"Except that."
"I know." Amanita quickly glanced at Rajan, the sapien spouse. He'd been there the shortest amount of time and still had only the vaguest idea of what was going on but nonetheless looked super happy to be there. Much like a Labrador. For his sake, hopefully Whispers really was wrong about the differences between their species and the three of them could work something out. "I let my temper get the best of me. I'm sorry I scared you."
"Punching him must've felt good though," Nomi conceded with a kiss.
"I would love to punch him," Kala said dreamily. Rajan gaped at her, wide-eyed.
"Speaking of, do we have a contingency plan if you know who tries to you know what?"
"Kala is our contingency plan," Nomi said.
"He only listens to her anyway," Lito added.
"I was going to let him." Kala shrugged as everyone else gaped at her. "What? He did earn it."
"Let who what? Wolfgang?"
Kala gently pressed her hand to Rajan's mouth to shush him. "I'll tell you later."
The main door banged open and Dani raised the gun, only for Will to shout "Whoa!" and shield Riley with his body.
"Shit! Sorry!" Dani put it back on the table before Will could disarm her which he very much wanted to do judging by the way he stormed into the room and immediately disarmed the table, not trusting that with the gun either.
He needed a moment to recover from the shock but then he was right back to running the show. "Riley will explain everything I have to go give Whispers his shot."
"At ease, officer," Amanita said. She'd always wanted to say that. "We took care of it."
"Really?" he said with disbelief.
"Piece of cake."
Dani nodded. "I know how to shoot."
"If you knew how to shoot, you wouldn't be pointing a gun at someone you weren't prepared to kill."
She shrugged. "Just because it would've been a mistake, doesn't mean I wasn't prepared to do it."
"Got it." Will cleared his throat. "No more guns for Dani."
Riley chuckled and came up behind him now that she was safe from mistaken gunfire. "It seems it's been an exciting day for everyone." She rubbed his shoulders. "But we're all okay."
"Let's put some ice on that knee," Nomi said. Amanita hadn't even realized it hurt until she said something. "And we can fill each other in. Preferably over some wine."
* * *
Amanita treated Dani to a long overdue reward lunch at an outdoor cafe by their hotel, just the two of them. Their palpable desire for shopping had finally been fulfilled—not in Paris but in Naples—with Rajan's credit card, which Felix was now the proud guardian of for some reason.
They'd barely had time to breathe since Wolfgang's rescue, much less had the opportunity to just sit and talk about anything but BPO. In a few days everyone would be going their separate ways again, at least for now, and life was about to return to normal. Whatever that meant.
"Thank you for this." Dani raised her wine glass for a toast. "I don't really have many girl friends. Or any girl friends."
"I've had enough girlfriends for the both of us." And soon she'd be Nomi's wife, while Mrs. Whispers got to skip straight past divorce court to collecting life insurance. Not too shabby for a couple of Labrador bitches.
Dani smiled. Between fielding nonstop phone calls from Kit Wrangler and the full time job that was Lito, it was little wonder she looked exhausted. But Amanita couldn't help but think she seemed sad, and the wine didn't appear to be helping.
"What's wrong, honey? Is Kit still giving you a hard time?"
"Oh no, nothing like that. I accidentally snapped at him while Kala was in surgery and ever since he's been on his best behavior. I should've been mean to him weeks ago." Dani had certainly learned how to put men in their place post-Joaquin. What a difference it made, knowing you weren't alone and someone had your back. And she'd more than had Amanita's.
"What then? The sensate stuff?" It was a testament to the power of love that any of them were handling all this as well as they were. Amanita had been in the loop the longest and sometimes it still made her head spin. But as the self-appointed leader of the sapiens, it was her duty to ensure the rest of them were given adequate space to vent.
Dani set her glass aside, her fingers wrapping nervously around the tablecloth instead. "Is it horrible to say this was fun? I mean so many people died, like so many people, and Kala nearly died too but…it was really fun wasn't it?"
"It was fun," Amanita agreed. It was terrifying and she probably didn't have a job waiting for her at home anymore and she had no idea where to start with wedding planning and they still might all end up in prison…but it was really fun. "We saved the world! With the power of love!" Sipping her wine, she added, "And a rocket launcher."
Dani's eyes sparkled with tears. "I'm really gonna miss you guys."
Amanita grabbed her hand before she worried a hole in the cloth. "Nomi and Lito may be able to see each other whenever they want, but it's not like we don't have FaceTime. And anyway you'll be at our wedding."
"I'm invited to your wedding?" she squeaked.
"Of course you are!" Amanita gave Dani's hand a light smack for being ridiculous. "You're family."
"Okay," she sniffled.
"Besides, after the way you handled Whispers, I cannot wait to introduce you to Nomi's mother."