Fort Morgan by Claudia Hall Christian Page B

left the suite. Jill got
up to hug Delphie.
    “ Will the serpents be restored when
the child is born?” Jill asked in a low voice.
    “ The serpents are beyond
our help now,” Delphie said. “They are lost to the
world.”
    “ They kept their
agreement,” Sandy said.
    “ They did,” Delphie said.
“We still don’t know about the financier.”
    “ We don’t,” Tanesha said.
“Do you?”
    “ I know something,”
Delphie said. “But not something that should stop what’s happening
today.”
    “ What’s happening today?”
Sandy asked.
    “ Today, we welcome another
member of our tribe,” Delphie said with a smile. “Just rest now. It
will be a while.”
    Heather nodded.
    “ What was that?” Blane
asked.
    “ Delphie said it would be
a while,” Heather said.
    “ Good to know,” Blane
said. “Let’s go through our happy delivery meditation. “
    Hearing a sound, they looked up to see
Delphie leaving the room. Before they could say anything, Blane
called each of them by name.
    “ Let’s start our
meditation. Jill? Sandy? You’re an integral part of this team!
Tanesha? Are you ready?” Blane asked. The women shot each other
amused looks. “Deep breath in. . .”
    ~~~~~~~~
    Thursday morning — 8:17 a.m.
    Phoenix, Arizona
     
    “ Is this it?” Rodney
asked.
    He held up a small overnight bag. Yvonne
looked over at him from where she stood in front of the mirror.
    “ Dionne has the larger
bag,” Yvonne said with a smile.
    “ I was going to
say. . .” Rodney said.
    “ You’d better watch what
you say, Mr. Smith,” Dionne said from the main room in the
suite.
    Rodney laughed.
    “ We only brought the
little travel bag,” Yvonne said. “But
then. . .”
    She nodded to Rodney. They went out into the
main room of the suite.
    “ We did a little shopping
here in Phoenix,” Dionne said.
    “ I see that,” Rodney
said.
    He reached down for the Louis Vuitton
shopping bag. Dionne scowled at him for a moment. He smiled, and
she let him take the bag.
    “ You can afford it,”
Dionne said.
    She opened the door to the hallway. They
followed her out of the suite.
    “ We’ve been here a long
time!” Yvonne said.
    “ I’m glad you had some
fun,” Rodney said with a smile.
    Dionne nodded in approval of his words and
turned down the hallway. He chuckled. Yvonne slipped her hand into
his elbow and they followed Dionne to the elevator. Dionne pressed
the button.
    “ Have you heard from
Tanesha?” Rodney asked.
    “ She called to say that
Heather was in labor,” Yvonne said.
    “ She’s been pregnant
forever,” Rodney said.
    “ I don’t think so,” Dionne
said.
    Rodney looked up at the ceiling to keep from
groaning.
    “ Are you. . .?”
Rodney asked.
    “ I’m pissed off, Rodney.”
Dionne looked at him out of the corner of her eye. “This bastard is
going to get off. I just know it! And all those kids. . .
All the boys who were stupid enough to buy the videos, all those
precious. . .”
    Dionne’s eyes welled with tears, and she
swallowed the last of her sentence. She stared at the elevator for
a moment before turning to Rodney with her index finger pointed
like a dagger at his chest.
    “ You know it as much as I
do,” Dionne said.
    Dionne turned back to the elevator and
pressed the call button five or six times.
    “ The Spider’s in prison,”
Yvonne said. “Says so right here.”
    Her sweet voice made
Dionne turn to her. Yvonne held up her index finger where she had
tattooed the words “Spider in prison” in script . Yvonne nodded, and Dionne
hugged her. Dionne allowed herself a single sob before she pushed Yvonne
away.
    They had just turned back
to the elevators when Dionne’s cell phone rang. She’d just answered
it when Rodney’s cell phone rang.
    “ What?” Dionne asked into
the phone at the same time Rodney said, “You’re sure?”
    Stuffing the phone into his pocket, Rodney
threw the bags down. He put his big hands on Dionne and Yvonne’s
shoulders. Dionne