Thicker than water-

Chapter 11

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"Mom, who was that guy?" Shira asked in a hushed tone as she turned her head and watched the man disappear among the sea of book shelves and people, her garnet red eyes narrowed a little bit.

"I don't know baby." Rain said as she picked her daughter up and sat back down in her seat and arranged her daughter so that she was sitting in her lap. Shira made a soft humming sound and leaned back against her mother while some part of her mind nagged at her about the man's scent.

It was eerily similar to her own.

Far too much like her own actually.

It made her just a little bit uncomfortable to know that there was someone else in the world with the same scent as her own but she knew deep down that the only reason they smelled similar was because they were related to each other through blood. Which meant that chances were good that the man was either her father or kin to her father since she got her scent from him instead of her mother.

She made another humming sound and made a mental note to corner the guy and demand some answers the next time she saw him. And god help him if he decided to hold out on her because she may be small but she was mean and wasn't above bleeding someone to get what she wanted.

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Throttle leaned his back against the brick of the book store and pulled his cell phone out of his pants pocket and dialed Modo's number and put the phone up to his ear and took several deep breaths in an effort to calm himself down while the phone rang.

It rang five times before he heard Modo pick up and growl, "What?" Into the other end of the receiver.

"Did I catch you eating or something?"

There was a pause from the other end. Apparently Modo was considering his answers before giving them. What did he think Throttle was going to do to him if he said yes? Reach through the phone and strangle him? Throttle snorted in amusement as Modo finally answered. "I was drinking some coffee actually. The shower didn't wake me up like I thought it would."

"No big bro, I was just calling to let you both know that I made contact with Rain and even saw my young for a second."

"Really-" Modo said in a slightly excited tone before asking, "Well don't just clam up on me bro! Do I have a nephew or niece? What does the little tyke look like?"

Throttle felt his lips twitch a little bit and sighed before saying, "She takes after her mother in looks. Dark hair, pale skin. Pretty. She'll be breaking hearts once she's older."

"No shit. A little girl huh. Wow-" Modo said with a note of awe in his voice as Throttle caught the faint sounds of one of the dining room chairs creaking as the gray mouse sat down in it. "And she takes after her mom?"

"As far as I could tell she did. Why?"

"Well have you considered that since she looks like her mom, she may have your personality and territorial impulses?"

Throttle held the phone away from his ear and blinked at it. No that hadn't occurred to him at all. In fact now that Modo had pointed that out to him, he felt torn between swearing and crying. Gods if his young had his personality she was going to be a nightmare to raise!

Heaven knew that he had been at that young age.

He bit back a groan and put the phone back up to his ear and hissed, "Jesus Christ Modo are you trying to kill me. Don't even joke about that shit."

Modo chuckled and said, "Sorry bro but it had to be said. You need to be prepared just in case, ya know."

Throttle made a humming sound and leaned his head back against the bricks. "I guess..."

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Shira wasn't supposed to be gone for more than a second or so since she had lied and said that she needed to go to the bathroom so that she could take a quick look around the store and see if she could find that strange man that smelled like her.

She figured that she would have a minute, maybe five since there was a really long line of people waiting for her mom to sign their books. Which meant that she could search unhindered but needed to be back with in her mother's sight by the time the five minutes were up.

It seemed easy enough in theory since she was sure that the man was still around. There had simply been something about his manner that had looked possessive to her when she had been observing him while he had tried to talk to her mother.

She walked to the front of the store and stopped just shy of the door and stood there for a second sniffing the air and not really paying attention to who was coming or going. She was too focused on the slightly spicy/musky scent that ended at the door.

She chewed her bottom lip for a second or so and shifted from foot to foot anxiously and wrinkled her nose a little bit as she made a quick decision to check outside before she needed to go back to her mom.

She pushed the door open and slipped out of the store and looked around for a second before catching the man's scent and following it to the side of the building and stopped when she saw him standing there on the phone.

It occurred to her that leaving the store might not have been such a great idea. But she ruthlessly pushed the thought aside and walked up to him, making sure to stay as quiet as possible so that she wouldn't startle him.

The last thing she needed was to be kicked in the face or something. So she just stood there with her arms crossed, staring at him as he took his cell phone away from his ear and hung up before he noticed that she was standing there at his feet.

He blinked down at her and slowly closed the cell before asking, "You need something sweetheart?"

Shira felt a swell of annoyance towards the man and had to tamp down on the sudden impulse to kick him in the shin or punch him in the crotch or something. It was childish to strike someone without provocation yet her palms itched to strike the man just the same.