"Auntie Amanda?"
"Yeah, Noah?"
"Why did you keep telling my mom I was okay on the phone?"
Amanda froze. Next to her, Carisi stopped dicing tomatoes for tacos and exchanged a look with her. After Liv's panicked phone call from school, Amanda had decided to bring Noah home to her apartment. Sienna had asked if Amanda wanted her to stay a little longer because of the extra small body (and because Billie was still getting over an ear infection), but Amanda had declined.
Not an hour later, Carisi had shown up with bags from Food Bazaar with all the fixings for taco night. He'd been livid when Amanda had told him about Rob Miller's stunt at Noah's school, and Amanda had seen it come out against the tomato he'd been slicing.
Amanda slid out from the island and came to sit by Noah on the couch. The girls were engrossed in the stuffed animals on the floor. "Well," Amanda began, deciding to go for honesty, "she didn't know where you were."
"Like with Grandma Sheila?"
"Yeah, kind of like that. And when mommies worry, sometimes we have to be told over and over that our kids are okay. Like right now, since Billie has her ear infection, I call Sienna all the time to make sure that Billie is feeling well."
She brushed back Noah's curls. "When your mom gets out of court, she's going to come over here and have tacos with us."
Noah nodded. "Then I can tell her I got to ride in a police car!"
"Did they do sirens and lights for you?" Carisi asked him, wiping tomato pulp off his hands and coming to stand behind Amanda.
"No. They just said they were there to come get me and take me to Mommy's work."
"Well, that's a raw deal," Carisi shook his head. "Tell you what, next time you come to Mommy's work, me and Uncle Fin will take you down and we'll go for a ride around the block with lights and sirens. How's that?"
"Awesome!" Noah proclaimed. Amanda hugged him, and he slid off the couch and onto the floor, reaching for a panda bear to join in the game. Amanda got off the couch and returned to shredding lettuce.
"I want to nail this sonofabitch," she murmured under her breath.
Carisi swiped the tomato off the cutting board and into a bowl. "Makes two of us," he growled. "Asshole crossed a line messin' with Noah. Nobody screws with our kids."
Amanda paused. "Say that again?"
He looked at her. "I meant every word of that."