“Mac… Mac, get up.”Forcing my eyes open, I find Declan standing beside my bed, pissed. I can feel Rhett snuggled tight into my side and sound asleep. Looking at the table beside Dec, my eyes catch on his processors, so I know we took them off when I brought him inhere.
“What? What’s the problem?” My voice sounds slurred even to my own ears.
Before he has a chance to answer, Rowan and Clara, both panicked, burst into my room. The breath rushes out of their lungs. Rowan rushes out, “Holy shit. He’s here. He’s asleep.”
“Anyone want to tell me what’s going on?” I look over all three of the intruders and their doubles interrupting my sleep.
“Why didn’t you tell anyone Rhett was with you?” Declan barks out. “We’ve been on a manhunt for him for the past fifteen minutes.”
“Shitty manhunt if you didn’t check all his family members first. I came up here after the Lee thing, he wandered up here later on and found me. Then we fell asleep. I was unaware I had to notify anyone.” My head’s killing me, the room is spinning, and I just want to go back to sleep so my anger bubbles up to the surface. “Is he okay here, or do you want to move him?”
“We’ll take him. You need to sleep it off. It reeks like a fucking distillery in here.” Rowan storms over and lifts Rhett up so he buries his little face into his Da’s neck. He grabs Rhett’s processors before looking at me in disappointment and leaving the room with his wife and son.
That look stings more than it should. I’m Rowan’s ‘bad kid’, the cause of all his stress, so it seems. It hasn’t always been like this. The past year has really done a number on me, and in turn it’s put them through a lot as well. Declan sits on the ground and leans back against my bed.
“What are you doing?”
“Making sure you don’t die in your sleep. Go to bed.”
I want to roll my eyes and tell him he’s being dramatic, but he isn’t. Rowan looking at me like I’m a disappointment wasmore than I could handle. I’m the quiet one, the one everyone has always come to when they need steady and calm. That me doesn’t exist anymore, or at least he hasn’t for the past year. I don’t like being the one to worry them. So I make the decision right here to go back to hiding my demons. They don’t need to see this. They have far too much to worry about without me adding to their plates.
“Thank you.”
“Any time, baby brother. Go to sleep, I’ll be right here.”
Dammit, I really don’t deserve any of them.
4
Chapter Four
Lee
I’m woken up to a heavy knock on my front door followed by the lock clicking. Checking the security feed on my phone, I see that it’s my Papa. Forcing myself out of bed, I throw on an oversized hoodie and a pair of cotton shorts before making my way out to the kitchen to meet him. As soon as my bedroom door opens I can smell the coffee fromThe Landauer Cafe.
Best. Papa. Ever.
Half dancing from excitement, I make my way into the kitchen and stand on my toes to kiss him on the cheek.
“Kostbarkeit, you look pale. Are you feeling well?” He takes the back of his hand and holds it on my brow, “No fever. You are clammy, though.”
My Papa, Lukas Fischer, is in his early fifties. About as tall as my brothers, at six foot three. His hair is still the chocolatebrown that it’s always been. If not for the laugh lines on his face and small peppering of silver throughout his scruff that he always keeps, you’d never believe his age. He’s protective, caring, and worries about me far more than necessary, while also having a silly and overly dramatic personality. My brothers take after him a lot in that aspect. He loves his kids fiercely and wants us all to thrive, far away from the life that he leads. So far we’ve all managed to do that, even if I’m a little too close for his comfort.
“I’m okay, Papa. I was out a little late last night, but I’m okay.”
He makes a noise of displeasure in the back of his throat. Then, just like Jakob did last night, he begins sorting out medications, “You mean at the wedding you and Jakob went to without telling me or bringing security.”
Shit. Busted.
“Okay look, I know that it sounds bad, but really I just wanted to watch my friend get married. We went through so much together, and I wanted to watch her happy ending.”
His eyes soften like they always do when talking to Annie and me. “I know, and I would have allowed you to do that. I just wanted you both to be safe.”
“We were safe. We went, I got to talk to Phoenix and Kieran, we hung out for an hour, then Jakob made sure I got home safely.”
“What about the incident with Rossi and the other Byrne?”
Dammit, why does he have to know everything?
