“People like us?” Uncle Cutter asks. “People hire us to make a point all the time.”
“Yes, people like us.”
“Do you know anything else other than that there’s a vague threat against us?” Dad asks.
“I don’t have an exact name, if that’s what you’re asking. All I’ve heard is that it’s not just one person we’re dealing with. There’s a consortium of people with a common interest who spend a lot of money to stay anonymous.”
“And what exactly did we do to piss them mysterious people off?” Mom asks.
“The Hollywood executive you all put in jail for ten years to save Reynold’s ass was on this group’s payroll. He made them a lot of money and got them a lot of access.”
“He was a pedophile!” Uncle Cutter exclaims angrily. “We did a public service for the entire city by putting him in the clink.”
“Unfortunately, he also has some very important people supporting him.”
“Yeah, probably a consortium of other important pedophiles.”
My father takes a final swallow of the whiskey neat he’s drinking, then calmly chimes in.
“Thank you for the heads up, Joseph, but the three of us will discuss this further and handle it ourselves. We stand behind the fix and the choices we made to help our client and so we’re prepared to deal with whatever blowback that may cause.”
Uncle Camden then slides back from the table and places a napkin on top of his half-eaten plate of food.
“Juliette, thank you for a wonderful meal, as usual. You should have opened up your own restaurant a long time ago. Jade, let’s go.”
“Wait, Camden,” Aunt Jade responds. “Sit down.”
“Jade–”
She points to the dining chair with authority.
“Sit because we’re not leaving this room until we’ve figured this thing out.”
Three
Knox
* * *
You can literally hear a pin drop in the room. Uncle Camden is one of the toughest men I think I know (outside of my Dad), so it’s surprising to see him sit down and lean back quietly in his seat. My Dad doesn’t seem surprised though. He just pours himself another drink, shaking his head with a small smirk on his face.
“I agree,” Mom adds her two cents. “If I’ve got three boys with targets on their backs, I don’t want us to take this too lightly.”
“Who says they’re taking it lightly?” Aunt Sloan interjects. “I’ve got two kids away at college, and I have no doubt that these three will keep them safe. Do we have to hash out all the details tonight because Jade says we have to?”
“And who says we’re easy targets, Mom?” Bronx says as if he’s offended. “We’re just as smart as Knox. We can handle ourselves at school.”
He nudges Seven under the table.
“Right, we can take care of ourselves,” Seven says, oblivious to what he’s even agreed to. His head deep into whatever he's doing on his cell phone. Probably plotting the world's destruction.
“We do not need to debate about something that we’re all in agreement on. We will handle this threat as soon as possible and we need to protect each other while we do it,” Dad says.
“There’s no argument about that, Rome,” Aunt Jade agrees. “All I’m saying is that I’m not walking out of this room until I have certain assurances that this mess will not touch my children, especially Gigi.”
Dad takes a deep, sobering breath and gives Aunt Jade an exasperated look. I know that look. He’s reaching his endpoint with this conversation.
“This is what we’re going to do, Jade. We’re going to put security on Cutter and Sloan’s boys, which will be easy. The universities are pretty flexible about things like that when you give a big enough donation. Duchess, we’re going to do the same thing for the twins.”
