“Do you see that?” Lucas asked. “Are you watching? See the red head? The blue stripes? That’s a blue Malaysian coral snake, Thomas. They handed my children a snake that could kill every last one of those children in minutes.”
Thomas was shaking. In the video, a woman shouted somewhere in the distance. The teacher, perhaps? Then the person behind the camera was taking the snake back and walking away, leaving the girls behind.
“It’s so easy,” they chided in a creepy, hissing whisper. “I could have ended them right there. I want my money. Time is running out. I’ll be in touch.”
Then the video shut off.
“They went after my children,” Lucas said, voice thick with rage and tears. “My babies. They’re not even two. They walked right up to my little girls in broad daylight and handed them a dead fucking snake.”
“I—” Thomas started.
“What the fuck is going on? What the hell is this all about? Your dead family? Is that what this is about? Who is after you? Why do they want money? Why do they think you killed your fucking family?”
Thomas understood Lucas’s anger. “I’m—”
Lucas cut him off once more. “If they harm one hair on my children’s heads, I swear on everything that is holy, Thomas, I will go full-on scorched earth. I will burn it all down. I will flay the fucking skin from their bones, and if, somehow, you brought this down on my children’s heads, I’ll fucking kill you, too.”
“Calm down,umnishka,”August said from somewhere close by.
“Don’t you dare tell me to calm down, August Mulvaney. They’re babies. They are my babies. They’re still in diapers. They were holding a goddamn poisonous snake in their tiny hands. They had to be so confused. They don’t understand any of this. This was never supposed to fall back on them, remember? You promised. You said the lines between our real lives and our fake personas would never cross until they were old enough to understand. You all promised me.”
“We’re coming home,” Aiden said before Thomas could think of anything to say. “We’re coming home and we’re going to fix this. As a family. Okay?”
“Oh, now, you want to be a part of this family?” Lucas snapped. Aiden said nothing. After a taut moment of silence, Lucas said, “Sorry. I didn’t mean that. I just… They went after my children, Aiden.”
“I know, man. I know. We’re going to get to the bottom of this shit, and when we do, I promise, you can have the kill if you want it. Okay?”
Aiden sounded like he was asking Lucas, but he was looking directly at Thomas, who nodded.
“Yeah, okay,” Lucas said finally.
“We’ll be home soon and we’ll explain everything,” Aiden assured them, holding eye contact as if to make sure Thomas understood he was telling him, too. “Family meeting. Tonight. Everybody needs to come and bring whatever they need. We’re all staying together at the mansion until this is over. There’s safety in numbers.”
“Everyone?”August asked.
Aiden eyed Thomas sharply. He cleared his throat, forcing himself to finally speak up. “Everyone. Cricket, too. You as well, Calliope. I know you’re eavesdropping somewhere. Dimitri and Arlo. Everyone. If Jericho feels the boys aren’t safe, he can bring them, too. It’s time for everyone to come home.”
“I’ll let them know,” August said, voice dangerously calm.
When Aiden disconnected, Thomas fell back against the pillows. He thought he’d have more time to prepare himself for the wrath of his children, but now, their children were in danger, too. Somehow, it had never occurred to him that whoever this bastard was would go after the most vulnerable in the family. His granddaughters. His babies. His heart and soul.
They were worth losing everything. Keeping them safe, even if it meant him losing everything else, was worth it. They were going to find this fucking piece of shit and they were going to put him down…as a family. Whatever the family wanted to do with him after that…
As long as they were safe, he’d accept it.
Thomas sat in the passenger seat, ashen and fidgeting, likely distressed over his impending revelation to the family. Aiden was stressed, too, but not over Thomas’s confession. No, Aiden’s brain wouldn’t stop focusing on something else entirely. Something most people would find rather insignificant in the grander scheme of things.
Sex.
More to the point, the sex he’d had with Thomas. Possibly the only sex Thomas would ever let him have with him. And he’d lasted barely five minutes. Five minutes. He was almost positive he’d lasted longer than that when he’d lost his virginity. It had been over so fast. Had Thomas noticed? Had it upset him? Had Aiden taken advantage of his fragile state? Had Thomas fallen asleep to avoid talking about it?
Aiden made a noise of frustration, earning a confused look from Thomas. He gave him a tight smile, but Thomas’s frown only deepened before he turned to stare out the window once more.
Aiden shook his head. Like…what did the man expect? Aiden had been fantasizing about having sex with him for two decades, picturing it in painstaking detail. Often. So fucking often. Embarrassingly often. And it had felt better than he’d ever fucking imagined it could. Was it really Aiden’s fault it had been over so quick?
No.
It was Thomas’s fault.
