Avery took a breath before he lifted his hands and laughed out loud like it was no big deal. “All right. You win.” With lightning quick speed, Falcon put his gun back into his pants, opened the rear door, and slid into the seat behind Avery before pulling out a tablet and tapping against the screen like nothing happened.
We were all silent, and Falcon’s tapping was the only sound echoing in the car as I pulled away from the curb. That was until Avery turned around in his seat. “You know that I could’ve used my magic on you to turn that gun on yourself, right?”
Falcon lifted his head and placed the tablet on his lap. “Yes. Just like I could have shot you in the head before you even had a chance.” He paused for a second, his brows pinching before he said, “I thought you were trying to jest with me, which was why I didn’t take it further. Was I incorrect?”
Avery turned to me and grinned like a cat who got the cream. “We’re all a bunch of murderous little creatures, aren’t we?”
Falcon spoke up again from the back, “You didn’t answer my question.”
Avery busted up laughing as he turned to face forward. “Falcon, you say the funniest things.”
It was like that the entire way back—Avery making jokes and Falcon wanting clarifications on the jokes. It was oddly comforting and made the drive more fun and quicker as they volleyed answers and questions.
Had we all grown up together like our fathers originally planned, before the death of our mothers, we would’ve hung out like this all the time. Making jokes with each other, having meetings in our rooms, hanging out between jobs... It would’ve made my childhood so much more fun and interesting.
As the three of us walked into Boss Desmond’s office, my father said, “Will you two stop fighting! It’s not like either of you are going to win this argument today.”
I almost took a step back as his exhausted voice sounded so foreign. My father was not the type to ever let emotions like that run wild, but the longer he spent time with the other bosses, the more he was loosening his strict hold on his tone and facial expressions. It was almost like these men brought him to life, reminding me of the father he was before my mother died.
Boss Glovefox sauntered over to where my father was sitting, waving a drink high in the sky as he said with full attitude, “I will win this fight, I will win it with my arms tied behind my back and my wings pinned to the wall... Oh, hi, boys!” His change from crazy lunatic to welcome greeter was mind-boggling. It almost reminded me of how fast Boss Desmond could change tactics. The difference was Boss Desmond seemed to have a plan deeply buried underneath all his antics while Boss Glovefox seemed to like to get under people’s skin.
“Oh, just let them fight it out,” that light feminine voice full of laughter and violence said from our right, catching all of our attention. She was leaning against one of her father’s bookcases, drink in hand with her legs crossed. She seemed at ease watching our fathers and giving her two cents while still looking like she didn’t really give a fuck. It was hot as hell. My wolf whined in my head, pushing me to rush up to her and lick her neck.Down boy!
She gave us all a nod, smiling at us like we had a secret, then Cosmo moved in front of our view of her and motioned to the globe with all the liquor. “Do you want something to drink?” His jaw ticked as he said the words through tight lips. My guess was he didn’t want to offer us anything, and it was more of a ploy to get us to stop ogling Ray.
“Come in, come in, boys. Let’s get this started so we can get this going as soon as possible,” Boss Desmond said as he waved us farther in with a smile. While my father almost never smiled, Boss Desmond was always smiling. Very rarely did he not seem welcoming and joyous, but it felt like it had malicious undertones. Like he was smiling so he didn’t let you see the beast beneath the upturned lips. It was off-putting and a little unnerving.
Falcon was the first of us to break off, immediately going to Boss Winstale’s side, who was the farthest from the group in a large, plush, velvety chair scrolling away on a tablet. “Father,” Falcon acknowledged, which was quickly followed with, “Son,” by his father who still hadn’t looked up from his tablet. The words were not odd, it was the formality, like they were talking as colleagues, not father and son.
Boss Glovefox walked up to Avery, handing him a drink. “Avery! My boy. How was your day? Did you do anything fun? Meet some woman? Maybe knock her up? Finally producing those babies I want.”
Avery’s hand clenched around the glass before he downed the whole thing in one gulp before he responded, “Not yet, father, but that was not the goal of this trip.” Boss Glovefox rolled his eyes up to the sky as he turned around and walked to a seat right in front of Boss Desmond’s desk.
“They say ‘he is sowing his wild oats.’ Well, where are my damn fields of wheat, huh?! Where did all the wheat go?!” Avery stalked off to the liquor cabinet, refilling his glass with four fingers of something close to a honey brown. This seemed like it was a recurring issue between these two... and why did he care so much about wheat? I thought they dealt in the skin trade?
I made my way over to my father, who was closer to Rayla, sitting on a two-seater couch as he smirked into his glass. We nodded to each other as he patted the seat next to him, and I complied. He was still the boss, after all.
Rayla kicked off the bookcase, slowly making her way over to the almost hysterical Boss Glovefox. “Hey, if I called you what you asked me to earlier, would you back off a little for today? I really don’t want to deal with a drunk Avery while we’re working.” She cocked her hip on the desk, and her voice made it sound like this was such a chore, but when her eyes flicked to Avery, there was genuine concern in them.
Boss Glovefox’s face lit up as he turned toward Rayla. “Oh, yes. That would make me feel so much better.”
She shrugged and opened those sweet plump lips and got out only “Da—” before Avery ran over to her, covering her mouth. The look of pure horror filled his face before it darkened, and then he glared at his father like he wanted to murder him.
“Stop. Asking. Her. To. Say. That.” Now this piqued more than just my curiosity in the room as everyone focused on what was happening before us. Even Boss Winstale put down his tablet to examine what was going on.
Boss Desmond folded his arms and leaned back in his chair. “Sunshine, what has Syris been asking you to say?”
Avery sent a warning glare to Rayla as he removed his hand, and she rolled her eyes again. “It starts with a d and ends with a y.” I was still thinking about it when Boss Desmond jumped out of his seat.
“Are you trying to steal my daughter? She will not be calling anyone daddy but me. I’m her dad, me!” He pointed to himself in emphasis, but all that did was cause Boss Glovefox to giggle.
“What happened to ‘all the heirs are our children, the Syndicate’s children’?”
His mocking tone turned Boss Desmond’s face red as he said through clenched teeth, “All of them but my sunshine.”
I was still reeling at the thought of Rayla calling Boss Glovefox daddy, and I snickered under my hand. My father glanced at me before leaning over, whispering in my ear, “I wonder if she would call me daddy if I asked her to.”
My mind blanked for a second before my wolf rose to the surface and growled at my father. My father smirked at me like this was what he expected and wasn’t taken aback in the slightest. “Put him away. I was just trying to give you a taste of your own medicine.”
