She steps in reluctantly. I smack her ass as she does.
“Good girl,” I tell her.
Something like a smile rises to her lips.
I leave her in the room, shut the door, and go to bed.
I must have been tired as all hell from the ordeal of being drugged and abducted, because when I wake up, most of the next day has passed. I open bleary eyes to see the clock by my bedside reading 6.15 p.m.
I pad out of bed, shower, get dressed, check on Ella. She is fast asleep in her cage, snoring softly and curled up in the bed with a light blanket over her. It looks comfortable. She has her head resting on the raised roll at the edge of the bed. I wonder why all human beds aren’t shaped that way. Something to do with sheets, I bet.
“Where did you come from?”
The question comes from Leo as I wander downstairs and into the dining room. It’s Sunday evening. Family dinner time.
“Where did you go?” I rejoin the question, referencing a song he probably won’t remember. Sure enough, he gives me an irritated look.
“Nice of you to join us,” Aiden says. “You must have gotten in very late, or early?”
My mouth is watering. Dinner has been set out, beef Wellington with a side of fries. The fries are in honor of Teddy. He didn’t like to eat much but them and instant ramen. There was still a stack of his favorite flavor in the pantry last time I looked. I want noodles. I want comfort.
I wander into the kitchen, set some water to boil, grab a pack of noodles, and return to the dining room.
“I,” I announce, “have just been kidnapped. But I was freed on the condition I kill the two of you.”
“If you dare make noodles when beef Wellington is available…” Aiden growls threateningly.
He is so secure in himself that the fact I told him I was kidnapped and bribed to kill him barely registers.
I crinkle the packet at him while the water boils in the copper kettle on the stove top. It starts to whistle while he threatens me. Even if I wasn’t going to eat noodles, I’d do this anyway, just to fuck with him. I don’t enjoy being told what to do, and he damn well knows it.
“Christ, you are an insufferable heathen,” he says in a tone I choose to interpret as affectionate.
“Did you hear what I said? Or are you too busy freaking out about your mushrooms and beef wrapped in a bit of pastry and pretentiousness?”
“You’ve been spoiled,” he says.
“You were kidnapped,” Leo says calmly. He has sat down and started to eat. He seems to be savoring the beef Wellington, which is no doubt cooked to absolute perfection. Aiden would have it quite literally no other way.
“Yeah. By BP.”
“BP? He’s back? And targeting us? He didn’t learn from his last attempt?” Leo snorts.
“Well, that’s the thing. I think he did. He killed Teddy.”
A silence settles over the room so complete that the scream-whistle of the kettle sounds like a screech from the depths of time itself. As it fades away, nothing replaces it. My brothers are dead still.
“Excuse me,” Leo says, patting the corner of his mouth with his napkin. He stands up, walks out of the room, and a moment later, something ceramic breaks.
Aiden clears his throat and folds his napkin, once, twice and then three times.
“So we kill him,” he says. “And his associates, and any stragglers he might have left that he considers family, though his wife took the kids years ago and frankly the poor little bastards have suffered enough under the burden of being related to him.”
Aiden’s empathy isn’t really for the children. He’s acknowledging the fact that unlike most people, BP wouldn’t be terribly affected by an attack on his family. He’s too pathologically selfish and small.
“He needs to be eliminated,” I agree. “But there’s more.”
“There’s more?” Leo strides back into the room, sits down in his chair, and cuts another mouthful of his meal.
