‘I don’t remember.’
‘Well I do, and I can’t stop thinking about it.’
Lachlan sighs.‘Jules, come on.’
‘Come onwhat?’ He’s belligerent when drunk in a weirdly soft way, like an angry tide.‘You call Mimi every beautiful name under the sun, you call RomanRo,and Blaire is Bee.I see how you look at them, Bodyguard.You light up when they come near you and me?You just get this look on your face like…oh God, here he comes.I know you hate me, Iknowthat, but then why did you call me sweetheart?’
It’s a mistake to correct the kid in any way, despite Jules pushing for it.
Lachlan knows he has to walk this line very carefully.
‘I’m sorry.’
‘You thought we were gonna die and you decided to be nice just once?’
‘That’s not fair and I didn’t think we were—’
‘I shot them for you!I could care less if I died, don’t you get that?I did itforyou!To keep you alive, and you called me sweetheart.I’ve been tryingso hard,Bodyguard.Do you have any idea how difficult it is seeing you every minute of the day?Youneverleave, you live with me and I…’ He sobs weakly, tears rolling down his face.‘I’m trying to get over it, but you make it so hard.’
‘Get over what?’
Jules looks up at him.
No one else has ever looked at Lachlan this way, not once in his whole life.It’s the inexorable nature ofgravityand the dark earth in which secret things are buried.He’s fire and water, always at war with himself, this boy.
Lachlan feels caught in a way he’s not sure he could ever get free of.
The kid says, ‘You,’ and nothing more.
CHAPTER TWENTY
‘He’s scheduled for a medical, but nothing about blood,’ Blaire tells Lachlan when he asks early the next morning.Jules is fast asleep in his bed, and Mimi will likely wake in an hour or so.She’s a rhythmic riser like Lachlan.‘What exactly did Roman say?’
‘He implied that Jules would have to give blood today and then later, Jules was drunk and he said he wanted me to do it, that he was scared of needles.’
‘When he was younger, Jules had medical issues.’
‘I didn’t know that.’
‘Clara told me that it got so serious his father looked intoNeurostatic Suspensionto keep him stable until treatment was guaranteed.’
‘What the fuck is that?’
‘Induced metabolic suppression in a comatose state.’
‘So… stasis?Fucking cryogenic stasis?’
‘We’ve not achieved cryogenesis yet, but essentially yes.’
Lachlan stares ahead, something clicking into place.‘That’s the thing he was always threatening him with.’
I’ve no doubt your bodyguard’s clever friend could innovate where others failed to convince me of the suspension technology.
‘He was a very sickly child from what I understand.Many of Helixx’s innovations stem from how hard his teams worked on Jules, I think.So yes, no surprise he hates needles.’
‘I never knew he was sick.’
‘I can’t imagine he’d like to talk about it and, of course, it was very well hidden.Jules is Penhalyx’s son, heir to it all,’ Blaire says, a little dent between her eyes.‘He’s important to him in ways we mere mortals will never understand.’She takes a bite of her toast.‘It’s why he had Mimi, after all.’
