Carrigan isn’t laughing, though.
Not at all.
‘Daddy bang bang,’she echoes and for the first time in years, Lachlan sees it from the outside, how any normal person would see it.He sees things the way Carrigan must, now pushed to the outer rings of the structure she herself once crafted.‘You’ve done so much damage, Tanner.You have no idea.Now you’ve broken your contract, and Iknowhow things work in this place.I’m not dying because you can’t control him like you’re supposed to!’
‘Nobody’s dying.Danny, take the kids into the Cove.’
‘No, Julian stays here!’Carrigan steps forward, too close.
Lachlan catches Danya’s reaction even before his own, knows it’s about to get ugly so he puts himself more solidly between the two.
Carrigan tries to push past him, reaching for Jules, but Lachlan shoves her lightly back and knocks her arm away.
‘Don’t fuckingtouchme!’
‘Then back all the way off,’ he warns her, deadly quiet.
‘I run this place!’
‘No,’ he says, tone pitched only for the two of them, ‘you don’t.’
‘Priscilla,’ Blaire says after several seconds of highly tense stand-off.‘Take a breath.Whatever it is, we’ll deal with it.’
Carrigan falters when she seems to realise how outnumbered she is.
‘Fine.’She tries to hide her swallow.‘Fine.’
Lachlan moves away, expecting that she’ll follow him to talk but she doubles back and ducks around Danya to grab Jules’ wrist and expose it.
True enough, beneath the long sleeve there’s a very fresh tattoo inked into the skin of his inner wrist; a small crescent moon.
Something in Lachlan warms despite himself, followed immediately by a wave of silent exasperation.He shoots Jules a deadpan look and finds the boy wholly unrepentant.Danya doesn’t like being subverted, so he frees Jules of her grip by shoving Carrigan away at full strength.She stumbles so hard she almost falls, but balance training never goes away and Carrigan is a professional too, so she catches herself and swings around to punch Danya in the face.
‘For fuck’s sake,’ Lachlan complains, swiftly returning to get in the middle of them both, especially because he needs to cover Danya, who has a manic little gleam in his eye and is smiling brightly, whichisn’ta good sign.They’ve never liked each other, these two.‘Enough!’Lachlan barks.‘Danny,take the kidsinto the Cove, please.How many fucking times?’
Danya sniffs indignantly.‘I just gotpunched.Could be fatal, who knows?’
Lachlan does everything he can not to smile, knows he can’t undercut the seriousness of Carrigan’s complaint.Despite Danya’s sarcasm, he finally does gather the kids, two of whom arenottechnically kids at all, and escorts them into the Cove.Along the way he calls over his shoulder.‘Pen washes off, Carrigan.No big deal.’
‘That’s a fucking wrist tattoo and someone is gonna burn for it.’Carrigan turns and walks away.‘It’s not going to be me.’
?
Blaire convinces Lachlan to let Carrigan cool off while they regroup in the Cove.Mimi seems very interested in Danya’s blood and fetches a hand towel from the bathroom to help fix him.He’s patient and indulgent around her, sits cross-legged while she investigates his injury and they chat.
With no one else around, Lachlan finally gets a proper look at Jules’ tattoo.He already interrogated him about sterile needles and aftercare.None of Jules’ answers stopped him from uncapping the antiseptic anyway.
‘I cleaned it,’ Jules says again as Lachlan spreads ointment carefully over the darkened skin.‘Multiple times.’
‘Did it have to be on your wrist, darling?’Blaire sighs.‘That is hard to hide.’
‘He can wear bracelets,’ Mimi suggests brightly.‘There’s lots of nice ones in the Mimi Store, and Mari will change it soon anyway.’
Jules smiles at her.‘Thanks, Mimikins.’
‘Itisbeautiful,’ Lachlan admits, wrapping it in cellophane once he’s certain it’s clean.‘You did a great job.’
‘Thanks, Bodyguard.’
