‘Just do your job,’ she had said, line between her eyes, like she couldn’t fathom him being capable of more than that.
Lachlan knows what he is.
He knows he’s a killer.
But it still hurts, is all.
Carrigan studies the colourful tattoo like it’s a grim portent of the apocalypse and one time when they’re both off duty, a rare occasion he lets her drag him out for drinks, she tells him she thinks they’re both going to die on this job, one way or another.
Lachlan doesn’t really care if he dies on this job, he only cares that the kids are safe and happy, althoughhappyis a stretch when it comes to Jules.
He has a suspicion about Mimi.
When he infiltrated a cartel some years back, they came in through the lower levels.It’s where all the girls were kept.The ones who were trafficked, stolen, kidnapped and worse.It was unlike anything Lachlan had ever seen outside of military bunks.The whole floor had been turned into a secure dormitory for the girls imprisoned there, stocked with makeup, clothes, perfume and pretty little comforts.This was where they slept and lived.
And for every girl they extracted, there was a cat.
Each of the girls had one, and theyscreamedwhen Lachlan’s team tried to extract them because they couldn’t leave without their cat.Some of them fought back.One girl bit Lachlan so hard it left a small scar.
Later, when he “questioned” theLupoof that level, an especially foul man who didn’t yield easily, Lachlan found out that kittens were given to each of the girls after their first month because it dropped escape attempts and rebellion to almost zero.
All he had to do was threaten the cat.
The girls they got out raisedhellabout their cats.Many went back trying to find them.He heard months later that almost every girl had managed to get their cat back.Lachlan has never seen a human version of this tactic before, but he thinks that’s what Mimi is to Jules.
During Blaire’s brief reign over the household, she was able to discover that Alistair Penhalyx paid an anonymous woman to carry a child of his own seed to fruition and then sign over parental rights.When she told him this, it instantly made sense and while that part isn’t explicitly stated anywhere on paper, Mimi is Jules’ kitten, he’s almost certain.
Six months marks the introduction of a new head of household.
Mason Fenwick is in his early thirties from Newcastle in the UK.
Lachlan vets him thoroughly and he comes out clean.
He served in Special Forces, transitioned into Diplomatic Security Service and then, after excelling at logistical command, was picked out for high-society navigation and hired by wealthy families for private household oversight.He’s a strong departure from Clara’s mode of operation and he hits the ground running once installed, starts making a lot of changes to the overall household, but many are elements that Lachlan quietly agrees with.
They only butt heads when it comes to the East Wing, which Lachlan very much considers his domain.They typically reach a compromise each time, but Lachlan often reminds Fenwick thatasset managementcomes first.
Fenwick seems to be decent enough, although he is undeniably Penhalyx’s man.He reports everything to him.He questionseverything,but in some ways it’s a relief to have a fellow tactical mind who sees the benefit of mounting anti-aircraft weaponry atop the roof under clever shielding.
Jules turns eighteen during Lachlan’s seventh month.
?
When Mimi catches a cold, she’s miserable, clingy and has no parents to comfort her the way children need, only employees and a brother thirteen years older who is desperate to taste freedom.
Lachlan can tell Jules is planning something, has been for a while now.The few months without any escape attempts are directly linked to Mimi’s trauma after the Belkin incident, but Mimi is doing much better now.She’s more settled, so Lachlan knows it’s only a matter of time before Jules starts eyeing up the real world again, especially given that it’s his birthday soon.
Mimi’s cold comes in much to the bafflement of the medical team who Lachlan occasionally wants to throttle.Kidsneedgerms to build a healthy immune system and locking her away from anyone her own age makes her first experience with a virus a brutal one.
He expects her to want Jules, and she does, but she also wants Lachlan too.Alot.She makes her demands clear, little voice growing stronger every day, as she insists on Lachlan being brought here andnotone of the childminders.
She’s never looked at them the same way after Belkin.
Lachlan cannot be spared from duty, but she’s so inconsolable that he wraps her up in a thick quilt and carries her while he makes low risk rounds, humming under his breath some song from a kid’s movie he saw a million years ago.She falls asleep with her head on his shoulder, and he carries her for the rest of that day, ignores the way Carrigan looks at him.
Later, Mimi wakes hot and a little delirious, seems very annoyed that she’s still ill and she whines, ‘Daddy, make it go away,’ with impatient fatigue.
‘I’m not Daddy, sweetheart,’ he reminds her calmly.‘I’m Lachlan.’
