“Aunt Alana!” As I’m about to sit down, Ian comes running down the aisle. “You made it.” He hugs me and doesn’t let go, and I relax for the first time since they left. He’s happy and healthy, and this time he avoids my wound… or maybe it doesn’t hurt as much. Is it him or me?
“I can’t wait to hear all about your trip, but shouldn’t you be backstage?” His nose and forehead are also bright red, and he gives me a harder squeeze.
This is the first Family Day the school decided to have in a couple of years, thanks to Izzy’s ex ignoring all decorum. I missed the first one, and there’s no way I’m missing it now.
Right on cue there’s an announcement about students going backstage. Ian steps away, heading towards the stage when I call out, “Hey Ian, don’t get kidnapped this time.” Shit, that was in really bad taste. He might not have the dark humor that goes hand-in-hand with trauma.
But he smiles and points right back at me. “Aunt Alana, don’t blow up this time.” I love that kid.
Then I turn to see Dimitri with an ashen expression. He’s gonna tell me not to say things like that. Trauma isn’t a joke.
“He’s a little shit, you know that?” I say as I take my seat, placing my purse on my lap. I twist to the side and ask Duncan and Linda, “How was the trip?”
The Irish mafia boss huffs. “I was about to ask you the same thing.” Are my organs on the floor, because they have to be with the way my stomach dropped?
“What?” I whisper, because that’s the only sound that will come out.
A slow grin seeps across Duncan’s face, but there’s nothing sinister in it. No malice. Somehow that makes it so much worse. I’ve seen this expression on my own dad, playful with a dash of gloating. An ‘I’ve got something on my kid’ look. He lifts up his cellphone and shows Linda a picture of Grae and I eating hot dogs in Iceland. Mother fucker! Duncan’s old timer did not have my back at all. His loyalty to Duncan runs deeper than the wrath of the Lioness. I’m calling my bomb expert as soon as I get a chance.
“Alana was caught canoodling!”
Linda peeks at the screen and gasps, “That’s a very attractive man.”
Donny leans over, takes one glance and shakes his head, “That’s not a man, that’s a Fae prince. Don’t drink his wine, keep iron on you at all times, and don’t introduce him to my sister. I’m not about to fight the Seelie Court for her.” But his eyes linger on the screen.
Duncan continues to show the phone around and all I can do is glare. In times like this, silence is more powerful than threats. Thankfully, Katya grabs the phone out of Duncan’s hand.
“If Alana has something to say, then she will. Respect her privacy.” Oh, thank Odin. But as fast she snatched it, she flipped the screen over. “But I’m gonna check it out anyway.” Once she registers what she’s seen she gasps and drops the phone. “Oh my God.” Suddenly she can’t meet my eyes.
Both Dimitri and Waverly reach for the phone at the same time and have very different reactions. Dimitri curses in Russian and scrubs a hand down his face. He’s met Grae a few times now, so there’s no hiding it from him. And Waverly turns even more red than before, whisper yelling, “Grae!?”
Yeah, she was one of the many reasons I wanted to keep this whole thing a secret. Waverly has been talking about her attraction to Grae at least once a month for the three years I’ve known her. I can’t tell if she’s embarrassed or pissed that I betrayed ‘girl code’.
Donny twists in his chair to talk to Waverly. “What’s the big deal?”
But Thiago curses in Spanish, his glower mirroring my own rage, humiliation and fears. “You’re back with him.”
“Back?!” Waverly hisses, choking on her words, “As in, you were with him before?” Now she covers her face. Dimitri doesn’t seem shocked, but Katya does… Uri must have told him. But he was loyal and kept his damn mouth shut.
“Shit,” Donny laughs. “Why are you hanging out with us when you could’ve been with him?”
“Because he didn’t want her,” Thiago spat, and a thousand daggers hit my heart at once. Thiago, my oldest friend, knew me when I was Kinsley. He hisses in a deadly low voice, “I’m not watching you go through this again. End it now.”
Snap. Did anyone else hear it? The last shred of my restraint?
“Last time I checked,” I say with deadly stillness, “we’re not married. Therefore, you have no fucking say in who I put inside me.”
“Honey, it was really bad last time.” Monica dips her head. I’ve known her longer than the other women, but we’ve never been close.
“Who is this guy?” Duncan's voice drops lower and rougher. No longer a playful dad, but a mafia boss.
Katya leans in, “He’s a celebrity, a client, her ex-boyfriend she didn’t tell us about and Lance hates him.”
I turn to Linda and enunciate every word through gritted teeth. “I need to see a program.” She lifts it, and I rip it out of her hand.
Maria performs first, then Shae’s solo and three acts later, Drew and Ian’s presentation. Twenty minutes. That’s what the kids get. Then I’m done and salting the earth and burning the ground. With a stillness of an assassin I turn to Duncan, “The Irish family is the only family to stay in my good graces, why would you ruin it?”
“I didn’t think…” Duncan’s Irish guilt weighs on him.
