Page 56 of Kiss of Wrath

“Mordr, Mordr, Mordr,” all the children chanted before Miranda shushed them. The door slid shut, cutting off their words, but allowing them to still hear the sounds of shouting and laughter.

“Play? You?” Harek looked at him as if he had grown two heads.

“They want me to play croquet with them.”

“Crochet? Mordr! First, cooking. Now, knitting.” Cnut was genuinely concerned.

“What next? Will you be asking us if your butt is too big?” Harek, who should know better, was also concerned.

“Idiots! I said croquet, pronounced crow-kay, not crochet, as in crow-shay. Croquet is a game that involves hitting balls with mallets through wire hoops in the ground,” Mordr told them with disgust. Did they really think he was turning womanish? He should clobber the two of them to show how manly he still was.

Instead of just accepting what he had said, Cnut blathered on in another direction. “You didn’t play, even when you were a boyling. You were always so serious. Until you had your own . . .” Cnut’s words trailed off, but Mordr knew what he had been going to say. Until he had his own children. That was when he changed.

Mordr felt the blood rush to his head and his hands ball into fists. He wanted to hit something, hard. Only with the strongest willpower was Mordr able to control the urge to kill or do bodily harm. Just because his brother mentioned his children. Sadly, Mordr shook his head. He had thought he was past this rage.

Taking the opposite seat at the table from Harek, he asked, “What have you found out?”

Cnut was still standing by the counter, sniffing the fragrant loaves of bread and a dish of butter beside them. He reached for a knife, about to cut himself a slice.

“No!” Mordr said.

“Why not?” Cnut said.

“You’ll spoil your appetite.”

“You, making a jest?” Cnut put a hand over his heart, as if in shock. “Will wonders never cease?”

“Shut up, lackwit!” Mordr could tell Cnut felt bad for mentioning his children and was trying to distract him with this silliness. Mordr was getting an ache in his head from dealing with his brothers, or maybe it was from dealing with children.

“Did you really make that bread yourself?” Cnut was opening the refrigerator doors, taking out three more bottles of beer.

“For the love of an iceberg! You make a fuss over the littlest things. It was frozen dough. All I had to do was put it in the oven.”

“Really?” This from Harek, who was still tapping away at his little computer or iPad, or whatever the hell you called it.

“Well, I had to grease the pans and brush some melted butter on the top of the loaves to turn the crusts golden brown. Miranda’s servant told me how.”

“Servant? We no longer live in the Dark Ages,” Cnut chided Mordr.

“Her cleaning person,” Mordr amended. “As if it matters one whit who told me how!”

“Mordr, you are turning into a regular Mordr Lagasse,” Harek observed. “Remember when we were satisfied with unleavened manchet bread. Tasteless, it was, like modern pita bread.”

“Or pizza dough without the toppings,” Cnut added.

“By all the saints! Why are you two harping away about food? What have you found out, Harek?”

Harek took a long draw on his beer, then said, “Roger Jessup. Forty-two. Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1972. Married Cassandra Hart in 2004. Five children: Margaret. Benjamin and Samuel, twins. Larry and Linda, twins. Convicted in 2011 of assault and battery, spousal rape, battery of a child, etc. Released from Ohio State Penitentiary on May 11. Currently resides at Heaven’s Gate Halfway House in Akron, Ohio, about to be released, one-year probation beginning on— Holy shit!” Harek looked up at him and Cnut before announcing, “Today.”

Mordr nodded. “Miranda was expecting this. Not the exact date, but her lawyer warned her that Roger would be released soon and to take precautions.”

“Which is why you were sent here,” Cnut guessed.

There was a light tapping on the sliding glass door, and the three of them glanced over to see a little girling with her nose pressed against the glass, watching. Linda. She gave Mordr a little wave.

Mordr sighed and took a long drink of the cold brew. “Let us go outside and face the horde.”

“Do you really think you should refer to children in that manner?” Harek asked.