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“Isn’t it obvious?” he whispered, one of his hands wandering down the side of my arm, which were pinned over my head, until he reached my nipples. He played with them as he stared into my eyes.
“Sedric…”
“What better way can I show my wife I care, than to give her pleasure?” he whispered again, kissing my lips before trailing the side of my jaw. “Give us both pleasure.”
“Father, Liam wants…” Neal burst through the door before I could speak. “Jesus, mother fucking Christ of Nazareth, my eyes!”
I grabbed for a pillow, and Sedric reached for his gun in a fit of rage.
“What have I told you about knocking?” he roared, before firing a round at Neal’s head.
Neal ducked but it took off piece of the door. “SORRY…”
“Neal, I swear, if you don’t leave, I will skin you!” Sedric shouted, getting off the bed once I was covered.
Neal’s head dropped, and I tried really hard not to laugh. He looked like he did when he was a child and caught us doing the same thing.
“Liam said…”
“I don’t care what your brother said. I don’t care if the goddamn moon is falling out of the sky. Get out, boy!” he roared.
His throat was going to be sore in the morning.
“Father, I’d rather die at your hands than at Liam’s…or worse, Mel’s. Give me one second to tell you and then I will run faster than Forrest Gump.”
That did it, I couldn’t hold back from laughing, and Sedric glared at me, forcing me to place my hand over my mouth.
He stood in front of Neal, not that he could see since he was forcing his eyelids shut, and put a gun to his skull.
“Sedric…”
“You rather I kill you than Liam or Mel?” he asked, and I wanted to smack him over the head.
Neal smirked. “You would kill me quickly, and then mom will kick your ass. Liam and Mel would take a page out of George Bugs Morgan’s book, and hang me by my testicles with piano wire from a ceiling. Then burn my eyes out with cigarettes. Then maybe go after Olivia too, just for the heck off it. So yes, I fear them much more than I fear you, because they are bat shit crazy.”
Sedric’s jaw clenched.
“Neal, what is it?” I asked, before Sedric really did pull the trigger.
“Aviela DeRosa is in Chicago, and Liam thinks she’s related to gramps somehow. Gramps isn’t home yet, but we’re on lockdown. Which means…”
“I taught you the damn rules, I know what it fucking means, you dumbass!” Sedric snapped, pulling Neal by the ear just as he used to. “Out.” He pushed him out the door.
“Liam wants a family meeting…”
“Tell your brother that your mother and I are having our own meeting. With the grace of God, maybe we can have another child to replace you three knuckleheads!” he said, slamming the door in his face.
Another child? Who were we, Abraham and Sarah?
“Urgh! Really? As if I haven’t been scarred enough for one lifetime!” Neal’s muffled voice rang through the door.
“Pull up a chair at Declan’s therapy lessons and cry to them,” Sedric yelled back before falling onto our bed. “I knew that boy would forever cock-block me. I knew it from the first month he was home.”
Laughing, I kissed his back before lying next to him. He was right. Between all of our children, Neal was the only one who had ever caught us in the act. The others might have heard, but only Neal ever came in and killed our moment. He did it as an infant, he did it as a young boy, and even as a teen. And now, he did it as an adult.
“Remember, he is also the one who makes you laugh harder than the rest. Neal is the laugher. Declan, the quiet observer. Liam is…”
“A smart ass, controlling prick, with a God complex to rival my father’s,” he added, turning to look up at me and pushing the pillow away in order to see me.
I shook my head. “No, Liam is the thinker, the master chess player. It’s why you love him so much. It’s always a back and forth between you. But each one of them is like you. Neal radiates joy, the way you used to before this life; Declan reads like you, studies like you, listens like you. He enjoys the peace…”
“And then Liam, oh wise mother?” He smirked, kissing my hand.
I smacked his arm. “Liam is the tiny part of you that wishes to achieve greatness at all costs. Yes, he is a smart-ass, and yes, he is controlling. He may even have a God complex. But you see him and you see what you could never have become and you respect him for it. You and I both know if Liam were first born and never ill, Shamus would have tried to adopt him.”
“I knew it even when he was sick,” he whispered. For some reason, his voice was stuck at this level with me tonight. “He had so much fight. He used to tell me while in bed that once he was better, he was going to buy the damn hospital, just so they could stock it with better food. When I asked why he didn’t just suggest it to them, he said, ‘that’s too much talking and I want it done.’ He was seven. I took him and the boys fishing when he was thirteen. Neal caught five fish, Declan three, and I seven.”
“Liam didn’t catch anything? Are you sure?” I frowned, trying my best to remember those days, but he and I both knew that time for me was like the dark ages.
“He caught one. He was just getting over his trip from the hospital and still a bit weak. I was surprised he caught anything. I just wanted him to get fresh air and relax. We camped out by the lake, but when I woke up in the morning, Liam was gone…”
“Sedric!” I slapped his arm.
“Ouch. Damn it, woman!” he yelled, holding onto me tighter. “I found him, didn’t I? The little brat took the boat, went out on the water and fished until he caught eighteen fish. Kid was half frozen, his fingers were cut from the wires. I never wanted to kick his ass so much!”
I could see how now, years later, he couldn’t stop himself from smiling at the memory of it.
“He was so determined to out-do us all. He could have stopped at ten, but no, the damn kid had to double it. He was so proud of himself, even though he reeked to high heaven,” he added.
“That sounds like our Liam. He has to be number one, and everyone has to know it.” I laughed.
“Yeah.” He kissed my head. “It’s how I knew he was the one who was going to take over. Liam could barely stand to bow down to me. If it were Neal or Declan, I know he would have broken away or killed them. Never in my life was I more grateful to Neal than when he accepted it without question.”
“That’s because he’s like you and never wanted to be in charge. He hates working under pressure.” I would never admit it, but Neal’s fun craziness came from me.
“Your biggest success was finding Mel, you know that, right? Liam would not be half the man he is now if it weren’t for her,” I added.
“Both a good and bad thing. Good for the family and the company. The world may just hate me for it. Liam feeds off of her, and she him. They both like to out-do the other and it’s scary. Liam would have killed Shamus, but Melody pulled him back.”
I could see it in his eyes. Pride. They were finally growing.
“What are you going to do?” I asked for the third and final time.
