“Then you shouldn’t have excused the guards for the night.”
Stander huffed. “Yeah, right. And have them ogling us like the kids are?”
Zorro scanned us before sighing in defeat. “Fair. They do look surprised.”
I barked a laugh, drawing everyone’s eye.
“Surprised…” I muttered incredulously. It was all I had.
Stander slammed his hands to his hips and yelled, “Fanny!”
I crowded closer to Griffin and Hunt. Brady pulled Layla to his side.
Fanny took less than a minute to arrive, and when she did, the eyes of Magnum’s executive assistant and all-around kissass grew round—not at seeing four of her precious, naked Magnums. Oh no, it was the five of us who had her boggled.
“What aretheydoing here?” she demanded. “This is your private time.”
“I’d go more with kinky time,” Layla snorted, drawing a glare from Fanny. “What? It’s true. This is some real kinky shit.”
When Fanny advanced on her, Layla held up her hands. “Hey, no judgment. I’m a straight hottie. If there were four of me, I’d be doing me too. Though without a dick to get all up in there, it probably wouldn’t be quite as fun. But hey, I’m sure I’d make the most of it.”
“What are you doing here?” Fanny asked. “And at this late hour?”
Hunt took half a step forward. “I just found out my girl’s pregnant. We wanted to talk it through with Uncle Magnum. He always tells us he’s here for us, so we figured we’d get his help.”
“Our parents are too lame to talk something like this through,” Brady added, amazing me that any of them could get their shit together after the crazy fest that hadn’t even ended yet.
“The guard at the gate told us he warned the guards at the house,” Griffin said.
“So we came on up,” Hunt elaborated.
Fanny’s hands were akimbo, her mouth a savage line of disapproval. “And you thought to just stand around and watch such private, sacred time?”
“Sacred?” Layla asked with another snort, and I wanted to slap a hand to her mouth. “That didn’t look sacred to me. Looked more like—”
To stem whatever damage was about to slip free of her mouth, I hastened to say, “We didn’t mean to intrude.” Thoughts were rapidly shooting through my mind, finally assembling into something helpful. “We really didn’t. We’re confused…”
Was that the understatement of the millennium or what?
“Why are there four Uncle Magnums?”
“Because Magnum Chase is agod,” Fanny snarled like she was a big-clawed, big-toothed, big cat defending her helpless cub. “And you’re lucky he wants anything to do with you.”
Her hands rose and she flicked a pair of fingers in signal at someone now at our backs.
We spun toward this new danger.
But all I managed to make out was a blur of black, a pop, and a sting as something sharp shot into my neck.
A tranq dart, I guessed before everything went dark.
10
We Know Jack on a First-Name Basis
It wasGroundhog Day—again—or as I was now coming to think of it: Reboot Day.
My dad, aka Reece Bryson, aka Jude Corlett, aka Judas—and a big, fat, fucking liar—woke me up for school again with a gentle nudge and with nearly the same script he’d used before: If I didn’t get my butt up and moving, I’d be late for school. Plus, I wanted to especially be there for my boyfriend, Griffin, today since it was the anniversary of Mitzi’s leaving him and Orson. He just knew Griffin appreciated my compassion and understanding so much.
