Lachlan whips around, gets him by the throat and slams him into the wall so hard that the ebony cracks.The heel of his palm chokes Fenwick, who gags.Lachlan’s fury runs ice cold, he isallcontrol, nothing but measured violence.
‘Julian is a child,’ he says clearly.‘You have no excuses.No reasons.If you try to make it his fault, I’ll—’
‘Th-that’s not what I was gonna say,’ Fenwick chokes out.‘It was… Penhalyx g-gave me permission.’
A small part of Lachlan had suspected that deep down, but it changes nothing.‘You’re not listening,’ he tells Fenwick, stepping closer, tightening his grip, which has ended lives one-handed in the past and could easily do so now.‘He.Is.A.Child.Permission means nothing.It’s wrong.Yousickenme.’
Fenwick scowls.‘How old were you the f-first time?Don’t be so nai—ack!’
Lachlan knees him in the balls, lets him drop like garbage and goes about his routes to do his job, and it’s only when he returns to Mimi, who runs to him and jumps into a bounce-hug that he catches easily… it’s only then that he feels human again.
‘Hello, princess,’ he greets, settling her where she belongs on his hip.Jules is in her room too.Lachlan doesn’t really want to look at him.This kid is the source of his exhaustion, the bad feeling inside that will have to assimilate and scar, no removing it, only living with it.
Someone else would leave.
They’d run, probably.
Lachlan James Tanner doesn’t run.
And he can’t.
He’s certain now the previous bodyguards are all still in the Estate,ashes and bone.He can’t leave and he wouldn’t anyway.Whatever else, no matter how much it hurts, he knows that this is where he’s meant to be.
So he looks at Jules, calm and neutral.
The boy has never seemed so uncertain before.
If Lachlan had the energy to read him, he’d see regret and a desperatesearchingin those lovely eyes, all his fire subdued by the watery mist of what might be an unspoken apology.
But he doesn’t have the energy for any of it.
He only has this job, and her.His sunshine.
Hisdaughter, until he too is ashes and bone in this place.
But hopefully these kids will be far away by then.
Penhalyx is wrong.Lachlan can get them free.
He just needs to figure it out, somehow.
‘Puddle jumping?’he offers Mimi now the rain has stopped.
‘Puddles!’she echoes, with fiendish glee, ‘Make big mess?’
He smiles for her.‘Yeah, why not?’Then he looks back at the source of his headache, still sitting on the bed, shoulders rounded.‘You too, Jules.’
‘I’m not… you’d probably have more fun without me.’
‘Nah,’ Lachlan says, adjusting his hold of his little girl.‘There’s no one better at making a mess, come on.Suit up.’The Estate is free of Penhalyx’s shadow once more.Fenwick won’t be an issue for a while at least.If Lachlan doesn’t lead them into some semblance of joy, there won’t be any.‘Then we’ll have ice cream after.’Ice cream is a magical promise in the East Wing, just like cookies are the best currency and secrets hold it all together.Mimi kicks her legs with excitement, already promising not to tell anyone about it.Anyoneis him, Alistair.‘Good girl,’ he whispers, kissing her cheek.
Lachlan looks at Jules, waiting.
A few moments pass before Jules rises to stand and then comes closer.
‘Are you sure?’
‘I’m sure.’Lachlan winks subtly at him.‘How about we have a race?’
