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“How did Mia’s place look? I know it’s been a while. Did she freak out over all the dust?” I can’t help but laugh at the thought. I can vividly imagine our girl getting her cleaning gloves and bucket out, and going to town.
“Not exactly, but I did… I told her everything.”
“You what?” I ask.
Taken aback, Alec shoots up from the couch. “How did she take it?”
“She wore her underwear in the bathtub and fucked me into oblivion. While I told her everything.” Kas’ attempt at sounding nonchalant falls flat when his voice wavers. “Look, guys, I know the risks, but I had to tell her. I wrote everything down as well, just in case… You know!” I watch as he refrains from spelling out what could happen now that he’s opened up about everything.
“Did you remember something new?” I ask, unsure how to process all of this.
Kas wrinkles his nose. “It doesn’t matter, don’t linger on it,” Alec says, coming to Kas’ rescue.
I know he is right. It doesn’t matter, and I know I shouldn’t press the issue.
“I found a notebook in her apartment when I couldn’t sleep, and I wrote everything down in that. If anything happens, I want you to show it to me and force me to read it. It’s on the shelf above my bed in my room,” Kas says. I don’t like the finality in his voice, but I know it’s unavoidable.
Alec and I promise we’ll find the notebook and make him read it if the unthinkable happens.
“I feel okay, though,” Kas quickly says, and he looks it.
“Any headaches?” Alec asks, taking the words right out of my mouth.
My blond brother looks deep in thought before saying, “No, not even while we were talking. This doesn’t feel like the other times.” With a shrug of his shoulder, he takes another sip of his coffee.
“That just leaves me then,” I add lamely and wholly unnecessary. “I’m the only one who hasn’t told her everything.”
It’s not as though I’ve kept it a secret on purpose. But when was I supposed to tell Mia about my sperm donor? When she found me in the basement with Woofer? When she broke up with me? Or perhaps when she called me from Serendipity? Although I know there hasn’t been a perfect time, I also have to concede I haven’t tried hard to find one.
As much as I don’t want to end my time with my brothers, I feel I have to. It makes me sad to realize we spend so little time together these days, and I mentally vow to make sure we do more things together.
“I’m just gonna…”
“CJ, before you go.” Kas stands up and looks intently from me to Alec. “Why are we ignoring that Neil keeps mentioning someone else’s involvement? He has hinted at it plenty of times. Something doesn’t feel right about it.”
“I-I—” As I trail off, I move my hand to my chin, absentmindedly scratching my not-so-neatly trimmed scruff.
The truth is that I haven’t given any weight to anything that Neil has said. Why would I? I know from previous experience that my pets only tell the truth once they’re broken—Neil isn’t broken yet. However, now that Kas has spoken the words out loud, I don’t know why I’ve allowed it to be ignored.
“Mia is pretty certain that Neil isn’t lying about someone else being involved. There are too many things not adding up, and she wants to look further into it. We all know she’s blaming herself for Mark’s death, and now she thinks it could have been avoided if she’d taken Neil seriously as a threat before. So how can we not take it seriously now?” Kas is practically pleading with me to look at him, but I can’t bring myself to do so.
Instead, I turn to Alec and ask, “From your time alone with Neil, do you think there’s any truth to it?”
Alec pulls his phone out of his jeans pocket and taps the screen a few times. Within a few seconds, a conversation between my brother and Neil plays out loud. Neil is offering amnesty to Alec if he helps him escape. He is swearing up and down that he isn’t in this alone and that we don’t want to meet his ‘associate.’
I gulp as I listen intently, trying to pick up on anything that will sway me one way or the other. Our girl has previously mentioned that she thought there’s more to it, but we didn’t give it much thought. It was while she was holed up in the basement, too grief-stricken to remember to brush her hair.
Fuck, I feel like the biggest idiot alive. Even if there’s nothing to it, why couldn’t I just give in and let her have that?
“Yeah, CJ, I do. I don’t think he’s lying. When we were all together, I was going to mention it.” I’m just about to ask Alec for evidence, however, he continues before I open my mouth. “There isn’t anything specific he’s said to make me believe him, it just makes sense. Though, now that Kas feels that something was wrong at Mia’s place, I’m even more tempted to take Neil’s word for it. What do we have to lose by taking him seriously?”
“If anyone wants to know what I think, I’m convinced he’s speaking the truth.” Shit, I hadn’t heard Mia come home. “Guys, think about it. Why would he lose it as much as he did if nothing was at stake? I have worked for him for close to ten years. Why now?”
Clearing my throat, I answer, “You said you haven’t been in a relationship before, so maybe he felt you were slipping from his grasp?”
“Maybe,” Mia allows, though her tone clearly says she doesn’t believe that. “But I don’t think so. He acted like he didn’t care about Mark at all whenever I asked about it—”
“Mia, I wouldn’t expect Neil to care about Mark!”
