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“They had no explanation to give me, because she gave none to them.” Larkin licked her lips. “I could seek out the answers if I want to. She’s still alive.”
“You looked her up?”
Larkin nodded. “She’s happily mated with two adult children. She and her new family live in Atlanta.”
Jesus Christ. He couldn’t imagine how it would feel to be tossed aside like unwanted goods so that your parent could essentially start over. That was how the situation came across to him. Belle wanted a fresh start after losing her lair; wanted to shed her daughter so she could once again be single, childless, and carefree.
No wonder Larkin and her demon had no willingness whatsoever to forgive Holt. He’d done what her mother had done: Left with no warning, and never looked back. Or, at least, he hadn’t until now. But it was too little too late for Larkin and her entity.
She looked off into the distance. “I thought about confronting Belle when I first tracked her down, but I see no reason why I should give her that level of emotional importance. She walked away. She turned her back on me. She deserves nothing at all from me. So I chose to instead embrace my future rather than chase my past. Knox, Levi, Tanner, and Keenan are my family. They’d never do to me what Belle did.”
Anger skipping along the surface of his skin, Teague did what he did at her apartment when she told him about Holt. He curled his arm around her shoulders and pulled her toward him. She didn’t stiffen this time; she melted into him, resting her head on his shoulder.
His demon’s blood boiled. The beast was stomping and letting out rumbly neighs, outraged that she’d been let down and abandoned by the two people who should have most wanted what was best for her.
He understood now why she so rarely opened her world to outsiders. The less people who were in it, the less chance she had of anyone again leaving her.
Though he appreciated that she’d been so open with him, he couldn’t return her honesty with his own. Not fully. There was too much he needed to hide. But he could give her some details.
“I haven’t seen my mother in years. We lost touch after I went my own way. We were never close, so I doubt she’s any more affected by that than I am.” They loved each other; they just hadn’t bonded.
Loosely fisting his tee, she raised her head from his shoulder. “And your dad?”
“The man is a dick. And no father to me.” Personally, Teague didn’t believe that Soren was built for parenthood. “I have one sibling. A half-brother. He hates me just about as much as his mother does.”
Larkin’s brow knitted. “Why?”
“Our father was in a relationship with his mother when he impregnated mine.”
She winced. “That wasn’t your fault.”
“No, but I was a reminder of his infidelity.” He cleared his throat. “So, in short, I’m not in contact with any of my biological relatives. Like you, I formed my own family.”
“Self-made families are the best,” she proclaimed with a faint smile.
“I gotta agree with you there.”
A short time later, Asher became bored and so they went inside. The sand was the kind that you could easily shake off, but Larkin nonetheless changed him into fresh clothes.
All three of them gathered on one of the sitting room sofas to watch a movie that Asher chose. They were around halfway through it when he fell asleep lying across both Larkin and Teague’s laps.
“I think he tired himself out running around the playground,” said Teague.
Larkin hummed. “He’ll probably only nap. He’s old enough now that he doesn’t need to sleep every night, but he still has the occasional nap. So . . . how are you finding babysitting? Is it as terrifying as you thought it would be?”
He pulled a face. “Worse.”
“Liar. You enjoyed racing around outside with the little man.” She rubbed her chest, adding, “I still can’t believe you had him jump off the top of the climbing wall.”
“No, I asked him to pyroport himself down. He chose to instead jump. But I caught him, didn’t I?”
“Not before he took two years off my life.”
“Now that is one heck of a brand,” said a new voice.
Teague watched as a familiar male wearing a tatty red cap, a faded Metallica tee, and a pair of scuffed jeans strolled toward the sofa. Lucifer himself. A being who was nothing like the devil that humans spoke of.
Lucifer—who went by Lou—might lack a conscience, but he was not a creature of darkness. In fact, he was more of an antisocial, moody, psychopathic child who happened to have OCD and liked only one person on this Earth: Asher. Hence why he occasionally appeared at the mansion uninvited, able to somehow bypass the shield.
