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Brooklyn frowned. “Well, now I can’t remember.”
“When you do, come and ask me. Until then ... ”
Brooklyn stood up, accepting the hand Storm offered. But before she turned to go, she gave Ellison one final look. “Youdolook mean. And I won’t always beshort.”
“She’s got you there, Ellie,” Mari said.
“Why are your foster kids still here?” Ellison hissed.
“Because things just started happening,” Isabel retorted. “And contrary to what you think, it’s not as easy as just throwing them in a mailbox withreturn-to-sendermarked on their foreheads. They arepeoplewho deserve to be handled with some level of care!”
“And what if Beresford shows up on the doorsteptonight?” Ellison half-shouted.
“That’s his name?”
Isabel groaned and lasered her sister—and her overly large mouth—with a quelling look. Walking over to the steps, she sank down and looked over to see Jacob and Aaron both standing in the door to the library. “How long have you two been in there?”
Aaron and Jacob exchanged a look, then shrugged. “An hour, maybe?”
“Without killing each other?”
“I can deal with him when he’s not being a narrow-minded jerk,” Aaron said.
Jacob flipped the skinnier kid off. “We were just looking some stuff up. You said this guy’s name was Beresford?”
Instead of answering them, Isabel turned a narrow glare on her sister. “Gee, motormouth. Thanks.”
Ellison opened her mouth, then snapped it closed.
At that moment, Rye stepped through the door of the kitchen and took a look around. Ace had been there to greet the twins when their bodyguard detail had escorted them inside, so neither of the twins had met the tall, lean male currently approaching Isabel.
“Ma’am.” He nodded at her, then glanced at the twins before looking at the two foster kids. “I need a word.”
Ellison’s entire demeanor changed.
Isabel rolled her eyes heavenward as she dragged herself off the bottom steps. Looking at the boys, she said, “Zip it. You don’t repeat a word. You understand?”
“Absolutely,” Jacob said soberly.
“No problem.” Aaron gave her a big-eyed, earnest look.
And she had no doubt that Aaron would be telling Storm exactly what had happened.
“You two understand this information is the kind that gets people hurt, right?” She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at them.
“What information?” Rye asked, voice flat.
“One of my sisters let a name slip,” Isabel said in disgust.
The security specialist slanted a look at the twins, the lines bracketing his mouth deepening slightly. But he said nothing to them. Instead, he approached Aaron and Jacob.
“In a few years, you’re going to be men. Here’s your chance to show you’re already on the road. You found out something you shouldn’t know,” he said in a cool, implacable voice. “You react the way responsible grown-ups would—by keeping it to yourself. We don’t want people ending up hurt because you let that information slip to the wrong people, right? You’re going to show me you’ll be adults about this, understand?”
Both of them had gone rigid, staring at Rye without blinking.
He had that same way of commanding attention that Travis did.
“Yes, sir,” they said in unison.
