AllFreeNovel
Share Us
All of us stand at the sound of the bodies hitting the floor and glass shattering.
I hold on to Harrison’s arm, not knowing what’s about to happen, when another man, this one much younger, steps into the house, sees Mike pinning the mob boss’ face against the floor, and immediately doubles over from laughter.
“Oh, shit,” I whisper. How did I not know Eian has a son? Thathasto be Eian’s son. He looks like his clone.
Harrison, however, doesn’t seem to be worried at all. He laughs just as loudly as his… nephew.
“All right, shut up you two,” Nan says then walks around the couch to where the two men are right next to a huge puddle of liquid. “Mike, sweet boy, we’re not in danger. You can let go of him.” Mike looks confused but follows her orders, and his face when he sees who he just tackled has me snorting and Theo taking a huge breath and a step back.
“Theo,” Harrison says, more serious now since he saw his son’s reaction. “I promise it’s okay.” He looks doubtfully at his father. “Trust me.” He takes Theo’s hand and then walks to Iris and does the same. They both act like they’re walking to the guillotine as he leads them to the disaster zone. “Guys, this is my cousin Eian and his son, your cousin, Bran.”
“What the actual fuck,” Iris whispers.
“Language,” Nan snaps at her.
“You can’t be serious, Nan. If there’s ever a situation where I’m allowed to curse it’s this one, give me a break.”
Nan doesn’t say anything but by the way she grimaces, my guess is she agrees.
“Oh, God.” Mike finally unfreezes and stands back up. “I’m so sorry, I thought you were like a hitman or a thief, well I guess maybe you could be both, but I thought you were like here to kill us. Jesus, I didn’t mean, I’m sorry, I—”
“Baby, shut up,” Theo tells him and rubs a hand down his arm.
“Shutting up now, yup, not talking anymore. Or ever again. Jesus, I need to lie down.”
“What the fuck do you meanyouneed to lie down?” Eian demands, but I can see an amused smirk appear on his face. “I’m the one who was bowled over by a giant. Big fan, by the way.”
Mike starts to hyperventilate, and Theo sends his new-found uncle a vicious look as he leads Mike to the couch.Good for Theo,I think to myself, willing to go to the end of the earth to defend his man, even if it means facing the devil.
“Hey,” Iris gets Eian's attention. “Don’t be mean to Mike. No one gets to be mean to Mike, I don’t care who you are.”
“I knew you were going to be my favorite niece,” Eian says with a proud smile.
“Let me guess, I’m your only niece, right?” she asks with an epic roll of her eyes.
“Yup, now let’s get the introductions and the whole story out of the way, yeah?”
I go say hello to both Eian and Bran. “Nice to meet you,” I tell Bran, who I’m guessing can’t be older than twenty.
“Ah, the not-so-fake-boyfriend,” Eian says while he turns to me. “Good to see you again.”
“WHAT?!” Iris screams. “What do you meanagain? Have you met before? Are you part of the mob, Tristan?” she demands.
“No, I’m not.” I raise my palms in surrender. “I met Eian last Friday,” is all I dare to say. I really don’t want to get on her bad side.
Harrison takes a step toward her and grabs her shoulders. “Breathe and think about what this means Iris. I’m telling you now because I know you’ll understand, and you’ll be as cautious with this information as I am. No one can know. No one caneverknow.”
“I mean, if I get married someday,” she starts flippantly and Theo, Eian, and Mike all groan.
“Then when we know we can trust that person we’ll tell them.” Harrison finishes.
She lets out a loud breath, “Yeah, okay. Explain this whole thing, please.” She waves her hand at her father and uncle.
We all sit around the living room where Theo’s still rubbing Mike’s leg affectionately and Mike looks more relaxed. After they tell the whole story, from start to finish, Eian—with one of Theo’s cookies in his hand—starts talking about his son, the one no one knows about.
“I didn’t want to do to him what Da did to me, which was raise me to be,” he waves a hand at himself, “this, so yeah he’s not part of the organization.” Iris snorts but he ignores her. “He’s simply my son.”
“And he’s going to Columbia, such a smart boy,” Nan pipes in and makes Bran flush to the tips of his ears. “Now, let’s eat dinner, shall we? I bet you could use some food, Mikey.”
