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Like a gun went off, all of us bolted to our corners, desperately searching for safes. There were grunts and weird noises coming behind me, furniture being moved, and people mumbling to themselves. Even Cosmo, who was normally the calm, quiet one, was being a weirdo. He was completely engrossed with examining a set of leaves on a fake plant like it held the answers to everything. No one was going to hide a clue there.
Falcon cleared his throat, going into lead scientist mode. "Even if we find all the safes, we need to find all the numbers that are used to open the safes."
"Hopefully, they’re all the same four-digit numbers for all five safes." We all did a slow mo turn toward Ax as his hopeful face sank. He rubbed the back of his neck as he mumbled, turning toward his wall like it just called his name. "Just putting it out into the universe, you bunch of dicks."
For some reason, our resident psycho folded over, busting up, wiping the tears from his eyes as he pointed at Ax, which seemed to have a ripple effect on the rest of us. Even Falcon gave Ax a side-eye glance before exhaling out his nose, turning to stare at an old mosaic picture on the wall he was examining.
“So, I gather that all of your dads were sad and depressed after that incident?” Lex sat in front of his safe, knocking on it like he was going to do something.
“Why do you ask?” The words came tumbling out of my mouth before I realized I said them.
He lifted his hand, staring at his fingers that had swirling smoke weaving in and out, almost in a transfixed state. “I never had parents. I didn't know they could be like that.”
“I didn't have a parent until I was almost six,” Cosmo said like that meant nothing, but I couldn't imagine life without my father. “And I don't know if I would say that Ternin was the pinnacle of parenthood.” He snorted to himself. “He did threaten to kill a six-year-old and thought ice cream was proper punishment.”
We all smirked at that. These past six months, we have really gotten to know our father-in-law, and he was straight up cray cray. If he wasn't conning us into doing something for him, he was scheming behind our backs with our fathers, making bets against us like fucking race horses. It's maddening, but my father has never looked so joyful and alive joking around with his friends. So, I shrug it off.
Also, we all know that Rayla and Cosmo have somehow developed a bottomless pit when it comes to the icy sweet treats. Both of them acting like it was a fucking food group all on its own. I believe Ternin was to blame for that.
The light on my side of the room was flickering again, my eyes getting more and more agitated with each flicker. Was it supposed to be scary to have a flickering light? It meant that something was wrong with the electricity, not that some scary man was going to pop out of the potted plant. I eyed the plant again, envisioning someone like Lex slithering out of the plant saying 'gotcha!', so I kicked it for good measure.See! There was nothing in the damn pot.
“Sometimes, it's a blessing to not have parents than to have absent ones.” Falcon’s eyes flashed from the normal dull blue to a vibrant cerulean in seconds. His voice turned cold in fury as his whole body clenched up. Now, my father wasn't the best, I highly doubt any of ours were that great, especially after the incident, but for Falcon to show that kind of emotion . . . his dad must’ve been really out of it.
Ax suddenly spoke up. “Yeah. My father was a mess. Moping around, trying to stay busy but failing at everything, leaving piles of messes in his wake. It was not the highlight, for sure. It also made him insufferable about keeping me safe and insistent on learning to control myself and my wolf.” Ax’s eyes flashed for a second, his wolf peeking out before he folded his arms and sneered, “A lot of good that did.”
A puff of breath skittered along my neck, and I jerked forward, swiveling around, ready to yell at whoever was getting into my space when a set of pitch black pools were staring at me. Lex tilted his head before he asked, “Curious minds want to know . . . did you ever figure out who your dad was pining for?”
I was taken aback for a second, having completely forgotten I mentioned his one slip up. The night we returned from the land of Fairy. The night I realized that my father did love someone, and she was most definitely not my mother.
I tried to feign indifference, keeping my face laxed and my eyes calm. “Why do you ask?”
He took a step back, giving me my much needed space. “Well, from the looks of it, all of your fathers have the same level ofrespect for loyalty. The same burning desire for their person, even if they weren’t officially mates. I was kinda hoping this meant that my father would’ve been that way for my mother . . . all super in love and shit.” His eyes penetrated mine, even though his voice had notes of humor, I could tell from his eyes he was very serious about this. “But with what you said, now it's making me wonder . . . purely for selfish reasons, of course.”
My brain was going off a mile a minute, trying to figure out what to say. Should I tell them what my father confessed to me a month ago? I haven't had time to talk to Rayla about it yet, still trying to wrap my mind around it. Rayla did want us to start bonding, and maybe being honest about something like this would do that . . . but I also really didn't want to.
I kept going back and forth in my head between the reasons to not and the reasons to just say it. It's not like it was my secret, but he also didn't tell me not to tell anyone. These guys are Syndicate, so they have a right to know, but it was also private, so were they really owed that information? Round and round I went until a bored matter-of-fact voice sliced through all my thoughts.
“If it's private, you can just say that. We won't pressure you.” Falcon’s eyes softened for a split second, letting me know he really meant it. From the silence in the room and the hesitant faces, I could tell that they all were curious but wouldn't push.
It felt like a moment, a moment that I couldn't turn back from. If I didn't take this chance to be honest, to bring them into my world, we would go about our lives the same we always have, and Rayla would be disappointed.
Why was I always the one that had to be the glue?For sex, and I guess, for guy conversations too. It was tiring being me.
I exhaled slowly, my mind made up. “Look, I haven't had a chance to talk to Rayla about it but . . . Ternin and my father were both in love with Jennifer, Rayla’s mom.” Mouths dropped, eyes went wide, and I rushed to continue what I knew.
“I guess they were both in love with her, kinda tried to court her at the same time, but in the end, my father backed off, she chose Ternin, and that was that.” When no one said anything, I followed with, “About a month ago, I got frustrated with the whole situation of me having to go to New York and being away from Rayla. He then told me that he was proud of me.” I was still stunned about that. When he said it, I almost wanted to ask him to repeat it so I could record it and replay it whenever he asked for babies.
“He said that after watching the five of us with Rayla, seeing how we’re trying to make it all work. He wished he and Ternin could’ve done that with Jennifer. He thinks they could’ve been a lot happier if they did, and he wouldn't have blamed Ternin for her death for so many years.” I didn't mention that he followed it up with how he admired and wanted to know more about my ‘dope sharing buddies’ but I didn't feel like they needed to know that little nugget of information.
“Eeeewwww, so you could’ve been Rayla’s brother?!” Lex’s eyes flicked to Cosmo, whose whole face fell as he glared at Lex like he could kill him with just his eyes. Lex grinned, getting the reaction he wanted from him before turning back to me.
“I don't think I could ever look at you the same way.” Lex made an exaggerated shake of his shoulders like he just got the chills before filling the room with raunchy laughter, causing the others to loosen up and snap out of the shock.
“Look, it didn't happen, so-” I tried to combate him, but I should’ve known better. I was arguing with Lex, that was already a losing battle.
“Yeah, but it sounds like Syris wanted it to . . . .” Ax chimed in, grinning from ear to ear.
Oh, man. I think I made a mistake. Fuck these guys. Immature pricks.
