| |
Matt watched the twins. They were back to back, sitting cross legged, hands resting on their knees, fingers in the Gyan Mudra yoga position. He’d seen them communicate this way before, but it had been years since they’d felt the need to be so focused on each other.
When they were little, they’d stand with their foreheads pressed together, staring at each other. It freaked people out, especially kids at school, so Jonas suggested yoga. They took to it straight away, but the best bit had been when he and Nate had found out it was known as the Lotus position. For six-year olds it was the perfect fodder. They’d teased them un-mercifully for weeks—calling them flower, saying how sweet they smelt, asking if they wanted some water to stand in. The twins reacted and played tricks on them, until the slow worms they’d put at the bottom of his bed scared the life out of his mother when she’d tried to change his sheets.
They’d all been grounded for that one.
So much water under the bridge, so many good memories. But life was changing rapidly, and it was scary as hell.
“She’s still out cold, so is Jonas.” Nate stepped into the kitchen, hands in his pockets and his voice low. “I’ve just had an interesting chat with the Dark Lord out there.”
“Dark Lord?” Matt turned his head enough to lift an eyebrow at him.
“He’s a dangerous fucker. He’s on our side by default through Lily. We fuck up with her and we might as well plan our funerals.”
“Are we convinced he’s interested in her welfare only?”
“No, we aren’t. He’s got history with this Council thing. I don’t doubt he loves her in his own way. That he’ll do whatever it takes to keep her safe, but I think there’s an ulterior motive brewing as well.”
“And it includes her?”
“Yeah.” Nate leant against the sink unit beside Matt. “How long have the Tweedles been like that?” He indicated the twins with his chin, his hands still in his pockets.
“They were like it when I came in. I reckon they’ve gone to sleep.”
“Fuck off,” Josh muttered, and Matt smirked at Nate.
“Gonna spill it?” Nate nudged Matt’s shoulder with his elbow.
Matt shoved his hands into his pockets. He should have known they’d pick up on it, especially Nate. He’d never been able to hide his emotions from Nate, not that he tried, he’d never had to. But this? This he was still trying to process himself.
“You were pissed off.” Nate crossed his ankles.
“He had the vicar there.” He kept his gaze on the clock on the wall. If he stayed detached it might not hurt so much.
“Not for a social chit chat then?”
“No. To save my immortal soul.”
“Good Lord.” Nate snorted. “Does the man not know you? That was a lost cause years ago.”
Matt blinked, and just like that the hurt vanished; the worry of what would happen was washed away. He put his head back and laughed, he laughed so hard tears came to his eyes. Nate put his hand on his shoulder, laughing with him.
“Dad said you can live with us if need be.” The twins got to their feet and came over.
“Ah, but I may corrupt your pure, innocent souls,” teased Matt.
“And you don’t know us.” Josh chuckled. “Our souls have never been pure and innocent.”
“We were all corrupted years ago. Who gives a fuck what some stuffy old vicar says anyway?” Nate said.
“Well, apparently, there’s a circle of hell reserved especially for deviants like us.”
“Oh, good,” Josh said. “At least we’ll still be together after death.”
“What has your Dad told you?” Nate asked, knowing there was a lot more to it than the words of a vicar.
“Cut all ties with Lily. He doesn’t care what you do, he can distance himself from you, but I’m his son. His heir apparent. If I don’t he’ll stop my allowance, restrict access to you lot and when I finish my exams in the summer I’ll no longer be welcome in his house.”
“What the fuck?” Josh demanded.
“That will cause a huge scandal if it got out to the press though,” Nate pointed out. “How’s it going to look if the local MP kicks his own son out of his house?”
“I said that, but he pulled his ace.” The anger and resentment seeped back, his hands curled into fists in his pockets. “He calmly sat there and told me it wouldn’t just be me and him that would get caught in the scandal, but it would be everyone else: Mum, you, Lily. He spelt out to me what would happen if his career went up in flames. Mum would suffer so much.”
“What did you say to him?”
Matt clenched his jaw and swallowed. “I told him to take his hypocrisy and shove it up his arse. That there’s no point in waiting a few months. I walked out. I didn’t take anything, I just walked out.” His knees gave out, and he slid down the cabinet onto the floor. “I walked out.”
The twins went with him, and Nate was a close second as they crouched around him.
He brought his hands from his pocket and thrust them into his hair. “Do you think Uncle Steve meant it?” He tried to laugh, but it came out strangled.
“Of course, he did!” They answered at the same time.
“I can’t believe this,” Nate muttered. “How bloody warped is that?” He flung his arm around his neck and Matt was grateful for the contact.
“What did your mum say?” Jake asked, sitting back on his ankles.
“She wasn’t there. She was with the vicar, discussing my sins I expect. Dad told me he wanted to talk privately with me in his office.”
“She doesn’t know?” Nate asked.
“I don’t know.” Matt refused to think about that. He’d never had a good relationship with his father, but his mum? He hoped she had no part in his plan, because if she did, it would tear him apart.
“I can’t get my head around this,” Nate muttered. “I can’t see how he thinks this is going to protect his career. Just because you don’t live there anymore won’t make any difference if it ever got out.”
“It will. If I’m estranged, if I left, his moral reputation will stand up.”
“Unless it gets out about his whores,” Josh pointed out.
“Paid off, every one of them.” Matt leant his head against the counter.
“You know where we stand through this,” Nate said.
Matt looked at him and then the twins. “Thanks.”
“Don’t hit me,” Josh warned.
Matt tilted his head in question.
“Are you sure you know what you’re doing? This isn’t like their arguments, where you’ll go back tomorrow morning and it’ll be like nothing happened.”
“I know,” he acknowledged. “It really fucking hurts. I know I’m burning a bridge I may never get back again. It scares the shit out of me, but at the same time, walking out of there, coming here to you, to Lily? I know I’ve made the right decision. I can’t give any of you up, I won’t. There’s so much unhappiness in that house, always has been. The only time I’m happy is with you three, when I’m with Lily, or I’m on my own somewhere, anywhere but there.”
“We get through this last year together, the five of us. We get through whatever shit is going down in the other room and we stick together. No one gets between us, no one.” Nate’s voice was firm.
“Agreed. We need to get this bond with her done,” Jake said. “Although we guess going away depends on what Jonas tells us.”
“And what the almighty Dark Lord makes of what Jonas says,” Nate drawled.
“And whatever the fuck was going on with her. We swear that girl needs to figure out a warning for us. Scared the ever-loving hell out of us,” Josh said.
Matt remembered the angle of her head when he’d walked in. Horrific didn’t cover it. He’d see that for a while when he closed his eyes at night.
“Well, at least life with her will never be boring,” Nate said with a laugh.
“As long as she tones down the horror movie effects,” Jake said. “We don’t think we’ll ever get used to it. We half expected something to come crawling out of the telly.”
“Mrs J’s telly?” Nate laughed. “The only thing that’ll crawl out of there is woodworm.”
A shriek followed by a thump had Matt scrambling to his feet, along with the others.
“If her head is on backwards, you can deal with her, Nate, we’ll wait back here,” Jake muttered.
“Cowards,” Nate teased
“You didn’t see her,” Matt replied.
