“I’ll keep you posted,” Rika told her mom on the phone. “Don’t worry.” She listened, then nodded, glancing at me. “As soon as we know something, yes.”
She hung up and handed the phone to me. I tucked it into my pocket, Damon in the driver’s seat in front of me and Winter wringing her hands next to him.
I heard a notification beep, and then Damon tapped the screen of his cell.
“What is it?” Rika asked.
“Banks texted,” he told us. “The kids are at the marina.”
“Does Banks have them?” I blurted out.
But he shook his head, punching the gas, the engine revving under us. “I don’t think so.”
“Damon…” Winter begged, and I could see her knees shaking.
He clasped her hand. “They won’t do anything.”
“They might not plan to, but I doubt that dead body upstairs was planned, either,” she pointed out. “Something went wrong. They’ll be more scared now.”
Rika scooted forward and put her hand on Winter’s arm.
“If they were going to…” I started, but thought better of saying that out loud. “They would’ve done it at the house. They want ransom or something.”
Winter paused a moment, dropping her head. “Or they’re selling them,” she muttered. “Or bringing them to someone else.”
Jesus. I closed my eyes, groaning. We all knew the worst-case scenarios, and none of them ended happily for us if we didn’t catch up to those kids in the next ten minutes.
I hated that she let those thoughts fester, but…it kept us alert, I guess.
“Just go,” Rika barked. “Go around him.”
Damon swerved into the wrong lane, passing another car, and then jerked the wheel again, speeding on ahead, in front of it.
Taking out my phone again, I dialed Athos.
I should’ve called her right away. Shit.
“Hey,” she giggled, and I could hear her friends’ chatter in the background. “I’m not drinking. I might do some kissing. And I’m raising a little hell. Proud of me?”
“Go to the theater,” I blurted out. “Now. It’s an emergency. Stay there until I come and get you.”
There was silence, and I half-expected to be questioned, but she didn’t fight.
I heard her swallow. “Okay,” she replied quietly. “I’ll text when I’m there.”
“Love you,” I said.
“Love you too.”
We hung up, and I looked at Rika who was listening in, her shoulders relaxing when I nodded.
We didn’t ever overreact, and Athos knew it. If I sounded worried, I had cause, and she needed to do what she was told.
Rika reached behind and picked up a jacket out of the third row, pulling it on, and then dug under the seat, pulling out a blade. She kept them in all of our cars and various spots in the house for immediate access.
But I put my hand on hers, stopping her.
She met my eyes, and I shook my head. No. Not this time.
Her eyes narrowed, confused. “You can’t be serious,” she whispered. “I’m always with you.”
My heart ached, because I never wanted to do anything without her. She was the reason we were who we were. It had all started with her.
My eyes dropped to her stomach, our son starting to show himself more every day.
“I need you to be with him,” I told her.
At all costs.
“But Octavia and Madden—”
“We’ll get them.”
Of course, she was needed. And always wanted.
I touched her face, tipping her chin up to me, and the look in her eyes took me back to that night when she was thirteen, yelling at me over the hood of my car. “I’ve waited too long to see you and me walking around in one person,” I murmured.
We loved Athos and we were lucky, because I didn’t give a shit about the mother who’d left her at the sitter’s when she was seven and never came back, or the father she’d never known.
She was made for us.
But I was dying for another chance to be a dad.
Damon swung into the parking lot of the marina, cliffs on both sides and snow pouring white over the sea. Rika finally nodded, knowing this was as far as she went.
“I’ll call Search and Rescue.” She took my phone out of my hand. “And direct the police when they get here.”
I took her face and leaned in, kissing her as Damon and Winter jumped out of the car, and headlights fell upon us from behind.
Kai and Will were here.
“Lock the doors,” I whispered against her mouth.
“Go.” She kissed me again, her cheeks wet with tears. “Hurry. Bring them back.”
I jumped out of the car, icy flakes hitting my face as I blinked against the snowfall.
“Let’s go!” Kai shouted.
I ran, glancing once more at Rika through the windshield, but she was already on the phone as she leaned over the front seats, hitting the locks.
We raced down the steps and onto the dock, looking for any sign of movement or life among the boats, or out at sea.
“Jesus, it’s getting bad,” Emmy said, pulling Will’s coat around her as she blinked against the downpour.
The black ocean loomed beyond, the darkness swallowing up any light. God, there was nothing. No kick up in the wake of a boat. No lights. Where were they?
I grabbed for my phone, but my pocket was empty. I forgot Rika had it. We needed more eyes on the town. I didn’t know where Kai got his information, but they could be anywhere but here.
“Mr. Mori!” someone called.
We all spun around, and my eyes finally caught sight of the old man up on the second-floor balcony of the marina office.
Doones was about sixty-five and the last old sea dog Thunder Bay could brag about from back in the day, when we prided ourselves on our clam chowder, rather than our cheese and wine tastings.
Kai rushed up, shouting, “Did you see Octavia and Madden tonight? Which way did they go?”
“I didna see anything,” he called out, steam billowing from his mouth as stringy gray hair curled out from under his winter cap. “It’s a winter storm comin’!” He held out his hand, announcing it as if we were all blind. “Just a few lads earlier came in from Pithom on a speedboat.”
I shot forward a step. “What?” Pithom? They came in from my yacht? “Pithom is docked in the Keys for the winter. It’s not here!”
“No, it’s floatin’ about a mile out,” he informed me, “but…”
He leaned side to side as if searching behind us.
“Well, their speedboat is gone now, so they musta showed back up and returned to it.”
And he didn’t see when they’d returned. Which meant the kids could’ve been with them.
I jerked my eyes to Damon. “You got the key?”
He dug in his pants pocket and pulled out his key ring, the silver one with the black grip immediately visible. He’d taken the company speedboat out last week, trying to get a drone over Deadlow Island, but that was just between us. Rika and Kai would have our asses if they knew we were spying on the Moreaus.
“Go!” Damon ordered all of us.
We all ran down the dock, the red racing boat floating in its usual spot, and Doones shouting behind us.
“Sir, no!” he cried. “The visibility is getting worse by the minute. We can call the Coast Guard.”
“No time!” Kai bellowed.
“Fuck,” Damon bit out.
“East, by southeast,” Doones called out, “judging from where they came when they arrived a few hours ago!”
Kai waved his thanks back at him.
“I swear, Kai,” Will growled. “You tell that kid to light a fucking candle from now on.”
“Shut up,” Kai told him.
Everyone loaded onto the boat, Em, Winter, and Banks packed on the rear bench as Kai fired up the engine. Damon sat next to him, and Will stood in the middle.
I put one foot onto the craft but stopped. Glancing back over my shoulder, I saw the SUVs in the parking lot, Rika hidden behind the tinted windows.
It only took a moment, but I rolled my eyes and sighed. “Wait,” I gritted out.
I couldn’t leave her.
Charging back up the dock, I leapt up the steps, the cold air cutting through my lungs.
“Michael!” Kai hollered.
I heard the lock on the door click a moment before I yanked the handle, opening it.
Rika pinched her eyebrows together, gaping at me.
But I didn’t have time to explain. Grabbing her hand, I pulled her out of the car, both of us breaking into as fast of a run as we could manage in her heels. I didn’t want her to fall, and definitely not for the next few months.
We raced down the dock, and I pulled her on board, pushing her down into a seat and tightening my jacket over the one she already had on.
“You stay seated,” I told her.
She nodded.
“Go, go!” Damon yelled at Kai.
Kai punched the gas, the propellers kicking up water behind us, and I grabbed on to the back of Damon’s chair, holding on as we zoomed out of the harbor.
The frigid wind hit my hair, freezing my mouth, but I zoned in ahead of us, looking for any sign of the kids or the other boat.
How did they get Pithom? Why?
They must’ve been planning to hide them at sea indefinitely. Why else would they have needed such a large vessel?
The wind sliced my skin as thoughts swirled in my head.
Ilia had been on Pithom, several times over the course of his employment with Damon’s father, and Gabriel had been on the yacht many times with mine.
He would’ve known the boat. Would’ve known enough about us to probably gain access to it.
I knew I should’ve sold the motherfucker. Too much shit had happened on it, but instead of getting rid of it, I’d sent it south for the season to be refitted.
Goddammit.
“What the hell happened at the house?” I heard Emmy ask. “And in the car? His eye was torn out?”
I turned my head. “Whose eye?”
But it was Banks who answered. “The car we saw on the camera. It was crashed back near Old Pointe. Dinescu was in bad shape,” she added.
“But then that just leaves Ilia,” Will shouted over the wind. “He wouldn’t be able to carry Tavi and Mads.”
“If he had Octavia, Mads would just follow,” Kai told us.
I glanced at Rika as she and Banks held Winter’s hands.
“Just find them,” Winter pleaded, her face etched with pain as tears filled her eyes. “Please, just find them.”
She always tried to hide it, but I could only imagine how helpless she felt.
I spun around and dropped to a knee in front of her. “Stop it,” I said, touching her hand. “Octavia needs to see you not scared.”
The boat bounced over the water, my own eyes watering from the rush of wind.
“If it were Athos,” she told me, “you’d be terrified.”
I glanced at Rika again, a look passing between us.
“When it is Athos, you will be terrified,” Winter said.
As if it was only a matter of time.
I clenched my jaw, not needing any explanation on what her point was.
She was right. We’d sent the kids to the dojo because we wanted to prepare them, but we were so arrogant that we never actually thought anyone would have enough balls to try anything.
“Our life creates enemies,” she stated in a low voice.
Rika’s eyes flashed to mine, and where I usually saw strength and reassurance, I saw uncertainty. We’d never stopped getting into shit, but our kids in danger from an outside threat hadn’t happened before.
It would happen again.
What were we supposed to do? Hide? Be invisible? Live quietly?
Cower?
I didn’t know how to be anyone else.
“Pithom!” I heard Will shout.
I rose to my feet, whipping around.
“Just barely,” he added. “It’s hard to make out in the storm.”
I stepped up behind him, gripping his shoulder for support, and peered over the windshield, seeing the distant purple glow of the lights.
Damon rose from his seat, getting ready. “Thank God.”
“Wait, what is that?” Banks called out.
I jerked my head, following her gaze.
Leaning closer to the edge, I clutched the side of the boat, barely able to make out something in the water.
“There’s something there!” I shouted to Kai, pointing. “Over there!”
Kai turned the boat, and we grew closer, the small vessel coming into view. Black hair and a black suit became clearer and clearer, and Banks cried out, “Mads!”
“Oh, my God.” Winter’s knuckles went white as she gripped Rika’s hand and sat up straight. “Are they okay? Are they hurt? Do you see Octavia?”
“Stop, stop, stop!” Damon urged.
I locked my gaze on the kid in the boat, looking for anything to tell if he was hurt, alive, still in danger…
But Kai was going too fast to stop on a dime. He circled the other speedboat again and again, slowing down and finally puttering up to the side.
The still boat sat in the water, rocking side to side in the wake of our craft, and I looked over, seeing Mads holding a small form to his side. Streaks of blood lined the side of his face.
Shit.
I didn’t see Ilia Oblensky anywhere. My stomach swam and sank at the same time. My hands shook, desperate to get over there, because if we didn’t get them in our arms, they could still be lost.
Before Will could tie us off, Damon jumped into the other boat and crashed to his knees, taking Octavia’s shoulders.
But her arms stayed around Madden.
Banks grabbed her son, hugging him to her, but he didn’t let go of Tavi. “Are you okay?” she cried. “Are you hurt?”
She tried to tip his face up and look at him, but he just pulled away gently. “It’s not my blood,” he said quietly.
“Octavia?” Winter called out.
Kai dove down and grabbed his son’s face, the kid looking as calm as ever with an impatient purse of the lips.
Ilia Oblensky slumped up against the dash panel, looking like the life was draining out of him.
“Mads?” Kai looked up at his kid. “You okay? What happened? Whose blood is this?”
The eleven-year-old just stared at his parents, his lips twisted to the side like he was bored. Octavia huddled close to him, shivering.
Other than some red cheeks and nipped noses, they looked okay.
Kai pushed off the ground and turned his attention to Ilia, grabbing the guy’s collar. “You son of a bitch,” he growled. “You put your hands on my child.”
But Ilia wheezed as he breathed, and Kai hesitated, letting his eyes fall down Ilia’s form.
He released him and ripped open his jacket. Blood coated his black shirt, his blond hair sweaty and matted.
We all stilled.
Kai yanked open his shirt, and I spotted the small holes and the blood spilling out of them. The color was draining from Ilia’s face as he started to fade out. He had minutes.
“His lungs are punctured,” Kai said, turning to look at us. “What the hell happened?”
And then to Madden. “Mads? What happened?”
Kai knew what had happened. We all knew. And Mads wasn’t going to answer what was already obvious.
“She’s cold,” was all he said.
“Octavia,” Damon said, trying again to pull her away.
Finally, she looked up at him. “Daddy.”
She reached for him, and he pulled her into his arms, hugging her tight. “You okay?” he asked. “Did they hurt you?”
She shook her head, her braids and all the jewelry she had in her hair glinting in the moonlight.
She reached over his shoulder, into the night. “Pithom,” she said, pointing to the yacht that was fading more and more into the horizon.
The waves kicked up, splashing us with spray, and I blinked against the snow, seeing that the sea was starting to get choppy.
“We’ll get it,” he assured her.
“It’s getting farther away,” she whined.
He climbed back onto our boat with her and put her in her mother’s lap. “Don’t worry.”
Emmy and Will climbed back on our vessel with Rika, and I sat down in the seat next to Ilia, firing up the engine again.
“Call an ambulance,” I yelled over to my wife.
She nodded.
Not sure how much good it would do. I should just dump the motherfucker overboard right now.
But I wouldn’t deny Kai or Damon that pleasure. If the doctors saved him, we’d discharge him to the twelfth floor as soon as he was ready.
Punctured lungs. An eye torn out of its socket. A dead body at St. Killian’s. I looked back at Mads, Kai desperate to see his son scared or need him, but…
Kai just held his son’s face, wiping off the blood and trying to make eye contact.
“We’re okay,” was all he said, though.
Kai just stared up at him, no doubt thankful the kids were safe, but still uneasy.
“Let’s just get them back to town,” Banks told her husband. “They’re freezing.”
“I’ll follow,” I told them.
Kai led Mads onto the other boat with Banks, and I let them peel out of here before I immediately followed.
Ilia’s head hung, bobbing with the bounce of the boat, and despite the cold air rushing at me, sweat dampened my skin.
We’d found them.
And Winter’s words came back, winding their way through my head.
Our life creates enemies.
We chose this. The kids didn’t.
What were our options? Separate as a family? Stop building? Go our separate ways?
The kids were in danger, but the kids also wouldn’t want that. They all adored each other.
We threatened others, but we didn’t ask for this. Others’ behavior might end up being our problem…but not our responsibility.
We deserved what we had, and I wasn’t fucking teaching Athos—or my son—that they didn’t deserve exactly what they wanted. The last thing I would teach my kids was to cower, hide, or run.
We docked the boats, the ambulance already waiting to load Ilia onto a gurney.
But I was pretty sure he was already dead.
Or would be soon enough.
Emmy talked to the police, and I wasn’t sure what story she was feeding them, but they knew we weren’t going anywhere. We’d be here if they had questions tomorrow.
“Can we still open presents?” Octavia chirped, her usual cheerful voice back.
“Yeah,” Damon laughed, hugging her to him again.
He put her in the car, Mads and Winter climbing in after her, but Kai hung back, running his hand through his hair.
As usual, he worried about everything, and I knew what he was worried about.
I was worried too, but I knew what was going through his head was far bigger than the doubts in mine.
I headed over to him, Will and Damon joining us.
“Jesus Christ,” Kai murmured, needing to clear his head before he got in the car.
“We don’t know anything,” I reminded him.
He always got worked up before he knew he had something to worry about.
“‘That kid’s crazy,’” he said.
I studied him. “What?”
“That’s what Dinescu said when his eyeball was hanging out of his head.” He stared straight ahead. “‘That kid’s crazy.’ You think Madden killed that guy at the house too?”
Will and Damon remained silent, and I knew what everyone was thinking. It freaked us out, but were we upset he did it?
“I think he’s the reason they failed tonight,” I told Kai, keeping my voice low. “Don’t do this. I don’t give a damn what happened to those pieces of shit. And neither should you.”
Kai shook his head. “Michael…”
“Our life makes enemies,” I stated. “Our strength threatens people.”
I looked around, making eye contact with all of them. For years, I didn’t stop them from doing whatever they wanted, because I wanted them to embrace what they were, but I was not going to let Kai feel like he’d done something wrong, when the alternative was Mads doing nothing and those kids being lost to us forever.
“We’re not changing,” I told them.
Kai stepped up to me, almost glaring. “And in another ten years when another enemy, or the child of an enemy, creeps up to surprise us again?”
“They won’t want to mess with your kid in ten years,” Will joked.
“This isn’t funny!” Kai growled, not caring who heard him. “My kid—”
“Didn’t go looking for any of this!” I finished for him. “None of this is his fault. He did what any animal on this planet does when someone threatens its life.”
Kai fell silent, and I didn’t back down. I knew what he was worried about. I understood. What if a bully got on Mads’s last nerve someday? What if he got into a fight and caused more harm than he bargained for?
What if everything he’d learned at the dojo and with his grandfather had turned him into something we couldn’t control?
But none of that would happen.
Not really.
Mads was taught just as much about when to fight as he was taught how to fight. The only thing that unnerved me was how much more efficient he was at it than me.
“Now, let’s go home and light the fucking tree and tuck our kids in,” I told all of them. “With any luck, what happened tonight spreads like wildfire, and anyone with a beef will think twice about coming for us or our kids again.”
“Hell yeah,” Damon muttered.
He and Will headed off, climbing into the cars, while Kai and I stayed with our gazes locked.
“We’re all watching him,” I assured Kai. “We’re all raising him.”
Kai wasn’t alone.
His jaw flexed.
“He could be a million miles away, living in hell right now,” I pointed out. “He brought himself and that little girl home tonight.”
We taught soldiers to kill people to save a nickel on a barrel of oil. Whatever Mads did or didn’t do tonight, he’d had no choice.
Finally, Kai’s eyes dropped, and his chest caved as he nodded.
Mads was safe. That was all that mattered.
We walked to the cars, climbing in.
“Did someone say presents?” I called out as I buckled my seatbelt.
Octavia gasped and then yelped, already forgetting the incident, her sights set on the promise of everything under the tree.
After picking up Athos and the rest of the kids, Will driving the busload back, we returned to St. Killian’s to find the winner of the treasure hunt waiting and ready for their prize.
The kids were shuffled upstairs to get bathed and into their pajamas, while Rika and I pushed through, presenting the trust to Tucker Adams and his girlfriend, Amanda Leigh. While David stayed at the Pope with Taylor and Kai, Damon and Will smuggled the body out of the house to the waiting truck, so Lev could deliver it to the coroner.
We had so much shit to deal with tomorrow.
And to try to keep quiet.
A round of applause, a champagne toast from the remaining guests, and the house finally started to empty after about forty-five minutes.
The kids rounded the fifteen-foot tree, lighting more candles as only a few remained lit in the whole house, the wind outside howling through the nooks and crannies of the old church.
I stood back, watching the kids open presents—except for the one they saved for Christmas Day—playing with their toys, showing off their new gadgets, and throwing the books to the side that we tried to make sure was on every holiday list, just in case they ever took an interest.
Damon held a package wrapped in brown paper, looking at it almost nervously, like he wasn’t sure he was ready to open it, while Octavia ran to the window bench, plopping down next to Madden. She colored with her new Crayola markers that her parents had refused to trust her with up until now, as Mads sketched with his new pencils and pad.
She kicked her legs back and forth.
I slipped my arms around Rika, hugging her close. “Kids bounce back, don’t they?”
My God.
She laughed. “I think Octavia knew what the rest of us didn’t.”
“Which was?”
“She was never in any real danger.”
I watched the kids, Mads probably drawing another bird, as his cousin tried to act just like him with her purple marker.
“Have they caught the boat?” Rika asked me.
“The weather’s too bad.” I kissed her head, my hand resting on her stomach. “They’ll need to wait until morning.”
I wondered if there was anyone on it, or if the three men had manned it all on their own.
For all I cared, I hoped they never found it. That boat was cursed.
“Has he talked about it?” Rika asked.
Who?
But then I realized, she was still eyeing Mads.
I sighed. “I doubt he will.”
Kai might’ve freaked out, but I wasn’t sure it registered with his son. Mads’s sense of empathy wasn’t like others.
At least that I’d seen.
I gazed out at the scene, gold and red paper scattered all over the floor, while flames flickered on the tree, the red ribbons hanging down and looking so beautiful against the snowfall still coming down outside.
Tomorrow there’d be food and sledding, and maybe some football in the snow, because if there was anything we knew now, it was that every moment with each other was exactly where we belonged.
Treats covered the dining table as a fire burned in the fireplace, and Emmy started a record. I smiled, tightening my hold on Rika and hoping we never had to go through again what we went through tonight.
And if we did, please let it be years from now. My heart still hadn’t slowed.
Athos tried to catch a peek at Mads’s drawing, but he just turned away as she ruffled the hair on his head. I watched her walk over and climb up onto the windowsill across the room, sipping her punch while she watched everyone.
My heart fluttered, and I almost choked on the words.
“I watched you watching us from that window so many years ago.” I pointed to where Athos now sat, remembering that Devil’s Night so long ago. “Trying to not feel you there, but needing you to stay.”
She leaned her head against my body.
“We were right about here when I sent you in blindfolded,” I pointed out.
“Pushed me, you mean.”
I chuckled. I was such a dick.
I was still a dick, but she loved me anyway.
She clasped my arms, hugging me back. “I wanted to feel everything, as long as I could feel it with you,” she told me. “All these years later, that hasn’t changed.”
Not even an inch.
The music played and the children laughed, most of them completely unaware of what had happened tonight, although Rika had filled Athos in.
We created our life here.
One life. One chance.
“No one stops us,” she whispered. “No one owns us.”
I held her tight. “And we’re not changing.”
