Chapter 24

“Now, my darling,” Ryan said, as he stepped towards Iggy. Ray winced. I’d feel so bad later when I saw the bruise I had left on her knuckles. “Lucas needs--”

“Mom, shut him up,” I said, pleadingly.

Mom didn’t need a magic phrase or mind control to come to my rescue. She was my mom. I wasn’t loved because of magic only.

I wasn’t my father.

Mom made my stomach fall out. She stepped straight into Ryan’s line of sight and grabbed his head. With her stilettos, Mom was millimeters shorter than Ryan. His words petered out and she shoved her tongue in their place to dam the tide.

Ray needed to use her other hand to break my grip. I moved like the loss of touch was a starting pistol. I grabbed Iggy around the hips. She was glass-eyed and insensate. I kissed her neck and whispered. “Walk with me, and then to the door. Be safe. Until I say so, don’t listen to anyone else.”

I moved her out of the fray. Dawn, Emi, and Anna filled in Iggy, Ray, and my abandoned phalanx. Ray was rushing to Vonnie.

The doors to the kitchen opened. Janine was pushing a cart with a big steel domed serving tray and utensils on the white cloth. Her head popped up and she locked her eyes on Iggy’s.

“She can’t go over there!” Janine said, abandoning her job.

“Anna!” I hissed. She was on the left. She also had the longest legs to intercept. My blonde girl went off like a shot for the scrambled up waitress.

Ryan broke the kiss with mom, smiling he pushed her back.

“Ry~an...” Mari, his date, the gorgeous early twenties redhead was looking at my mother as sharply as any of the steak knives in reach. My fingers twitched. I could rush him--

He only needed a word and Mom could end up on my knifepoint while he got away with my girls as revenge. I didn’t move.

“Kate. You have to let me deal with our boy,” Ryan said.

“Ryan, you promised that Lucas would be mine to love and raise,” she said.

“Well why don’t you go and raise your son somewhere else, you old hooker!” Mari said. “Ryan, I have a lot to talk to you about. Now, I don’t care that your a father but I will not be someone’s side girl and--”

“Mari, you’ll shut your mouth and obey like you’ve been trained to,” Mom said.

Mari stood still. The scowl on her face turned upward into a sublime smile. Ryan rubbed her shoulder absently.

“You do great work, Kate,” he said. “With women. Lucas is a man. And I think it’s time he learned that being my son is a responsibility as much as it is a privilege.”

Dawn flinched back from the thumb pressed on her chin. I ground my teeth. I nearly lunged for a knife. I squeezed Iggy’s hips.

“She can’t go over there!” Janine pushed against Anna. “I have to--”

“Janine Alexandra Pinkman!”

Dammit! Anna had stopped the waitress but no one in the restaurant had missed it. Especially not Ryan. Anna’s harsh whispers rattled off rapidly. Ray and Vonnie closed on me and Iggy. Ryan’s attention was on Janine. He pushed my mom. Not a shove, she easily gave ground with a step back, but laying hands on her, on Dawn, and using Iggy’s trigger. I was seeing red and snorting steam.

“I have her,” Ray said, rubbing my back.

“I’ll keep Kate safe for you,” Vonnie said, walking by us to join the confrontation.

The chef was coming out of the back. The man who’d served me the steak when I had met with Ryan. The one who’d let me drink. The owner. Shit, I didn’t want the cops here. That’d be a pain in the ass and a delay.

There was no way for me to handle a man...

I grabbed Vonnie’s elbow. She looked at me.

“Don’t tell me what you need to do with Mom, but keep that man out of our business,” I said.

She touched my cheek.

“I’m not your mom,” she said. “I promise to talk us out of this.”

I felt the weight in my stomach boil away as Vonnie headed over. Ray hugged Iggy and frowned. She poked me in the back.

“You locked her brain up,” Ray said.

“Ray’s words are as good as mine,” I said, quickly into Iggy’s ear.

I didn’t look to see what happened but I rushed over towards Anna and Ryan.

“What did she say to you!?” Ryan said, smugly. Janine seemed locked in her flats as she slouched in mind controlled bliss.

“Nothing, I swear--” Anna said.

“First she told me to stop concerning myself with Iggy. Then she told me that Iggy was the goofy brunette teenager who wasn’t living up to the dress and comportment codes of the restaurant. Then she pointed her out to differentiate her from the darker one over there.”

“I am so glad Iggy’s dead to the world to hear that,” Emi said, crossing her arms as the other brunette who wasn’t living up to the dress code.

“Kate, the boys need to have a chat,” Vonnie said, grabbing Mom’s elbow. “Let’s make sure they have their privacy.”

“Ladies, gentleman,” the chef nodded to me. “And Ryan. Can I help with whatever’s upsetting everyone?”

“You are just the man we are looking for!” When Mom turned on the charm, the room lit up with her. She and Vonnie walked up to the chef. He was putty to be led away.

Janine was reciting Anna’s commands.

“I was to make it very quick so you wouldn’t speak before I was done,” Janine’s words hit me. Anna wasn’t red-faced at all. She was stark white. Whiter than Dawn, and Dawn was practically a redhead. Anna was darker inside than I could’ve imagined. For the bubbly, quick to blush, good, obedient, hyper-achieving cheerleader, it just made me love her more. Was it wrong to get excited by that kind of resolve?

I stepped back towards Emi, put my lips to her ear. Ryan was stone-faced. I did my best to whisper. The room was quiet but for Janine’s low voice and Mom’s flirtatious giggling. I put my hand on Emi’s opposite hip and whispered.

“Her name is Maribel Elizabeth...”

“ ... Donovan.” Ray finished for me, even nailing the cadence so Emi would be ready. I squeezed Emi’s butt, kissed her cheek. And headed over towards Anna.

“They’re mine, Ryan,” I said. “All mine. Not yours to fuck with when you’re feeling slighted and prickly.”

“You’re mine,” he said, turning away. There was a smirk on his face. “I can’t believe we’ve never limited violence in our slaves. It’s never come up. No, it has. You are like me.”

“In that I don’t share,” I said. “You never let the name Isabel Cherry Day come out of your mouth again.”

“I don’t want your high school crushes, Lucas,” he said. “But Kate is my Iggy. And if you commit to this tug of war, I will end up with them all.”

“You tug, I’ll go to war,” I said.

“Fine, Lucas Ry--”

I didn’t even see Vonnie come over. The swift kick from behind and up between Ryan’s legs rocked the sneer off his face and the food from his guts. He wiped his spitty hands on the cloth of the serving cart. He turned and glared at Vonnie.

“I gotta stop Kate from doing something you’d both hate,” Vonnie said. “Act like men, Ryan. He’s your son, not your slut.”

Vonnie turned on her foot and stalked off. Janine had stopped rattling off Anna’s instructions. Ryan took a long deep breath and composed himself. He glared at Vonnie’s retreating backside.

“She knows how costly that was,” Ryan turned to me, “and she still did it, because she was right. We should be family. I--”

His voice cut out harshly. I turned to look at what he was looking at. Dawn was so close behind me I retreated a step, startled, and bumped into the cart, clanking the flatware and serving trays about. Dawn gave me a quick smile and grabbed my right arm. Holding me back from acting.

I put the carving knife down.

“Another one?” Ryan said. Seeing Emi shaking by the shoulders. Ryan stepped forward, but wobbled. “Emi, Mari get over here!”

Mari flowed. Her hips wagged hypnotically, even from the front, as she crossed her ankles with every step. And she managed to run while doing it. She was a masterpiece and a nobody. One look at Dawn, I saw all of the character and conviction my girls brought to the table.

I didn’t want a string of anonymous slaves.

I wanted my girls.

I sure as shit didn’t want Ryan’s filthy anonymous hands on what was mine.

Dawn leaned her cheek on my shoulder. I quieted.

Emi came behind Mari. Emi had always been the indomitable one, a force of nature. Her shoulders were slumped. She smeared her mascara with the back of her hand. Her thick black hair fell limp over her face as she trudged toward us.

“Lucas, I’m sor--”

“Mari, what did this one say to you!”

Anna joined Dawn, grabbing my other side. Ryan pulled Emi up by her hair. Her overly made-up raccooned eyes were smeared with polluted tears. Dawn dug her fingernails into my arm muscle.

I looked at Dawn. I saw her anger matched mine. I got aroused. I turned to Anna, she was watching Emi and Ryan. I watched as well.

“I didn’t do anything!” Emi shouted over Mari’s quiet timbre.

“Say again,” Ryan said.

“She almost said my name,” Mari answered. “Then her voice got all crackly and she covered her face. I think she said ‘I’m sorry, I can’t.’”

“You can’t?” I asked. Emi looked at me with shaking lips. She tried to smile.

“I only knew one way to stop him like you wanted,” Emi said. “Just like Anna said. And--And how would I be able to look Mom in the eye if I could do that? I’m not a bad person! I couldn’t!”

I pulled out of Anna’s arm, she let me. I had to shake Dawn off. I rushed over and grabbed Emi in a hug.

“This has gone too far Lucas,” Ryan said. “For god’s sake. I should’ve made this your graduation gift, not your 18th birthday. You’ll be gone next September. This town isn’t big enough for the two of us.”

“Then leave,” I said. I felt like I should be shouting. The words came out in a low rumbling seethe. “Go off to Thailand again. Bounce around Brazil or whatever the fuck you did. You don’t have to be here.”

“No, you can’t make me go,” he said, childishly. “I can make those rounds whenever I want. Your mother’s been on a dozen business trips in the last three years. I am making a whole world for myself. I decide where I am! I decide where home is. For me and for you.”

“Fuck you,” I said. “You abandoned any chance of having any decisions in my life. You were an asshole. You get shit.”

“You’re the second, Lucas,” he said. I forced myself to look in his eyes. If I didn’t see it. I wasn’t distracted. He was focused on me. “Second to Kate. Second for everything. I shared incredible power with you, but I’ve always been able to pack it up and put you back.”

“Then try it,” I said.

“Kate was ... Kate is special,” he said. “I was wrong to think that’d mean you’d be too.” He frowned, he was turning. Anna and Dawn exploded in a sprint over to Emi and me. They piled on a hug from our left. Ryan turned back.

“I have this much trouble with one kid, Anna,” he said. “I’ll have nothing to do with your brothers.”

“Thank you,” Anna said. I squeezed her. She ironed up her face.

“We don’t have to stay,” Emi said to me. “We can be a family anywhere. We could change schools. We could leave well enough alone.”

“And I can be the hand that motivates your mothers to allow it,” Ryan said.

“I’m not leaving Mom to you,” I said.

“Stubborn little bastard,” Ryan hissed through clenched teeth. “Lucas Ryan Greentree.”