“We don’t know the whole story, Abe.”
“We know enough.”
Careful not to touch Danny, Abe waved toward the door.
“Let’s go, Danny.”
Danny licked his lips, clearly nervous and unsure of what to do. His eyes darted to Charles. “Father?”
Abe could see a runaway train headed right for Danny in Charles’s O’Shay’s spiteful eyes and there was nothing he could do to prevent it. He couldn’t plug Danny’s ears and he would never reach Charles in time to keep him silent.
“I’m not your father.”
Abe expected Danny to be devastated, to maybe even cry. That was what other people did when the man that had raised them announced that he wasn’t their father. Danny just stared for the longest moment, his expression a stone mask, unreadable.
And then he glanced up at Abe. “Is that true?”
Abe winced in sympathy. “I’m afraid it is, Danny.”
Danny glanced at the others standing around Charles, nodding toward them. “And them? Are they my brothers and sister?”
“No.”
“Oh, thank god.” Abe’s eyebrows shot up when Danny grabbed his shirt and leaned his forehead against Abe’s chest. “That’s the best birthday present I’ve ever received.”
“You’re happy that you’re not related to them?” What had the O’Shay family done to Danny to make him dislike them so much that he would be happy they were not related?
Danny had a deep-seated anger in his eyes when he tilted his head back and looked up at Abe. It was not a good look on him. “I’d rather be related to a sewer rat.”
Okay then
.
Abe blinked down at the little man, unsure of what exactly to say to that. Danny seemed too innocent for such viciousness despite the monthly reports he was now beginning to believe were all a bunch of crap. He couldn’t be the spoiled brat Charles had made him out to be.
“Let’s let them finish in here without us, hmm? We need to go get your inhaler.”
“I’m okay now.” The paleness of Danny’s face said otherwise. His breathing might be a little better but he was still drawing in air way too fast for Abe’s liking.
“Please?” Abe could be polite as the next guy, especially when he believed that no one in a very long time had asked for Danny’s cooperation instead of demanding it.
Danny’s head tilted. His eyes were piercing as if he was trying to see what Abe’s angle was. There was a distrust in Danny that had been earned by years of betrayal and abuse. Abe vowed to do everything in his power to remove that stain from Danny’s beautiful green eyes.
When Danny nodded and turned toward the door, A breathed a sigh of relief and followed after him.
“Ben, I’m not sure signing that agreement is in Danny’s best interest right now. There’s a lot more going on here than we were informed of.”
“Would you rather Charles and his brats continue to be a part of Danny’s life?”
Ben replied.
No way in hell.
“I’d rather kill them all.”
“Probably not the best course of action, even if it’s warranted.”
Ben’s amusement came through their bond as the man chuckled.
“Let’s just get Danny out of here. We can explain everything to him once we get him home.”
Abe was all for getting Danny away from Charles and his brood. If he had his way, Danny would never see any of them ever again. It was obvious to anyone looking that there was a huge divide between them and Danny. That might not be such a bad thing. Charles was an ass, his new young wife was a bitch, and his kids were over privileged brats. Abe prayed Danny wasn’t like any of them.
Only time would tell.
“Danny, I know Charles said you had moved out a while ago. Is there anything still here you need to pack?”
“No.” Danny shook his head so hard that Abe was worried he was going to fall over. He almost reached out hand to steady Danny until he remembered that the man didn’t like to be touched. They would have to work on that. Abe intended to be touching lot.
“Do you live near here?”
“No.”
Abe frowned. He wasn’t real pleased with the single word replies. “Can you say anything more than no?”
Danny stopped walking and spun around. “Who are you?”
* * * *
Ben signed his name on the dotted line and then tossed the pen down on the desk, much like his twin brother had. “That should be everything,” he said as he watched Charles sign his name. The lawyer checked all the signatures over and then handed Ben his copy of the papers.
“How soon will the money be transferred into my account?” Charles asked. The man tried to seem casual as he pressed his fingertips together but he was practically drooling as he talked about the money he was to be paid for caring for Danny all these years.
“In the next twenty-four hours as agreed upon.” Ben was disgusted by the greedy gleeful look in Charles’s face. He was revolted by the flirtation he could see in the eyes of the man’s young wife.
He still didn’t like the fact that his elders had made an agreement with Charles O’Shay to raise Danny in exchange for a large sum of money. Danny should have been raised back home with a loving family. Not in this hell hole.
But disobeying his elders wasn’t something he ever considered doing. Since his very first memory, Ben, his twin, and then later his other siblings had all been raised to respect their elders. It was unheard of for one of them to disobey an elder or to not listen to their advice, even if they didn’t like it.
Especially after the massacre twenty-three years ago that had almost wiped them out. So many people had died that even now it was hard for anyone to talk about. Ben and Abe had lost their father Isaac in the attack. Ben had been just a kid at the time but he still felt the loss of one of his parents to this very day.
He couldn’t begin to imagine what Danny must be going through having just learned that Charles wasn’t his father. Danny said he preferred it that way but did he really? Ben knew from personal experience how damaging it could be emotionally to lose a family member, a parent even harder.
Danny had to be devastated.
Ben tucked the papers into the pocket of his jacket and then turned to leave when a burning question came to mind. “Tell me, Charles,” he said as he glanced back. “Does Danny know anything about what is going on here? Did you even tell him who we were?”
“No.” The human had a smirk on his face as he replied that made Ben want to wipe it off—with a clawed paw. “Should I have?”
Ben clenched his fists. “Does he even know about shifters?”
Charles’s smug smile was answer enough.
Danny was clueless.
Fucking peachy!
The silence in the back of the house was haunting, reminding Danny that Thomas and Clara were going home and he would probably never see them again. To top off what was turning into another stellar day in his dismal life, Danny was still trying to accept the fact that Charles O’Shay wasn’t his father.
One part of him wanted to climb up onto the rooftop and shout to the world that he wasn’t related to the cold unfeeling bastard that had raised him. Another part wondered if he had anyone left in the world that even knew he existed? If he dropped off the face of the planet, would anyone even go looking for him or would he simply fade into the woodwork?
He was a serial killer’s perfect victim—no friends, no family, no job out in the real world, no one to report him missing. He didn’t even have a cat.
He needed a cat.
“Do you have a cat?” he asked as he glanced at the tall man following him to the back of the house. “I think I need to get a cat.” Danny frowned. “Maybe a dog.”
He needed someone to care that he existed.
“We can discuss it when we get home.”
Well, that didn’t make sense.
“Why would we discuss it?” He didn’t even know why he was discussing it with the man beyond the fact that he was there and the silence made Danny uncomfortable.
“I think there are a lot of things that we need to discuss, Danny.”
“Like what?”
“Let’s wait until my brother is here.”
Brothers
. Yeah, that made sense. Abe and Ben looked a lot alike. They had the same brooding frowns on their faces when they were dealing with Charles. They also had the same deep amber eyes, ones that seemed to hypnotize Danny whenever he looked into them.
He avoided looking into them.
“Are you twins?”
“Yes.”
“What’s it like having a twin?”
Abe blinked for a moment as if the question had stunned him. “Ben and I are very close. It’s like having a best friend that you’ve known all of your life.”
Danny sighed. “That sounds nice.”
He turned and kept walking toward the laundry room, not wanting the strong man to see his lower lip slide out into a pout. He wished that he had a twin. The siblings he had grown up with, or at least the people he thought of as his siblings his entire life, were never very nice to him. They ignored him more than anything, picking on him when they didn’t. It had become less of a problem once he moved away from home but growing up it had been hell. They made it more than clear he wasn’t welcome.
Being the youngest, Danny always assumed he was an afterthought. Maybe his parents had forgotten to use birth control one night and he had been the outcome. He also always assumed his mother had died giving birth to him since his fath—since Charles seemed to blame him in some way for the woman’s death. Now he wasn’t even sure the woman was his mother.
“Do you know who my parents were?”
“Danny, we need to wait until—”
Danny turned. “Please, tell me.”
The massive man sighed, his shoulders slumping. “I was pretty young when they died but I remember them.”
Danny twisted his fingers together. “Did they…” He swallowed hard. “Did they want me?”
“They died saving your life,” Abe said. “A bunch of us were down at the lake on a summer outing when we were attacked. Your parents died trying to protect all of us.”
Danny inhaled slowly, trying to blink away the tears that sprang to his eyes. “They died trying to protect me?” They had cared enough to give their lives for him?
“Many lives were lost that afternoon. Your parents, one of my parents, Charles’s first wife. A lot of people were killed but even more were saved by their sacrifice.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It was a long time ago, Danny.”
Danny wasn’t sure if Abe was unaffected by what happened all those years ago or if he was just trying to hide it from him. He just knew it made his chest ache to think of the big strong man being hurt.
And wasn’t that odd?
Confused about the direction his thoughts were heading, Danny turned back around and continued toward the laundry room. His bags were right where he had left them, along with an additional bag that had been stacked with them.
Danny squatted down and opened the new bag, rooting around inside of it. He pulled out a flash stick, a stuffed bear, a blue blanket with his name embroidered on it, and note taped to it all from Thomas and Clara telling him that the flash stick contained pictures taken as he grew up and that they couldn’t wait to see him again.
They would be waiting at home.
Danny first thought they meant his apartment and wondered why they would be there, and then he knew they meant the town they had grown up in. He glanced up at Abe. “Do you know where Pacific Cove is?”
“Yes, of course.”
Danny grinned. “Cool.” He went back to looking through the bag but it didn’t have any more surprises in it. Danny shoved everything back inside, dropping the flash stick in with his laptop. He wanted to make sure it was in a safe place he wouldn’t forget.
He grabbed the shoulder straps on the bags and started to lift them onto his shoulder but the straps were taken out of his hands. Danny swung around, ready to fight for his possessions—just knowing that it was one of his former siblings playing another prank on him—until he saw Abe looping he straps over his shoulder.
“You don’t have to—”
“You can start carrying them when you’re not injured.” Abe patted the bag on the outside of the pile. “Which one of these bags has your inhaler in it?”
Danny pointed to the second bag back. “The green one.”
Abe moved the bags around until he could hand the green one to Danny. “Get your inhaler. I think for now it would be a good idea if you carried your inhaler on you. Once we can get your prescription refilled, Ben and I will start carrying one for you as well.”
Danny hesitated, blinking with bafflement before digging into the green bag to pull out his inhaler. He shoved it into his pocket, hoping he didn’t lose it. He had another one at home but that was a bus ride away. He’d never make it home in time if he had an attack.
“Why would you want to carry one of my inhalers?” Why would Abe even care if Danny had a panic attack? Abe had introduced himself when Danny asked but that was about as far as it went. He refused to relay any more information except basic conversation until his brother arrived. There was no reason for the man to care if Danny had his inhaler or not.