Barbarian (Jericho’s Boys #3)

18. Nico

They were in the back of an Uber, on their way to Amy’s apartment, when it happened. One minute, Nico was tucked under Mal’s arm, head resting on his chest, playing Candy Crush; the next, he was staring at his mother’s smiling face as the FaceTime ring chirped throughout the enclosed space.

His breath caught, drawing Mal’s attention away from the view outside.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, glancing down at Nico’s phone screen.

Nico’s heart was in his stomach, but he couldn’t pinpoint why. He’d been trying to call her for days, and she’d ignored him. Yet now, there she was, calling him back at the most inconvenient possible time.

“It’s my mom,” he whispered. “She’s trying to video call me.”

Mal frowned at him, tapping his shoulder softly. “So, why aren’t you answering?”

Nico shook his head. “I don’t know.”

“She’s gonna hang up soon,” Mal cautioned.

“Ugh, fine,” Nico muttered.

He accepted the call, then held his phone away from him. His mom sat on the edge of a bed that looked straight out of a Tommy Bahama catalog. She wore a white tank top that matched the linens and the gauzy curtains surrounding her. Her blonde hair was piled on her head, and she looked radiant, even sweaty and without a stitch of makeup.

“Mom?”

She smiled the moment she saw his face. His stomach churned. “Oh, my God. Hi, my sweet angel baby,” she gushed, her voice sounding a bit staticky, cutting in and out.

Nico was rotting from the inside. Something about his mother acting like she hadn’t been ghosting him for days unnerved him. “Why do you sound like you’re calling me using a string and two tin cans?”

She gave a delighted laugh. The same laugh as Nico’s. “‘Cause I’m in the jungle, silly.”

Right, of course, she was. Why wouldn’t she be? Sometimes, it felt like he was the adult and she was the child. “What? What jungle? Last I heard, you were living in a penthouse in a Vegas hotel.”

She waved a hand. “Oh, baby. That was forever ago. Right now, I’m in Peru.”

Nico couldn’t catch his breath, like he’d just crossed the finish line of a marathon. He could feel his heart racing, irritation making his blood itch.

“Mom, what the fuck are you doing in Peru?” he asked, giving the driver an apologetic wince when their eyes met in the rearview mirror.

His mother’s left hand suddenly filled the screen, bringing attention to the gold ring with what looked like an actual pink rock for a stone. Nico was going to throw up. Literally. His stomach was churning.

“What…is…that?” he asked dully, knowing full well what it was.

“It’s a wedding ring, duh,” she said, appearing on screen once more. “Isn’t it so cute? I’m on my honeymoon!”

Honeymoon? This had to be a joke. She must be joking. She’d never been much of a prankster, but it was the only explanation that made sense. His mother, the woman who had spent the last decade telling him that marriage killed love and that she’d rather be eaten by sharks, was now telling him she was married. Not engaged. Married . Shoving her wedding band right in his face. Nico’s head was spinning.

Mal’s arm moved from around his shoulders, his hand coming to rest on the back of his neck, fingertips sweeping softly along the skin there. Nico tried to focus on that. On Mal’s touch, on the way their bodies were pressed together from shoulder to knee.

“You married Mr. Big?” he asked, bewildered.

Mr. Big was his mother’s code name for the many men in her life. She’d called them all that, always afraid Nico might use the wrong name and ruin her hustle.

His mother had the audacity to look at him like he was crazy. “No, of course not, honey. None of them were marriage material. This is someone else. You don’t know him.”

He didn’t know any of them. His mother had been little more than a voice on the phone and a deposit into his bank account for years. Yet, this still hurt far worse than it should have.

“What do you mean someone else? How did this mystery man convince you to marry him? Does he have one foot in the grave and the other in a vault full of gold coins, like Scrooge McDuck?”

How much money had it taken for his mother to toss her own principles out the window?

“Don’t look at me like that, angel face. I didn’t do it for money. He didn’t have to convince me to marry him. I’m in love.” She dropped her voice. “And he’s actually younger than me. He’s not rich at all. But he is sexy.”

“What?” Nico asked.

“Yeah, his name is Eduardo. He’s thirty-five. He’s a carpenter.”

A carpenter. “Like Jesus?” he asked stupidly, looking at Mal.

Mal blinked at him owlishly as Nico spun out in the backseat. Was a carpenter even a real job? “You mean a construction worker? Or, like, a contractor?”

“No, silly. I mean a carpenter. He builds furniture. By hand!” She said it with the same level of astonishment one might use for a well-done magic trick. He didn’t know what she was acting so impressed for. He built furniture, not made the Eiffel Tower disappear. Maybe she had finally lost her mind.

When Nico tuned back in, his mother was gazing at someone off-screen with the dopiest smile, looking two seconds away from swooning.

She turned back to Nico with a wink. “He’s very good with his hands.”

Nico’s head shot up as the Uber driver snorted out a laugh.

Nico didn’t find any of this funny at all. “Ew. Mom. Please, no.” His lip curled in disgust. “This is crazy. Where did you meet? How long have you known each other?” he asked, feeling like he was trapped in a nightmare.

His mother gave him a pouty look. “Well, I’d tell you, but it’s clear you’re already upset and I don’t want to be lectured.”

“Mom!” Nico warned, feeling equally sullen.

He didn’t know why she was pouting. He was the wounded party here.

“I see where you get it from now,” Mal murmured, his amusement obvious.

Nico didn’t take his eyes off the screen as he jabbed two fingers into Mal’s sore ribs, satisfied when he earned a pained grunt.

His mother sighed. “Fine. We met three weeks ago, while I was on vacation with Mr. Big. I wandered into his furniture store and it was love at first sight.”

“Oh, Mom.” Nico groaned. “Three weeks? You’ve known this guy for three weeks, and now, you’re just gonna—what?—live in Peru?”

“No, of course not,” she said, as if that notion was somehow more ridiculous than the rest of their conversation. “We’ll be living in Ecuador. That’s where we met. That’s where his business is. Quito, specifically. It’s so beautiful there. We have the cutest little bungalow. Our own little love nest.”

“I think I’m going to be sick,” Nico muttered.

Her face fell. “You should be happy for me, angel. I’m in love. Finally.”

Nico scoffed. “You just told me that you’re in the jungles of Peru with a man you met— and married —three weeks ago. That’s not love, it’s the start of a fucking Dateline episode. He’s probably already got thirty life insurance policies on you. You’re gonna get yeeted off a cliff, and he’s gonna tell everyone you were eaten by a snake or crocodile or something.” He looked at Mal. “Are there crocodiles in Peru?”

Mal nodded, giving him a thumbs up. “Yep.”

Knowing he was right weirdly made him feel slightly better. Until the driver snickered. Nico tipped the phone away from his face to lock eyes with the man. He didn’t look much older than Nico. “Laugh it up. We haven’t tipped you yet, Chuckles.”

Nico got a small sense of satisfaction from watching the man’s face fall in the reflection.

“Oh, hi,” he heard his mom say. “Who are you?”

Nico jolted. He’d pointed the phone directly at Mal, who was waving at the screen. “Malachi. I’m his?—”

Nico jerked the camera back to himself. “Don’t talk to him. Talk to me.”

“That’s Malachi? Your ‘roommate’?” she air-quoted. “I can see why you’re sharing a bed. He’s gorgeous, angel. Tell me you’ve locked that down already. You know what they say about dancers, right?”

Nico had no clue what they said about dancers. He didn’t care. “Mom, this isn’t about him or me. What are you doing in the jungles of Peru? Tell me you’re going to a large resort with lots of witnesses, please?”

The picture glitched, but he still managed to catch her exasperated eye-roll. “We’re going to a malocas in Pucallpa to visit a shaman.”

“Of course. How stupid of me. What else would two middle-aged people do on their honeymoon?”

“Did you just call me…middle-aged? That’s just mean,” she said.

Nico was definitely dreaming. There was no way that his mother was actually giving up her bougie life of Gucci and Prada to marry an Ecuadorian carpenter and go traipsing around the middle of a rainforest.

“What do you need a shaman for?” he asked, bewildered.

“For the ceremony,” she said.

He looked at Mal, a throbbing starting behind his right eye. “What ceremony? You said you’re already married.”

“The ayahuasca ceremony, silly,” she cried. “When Eddie did it a year ago, he said it was life-changing.”

Nico didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “Ayahuasca? You’re telling me you’re going to Peru to do drugs with a virtual stranger? For your honeymoon? Are you dying or something? Are you just…acting out? Going through a rebellious phase?”

She tilted her head, giving him a stern look. “Which of us is the parent here?”

“You tell me, woman. I’m not the one who just upended their entire life to go trip balls in a jungle filled with a thousand different animals that could kill and eat you…including your new husband.”

She laughed, seemingly delighted at the thought of being murdered. “Relax, angel face. You’re gonna give yourself a stroke. It’s all going to be fine.”

Nico sighed. “Mom, I thought you were past all this shit. What happened to never marrying for love? What happened to love ruins relationships and relationships ruin love or whatever bullshit you’ve been feeding me for the last decade? You’ve been telling me that for years.”

She shrugged. “The heart wants what the heart wants,” she said wistfully.

Nico growled. “What? Did you read that off a throw pillow at Homegoods?”

“Actually, it’s Emily Dickinson,” Mal said softly.

“Not the time, Rain Man,” Nico shot back. He seethed as he stared at his mother. “I feel like I’m having an out-of-body experience. Does this mean you’re never coming home?” he asked, hating how his voice cracked.

His mom gave him a patient look that told him his answer before she even opened her mouth. “That’s not my home anymore. It hasn’t been for years. I’ll be living in Ecuador, like I said. I won’t be able to visit for a while. At least, not until I can get my citizenship. But you and your friends should totally come and visit. You’ll love it there.”

Fat fucking chance.

Her face grew serious. “Oh, and, I’m really sorry, angel, but I won’t be able to send your allowance anymore or pay your tuition.” Her tone grew pleading, “You understand, right?”

“I—”

She cut him off before he could answer. “Oop. I gotta go. We’re going to a welcome party with some friends. Love you. Big kisses. Say hi to Levi and Shiloh, and tell your sexy little dancer boyfriend I’m rooting for him.”

What? No. That wasn’t the end of this.

“Mom? Mom!” But she was gone. “What the fuck?”

Nico dropped his phone into his lap and buried his face in Mal’s shoulder.

“You okay, Fidget?” he asked softly.

Nico was suddenly exhausted. “She got married.”

Fingers combed through his hair. “I heard.”

“I kept you at arm’s length for months all because of her stupid fucking ideas, just for her to throw it all away for a guy she met three weeks ago,” Nico said, mostly just thinking out loud.

“That’s what you’re upset about?” Mal asked, sounding almost proud. “Not locking me down sooner?”

Nico gave him a flat stare. “I’m upset about a lot of things. So many things I don’t even know where to start.”

The car came to a stop outside Amy’s apartment. “We’re here,” the driver said.

Nico crawled out of the car first, Mal right behind him. He took care of tipping the driver while Nico just sort of stood there in the misty rain.

“She didn’t even tell me she was getting married. I was a literal afterthought,” Nico said. He shook his head, giving a bitter laugh. “Why do I even care?”

Mal wrapped him up in a tight hug right there in the middle of the sidewalk. “Because she’s your mom. Even if she’s also a selfish bitch.”

He let Mal rock him, face tucked into his neck, inhaling his scent like a fucking weirdo. He didn’t know how long they stood there before Nico gently pushed Mal back. “Forget it. Forget her. She’s not going to get to me. Not this time. I swore to never let her blow my life up again. Fuck her.”

Mal’s lips settled on the top of his head in a brief kiss. “That’s the spirit, Fidget.”

“I feel like a real criminal,” Nico said casually, as the lock on Amy’s apartment door finally opened, the new hinges groaning in protest.

He closed the tools back in the slender metal case where they lived, then slid it into his back pocket.

Once safely inside, Mal whistled low as he looked around. “They really do good work.”

It was true. The apartment hardly looked brand new, but the broken furniture was gone, the door replaced, the bathroom floor clean enough to eat off of. It was remarkable, really. At least Casey and—hopefully—Amy would have a place to come home to.

This time, they stuck together, checking every nook and cranny of the tiny kitchen, but found nothing out of place. In the living room, they looked at every shelf, shook out every book they opened, they checked couch cushions and behind pictures. Even under tables. They didn’t know what they were seeking, so they just looked everywhere.

Casey’s bedroom was neat but chaotic with pictures of her friends strung up on twine above her bed, posters, a laptop, a Squishmallow collection that would make Noah weep, and stacks of well-worn books. She had a scrapbook with her dance recitals, starting from when she was young, a vanity with Dollar Store makeup, and a backpack full of notebooks and folders. Everything one would expect to find in a thirteen-year-old girl’s room.

Amy’s bedroom was tidy as well, except for a battered desk—similar to the one Nico and Mal shared—sitting in the far right corner. On the surface of the desk was an ancient sewing machine with several leather samples beside it and a cookie tin that Nico knew even without looking would contain needles and thread.

It was a mom thing.

Even his mother, who could barely sew a button on a shirt, had a butter cookie tin filled with sewing supplies. Maybe they gave it to every woman who left the hospital with a newborn?

Other than her work corner, everything else in her room was meticulous, almost staged. Her jewelry box sat neatly on her dresser, beside it a small wooden box and bronzed baby shoes. In the top drawer of her nightstand they found a bible with little colored flags, a half-empty bottle of hand cream, a book full of brain teasers, a bunch of highlighters, and a small bottle of allergy medicine. Her bottom drawer showed a stack of receipts neatly clipped together and a checkbook that looked like it hadn’t been touched in years. There was a thin layer of dust on it.

He closed the drawer, then bent down to look under the bed. There was a floral box beneath with black and white photos and a clear plastic bin with clothing in it. There was nothing in her dresser that stood out either. Nico was almost ready to call it a total bust when he saw it—a ribbon sticking out from under the mattress. Adrenaline shot through him, something in his brain screaming that this was…something.

Nico’s pulse kicked into high gear as he slid his hand between the mattress and the box spring, expecting to find a book or journal of some kind. And he did. A leather bound book in a deep maroon color with the word journal embossed on the front with shiny gold letters. But that wasn’t all he found.

Nico set the journal on the bed, then pulled the other object free. A gun.

He turned to where Mal was on his knees, looking inside Amy’s closet. “Hey, uh…check this out,” he said, showing him both the journal and the gun.

Mal stood, walking the short distance to where he stood. “Where’d you find those?”

Nico gazed up at him, his heartbeat stumbling. Looking up at Mal from on his knees did something to him. When Mal frowned, Nico remembered he’d asked him a question. “Stuffed under the mattress. Old school.”

Mal nodded. “Maybe we’ll finally get some answers.”

Nico’s gaze returned to the gun. It stood out like a snake on Amy’s colorful quilt. It just…didn’t belong there. “I know this is a bad neighborhood and all, but does Amy strike you as the type of person to keep a gun in her house? Especially with a kid in it?”

Mal shrugged. “I don’t really know. But Casey obviously didn’t know about it or she wouldn’t have used a knife to stab the guy who attacked her to death.”

“That’s true.”

Nico held his breath, afraid when he opened the book, it would just be a sea of blank pages like the hundreds of journals his mother had bought over the years. His stomach twisted at the thought of his mother, but he shoved it back. He had a job to do.

He took a deep breath, then cracked it open in the middle, elated then disappointed so fast it made him dizzy. It wasn’t empty. In fact, it was almost entirely full. It was also written entirely in Chinese.

Nico’s shoulders sagged, defeated. “Well, fuck.”

“Don’t suppose Felix also reads Chinese?” Mal asked.

Felix. Yes, Felix would help them. He snagged his phone from his pocket. Felix answered on the third ring.

“You never call me in the middle of the day,” Felix answered, sounding grumpy.

“Hello to you, too?” Nico said, pretending to be hurt.

“Seriously, what’s going on? I’m assuming my brother is okay since nothing dire has hit the feelings faction group chat. So…what’s up? You’re not calling to tell me you broke up with Mal or something, are you?”

Nico’s face heated up, his gaze jerking to Mal’s face. “What? No. Shut up.”

“Oh, am I on speakerphone?” Felix asked, voice full of mock innocence. “Oops. Hi, Malachi.”

“Hey, Felix,” Mal said.

“So, if you haven’t sabotaged your love life, why are you calling me in the middle of the day? Some of us have jobs,” Felix said.

“His mother married an Ecuadorian carpenter and is now on her way to spend a week hallucinating in the jungle for her honeymoon,” Mal called, just loud enough for Felix to hear.

There was a long silence before Felix said, “What?”

“Can we put a pin in that for now?” Nico asked, glowering at Mal. “We need your help. Are you busy?”

Felix clearly wasn’t buying it. “That depends. If you need me to help you buy a new wardrobe, no. If you’re asking me to move furniture, then yes.”

“I’m asking if you know how to read Chinese as well as you speak it?” Nico countered.

Felix scoffed. “Of course, I do.”

Nico flopped down on Amy’s bed, all the tension leaving him in a flash. “Oh, thank God. We really need you to help decipher Amy’s journal. It might be nothing, but it might be something. It’s time-sensitive. Can you meet us at your brother’s garage?”

Felix sighed like he was so put-upon. “I suppose.”

“Yay. Perfect.” Nico gave Mal a thumbs-up even though he’d been there for the entire conversation.

“But don’t think we’re not going to circle back to the whole mom thing in the group chat later,” Felix warned.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Nico muttered before disconnecting the call.

Mal gazed at him with an intensity that made his stomach do cartwheels, a small smile on his face. It was crazy how much Mal loved him. It made no sense, but Nico was just selfish enough to not care. He was allowed to be selfish just this once, right?

One Uber ride later and they were at the garage. They found Arsen sitting on the metal stairs that led from the garage to his and Ever’s apartment. Ever sat on the stair just below him between his knees. They were splitting a comically large sandwich. It was almost cartoonishly big.

Mal watched, fascinated, as Ever practically disarticulated his jaw to cram one bite of the sandwich into his mouth, moaning as he chewed. “So good.”

“That’s…so impressive,” Nico muttered.

Arsen gave him a lewd grin that had Nico wincing. “He’s very good with his mouth, no?”

Mal snickered, but Nico recoiled. “Don’t say it like that, you perv.”

Arsen only laughed harder. Before Nico could say anything more, a rhythmic banging came from Jericho’s office. He frowned, face contorting in horror as the reality of what he was hearing set in. Mal grinned.

“Lunch date with Freckles?” Nico asked Arsen, grimacing at Jericho’s closed office door.

“Is it a lunch date if it started hours ago?” Ever asked, licking something off his fingers. “This is like their third or fourth go since he got here. It’s like he’s trying to get him pregnant.”

Nico gasped. “Ever!”

The small boy gazed at him with those large, round eyes, making him look a little like a woodland creature. “What? I’m just saying. They usually have quickies in there, but they don’t, like…make a day of it.”

“Hello, hello,” Felix called from the open garage door, his heels echoing off the cement floor.

Nico watched as Mal stared enviously at whatever it was Felix had chosen to wear that day.

Nico turned, brows raising as Felix strutted towards him like he was on a Paris runway. He wore what looked like a double-breasted black suit jacket tucked into a floor-length olive-colored satin skirt with three brass buttons. His long hair was free and his makeup was on-point. He looked…expensive.

When they all just gawked at him, he gave them an impatient look. “Well, where is it?” he asked, making grabby hands.

Nico realized he had his jacket sleeves pushed up and wore elbow-length, black opera gloves as well. “Did you come from a party?”

Felix dropped his hands back to his sides. “No, I came from a meeting with the board. I can’t exactly show up in rags now, can I? They’re so judgy.”

Nico’s eyes went wide. They were judgy?

“Even your rags cost thousands of dollars,” Arsen said before taking another bite of his sandwich.

“Don’t hate me because I’m rich. It’s simply a byproduct of marrying a Mulvaney,” Felix said haughtily.

“What does that mean?” Ever asked.

Felix gave him a cat-like smile. “It means I didn’t order it, it came with the meal.”

They all stared at him, silent. The lack of talk really emphasized the force with which Jericho’s couch was hitting his office wall…

Again

And again.

It was awkward. The only highlight was watching Felix’s face when the noise finally registered.

He wrinkled his nose, head turning to stare towards his brother’s office. “Seriously? It’s like he’s trying to get him pregnant.”

“That’s what I said!” Ever cried.

Arsen shook his head. “Aren’t they a little old for this? Someone is going to break a hip.”

“I can’t listen to this anymore,” Felix said with a full-body shudder. He moved deeper into the garage where their beat-up sofa lived. He sat down on it, then crossed his legs, leaving the others no choice but to follow.

So, they did.

Mal sat on the opposite side of the couch from Felix, snagging Nico around the waist and dragging him into his lap. Arsen and Ever exchanged smug glances that Nico tried pointedly to ignore. It wasn’t like they didn’t do this before they slept together.

Nico finally handed over the journal. “Can you read it?”

Felix took it and thumbed it open, then fanned through the pages. “You can’t possibly want me to translate all of this?”

“Not all of it,” Mal assured him. “But maybe the last couple of months? Is there anything that stands out? A time jump, maybe? Anything that looks out of place?”

Felix sighed, scanning the first few pages quietly. “Most of this is just your standard Dear Diary stuff. She feels guilty about their money situation, wishes she could afford for her kid to take more dance classes. Stuff like that.”

Nico began to gnaw at his lower lip while Felix flipped through page after page, looking for anything that stood out. “Anything?”

Felix gave him a withering look. “Don’t be so impatient.”

Nico fell silent again, his fingers playing at the nape of Mal’s neck, kneading him like a cat.

“This is weird,” Felix said. “Her usual entries are at least a page or so long, then, starting a few months ago, they get really short and sporadic. Less like journal entries and more like she’s documenting something.”

Nico shifted in Mal’s lap. “Read them.” When Felix arched a brow, Nico rolled his eyes. “Pretty please?”

Felix seemed to accept this. “The first one is from a few months ago. ‘The pig was at my booth again today. He couldn’t keep his hands to himself. He kept telling me how beautiful I am. I told him I was busy, but he just stood there, staring at me. He grabbed me from behind and rubbed himself all over me. Does he think I’m going to fall for him just because he’s the rat’s pet? I hope he gets bored soon and leaves me alone.’”

“The pig? The rat?” Ever asked.

“She obviously didn’t want to use their real names,” Nico said.

“A week later, she wrote,” Felix began, “‘He came back. Again. He didn’t even pretend to have an excuse this time. He just leaned against the counter, watching me with that creepy smile. It’s like he thinks he owns me. He tried to joke about how I’m ‘too independent’ and need someone to ‘take care of me.’ I laughed it off, but it didn’t feel funny. When I told him I wasn’t interested, he smiled. There’s something not right about him. He said, ‘We’ll see.’ What does that mean? Why won’t he leave me alone?’”

“So, Lisa was right. Someone was definitely harassing her,” Mal said.

“The next entry is about a month later,” Felix said. “‘I went to the rat today. He’s the pig’s boss, right? He should be able to stop him. At first, he just blinked at me, like I was speaking a foreign language. When I didn’t let it go, he said he’d look into it. He’s lying. I told him the pig was threatening me, threatening my child. He sighed and mumbled something about the pig being difficult to control. Isn’t controlling his men his job? He looked nervous, like he was afraid someone would overhear us. I hate this. I just want to take Casey and run away where they can’t find us.”

“So, is the rat Leo or Jason or Frankie? How far down the food chain was her harasser?” Nico asked.

Felix was scanning the page. “Two weeks after that she writes, ‘I overheard something today. The pig and the ox were talking. He was talking about some illegal clubs he runs. It sounds like the dragon has no idea they exist. I’m going to talk to the rat again tomorrow. Maybe I can use it to get him to help me? I don’t know how much more of this I can take.’”

“How much more of what? Was he just harassing her or had things progressed to something worse?” Ever asked, no longer eating but staring at them with worried eyes.

They all looked at Felix expectantly. Even he looked uneasy. “The next entry doesn’t have a date so I don’t know how much time has passed since the previous entry. ‘I did it. I went to the rat and told him I knew his secret. He went pale. He stammered something about how he didn’t know what I was talking about, but I know what I heard. I told him I don’t care what he’s doing, I just want him to get the pig to leave me alone.’”

“The dragon has to be the Dai Lo, no?” Mal asked.

“Unless Leo is the dragon in this scenario,” Nico said, shaking his head. “Anything else?”

Felix nodded. “‘The rat came again today. I didn’t call for him—he just showed up. He kept looking around like he was afraid someone was watching us. I asked if he had talked to the pig yet. He told me he’d get to it. He said I should just play along. That he treats his girls really well. When I pressed, he lost it, telling me that if I didn’t learn to keep my mouth shut, the pig would be the least of my problems. I can’t figure out if he’s afraid or if he has something on him. Or maybe he’s protecting him.’”

“Whoever was harassing her is intimidating enough to make even his boss fall in line,” Arsen asked. “That’s not good.”

“They did say Frankie was a psychopath, right? Maybe he’s the pig?” Nico pondered.

“There are only two more entries,” Felix said warily.

Nico shifted on Mal’s lap. “Are they dated?”

Felix shook his head. “No. ‘The rat cornered me today. He looked scared and furious, more than I’ve ever seen. He said he’d already warned me once. That the pig wasn’t happy that I was still refusing him. He said he was trying to look out for me and that I clearly didn’t love my daughter at all. I asked if he was threatening Casey, but he didn’t answer. He just said it was my final warning.’”

“They’re threatening Casey to get her to give in to this pig’s advances?” Mal asked. “Fucking scumbags. What’s the final entry say?”

Felix’s eyes scanned the words, his face tense. “‘It’s useless. I gave him what he wanted but it’s still not enough. No matter how much of myself I give him, it’s never enough. He seems to get off on hurting me. On humiliating me. I feel dirty every time he touches me. He says he owns me now. That I belong to him. I guess he’s right. As long as they keep threatening my baby, I have to play along. At least until we can run. We have to get out of here.’”

“Is it time to call Calliope yet?” Nico asked.

Mal nodded. “Yeah, Fidget. I think it is.”

“Well, I’m off. I have to get home to Zaney and the boys.”

Nico waved at Felix. “See ya. Thanks for your help.”

He gave a wave from over his shoulder as he sashayed away.

Mal was reaching for his phone when the door to Jericho’s office opened and the two inside emerged.

Nico bit down on his lip so hard he tasted blood, trying not to laugh. Freckles’ hair was a mess, his shirt was buttoned wrong. Jericho hadn’t even bothered to pull his overalls up all the way. They were tied around his waist, his black tank top visible. They were both visibly sweaty. Glowing, even.

“Uh, I gotta go pick up the boys,” Freckles said. “I’ll see you at home.”

Jericho kissed his cheek, then slapped his ass. When he spotted them staring, he gave them all a stern look. “What are you looking at?” To Arsen, he said, “Get back to work. I’m sure your lunch break’s over.”

Arsen gave him a wide grin in return. “I’m pretty sure yours ended hours ago as well.”

Jericho’s lips twitched in an aborted smile before he returned to his office.

“I’m going upstairs,” Ever said, smacking a wet kiss on Arsen’s lips.

“Okay, besanok . I’ll be up in a while. We’ll go to the bookstore after work.”

Ever’s face lit up like he said he was taking him to Disney.

They were so cute.