Three Meows (Monsters For Her)

Chapter Eighteen

T he day of our trip to my father’s holiday estate came quicker than I expected. As they say: time flies fast when you’re happy. I didn’t let the looming confrontation wipe the smile off my face as we squeezed into Rowan’s car.

We have decided to suffer the cramped conditions instead of taking two cars for the joy of shared journey. The moment we sat down, a battle for the radio began.

“Absolutely not!” Chester insisted as he changed the station Elijah chose. “No fancy tunes on a road trip. We need pop music. Songs everyone knows and can belt out!”

“Have mercy, it’s too early to start the day with singing,” Elijah wrinkled his nose.

I let the two men bicker and made eye contact in the mirror with Rowan. He smirked and held up a USB stick. Chester gasped in betrayal as the radio changed to the music player and the sounds of rock filled the car.

“Driver picks the music!” I said cheerfully.

I regretted those words when Chester took his turn behind the wheel several hours later.

But hey, at least I learned Elijah had the voice of an angel and Rowan’s dulcet tones could dip so low the bass reverberation sent shivers down my spine.

It was fun, sharing snacks and stories, playing word games, stopping by the roadside to observe a herd of deer… and cuddling against a warm body when I wasn’t the one driving. We made a break for some greasy fast food along the way but otherwise tried to drive as far as possible — after all, our goal was three states over. It was already dark when we stopped at a random bed-and-breakfast.

“One room with four beds,” I decided.

While cuddling was amazing, every one of us wanted to have a space to stretch out after being squished like a can of sardines in the car.

“I would appreciate it if you would try to get along with my father and brother while we are there. But don’t let them disrespect you either,” I said firmly, even if my mind was coming up with increasingly convoluted scenarios of how this little family gathering was going to hell in a handbasket.

“Of course, we won’t let— Wait, you have a brother? We are going to meet him?” Chester bounced in his seat, twisting like a pretzel to look at me from his shotgun seat. Elijah, the current driver, swatted at him. Chester leaned even further towards me.

“Yeah. His name is Seth. He is the heir to my father’s company. I think you’re going to like him,” I addressed all three men. My bro wasn’t the one I expected to be a problem. In fact, I had already shared a few photos and anecdotes about the guys in our private Discord and the only thing I had to suffer through was Seth making fun of me for, as he put it, ‘having a goddamn harem’. “Go right, we are nearly there.”

I instructed Elijah where to go and soon he parked the car in the garage attached to a medium-sized villa. This holiday home brought bittersweet memories with it, but I gamely shook the small pang of longing away and stepped towards the house.

Seth was already waiting on the front stairs, his hands in his pockets, trying to look casual, as if I couldn’t see how his chest rose up and down from exertion. I was pretty sure he ran through the whole house at the sound of our approach just to strike this pose.

“He’s your younger brother?!” Chester gaped, making Seth scowl. He didn’t like it when people focused on his gangly looks that betrayed that he was, in fact, still a teenager.

“Didn’t you say he is the heir?” Elijah asked, his brows knitting together. Rowan’s eyes darkened as he followed his friend’s train of thought. Of course, the implied allusion couldn’t remain subtle with Chester in the room.

“Does that mean your father is sexist?” the redhead demanded to know. “If you are the oldest, you should be the heir!”

Seth burst out laughing and immediately had three glares aimed at him. Even the mild-mannered Elijah was sending daggers in his direction.

“Look at them all trying to protect your honor! What do you say, Lisa?” Seth wheezed out between bursts of giggles. “It’s still not too late to become a corporate drone. Come join the dark side! We have, I dunno, pizza Fridays or something.”

“Thank you, but I would sooner drop dead,” I said in a saccharine sweet tone. Turning to my lovers, I explained. “I made a deal with my father; after I finished high school he was going to pay for my university tuition and let me choose any specialization I wanted. All for the price of working at his company for a year.”

“He truly thought you would like it there and change your mind about becoming the new head of the family business,” Seth shook his head. “Unbelievable.”

“Well, the only change in my mind was going from ‘I’m going to become CEO when Hell freezes over’ to ‘even if Hell becomes Jotunheim I’m still not going to let anyone make me the head honcho’,” I said dryly. “You can have this amazing position.” I patted my brother on the arm as I passed him.

“Gee, thanks sis for leaving me to the sharks,” Seth said sarcastically, but I knew he was pretty pleased with his place in the family game.

My lovers followed me inside the house, a thousand questions on their (mostly Chester’s) tongues.

“Did you have a high position in the company?” Elijah asked curiously.

“Were you the CEO?!” Chester gasped.

“Of course not, silly. I started as an intern, then spent a few months as a regular worker before my father started throwing more responsibility at me. By the end, I was managing a team of twenty people and I hated it.”

“Were you bad at it?” Rowan asked.

“I didn’t bankrupt the department and the people under me didn’t seem to hate me, but that’s all I achieved.”

“From what I have heard, the workers and other managers were of one mind when it came to the performance analysis,” Seth butted in.

“‘Great team player, disappointing leader’,” I quoted with a roll of my eyes. “I’m a great support, okay? I could help someone rule an empire, but that doesn’t mean I want to sit on the throne.”

“Gray eminence Lisa?” Rowan lifted a teasing brow.

“Alas, I will let Seth find someone else to be his puppet master.”

“Hey! I contain multitudes. I don’t need anyone to pull the strings behind the scenes because I will concoct my own schemes myself!”

“I’m sure telling everyone about your nefarious plans is a great way to become a master of intrigue,” a dry voice interjected, and I whipped my head around to see my father emerge from behind one of the doors.

We just stared at each other for a moment. The normally boisterous man looked unsure.

“Can I… get a hug?” he asked tentatively, and I was lunging forward before he even finished speaking.

It was my dad, after all.

We clung to each other tightly, and it reminded me of the months after mum died when it felt like the world was going to fall apart if we didn’t hold each other.

When we parted I was a bit embarrassed at making such a display, but I decided to power through the feeling.

“Right!” I clasped my hands together. “Guys, this is my dad, John. And you already met Seth. Dad, Seth, those are my boyfriends, Elijah, Chester, and Rowan,” I gestured to the appropriate men for the introduction.

“Nice to meet you, sir,” Elijah greeted my father. He looked like he didn’t know where to put his hands and finally linked them behind his back.

Rowan just nodded firmly, his posture a parade rest.

“Hi! Cool house!” Chester immediately went for a compliment, but his eyes darted around the abode as if he was going to rob the house blind.

“It was my late wife’s favorite place,” dad shared with a wistful look in his eyes. “I would prefer to spend the holidays in a warmer region, maybe Bahamas, but…”

“…it’s a tradition!” Seth and I singsonged together, then grinned at each other like loons.

A smile quirked the corner of my father’s mouth.

“So it is. How about you show the guests to their rooms, Lisa?” the way he underscored the men would not be sleeping in my room made me sober up a little. Everything still wasn’t alright. My father being civil for five minutes didn’t mean he approved. Or that I forgave him for being such a jerk. “I will check on the kitchen in the meantime…”

“Don’t act like the turkey and all the other stuff isn’t already prepared and just waiting to be heated up,” I heard Seth tease father as our two groups separated.

“Hey, I’m making the cranberry sauce from scratch! And preparing the mulled cider. Come, I need a willing victim for the taste test.”

Seth’s groan was the last thing I heard as I led our little group upstairs. I took a moment to show the boys around, pointing out where everything was before I showed them to the guest wing. The rooms were already prepared, all crisp sheets and the faint lemon scent of a thorough cleaning. As usual, father hired a crew to prepare everything, be it cleaning, pruning the garden, or cooking the Thanksgiving dinner, but then dismissed them on the day so that everyone could spend time with their own families.

Each of the men had their own room. We grabbed the bags from the car and settled them in, then a whole procession accompanied me to my room.

“Why is it so far from us?” Chester complained.

“To give my father an illusion that we would not be having sex,” I rolled my eyes at my old man’s prudishness.

“Oh? Only an illusion?” Chester perked up.

I shoot him a glance from under my eyelashes.

“Be a good boy and we will see.”

“Yaaas!” Chester pumped his fist obnoxiously. “My body is ready, queen. I don’t need to move at a glacial pace like Elijah here.”

“I don’t want to rush,” Elijah bristled. “Intimacy is… special.”

“Oh boy, it sure is! I hope you aren’t the type to wait until marriage,” Chester snickered. “Because I don’t think that’s happening in our situation.”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We need to survive Thanksgiving first. And Chester? Teasing Elijah does not qualify as good behavior. In fact, that’s bad behavior. Bad boy!” I scolded.

“The way you are going, I will get there before you,” Elijah said to Chester and I barked out a laugh at his pointed comment.

Rowan didn’t say anything. He was above the petty squabble when he already staked his claim on my body so thoroughly, but his hand brushed my waist for a moment, unseen by the other two. A subtle reminder.

It’s not like I could ever forget him.

“I will be the bestest boy, you will see,” Chester declared. “AND I will make Lisa’s father like me first.”

With that proclamation he stomped away in the direction of the kitchen, led there by the scent of cooking cranberries. I was left with a lifted hand to stop him, but after a second I thought better of it and let him do it.

“Maybe it’s a good idea to acclimate my father to all of you slowly,” I mused.

“And you think Chester is the right one to start with?” Elijah asked and I winced.

Our doubts were confirmed a few minutes later as Seth joined us in the living room. The ‘nope, nope, nope’ power walk clued us in even before he started speaking.

“Your man made the kitchen into a nuclear zone. He has opinions. And they are wrong .”

“Opinions?” Rowan asked from the ancient armchair he staked a claim on.

Seth looked first to the heavens, then to me.

“He told dad tomato is a fruit and therefore should go into the fruit salad.”

I closed my eyes for a second, despairing. My dad was a foodie. He had opinions as well. Strong ones.

“I’m not getting in the middle of that.”

“Right? I said I would set the table when I fled, so here’s the deal people: help me do it quickly and we will have time to play a round or two before dad and Chester join us.”

Everyone perked up at that, so we made quick work of preparing the table for a feast, the white cloth just waiting for the dishes to arrive. Seth pulled out Uno and established dominance by kicking everyone’s ass. He was pretty competitive, one of his characteristics that made him a better pick for a future CEO than me. My preferred games relied on cooperation and not sending someone to the Shadow Realm with your Reverse card.

Still, we had fun, and that was all that mattered. By the time the missing two emerged from the kitchen and we swarmed to help carry the dishes, fill the glasses with various beverages, and distribute the food, the atmosphere was much more relaxed than before.

We watched the turkey being pardoned, then put on a football game to play in the background as we dug into the feast with a big turkey from one of the nearby award-winning farms as the center of the spread. The cranberry sauce was delicious. Somehow, the mashed potatoes that Chester was in charge of reheating were slightly burned. Both Chester and my father refused to elaborate on what exactly happened there.

There was an occasional scrunched nose or heated stares as the table talk sometimes strayed near dangerous territories, but I used all my presumed-heir education and experience of navigating posh parties where everyone hated each other to keep things civil. Everything went as I expected until Rowan decided to turn the world on its head.

I could not in a million years have predicted what that man did.

It all started when Seth asked my father how the latest shareholder meeting went.

“Good… except for Peterson,” father grimaced.

Oh, that guy. I remembered him. I wish I didn’t; he was a pretentious prick even among pretentious pricks.

“He’s still giving you trouble?” Seth asked and father launched into a retelling of all the small and big roadblocks to the prosperity of the company Peterson put in his way.

“…I wish I could just get rid of him,” father finished his little rant.

Rowan slid a folder over to him.

I was as startled as everyone else. Sure, I saw the shoulder bag Rowan insisted on carrying around the house, but I thought it was just ex-soldier paranoia to have a go bag, or that he wanted to have something useful, like I dunno, tissues, at hand.

Apparently, the bag was used to carry a fricking dossier .

Father reached for the folder and opened it slowly. The entire table leaned forward to peak without any subtlety.

There were pictures.

And notes.

Pages upon pages of content. Screenshots, press articles, medical information…

“Did you just give my father a way to blackmail Peterson?!” I choked out.

“Several,” Rowan said.

“Well, I did wonder where you disappeared to those past few weeks…” Elijah murmured under his breath.

“It thought it was to find a new job!” Chester exclaimed.

“He’s having an affair?” father said faintly as he looked through the photos. He had evidence now. “And he’s embezzling from charity?”

He blinked, still in shock, before he looked at Rowan and a smile spread across his face.

“With this info he’s going down. I will make sure he sells his shares for dirt cheap to me or someone of my choosing. Rowan, you are my new favorite son-in-law.”

Rowan nodded as if it was a given.

He had a look of a cat who dragged a whole ass dead bird into the house and was praised for it.

“I don’t know if I should encourage this behavior…” I murmured to Elijah.

“It worked, didn’t it?” Elijah shared in a whisper.

“I can’t believe he got approval before me,” Chester bitched. “I need to crank up my efforts…”

“Does anyone want cake?” Seth asked, as if being handed blackmail to ruin someone’s life at the Thanksgiving table was perfectly normal. In fact, my brother looked at Rowan with admiration and the man of dubious honor got the biggest slice.

What was even my life.

I shook my head and stuffed my mouth with delicious cake to prevent myself from cackling like mad.