Chapter Twenty-Two #2
She coos at him while rolling her socks on and he slips her a kiss before getting dressed himself.
It only takes us another fifteen minutes before we’re outside of Raven’s Audi, walking up the shoveled driveway and knocking on the front door beneath the silver and gold wreath.
It takes a few minutes, but Mom opens the door in her cashmere robe and jammies, to welcome us inside, uncaring that we probably look like hell.
“Oh, Merry Christmas Eve! Come in! Lorenzo is already making breakfast!” Hugging Raven first, of course, then me, forgetting societal norms of shaking hands upon introductions she hugs Maverick and Damon as well.
The entire house smells like gingerbread, vanilla and…
it smells like Christmas. There’s a large, de corated pine tree from the skirt to the tip in silver and gold, the ornaments reflecting the bright lights like disco balls.
It’s lavish and divine and I already know every room will have a tree just like it.
“Mom this is-“
“Oh, I know, I met them last night. How was the drive, Maverick, dear?”
He looks a little confused, but he sniffs, pushing his glasses up his red nose and then smiles down at my mom. “It was fine. Hardly any traffic.”
“Oh, good. I hope you’re hungry. Damon?”
“Starved, Mrs. Anderson.”
“Oh, please. Mrs. Anderson is my mother-in-law, and I told you last night to call me Ellie. Now, I’m sure Jonas told you all about how many rooms we have here but if you don’t mind taking the second-floor primary bedrooms, it would be much easier for me on the knees.”
“Sure thing, Mrs. A… Ellie ,” Maverick corrects himself when Mom cuts him a glare and I want to die laughing. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him shut up that quickly. “Thank you, by the way, for having us. I’m sorry we showed up empty-handed.”
“Oh, Maverick, darling.” She reaches up to cup his cheek and pats it.
His eyes flutter but he leans into it. Yeah, straight up mommy-issues, that one.
“All of you showing up and not letting an old woman spend the holidays alone is enough. I was almost frightened Raven would have stayed home to be with her family. Now, about that breakfast. Go settle in and meet me in the dining room. Lorenzo has been cooking up a storm. Raven, I remember you prefer a French breakfast.”
She grabs our girl by the hand and then links their arms together like they’re the best of friends. “Come, darling, let the men take your bags, and you and I will start snacking. Your cello playing last night was divine …”
They walk off, and the sound of my mother’s voice turns into a low chattering hum as they disappear. Maverick turns to look at me. “You grew up with her as your mom?”
I grab mine and Raven’s suitcase and start lugging it up the stairs, lit garland and silver ribbon curled around the banister.
“I wasn’t adopted until I was twelve, Mav.
I was in foster care for years because my bio-mom was too addicted to drugs to even remember my name.
I had lice for two years straight until the school nurse got fed up with me and shaved my head while I was at school. ”
“I didn’t know.” He says.
“I know. Just don’t… don’t think I take this or my parents for granted. Okay? Even with all the Syndicate bullshit, I owe them my life.”
“How long were you in foster care?”
“Six years. After that head-shaving incident, they finally took the nurse’s claims seriously and took me away.
I had good families, and I had shitty families.
I was surprised my parents wanted to adopt me to replace their son as a legacy when he died of childhood cancer.
I mean, there were infants where I was staying. ”
“And your bio-mom?”
“Died when I was eight. Overdose.”
“I’m sorry.” He says as we reach the landing, passing the second living area decorated to the nines and then entering the main upstairs bedroom.
I throw my bags down, Damon beside me, and look at him.
“I’m not.” And it’s true. “Don’t worry. Damon and I have talked about this during our sessions.
And Raven knows. Now you do, too. I’m not ashamed of where I came from and I’m not ashamed my parents can afford to give me a better life just because I look like their dead son.
But I want you, specifically you , Maverick, to know I am ashamed of the things I’ve had to do because they chose me as their son. Do you understand?”
He nods, pushing up his glasses so they sit on the bridge of his nose, but a curl of his brown locks falls forward. “I do.”
I incline my head. “Good. Now, let’s get some breakfast. I’m starving and I need a nap.”
The news is on, playing softly in the background on the huge TV big enough to be a movie theater screen when we make it downstairs.
Mom and Raven are giggling like schoolgirls when we find them in the kitchen and there’s so much whipped cream in Raven’s mug, when she takes a sip it ends up on her nose and she gets a mustache.
I laugh, happy she’s so carefree around Elena that she’s using her actual voice to laugh out loud. I swipe at her nose with a napkin and then kiss her cheek, doing my best to not lean over and lick off the whipped cream from her lips in front of my mom.
“What’s so funny?”
“Nothing!” Mom says at the same time Raven signs the word for nothing .
Plates of French breakfast items and eggs and bacon are on the sidebar, ready with serving utensils and I go and start piling food on a plate for Raven and myself, keeping my eye on the news outlet.
I catch Raven signing, and my mother moves her lips as if she’s reading Raven’s hands.
Oh, she’s telling her about our trip to Spain.
“Oh, I haven’t seen your grandfather in years. I’m glad he still has a sense of humor.”
“Oh my god, are you telling her about how he almost killed us?”
It was a prank! She signs. And the look on your face was priceless! She makes a face of horror and then tipping her head back to cackle silently at one of the worst moments of my life.
“Wait, what happened?” Damon asks as we all settle around the dining table to eat.
“The old man pretended to have a heart attack mid-flight in his helicopter. I almost shit my pants.”
Damon laughs, almost choking on a bite of eggs, and coughs, Maverick does too.
“Language, Jonas. We’re eating .”
“Sorry, mom.”
“So that’s where she gets it.” Maverick chuckles, patting Damon on the back. “Little hellcat.” He looks so proud of her.
“Anyway, Raven knowing it was a joke, took the cyclic and started guiding us, laughing.” I roll my eyes, grab the OJ, and pour myself a glass. “It took me a full thirty minutes to calm down.”
You were fine! She signs.
“Babe, we were a mile up in the air, clenching my ass- “
“Jonas!”
“ Sorry – trying to hold myself together – while trying to make a good impression. I was not fine .”
Okay, I’m sorry. Make it up to you later? She winks.
“You absolutely will,” I grumble back at her. I will totally hold this over her head for the rest of my life it means a blow job every time I do.
“Oh, wait, did you hear that?” Maverick asks, standing, and going over to where the TV is.
“Turn it up, honey, please.” My mother says, while standing also, joining Maverick. I do as I’m told, finding the remote, setting it down then sitting on the arm of the brown leather sofa where Damon and our pretty girl join me.
“Hoover, just barely twenty-five, was allegedly murdered by his wife, Clarissa Hoover, twenty-one, last night…” A helicopter view of live footage shows the girl being led out of their house in handcuffs and into the back of a cruiser.
“Cops say there is an ongoing investigation, not because of the wife but because of what they found in Simon’s basement.
Over forty Polaroid pictures of what looks like young women, tied up and being either tortured or killed.
” All of our jaws hit the floor. “The FBI is now on the case and will be going through everything to verify if they are any of the missing girls reported in the area. This is Wendy Taylor, bringing you more news at five.”
“Oh dear, I need to call your father,” Mom says, racing to her room.
“Holy shit, that’s Tasha,” Maverick says, still staring at the screen, having flipped over to another news station that’s still broadcasting it.
My eyes flicker over the giant screen to the corner where I see a familiar face. “Hey, wait. Can you pause it?”
“The live news broadcast?” Maverick asks.
“Yeah. Just… let me see the remote.”
He hands it over and I push the button, walking over to the dark-haired guy behind Mav’s old partner and then tap on the screen. “This guy. I know him from somewhere. "
Maverick grunts, displeased. “That’s Detective Arlo.”
I look over at him. “Mav, she looks scared of him,” I say, pointing out how rigid his former partner looks. Her body language is all wrong, and the scowl on Arlo’s face looks like he’s trying to hide from the cameras.
He gives a quick nod. “Have you seen him around campus?”
“Yeah, but… somewhere else, too,” I say, squinting, trying to remember from where but it’s not coming to me. “Like I know him from before everything started happening.” I turn around to face the trio staring at the screen. They all look as unhappy as I feel. I shake my head. “I can’t remember.”
“Well now that I know what he looks like I can keep an eye out for him,” Damon says and Raven nodding along with him.
“Jonas, darling.” I hear my mom call out to me from her bedroom.
I turn away from them and walk down the hallway to see her standing at the threshold of her room. “Yeah?”
She swallows thickly and motions for me to join her in her room. When I do, she shuts the door behind us and then juts her chin to the bathroom where she shuts and then locks the door once we’re in there.
I don’t like this.
“You’re making my stomach hurt. What’s going on?”
“Did Raven have anything to do with this?”
I swallow, completely unprepared for this. “No?”
She rolls her green eyes and sighs. “Darling, please. I’m old , not stupid.
I know she’s had a part to play in all of these deaths in the Syndicate.
I mean, she strolls onto campus and bodies drop like flies?
I’m not judging her, and I don’t blame her.
What they did to her…” She trails off before meeting my eyes again.
“I’m proud of her, Jonas. Why do you think I let you in on my findings?
I knew you would tell her. For our sake, I protect her, too.
She’s family. But this, Jonas… if the wrong FBI agents are all over this, what Simon did could lead to an investigation so deep you could be incriminated for… Jacob.”
My heart falls out of my asshole and down to the basement. “What do I do?”
“Campus is still closed?”
I nod.
“Darling you need to find that ledger and burn it. Your father, despite what he’s had to do, is a good man and after almost thirty years, I love him more than I did the first day of our marriage.
You are a good man. If I could have written my name in that horrid book instead of yours, I would have taken your place.
But that isn’t the way this world of ours works.
So I need you to find that ledger and burn it to ash, then bury those just to make sure. ”
“Okay,” I reply dryly.
“Oh, my sweet boy. What a fucking predicament we’re in.”
My mouth gapes at her cursing and she laughs. “Seems your father will be home for another funeral soon. The poor thing barely flies out of the country and has to return because our darling Raven is a vicious little thing.”
I grin. “Isn’t she perfect, though?”
“Oh Jonas,” she says while turning to the mirror and fixing her hair, “if you would have chosen a different woman, she would have never made you happy. Raven is absolutely bewitching, and I am so glad you found each other – even if it means two more in tow. But we aren’t always fortunate in finding our soul mates in mint condition and without any damage or baggage.
Truth be told, if she had been a proper Syndicate princess I probably would have loathed her, much like I did that Paris girl and for good reason.
” She blinks at me through her reflection.
“If this is the life you’ve chosen and the woman you’ve chosen, then as long as you’re happy, so be it. I mean that Damon is quite nice on the eyes.” She scrunches her nose in the mirror and turns back to face me, then reaches up to pinch my cheek.
I don’t have anything to say about that last comment, still trying to figure out exactly how it made me feel when he gripped my chin like that in the car earlier.
“Now dear, let’s go have some tea while you figure out a way to tell your… flock , that you need to steal the ledger. That Maverick looks quite daring. Take him with you. Something about him looks a bit lost and you need to include him in your… little activities.”
“He’s former FBI,” I inform her, rubbing where she pinched. “And kind of an ass- a jerk .” I correct myself .
“Oh, that’s wonderful,” she grins, and I can’t help but think maybe she has a screw in her head a bit loose or if she even heard me at all.
“Including him means he’s more likely to keep your secrets.
That’s the entire motto of the Syndicate, isn’t it?
To build a better bond within your brotherhood, let them witness what could be your downfall but trust them enough to not let that happen? ”
I grunt in agreement.
“There is nothing more important than your future family, Jonas. Make sure he understands that, yes?”
“Okay.” I agree.
“Okay.” She sighs happily as if we didn’t just talk about something so serious, clasping her hands together and thrusting open the door of the rustic chic bathroom. “Now, about that tea…”