Chapter 67
Chapter Sixty-Seven
Mateo
Mateo and Carl were alone with the kids because Da’von was at school, and Brianna was out running errands for Badger that he’d asked her to do. Mateo had just sat on the couch to eat his sandwich when the doorbell rang.
Goddammit! Carl was back in the nursery trying to get the kids to sleep for their post-lunch nap. Aisling had left early with Martin this morning to help him settle some stupid and not critical situation over in Orlando. Badger had called personally and ordered them to go deal with it.
Before the visitor could ring the bell a second time, Mateo dropped the paper plate holding his sandwich, leapt up, and rushed to the door, putting his eye to the peephole.
He didn’t recognize the older man standing there, but then he saw Badger’s truck parked at the end of the drive and caught sight of Duncan standing farther down the driveway, on a phone call.
Well, if Duncan’s with him, he must be okay.
With one hand on the butt of the handgun holstered in his back waistband, Mateo unlocked and opened the door. “May I help you?”
Now that he got a good look at the man, he seemed…familiar somehow.
And he was a shifter.
But before the man or Mateo could say anything, Carl rushed into the living room behind Mateo. “Who’s at the door?” he hissed. “I just got the girls…”
Mateo glanced back, doing a double-take at the wide-eyed shock on Carl’s face.
Mateo looked from his mate to the stranger and back again.
Carl rushed forward, practically shoving Mateo out of the way, and engulfed the man in a hug that more resembled a tackle.
“Dad!”
The man clapped him on the back. “Hey, son. Did you miss me?” Despite the obviously awkward attempt at humor, Mateo heard the man crying.
And Carl now softly sobbed.
That’s when Duncan hurried up. “Sorry, I had to take that. Let’s move this reunion inside.”
Still stunned, Mateo stood there as Carl and his father walked into the living room.
Duncan smiled at Mateo. “It’s a long story. If the kids weren’t here, I’d have brought a bottle with us to celebrate.”
Mateo’s head spun. “What… How? Where?”
Duncan closed the door behind him. “I’m not at liberty to reveal more yet.” He touched Mateo’s arm and silently spoke to him with his Prime. “He’s been checked out. He’s taken a knee, shown his throat, and he’ll work as an Enforcer.”
Thank the Goddess for small fucking miracles.
Before, when they lived in the shadow of Abundio Segura, they kept their search for Jake as clandestine as possible, not wanting word of it to get back to the wily old man.
Sure, Dewi and Peyton had promised they’d try to help them locate Jake if he was still alive.
Mateo honestly figured the man was dead.
Holy. Shit.
Carl and his father stood in the middle of the living room, Carl openly weeping as Jake told him he loved him over and over again.
Mateo found himself blinking back tears, too. While he wanted to share this joyous occasion with his mate, he also didn’t want to interrupt.
Finally, they separated, Carl laughing and sniffling, and turned to Mateo, holding his arm out to him.
Mateo suspected Duncan wouldn’t let a raging homophobe anywhere near them, so he hoped all was well.
“Dad, this is my mate, Mateo.” Carl looked into his eyes with every bit of love Mateo felt for him. “The love of my life.”
Jake smiled and opened his arms. “Are you a hugger, son?”
“Fuck yeah, I am!” Mateo felt swallowed by the man, and for a moment, he closed his eyes and pretended this was his dad.
For so many years, it’d been just the two of them against the world while protecting Brianna, and to have a family again, not just found family, but…
Yeah.
“I can’t wait to meet your sister,” Jake said. “And…” The older wolf sniffled again. “I know I’m not your dad, but if you ever want to call me ‘Dad,’ I would love that.”
They stepped apart, Mateo wiping at his eyes. “Yeah, I’d like that, too.”
“Are the kids all asleep?” Duncan asked.
“Yeah,” Carl said.
The old shifter made a shooing motion with his hands. “Then the three of you go outside and talk. I’ll stay here. If they wake up, I’ll take care of them.”
“Thanks, Duncan,” Carl said. They all moved out to the patio and settled at the table there, Carl now holding Mateo’s hand.
“I…I don’t even know where to start, Dad.”
He slowly nodded. “It’s been a journey. Peyton said I could tell some of the story, but you have to keep everything a secret, for now.”
“Wait, what?” Carl said. “Peyton’s alive?”
“Oh, shit.” Jake stood and waved at the house. Duncan emerged from the rear sliders seconds later.
“What’s wrong?”
“I, uh, accidentally spilled the beans about Peyton.”
Duncan motioned for Jake to sit down. “No worries. I’ll fill them in once you’re done and Prime them about what they need to keep quiet.”
“Sorry.”
Duncan shook his head, but he smiled as he returned to the house and closed the sliders behind him.
Mateo and Carl exchanged another stunned look. “How long has Peyton been back?” Carl asked. “No one told us he was found!”
“No one’s supposed to know he’s been found. Let me start at the beginning…”
Mateo sat there in shock as Jake told them about what happened after he left Hawaii, and skimmed his way through his escape and wilderness survival before taking a deep breath.
“Long story short, I spent twenty years hiding, eventually ending up with a little spider hole in the middle of a wilderness preserve. That’s where Peyton and I crossed paths a couple of weeks ago… ”
Both he and Carl sat there…processing.
Stunned.
“So while yes, I am ‘back,’ Peyton still needs my help and needs me to remain missing, for now. They want me to stay at Dewi’s house since no one else is there.
“I will probably have to go back over to Europe soon, when they attack the lab.” He wiped his eyes.
“And believe me, I will do my damnedest to come back in one piece and breathing once the worst is over.”
“That’s fucking insane,” Mateo said. “Why do they need you? You’ve suffered enough! How can they ask you to go back?”
“I volunteered, son.” He looked at Carl. “There are some things I cannot tell you yet. I don’t even want to tell you, because I don’t have answers.”
Carl, however, looked like he wanted to set fire to the world. “I think what really needs to happen is I go pay a visit to ‘Uncle Ray’ and—”
“No,” Jake said, shaking his head. “Absolutely not. Peyton, Dewi, and Badger are planning to get him to Idaho, interrogate him, and then take the appropriate steps.”
“Hopefully that involves running him through a wood chipper while he’s alive, feet-first,” Carl growled.
Jake laid a hand over Carl’s on the table. “If he’s involved. And if he’s involved, yeah, Peyton said we get a crack at him if it’s safe to let us.”
“I just…” Carl drew in a deep, shuddering breath. “I didn’t want to believe you were dead,” he said, “but I honestly didn’t have hope.”
“Well, there were a few times I wasn’t holding out much hope for me, either,” Jake said. “I wish I’d been there for you guys. But as Peyton, Badger, Duncan, and the others keep reminding me, there’s no way to change the past, and we have to make the best of the time we have going forward.”
“Please tell me you’ll be living with us once all this bullshit is settled?” Carl asked.
“Absofuckinglutely,” Jake said, misting up again. “Just try getting rid of me.”
Carl
Carl still wasn’t sure he’d be shaken awake by Mateo because this was a dream.
Not a nightmare, for once, when it involved his dad, the way his dreams usually did.
He looked at his mate. “This is happening, right? I’m not asleep?”
Mateo’s fist flashed out and punched Carl, hard, in his shoulder.
“Ow! Motherfucker!” He rubbed it.
Mateo playfully smiled. “You wanted to make sure you weren’t dreaming.”
“Yeah, but not like that!”
Mateo shrugged, still smiling. “Worked, didn’t it?”
“Fucker.” But he reached over with his other hand and squeezed Mateo’s. “Wait…” He looked at his dad. “They all knew for weeks you were alive, and they didn’t tell me?”
“Son, please don’t be upset. It’s part of the overall plan. They want me to remain a cypher, for now. Just like they don’t want to let on Peyton’s alive and well and in command, and they’re trying to keep Duncan’s return on the down-low.”
“Okay, can you tell me anything else?”
He nodded. “Tamsin’s mom isn’t the real Hyacinth Lewis, and there will be some things coming out about that. But we can’t—”
“Tell anyone. Yeah, I know.” Just when he thought he’d heard the most shocking news, Carl discovered another basement.
“You already know more than nearly every Enforcer,” Jake said. “They’ll read Aisling into some of it, but there’s also that other issue with her and Tamsin.”
Mateo looked at Carl, his brow furrowed. “What issue with her and Tamsin?”
Carl cleared his throat. “Um, yeah. Aisling pinged on Tamsin as her mate but is too chickenshit to tell her yet.”
Mateo’s eyes widened. “What? Are you shitting me? And I’m just now finding out?”
Jake continued. “Trevor knows and is fine with it. Peyton is respecting Aisling’s wishes not to reveal it to Tamsin yet.”
“Uh, why the hell not?” Mateo asked, staring at Carl. “How long have you known?” He looked at Jake. “And how the hell do you know already?”
“Long story,” Jake said.
Carl rubbed at the back of his neck. “Um, a couple of weeks now. The day of the bomb.”
“Bomb?” Jake asked.
“Not a real one,” Carl assured him. “Just a DIY science lesson I intercepted and put the kibosh on before anything happened.” He looked at Mateo. “She was trying to gig me to get Dewi to pull her from the assignment. That’s what all her bullshit has been about.”
“Sonofabitch, so that’s why she’s been acting so friggin’ weird!”
“Yes,” Carl and Jake said in unison.
Mateo slumped back in his chair. “Fuck. Me. That means I need to take back nearly every shitty thing I’ve thought about her, huh?” He glanced at Jake. “Aisling, not Tamsin.”
Carl smiled. “Not everything. She’s still a pain in the ass.”
“I feel like the sky’s about to open up and rain unicorns, this day’s so weird.” Mateo looked at Carl. “But that explains why you’ve cut her a fuckton of slack.”
“Yeah. I can’t blame her rationale. Wait a minute.” Carl looked at his dad again. “How did Trevor find out? Aisling specifically told me she didn’t want him and Elizabeth to know.”
“It accidentally slipped during a phone call,” Jake said.
“Trevor is dying to just call Aisling and order her to claim Tamsin, but it was a clusterfuck the way the secret got out, and they’re trying to let nature take its course.
But I do know Trevor slipped it in during a phone call he had with Tamsin that they would be happy for her if she ever felt a mate bond again. ”
Carl slumped in his chair and threw his head back. “Man, I have never been happier to be a glorified babysitter than I am right now.”
Mateo laughed. “Right? Beats the hell out of our previous gig.”
Carl looked at Jake. “Can I at least come visit you over at Dewi’s while you’re there?”
“Both of you can. And they got me a phone, so we can talk and text.” He smiled. “Might need to teach me how. And you can make grocery runs for me, too, I guess. I’d probably prefer that. I have a feeling just from what I’ve seen so far that I’d be overwhelmed.”
Carl leaned over and hugged him again, laughing. “Damn right, I will.”
Jake stayed for another hour because Duncan wanted him out of there before the kids woke up, and before Brianna and Da’von returned home. Duncan Primed the men not to reveal the information.
As Carl stood in the driveway hugging his father, he resisted the urge to bawl like a kid. “I love you, Dad. Promise me you won’t disappear again.”
“Not willingly,” Jake said. “And love you, too, son.”
After hugging Mateo, Jake climbed into the truck and headed out while they watched.
“That happened, right?” he quietly asked Mateo.
This time, Mateo wrapped his arms around Carl from behind. “Your father’s back. And life just went from ‘weird’ to ‘what the fuck?’”