Chapter Six #3
He came over, hugged Liis gently, then clasped my shoulder. “Good to see you both. Looking forward to seeing Travis, Taylor, and Tyler, too, and meeting Trenton.”
I rubbed the back of my neck. “I’m sure you are, however, they’re going to show up ready to put their fists in my face.”
Naomi looked Liis over. “Yeah, I’m not gonna sugarcoat it. What you did was messed up.”
“It was necessary,” Liis said, without hesitation. “We couldn’t contain it otherwise.”
Naomi didn’t blink. “They won’t care.”
“No,” I conceded. “They won’t. But I’ll handle it. Preferably without structural damage to the Longhouse.”
Naomi lifted a brow. “Do I need to chaperone?”
“I’d like to say no.” I exhaled. “But we’ve burned a lot of ground with each other over the years. Letting them believe Olive was dead… I don’t expect forgiveness.”
“I wouldn’t,” Zeke said.
It tracked. He ran with the same hotshot crew as my twin brothers.
He would’ve been there for the aftermath—getting the calls from Taylor and trying to help him to hold it together, hearing Falyn move through all five stages of grief in real time.
Hearing of their impending divorce and listening to Taylor spiral into depression as he tried to figure out how to be strong for his kids while he and Falyn shared 50/50 custody and co-parented.
I nodded once. It was the only thing I could manage.
Naomi gestured for us to sit at the kitchen table, solid wood and scarred with use. Naomi grabbed a bowl of grapes from the counter and dropped into a chair, popping one into her mouth.
“Now that that’s out of the way,” she said, chewing, “how are you settling in? I guess that question’s a little premature since you haven’t made it to your residence yet.”
Liis glanced at me. “We’re comfortable and grateful.”
Zeke leaned back against the counter, arms crossed, studying us. “Seriously, though. How bad do you think this gets with you guys? Full dogpile, or…?”
“No,” Liis said, immediate.
Naomi shot him a look. “I thought we were past that.”
“To be honest, we don’t know what to expect,” I said.
“Tonight could go a few different ways. They’ve grown up, learned some restraint.
It helps that they’ve had twenty-four hours to process.
” I paused, nervously scratching my chin.
“But this goes beyond anything we’ve ever done to each other before.
This is betrayal. Five men, already volatile, trained to varying degrees, most days looking for an excuse to burn off pressure with our fists—there’s no playbook for how that ends up. ”
Naomi smiled wider. “Chaperone it is.”
“Maybe you should invite Kansas and Spenser, too,” Zeke said, clearly unhappy with the picture I’d painted—and with the idea of his wife anywhere near the fallout.
“The women at the door when we arrived,” Liis said, more of a statement than a question.
“Yeah?” she said. “They’re unit commanders here on the compound.” She pulled out her phone. “I’ll text Spense. I’ll leave Kansas out of it. Her idea of de-escalation involves broken fingers.”
“I’m sure we can handle it,” Liis said quickly. “Militia or not, two women in the middle of a Maddox all-out war are just in the way.” She turned to me. “How are you planning to explain to the General that his daughter or nieces ended up with a black eye courtesy of one of your brothers?”
Naomi laughed, reaching for another grape. She chewed, clearly amused. “I’m humoring Zeke. I don’t need Spenser there. One Marcel is enough.”
“You haven’t seen—” Liis started.
I flattened my hand on the table, subtle but final.
“No one needs a pissing match right now,” I said. “Naomi, if you think you and Spenser should be present, it’s your house. I’m not here to overrule you.”
Liis was too proud to huff, but her body language all but announced her frustration.
“Good,” Naomi said. “It’s settled. Moving on, I reached out to Travis as requested,” she said to Liis. “Filled him in as much as I was allowed. Told him the whole family is to meet you here. Airport pickup. Caravan in. Same arrival window.”
“What time?” I asked.
“Nineteen hundred hours,” Zeke said.
I exhaled slowly. “Falyn?”
Naomi’s expression softened, just a fraction. “According to Travis… she’s not okay.”
“Warranted,” Liis said quietly. “Which will make Taylor that much more on edge.”
Naomi leaned back in her chair. “How’s Stella holding up?”
“Tired,” Liis said. “But she’s always been a trooper.”
“And Olive and the boyfriend?”
“I’d be surprised if they weren’t still sleeping,” I said. “It was a late night.”
Zeke’s gaze drifted somewhere else for a moment. “I’m looking forward to seeing Taylor and Tyler,” he admitted. “Just wish it wasn’t, you know, like this.”
“They’ll be glad to see you, too,” Liis said, making a visible effort to smooth over the tense moment with Naomi.
Naomi rolled her eyes affectionately. “He misses his hotshot days in Colorado. Don’t let him fool you.”
I glanced at the photos on the mantel again. “How’s Trex?” I asked. “And Darby? The girls?”
Naomi grinned at the photo I’d just looked at. “Still wonderful.”
Liis managed a small smile. “He left the Bureau right before I arrived in San Diego, but my colleague, Val, was quite fond of him.”
Zeke shook his head, already laughing at whatever he was about to say. “Trex installed a new sprinkler system the other day. Forgot about it. Heard it gear up at three a.m., went out half asleep to check what the noise was, and got absolutely wrecked.”
Naomi erupted in laughter, wiping her eyes.
I laughed despite myself, grateful for the distraction.
“Colorado Springs is good for him,” Naomi said once she could finally get the words out. Once the table settled, she stood, setting the grape bowl aside. “You’re in good hands here. And if you have any problems inside the compound—anything—come directly to me.”
“Thank you,” Liis said.
We all stood. “See you tonight,” Naomi said.
A familiar sense of dread quickly returned. I nodded once, then followed Liis out the front door.
Outside, Ibarra was waiting again, this time to walk us back to the Longhouse.
In full daylight, the compound looked different—less imposing than it had in the dark.
The desert stretched beyond the perimeter, open and exposed, offering no natural cover.
Every path, wall, and blind corner had been accounted for.
Militia members moved through the space with efficiency. No one lingered. Security was visible without being performative: armed patrols rotating positions, eyes up, hands free. It felt less residential in this area and more like an installation already fully operational.
A hundred yards later, there was a playground, a splash pad, and a line of Stella-sized shirts swaying on a clothesline.
The Longhouse sat closer to the outer edge of the compound, positioned near the gate, accessible, contained, and easy to secure, clearly intended for temporary stays or intake rather than permanence.
“Breakfast will be served in fifteen,” Ibarra said as we arrived. “I’ll be back to escort your family to Orientation, and from there you’ll be introduced to your semi-permanent residence.”
“Thank you,” I said, nodding to her as she turned to leave.
Inside, everything was quiet, the skylights restricting light. Olive slept curled on her side, one hand on Stella who was sprawled across the bed—and Olive—like a starfish. Bodhi snored softly above them.
I was hesitant to wake them up, instead deciding to sit on the bench at the end of our bunk. Liis sat next to me, and we collectively sighed.
“I’m trying not to think about it,” she whispered.
“Maybe we should,” I said. “We need a game plan to mitigate violence if it comes to that.”
“What can we say?” she muttered. “How do we help them understand?”
“We can’t. We can only apologize, take whatever they have to say, and let them see her.”
“That’s not how it’s going to go,” she said, leaning her temple against my shoulder.
“I know,” I said, leaning my head back against the bunk’s metal frame.