Chapter 52
Atreus
Two days later
I straighten my jacket and tie and clear my throat as I look at myself in the rearview mirror. “How do I look?”
“Like dogshit,” Xavier responds, rolling his eyes.
I grimace at him through the mirror. “Shut up.”
Orion shoves Xavier with his elbow. “You know you don’t mean that.”
“Fine, you look fine. Can we go in now?”
“He’s just nervous for ‘the talk.’” Orion makes quotation marks with his fingers.
“He’s not the only one,” Sunny muses, and she winks before stepping out of my car.
“Let’s go.” Xavier and Orion walk out too, so I follow them toward the big house where her parents live. The size of the house alone is intimidating, not to mention the guards standing at the front of the gates.
They let us in, and I keep my head held high as we walk across the path toward the door, where someone is already waiting for us.
“Sunny, Xavier, Orion.” Some lanky dude with short red hair looks me up and down. “Foley, right?”
“Call me Atreus,” I reply, smiling.
“Okay, Atreus, name’s Milo, nice to meet you. Hope you’re ready,” he muses, and he opens the door farther. “Welcome to our home, hope you enjoy your stay, however long it lasts. You never know how fast someone dies here.”
I narrow my eyes at him as I pass him, and he shrugs. “It’s a joke.”
“Right.”
“Everyone’s waiting in the living room.”
Everyone.
As in fucking every single one of their families, including Felix Rivera.
I swallow away the lump in my throat as we enter the living room.
Can’t wait to get this fucking over with.
The stares are what make me stop in my tracks. They’re all sitting on the couch and chairs in the corner, waiting for me to do the talking.
“Hello,” I say.
“That’s all? Hello?” Sunny’s mother, Lana, growls. “You arrested my daughter, and you think you can just come here and talk with us?”
“I was the one who brought him, so blame me,” Sunny says.
“Get that fucker out of here,” Felix says, pulling a cigarette from his pocket. “I’ve seen enough of his face.”
“Now hold your horses, let’s see what he has to say first,” Blaine, Orion’s dad, says as he pours himself a strong drink. “There must be a reason she wanted to bring him along.”
“To apologize, I hope,” an older guy with black roots and white hair says. I think he’s Xavier’s dad.
“Actually, that’s exactly why I’m here,” I say, sucking in a breath.
“Your dad hates my dad, and he sent you to hunt us down,” Silas says.
“Silas …” His mom immediately shushes him.
“No, he’s right.” I shrug. “My dad does hate your dad.”
No point in denying it.
“Jason Foley got what he deserved,” Felix says.
“Gotta admit, he was a shitty lover,” her mom, Lana, says.
Sunny snorts. “You fucked his dad?”
“What can I say?” Lana shrugs. “He served his purpose. It was a long time ago.”
“He served by letting me take his girl,” another dude with a white eye and wavy brown hair muses.
“So why are you here, exactly?” a girl with long blond hair asks.
“Because I invited him,” Sunny says.
A dude with a scorpion tattoo on his neck says, “He put you in jail.”
That might be her half brother, if my memory serves me right.
“And he got me out of there too,” she replies.
Everyone stares at me again, so I open my mouth. “I got a Bones Brotherhood to take the fall for her.”
Some guy with tats all over and his brown hair in a bun says, “A cop who lies? Interesting.”
“José was a threat to society, so it’s a good thing he’s behind bars.”
“How did you do it then?” a girl with painted red hair asks.
“Simple. It was either jail or death.”
There are gasps all around the room.
“A cop? Threatening violence?” A lanky guy with glasses snorts. “Don’t see that every day.”
“I learned from the best,” I retort, quickly eyeing Sunny.
“So you wanted him to come and explain himself, or what exactly?” a dude with bright blue eyes and blond hair asks, and I recognize him because I’ve seen him before at the station. Her dad, Nathan Reed.
“I wanted to apologize for the pain I’ve caused,” I say, licking my lips. “I … had the best intentions.”
“Best intentions my ass, you just wanted to arrest someone to get all the honor for ‘cleaning up this city,’” Felix’s son barks. “You fuckers don’t do shit. We do all the work.”
“I understand you’re angry, and rightfully so. Justice is important to me. And I think we all know that none of you here are strangers to violence.”
They grow silent now.
“However, I don’t intend to add fuel to the fire by arresting anyone else.”
“Gee, thanks,” the girl with the painted red hair mocks.
“What he means to say is that he knows Sunny is a killer, but he’ll protect her anyway,” Xavier intervenes. “Right, Foley?”
It’s as if the temperature in the room instantly dropped ten degrees.
“Yes. I’ll try my best.”
“You’re saying you know it was her? And you still let her off scot-free?” Felix asks.
I nod. “That’s right.”
“He’s seen me kill, actually,” Sunny adds. “Two days ago.”
The blond girl’s face turns as white as snow. “So you are a serial killer?”
“I killed the men who betrayed me,” she says.
“Trust me, they deserved it,” Orion adds.
“The point is …” I say, sighing. “I am sorry for my vindictive behavior, and I want to apologize for both me and on behalf of my father.”
Her mom and dad both grab each other’s hands, their nostrils flaring, and I know they have so much they want to say to me that the scolding would probably last days on end.
But I can take it. She’s worth taking on every ounce of their hatred for the man who tried to take her down, all because of a misconception about what their family truly is like.
But maybe my dad was wrong about them.
Maybe they’re not half as bad as he said they were.
“It’s not me you need to win over,” her dad says.
“Okay. Apology accepted,” her mom says, folding her arms.
“Will your shit-faced dad show up to apologize too or is he too chicken-shit?” Xavier’s dad cracks his tatted knuckles.
“Dylan!” Silas’s mom throws a pillow at him.
“What? You know I’m right.”
“I’d love to see him grovel,” a guy with curly brown hair says from the back.
I try to laugh it off. “I could ask.”
“I don’t want to see that fucker’s face ever again,” Felix growls.
“Point taken,” I reply.
“So that’s it?” her mom asks.
“No,” Sunny says, smiling. “I actually wanted to tell you all that I’m dating these three fuckers, and nothing you say will stop me.”
Literally everyone’s jaws drop. Simultaneously.
Straight to the point, as always.
That’s why I’m in love.
Sunny
“What?” Mom gasps.
“Oh my God, this is fucking rich,” Silas says. “A serial killer dating the cop?”
I would chop off his head if he wasn’t already laughing it off.
“Shut the fuck up,” I grit.
“You’re for real?” Levi asks. “Foley?”
“Call me Atreus,” Atreus says.
“Whatever,” Levi barks back. “Don’t touch my sister.”
“He can touch me when I say he can,” I rebuke. “No one decides for me.”
“This is a joke, right?” Dad growls, pointing at Atreus. “A Foley?”
“Yup,” I reply. “And there ain’t nothing you’re gonna do about it.”
“What if I forbid it?”
Kai snorts. “Good luck. She’s just as unstoppable as her mother.”
“Fucking really?” my uncle growls. “Anyone but a fucking Foley.”
“Do not bring your personal feud into this,” I warn him.
He rubs his eyes. “Whatever.”
“I didn’t ask for permission. Not from any of you. But I do need you to accept that we’re a quartet now,” I say, putting my arms around my boys. “For better or worse.”
“Well, well, you got roped in too, bro?” Heath says, winking at his half brother. “Nicely done.”
“That’ll be the end of him,” Apollo says, flexing his muscles. “Want me to save your ass?”
“I’m right where I want to be,” Orion replies.
“He likes the pain,” I say.
“TMI,” Cecelia responds, averting her gaze.
“Wait, so you’re only fucking them from now on?” Elliot asks. “I thought you were a ho.”
“I’m still a ho, I just choose to be a monogamous ho,” I quip, throwing him a look.
“I’m impressed, Xav, not gonna lie,” Aspen says, winking at her brother.
“But why them?” Silas asks.
“Because they helped me get through the toughest time in my life,” I say, swallowing away the lump in my throat. “I couldn’t tell anyone this before because it was too fresh, too personal. Back when I was in the hospital, the doctor wanted to speak in private about my condition.”
“I remember,” Mom mutters.
“Those men I killed, the ones Foley wanted to arrest me for … they took away my ability to ever have children.”
The whole room has gone quiet, and I think the only audible sound is my own heartbeat pounding in my rib cage, trying to jump ship. But it’s now or never.
“So I had my revenge.”
Mom immediately jumps up from the couch and runs to me, wrapping her arms around me so tightly the tears spring to my eyes. We’ve hugged … but not like this. She’s never hugged me this intensely before. And it moves me in a way that it’s almost impossible to breathe through it.
“It’s okay. It’s okay,” she whispers.
“It’s not,” I whisper back. “They broke me.”
“God, I wish I’d known sooner, I would’ve helped you get your revenge,” she says, clenching her jaw as she pulls me back to look at me. “You shouldn’t have gone through this all alone.”
“I wasn’t alone,” I say, smiling as I nod at my boys. “They helped me.”
She glances at all three and then back to me. “You did good.” And she hugs me again. “You’re perfect, always.”
“I’m a killer, Mom.”
“We’re all killers in this room.”
She refuses to let go, no matter how hard I push away.
“I was so afraid,” I mutter.
“I know you were.”
“I didn’t want to die.”
The final piece of the misery in my heart unravels, and I hold on tight to the only person who truly gets me for who I am.
“But you made it, and you’re not going to die, not for a long time.
And I want you to know, to feel, that we—that I—will always love you.
Even if you think of yourself as broken, you’re not.
You’re more than the sum of your organs, more than what you are able to do.
Your body doesn’t define who you are, your actions do.
And you’ve shown to yourself, to everyone around you, to the fucking world that you are who you say you are. ”
I nod several times, and Dad approaches to hug me too.
“We hear you. We see you,” he says. “Do you know why we named you Sunny?”
I roll my eyes. “I’ve always hated that name.”
“I know,” Dad says. “But you light up my world. You always do and you always will. Nothing you do could ever deter us. And when everything fails, you’re there to save the people you love. You are a Sunny, because you shine brighter than anyone on this earth. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” I say.
“Good. That’s all you need to remember, kid.”
He pats me on the back, and I feel like I can finally let go of all that anger that’s been constricting my veins and poisoning my soul.
“And if you want three instead of just one fuck buddy, hell, who am I to stop you?” Mom says.
“Thanks,” I retort, snorting.
Dad winks as he adds, “Make that Foley fucker grovel on the floor like I did for your mom.”
I gasp. “You groveled on the floor?”
Mom smirks. “In the shower too, and I was covered in blood.”
“Oh fuck me,” Uncle Felix growls, averting his gaze in embarrassment, and everyone explodes in laughter.
Just like the good old days.