CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Fenwick’s body is incinerated.
Lachlan goes down into the sub-level. He wants to see it, pay his last respects, but is told he’s not permitted so he goes back up into the Estate and briefs his entire team sternly, warns them to tighten up against any possible mistakes in the future. It’s a nasty wake-up call, Fenwick’s death.
Lachlan deludes himself about certain things sometimes but washing Fenwick’s blood from his wrists before calmly filing a report that lists his cause of death as accidental electrocution during the storm sure as shit tears through the illusion. They are all dispensable.
Everyone but the children.
It’s the first day of August and life goes on.
Lachlan watches the oldest Sorrenko boy closely that day, thinks of Fenwick’s warning, suggesting he let him die.
Roman Sorrenko is tall, outgoing and fairly intelligent from what Lachlan gathers, but no more threat than anyone else in this place.
Now that Fenwick is ash and bone, Lachlan is starting to suspect Roman wasn’t the eldest son he was referring to.
Jules is worryingly quiet. His brutal schedule comes to a halt as the first true week of summer begins and on Alistair’s order, construction begins for freshwater pools.
Mimi’s bad mood has mercifully ebbed and she doesn’t seem aware of what went down last night but they’re in the sunshine when she asks Lachlan, ‘Bad Man gone now? Daddy bang bang?’
Lachlan doesn’t know what else to say, so he says ‘Yeah, babygirl.’
She gives an approving smile and pats his shoulder. ‘Good job.’
When he later tries to talk to Jules, the boy is locked up tight. Gives short, shallow answers and sticks close to Vasily, Roman and Savannah.
Lachlan is glad to see Jules with people his own age for once, although he has a dark suspicion about how similar Jules and Savannah look in certain lights. Ariadne and Alistair are obviously very close.
They have that revolting chemistry people of their stature often seem to develop. Desensitised, absent of boundaries, emotionally incestuous. Close-knit, closed doors, the rich only eat with the rich.
Vasily, the younger of the two Sorrenko boys, seems very curious about Lachlan and he often blushes when Lachlan meets his waiting gaze, something his older brother ruthlessly teases him about in their mother tongue, perhaps unaware Lachlan speaks it as per RB training.
Lachlan doesn’t care that Sorrenko’s youngest has a crush on him.
He just wants distance between now and the night the lightning hit.
He wants the memory of Fenwick signing you should let him die to fade away.
He wants every single thing Fenwick said that night gone, especially the part about the nightmares.
Lachlan considers himself a pragmatic man at heart, but there are things picking away at his brain and he wants it to stop.
Trying to talk to Jules is a dead end.
Lachlan hardly blames him, but he trusts he’s talking to his new friends now that he’s granted a little free time to spend with them.
Perhaps naively, Lachlan hopes Jules develops something with Roman, all while dreading something happening with Savannah for reasons he doesn’t want to think about.
The bloodlines of old money are nothing Lachlan would ever want to look at under a microscope.
Meanwhile, the Estate is bathed in sunshine while the heat intensifies enormously.
Mimi will let Blaire into her Wendy House now which is a massive relief.
If there’s one person Lachlan trusts, it’s Blaire Montbelliard, and much as he would give anything to spend his days in the shade with Mimi, he has a job to do here.
Fenwick, whatever else, ran the household efficiently, and is quickly missed when the new weight falls squarely onto Lachlan’s shoulders. Penhalyx doesn’t offer to field a replacement, nor does he ask Lachlan for his suggestion, he simply leaves Lachlan to take over.
It’s a huge, thankless task that Lachlan sorely wishes he could outsource, but he gets by in the first week and makes a few small adjustments while Penhalyx is distracted with his houseguests.
During that time, Lachlan takes a few hours to see his friend, Jolene Mercer.
He hasn’t been to see her in person in well over a year and finds the place almost exactly as it was the last time he was here.
It’s a treasure trove of useful technology within the shell of an abandoned warehouse situated in a satellite blind spot.
They never engage in small talk.
Jolene makes him a coffee, French roast, and he tells her what he needs, explains his ideas for streamlining the running of the household via technology. ‘They’re solid upgrades but you need someone you can trust running them. Do you have anyone in mind?’
He does, but he’s so scared to put Blaire forward for it.
‘I was thinking if we organise it like this, I could keep running things.’
‘You think Penhalyx would allow that?’ she asks, head cocked. Sometimes, she reminds him of Blaire, though Jolene is street sharp where Blaire is soft. Lachlan really needs to go on a date and meet new women at some point.
They’re all starting to blur.
‘I don’t know, maybe. He keeps asking about you,’ he says, changing the subject. ‘Wants to meet you. I’m not gonna bring you in though.’
She smiles with a distinct cat-like energy. ‘I can handle myself.’
‘I’m thinking about upgrading the base systems again.’
‘Comms?’
‘Surveillance too.’
‘Specific ideas?’
‘Not yet but soon.’
‘I’m always here,’ she says. Long blood-red hair, delicate silver piercings and sharp chrome nails. Jolene Mercer is utterly gorgeous, but she’s far more valuable to him as a friend, so he’s never pushed for more.
‘Thanks.’
When he leaves, he debates visiting his mom or even Margot, but the three hours he’s been away from the Estate have already taken their toll, so he returns to the Estate, goes right for Mimi in her Wendy House where she was playing with Blaire, and hugs her close.
‘Missed you, babygirl,’ he whispers.
‘I missed you too, Daddy. So did Mari and Jules and Bee.’
Bee is Blaire because Blaire is hard to say.
Lachlan pulls Blaire into the hug too.
‘It’s good to be home.’
?
The second week of August is when Lachlan teaches Mimi how to swim.
He has to hand it to Penhalyx, the pool system built in such a short amount of time is genuinely impressive.
Freshwater engineered to remain that way, with aquatic plants and God only knows what other filtration systems keeping it naturally clean and safe, unlike the lake with its eels, parasites and bacteria.
There’s one main pool that’s huge and deep in the centre, then a series of shallow interconnected pools that Lachlan thinks of as stylish puddles and a small pool farther away that Mimi declares is hers because nearby all her favourite flowers grow.
She’s not afraid of the pool the way she was afraid of the waterfall because it’s calm, rippling and pretty, but she can’t swim and despite having claimed it for herself, Mimi is nervous, sitting on the edge, toes dipping in and out.
Lachlan takes a full day off to be in the pool with her and Blaire joins him, plus Jules. Penhalyx makes no objection. It’s a gift horse that Lachlan refuses to look in the mouth of. So he has one day to make this pool not scary.
It starts off slow.
Mimi has the radio beside her, informing Mari of all that’s going on and when she’s done talking, she listens intently, nodding as if receiving important messages.
Lachlan is in trunks. The pool is just deep enough in the middle to reach his neck.
Jules is swimming, talking to Blaire about the weather.
He’s asking her about the storm two weeks ago.
He’s subtly asking questions that all circle his lack of knowledge about Paranaturals.
The old man may have relaxed Jules’ study time, but he’s still not allowed any devices, so he’s probably frustrated he can’t look it up and Jules is smart enough not to ask either of Sorrenko’s boys.
Blaire is outrageously beautiful in a bikini, but Lachlan’s focus is all on Mimi in her brand-new bathing suit with polka dots and butterflies, assessing the water the way Lachlan would assess a room. ‘Is there fishes?’ she asks.
‘No, honey,’ Lachlan tells her. ‘Just me, Bee and Jewel.’
Jules looks over at her and smiles encouraging. ‘Come on, Mimikins, you can swim on my back.’
Mimi doesn’t quite return his smile.
Something isn’t right between the two of them.
Maybe it’s that she missed him too much, or worse, got used to his absence, or maybe it’s that she retreats into herself a little more whenever he spends time with the older kids. Either way, it’s not how it once was when Jules was the one she ran to over anyone else.
‘No thanks,’ she says and then looks at Lachlan. ‘Show me again.’
He shows her the basic movements of swimming but knows she’ll need to do it in the water before she understands. It’s just one of those things.
‘I promise I won’t let you go.’
Mimi narrows her eyes, thinking. ‘I hold my breath?’
‘Just like we practised, babygirl.’ One of several things he’s taught her in case of smoke from fire. ‘So long as you hold your breath, you won’t drown.’
Mimi looks a little proud. ‘I can hold it long time.’
‘Yes, you can.’
Forty-four seconds is her record.
She stands up. ‘OK, I jump.’
Jules swims closer, worried. ‘Bodyguard, tell her to go slow.’
Lachlan smiles at his little girl. ‘She knows what she’s doing.’
Mimi takes a huge deep breath and then jumps in. Lachlan dips beneath the water, eyes open, watching her movements.