Chapter Thirty-Two
Amelie
After a fantastic morning at the fair, we opt for a late lunch with my family. It’s just them, me, and my boyfriends. Slate actually manages to relax once introductions are out of the way, and my dad doesn’t give him a hard time.
It’s a noisy affair, but everyone seems to be getting on well.
Most of us pigged out on too much candy and sugar at the fair, so we’ve chosen to have small plates or appetisers for dinner.
Not Kalen though. He ordered the biggest burger known to man and challenged Aadi and Smalls to an eating contest.
Which they accepted, of course, because family don’t back down from a challenge. Which is probably why all three of them are looking green and groaning. Idiots.
“Hi, can I get you any desserts?” The server asks brightly, coming to a stop at our large table.
“No, thank you,” I say at the same time Kalen yells, “Yes!”
“What? You couldn’t possibly have any more room,” Chelsea says with a laugh.
“That sounds like a challenge,” he replies. The rest of us groan.
“You’re cut off, Kalen,” I declare. “No sugar for the rest of the week.”
“The week?!” he cries. “That’s harsh.”
“Suck it up, buttercup. It is what it is. Your teeth will thank me later.”
“My dentist won’t.”
“Kalen, the dentist wants you to have good teeth,” I point out, frowning at him.
“Does he, though? If I just pop along for a checkup once a year, is he making the most out of my fat wallet? I think not…” He trails off and launches into a conversation with Chelsea about dental care and the NHS, and I swear he almost has her ready to move over here, which is testament to how damn persuasive he is because Chelsea is a home bird through and through.
After we’ve finished and Sawyer insists on picking up the bill for the entire meal, much to my father’s annoyance and Chelsea's approval, I hug my guys goodbye.
“What’s going on?” Kalen asks.
“I’m saying goodbye to you.”
“But why?” He frowns.
“Because I’m going back to the hotel to spend some time with my family.”
“We just spent all day with them.” He pouts.
“And I’m glad you got to spend time with them and they could meet the others, but now I want some time alone with them.”
“Oh.”
“I don’t love you any less. I’ll be back later.”
“The others won’t like it.”
“You’re my boyfriends, not my bodyguards. I have enough of those already. We can’t spend every minute of every day together. You’ll all get over it.”
Thankfully Kalen, Slate and Sawyer don’t kick up a fuss, but Onyx is full of scowls.
“What’s the problem?” I sigh, losing patience with him. He grabs my arm and pulls me away from the group, though that doesn’t stop them all from watching keenly.
“I don’t want to leave you with them.”
“They’re my family.”
“We’re your family too.”
“I know that, but…please.” I don’t really know how to argue this one anymore. Why doesn’t he understand that I need to spend time with them, alone?
“It’s too far away,” he mutters.
“What is?” I blink.
“The hotel.”
“Why does that matter?”
“Because, if something bad happens—”
“Nothing bad will happen.” I try to find some patience, I really do, but I just want to scream. Onyx – and his brothers too to a lesser degree – would happily wrap me in bubble wrap and lock me away just from the threat of the unknown if they could.
It’s ridiculous.
Because of who I am, I will always be in some sort of immediate danger. I can’t let that stop me living my life. And I certainly don’t feel like I’m putting my dad, brother and everyone else in the firing line just by hanging out with them at their hotel for a few hours.
“You don’t know that,” Onyx insists. “I’ll be too far away to save you if I’m back at the academy and you’re at some hotel with them.”
“We have security for a reason.”
“They’re not me. They’re not good enough,” he growls.
“Onyx, for god’s sake! Stop suffocating me!” I shout, exasperated.
He doesn’t back down, getting in my face and lowering his voice to a dangerous tone. “I can’t risk your safety, Amelie. I have to know that you’re okay. I have to see it with my own eyes. It has to be me. No one else is good enough because I love you.”
“I love you too, but you’re driving me crazy!” I cry, actual tears of exasperation forming in the corners of my eyes.
Applause startles me out of our argument and I turn back to the others. Kalen is grinning and clapping, Slate and Sawyer are handing him cash from their wallets.
“What’s going on?” I demand.
“I bet them that when you finally admitted to loving each other it would be during a fight.”
“What? No. We’ve said it before?” I check with Onyx. He shrugs at me.
“First time,” he mutters. “And I still fucked it up.”
“You didn’t fuck anything up. It was perfect,” I say, pulling him into my arms for a hug. “I love you.”
He grins and kisses me. “I love you too.”
“Great! We all love Amelie, she loves all of us, and we’ve finally all said it! Can we go home now?” Kalen complains.
“Shut up, dick,” Onyx complains.
“Monster dick.”
“Yeah,” Slate chimes in. “We didn’t all feel the need to start sprinkling the ‘L word’ around like damn confetti a few hours after meeting her.”
“Hey! When you know, you know. I’m intuitive like that.”
“Brother,” Sawyer snorts. “You’re about as intuitive as a cut toenail.”
“Ewww that’s gross,” Kalen whines.
“And yet oddly fitting for you,” Onyx adds with a smirk before turning back to me. “What do you say? Come home with me and let me show you how much I love you?”
I hesitate, but I know that I can’t back down.
“Later. I really am going to go home with my family, play a couple of board games, and catch up with them on life back home. Then I’ll be coming back to my actual home, to you, after.
I promise.” Another kiss sweetens the deal and he reluctantly lets me go.
Sawyer and Slate quickly remove him before he can change his mind.
Kalen lingers like a lost puppy.
“Can I come?” he asks hopefully.
“No. It’s alone time.”
“But Chelsea loves me! Your dad does too. And your brother.”
“I do not!” Aadi calls.
“Give Chelsea a hug, tell her you’ll see her tomorrow, and go join your brothers.”
He pouts, but does as I ask.
When it’s finally just me and my family, I sigh and then smile at them.
“Wow, they sure are a lot to handle,” Chelsea says with a grin.
“I thought the hyper one was going to be the worst.” My dad shakes his head.
“Ha! You think they’re a lot to handle? They deserve medals for taking Milly on!” My brother laughs. Wisely, Smalls stays quiet.
“I’m sure they get plenty of rewards…maybe not medals,” Bex teases, wiggling her eyebrows at me, and I snort.
“And Amelie is the lucky one. Anyone with eyes can see how fine they are, they are like a fine wine, getting better looking with age. Kalen is hot, the twins are fire and ....” Bex is cut off by Aadi and a possessive growl from me, which comes out in stereo.
“We get it, English dudes are hot,” Aadi complains.
I blink at Aadi and grin. Oh boy, he’s got it so bad. And by the looks of the triumphant smirk Bex is levelling his way, she knows exactly what she’s doing too.
Chelsea slips her arm through mine and leads us out to the minivan where Cap is now waiting to drive us back to the hotel.
We file in, Smalls and Aadi ganging up on me to force me to sit in the very back.
Apparently being the leader of a global organisation means shit when you’re the youngest in the family.
We’re soon pulling in at the place where last night’s inauguration was held. Gosh, was it only last night? So much has happened since then.
Sawyer has arranged a house near campus for them all to stay in for the duration of their visit, but after such an unexpectedly busy day, no one feels like packing up and moving so Sawyer extended their hotel rooms for one more night.
I send him a quick text thanking him for everything he’s done for us.
My family leave Bex and I to climb out of the back of the minivan on our own, which is deliberate and strategic I’m sure, seeing as we’ve barely said two words to one another since she arrived.
I help her climb out and slide the van door closed behind her.
“Thanks,” she says. I hate this awkwardness between us.
“No worries.”
“Look, Amelie? I just want to say—”
“Ohmygod! Do you see that?!” I cry, grabbing hold of Bex’s arm.
“Huh? What?”
I point at the black cab just pulling out of the hotel grounds. “That! Did you see who just got into the back of that taxi?”
“No? Was it someone famous?”
“I think…” I trail off, feeling foolish.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“You can’t react like that and then say it’s nothing, you’ve left damn nail marks in my skin!” Bex complains.
“It’s crazy. But I just saw two women who look an awful lot like my grandmother and my…our mum.” An unreadable expression flitters across her face but it’s gone in the time it takes me to blink. “I must be tired. It’s been a busy few days.”
“Ha. Yeah, I’ll bet. Shall we catch up to the others?”
I nod and follow her into the hotel, but I can’t help looking back at where the cab was. It’s long gone of course, but I can’t shake the weird feeling I have.
I follow Bex to what I assume will be my dad and Chelsea’s room, which is why I'm surprised when she pulls out a key card and lets me into an empty bedroom.
“Um…”
“Aadi thought we should talk. I don’t usually do what he says since he is the world's biggest douche, but I think he has a point on this.”
“Right.” I stand awkwardly on the edge of the room while Bex flops down on the bed dramatically. She stares at the ceiling for a bit then sits up and sits crossed legged.
“Take a seat, I won’t bite...hard.”
I snort, this is the Bex I remember.
I opt for the chair in the corner because I’m not quite ready to do the whole ‘sisterly bonding sleepover’ bullshit just yet.
I stare at Bex, searching for any familial resemblance, but I'm coming up short.
“What? You’re staring.”
“Just wondering which of us is the oldest, I guess. I had you pegged as being around my age when we first met.”
“I’m only twenty months older.”
“Did you know who I was when we first met?”
“No, it wasn’t until just before you left for England.
I grew up thinking Saide was my mother. A few days before you left, a woman turned up and Camilla was pissed.
My mum was pissed too. Everyone was yelling and Camilla pulled a gun.
I hid so I could listen because I’m nosey as fuck.
Long story short, I was adopted when I was a little over one. Debbie…”
“I don’t want to know about her right now, I’m not ready.”
Bex nods. “I didn’t know that we were related right away, I was in shock. It wasn’t until Sawyer called me that I was able to put all the pieces together.”
“I think I’m still in shock,” I say with a small laugh.
“Honestly? I’m glad I’m related to you and not your brother.”
“Because you like him?”
She splutters and makes a gagging sound. “God no, I would rather stab myself in the eye with a rusty fork, or have sex on the beach with no towel for the rest of my life.”
“Uh huh.”
“It’s true, he infuriates me…”
I laugh at her.
“Oh, you’re teasing me.”
I nod. Maybe we can build on this and have a relationship.
We got on well enough in Australia, and a birth certificate doesn’t have to change that or come between us.
I always wanted a sister when I was growing up.
But I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to forgive Debbie.
How can a parent keep siblings away from each other?
No matter what her reasons were for abandoning her and then getting pregnant again. Just thinking about it infuriates me.
“If we’re done here, we really should go and join my family.”
“Shit. Yeah, okay. I just…I have one more thing to say. A confession.”
I pause and raise a brow. “Go on.”
“Um, okay, so when we were outside and you saw that cab, you weren’t meant to see that. You were right. It was Camilla and Debbie. They’re both here.”
My jaw drops even as my gut celebrates with an I told you so backflip. “Please don’t hate me, they both swore me to secrecy.”
“Why are they here?”
“They just want a chance to get to know you. It was pretty clear that with your new role you wouldn’t be coming back to Australia any time soon, so they thought they’d come to you.”
“In secret?!”
“I didn’t say their idea wasn’t flawed. Just…give them a chance. Please?”
It’s not like I owe Bex anything, not really. Sure, she’s taking a seat on the board, but she’s going to gain from being within The Order too. So why do I find myself caving and wanting to make her happy?
“I’ll meet with them. Separately. Camilla first.” I sigh. “Now can we go and play some Monopoly?”
“Sure. But I have to be the hat.”
“No way. I’m always the hat.”
“Okay, I call the dog.”
“Good luck fighting Aadi for that one.”
Bex laughs. “He can eat my ass, actually no he would enjoy that, shit you don’t want to hear that. It will be all G. If I say I want to be anything but the dog, he’ll insist on me taking that piece and make a crack about me being a bitch.”
I smile. “Maybe we can make an alliance. Smalls will be on our side too. Let’s gang up on Aadi and bleed him dry.”
“I knew I liked you for a reason, Amelie.”