Plans and Certainties #4
“Same,” Anthony said. “Reg, you and I get Laure’s old room. Dean, you and Bailey get the foldout bed downstairs with Marcus, and the boys get the guest room in the cottage with Connor. He’s already got them promising no funny business under his watch. It’s cute.”
Goddammit, somebody was trying to track that whole Canada thing, and Reg couldn’t look up right now. He absolutely couldn’t.
“Uhm, okay,” he said, although he was dying to protest. “Laure’s room?”
Anthony actually came into the den then, and skirting Marcus and Dean, he grabbed Reg’s shoulder, leaned in, and kissed his temple. “Yeah, Reg. Your sister’s room. Where we can sleep in the same bed and talk about why you wouldn’t even ask me to come.”
“Because it’s dangerous,” Reg said, almost sighing in relief as he lost the interloper who kept trying to lock on to his signal. “And I don’t want to drag you into something more dangerous than today. You didn’t sign on for this.”
Anthony was still there, though, his breath stirring Reg’s hair, his lips just grazing the skin.
“I signed on for you, Reg. It’s fine. I’ll be back in two hours. Go to sleep without me if you need to. It’s fine.”
Reg hit the uplink again and shoved the keyboard at Dean, taking him enough by surprise that he actually squeaked. He used his suddenly free hands to cover Anthony’s hand with his own.
“I didn’t want to assume,” he said by way of apology.
“We’ll talk about that too,” Anthony murmured. Then he took one more step into familiarity and kissed Reg’s cheek before squeezing his shoulder and taking his leave.
The silence in the room was almost deafening as Dean finished his tactical discussion with his friend in Canada and then killed the connection himself. He shoved the battered keyboard back on the desk with a sigh and leaned against his office chair, rubbing the back of his neck.
“He’s a sweet kid,” he said after a breath. “Much like you, Registrar. Why is it so hard to accept his help?”
Reg grunted, not wanting to talk about it. “I’m very used to working on my own,” he said. “Not everybody discovers a Marcus in FLETC and brings him home to be adopted.”
“Yeah,” Dean said, “but we do discover a Rory or a Bailey or a Susan or a….” His voice dropped at this next one, because Laure’s husband had been the first significant other to be brought home, and he’d ended up leaving for the military and one day not coming back.
“A Henry,” he finished. “Why’s it so hard to open our doors to Anthony again? ”
“It’s not important,” Reg said quietly, logging off with all his care. “It’s—”
“Why are you so afraid to be seen?” Dean asked, and to his horror, Reg’s eyes started burning.
“Dean, it’s been a long day, and I’m not used to fighting with you. Can I go get ice cream and cookies now? Marcus, I’ll bring you some.”
“Have Bailey bring me mine downstairs,” Dean demanded, sounding mad probably because he knew Reg was leaving so they wouldn’t fight in front of the parents.
He made his escape then, breathing a sigh of relief and hoping the discussion was over.
HIS MOTHER’S only comment on the fight in the study was “It’s good to see Val isn’t the only one who can hold his own against Dean,” and Reg ate his dessert complacently on the couch while everybody—kids and Bailey’s father included—watched a Disney movie.
He was conscious that the kids were waiting to be briefed on the situation, but mostly he was grateful for everybody’s lack of prying on the fight.
The movie ended, Ilia hopped up and took his bowl to the kitchen, and it was time to talk.
“So,” he said to the two boys, “what do you think about Canada?”
He’d expected… well, kids. If somebody his family had barely known had suddenly said something about picking up and moving out of nowhere, the argument would still be going on.
He hadn’t expected these kids, who had already upended their lives in the name of safety from forces bigger than they were and apparently already knew the drill.
“My mother?” Ilia asked hesitantly.
“My aunt Adelle?” Raymondo asked, both of them looking pinched and worried and young.
“We won’t do a thing without them,” Reg reassured.
“The plan was for my mom, here—” He smiled at her, and she gave a firm nod, indicating she was down for anything.
“—she’s going to the school to ask about Renee, but really to talk to your aunt, Reynaldo.
When she’s done, the hope is both your guardians will pack your essentials and travel with her and my brother to Seattle, where you’ll meet my other brother, Val, who can smuggle people in.
At the same time, I’ll be taking you two to a different town, and you guys will get into his truck there.
It shouldn’t be dangerous. We just don’t want your uncle to know where you are,” he said to Ilia.
“And your father has given us permission,” he added to Reynaldo.
He swallowed. “He asked not to know where you’re going.
We promised safety, and he knows my brother Dean.
I guess they had a run-in, and Dean prioritized your little brother’s safety over his own.
Your father asked not to be told where you’re going, Reynaldo.
He seemed to think it was safer for you that way. ”
Reynaldo was sitting on the floor next to Ilia, his arms wrapped around his knees, his cheek resting on top of them.
“He wants me to be safe,” he said softly. “He wants me to grow up happy. He… he was very clear about that when he sent me here. Told me to remember that, even if we never saw each other again.”
Ilia said nothing, just leaned against him, and Reynaldo leaned back.
“It’s all a parent can hope for a child,” Eddie Royal said softly. “Your dad’s a good dad.”
One of the most dangerous cartel leaders in South America, Reg thought, semihysterically, and Reg had barely kept him from discovering where they lived.
But that’s not what these kids needed to know right now.
“It was probably really hard for him to do,” Reg told him. “So yeah. It’s not… perfect,” he added sadly. “I’m so sorry the government here is so awful right now. But we can get you both to safety, and that’s the important thing.”
“What if my mother or his aunt can’t meet us?” Ilia asked, sounding scared for the first time.
“Well, we’re leaving my dad home for contact. Don’t worry—if this family can do anything, it’s run circles around people trying to track us. Ask Mom. She had to keep everybody’s schedules in her head and get us all to different places every day.”
“She had help,” his father said mildly.
“She did,” Reg agreed. “Val and Laure did plenty. Even Sal stepped up.”
His father gave him a flat look that said he thought Reg was hilarious, and Reg winked at him before turning to the kids again. “If somebody’s mom can’t make it, we’ll know before we get there, and we’ll, you know, pivot and fix stuff.” He shrugged. “And we’re open to suggestions.”
“It’s good you didn’t call her tonight,” Ilia said softly. “She… she’s scared of her brother. If he called her or visited, searching for me, and she knew, she might have told him. Be… careful. She… she might betray us.”