10. Rurik
TEN
RURIK
Ileft. For now.
If that fucker thinks he’s getting away from me so easily, he’s wrong.
I am not done with him. Not after just one taste.
But I decide to give him some space. Not space in like I’ve stopped following him, but I haven’t let him see me.
He needs to know his words mean something. Maybe he’ll stop lying.
I’ve also been busy. And my brothers were starting to get nosy about my absence anyway, so some face time at home has been good. When they said no rest for the wicked, they weren’t fucking kidding.
In fact, I’m deep, deep in my mind palace, planning my first date with Ash.
I’ve never taken anyone on a date before, so I need to make it special.
I wonder if he’s ever been on a date before…
and now I need to kill any women he’s even considered dating.
Fucking bitches. I push my hands into my hair, combing it out.
Don’t get ahead of yourself with murder plots. This was happy fun brain time, not psycho time.
It will be both our first date. And he better lie to me if it’s not, but never really lie to me or I’ll kill him.
“What are you up to?” Locke appearifies himself from the unknown, and if my nerves weren’t well conditioned to his jump scares from our childhood, he’d have startled me.
“Do you know how to knock?” I refuse to let him know he’s gotten to me. You can’t let an older sibling have a goddamn inch or they’ll take a mile.
“You’re sitting in the middle of a room…” Nik walks in behind Locke and tilts his head. “Are you coming down with a fever? Catch something while you’ve been so busy?” He tries to feel my forehead, and I swat his hand away.
“Fuck off. You can knock on my metaphorical balls.” I swat at Nik when he gets close.
“I didn’t know you were into that. I wouldn’t have pegged you as a twincest guy.” Locke looks between us, in his whole quiet judgment thing.
I punch his shoulder. “Jealousy doesn’t look good on you.”
“Who said we aren’t into it?” Nik deadpans. If there is one thing we are going to lean into, it’s any jokes about being twins. Because the other person will get uncomfortable a lot faster than we will.
“Yeah, who said? It can be both.” I cross my arms, staring at Locke.
Locke just silently looks at me with his disappointed, judgy face.
Nik plops down to sit in my lap, wordlessly.
I wrap my arms around him, shoving a hand under his shirt. “I’ve missed you.”
“You’re the one who’s been busy.” He slides his hands over my forearms while looking Locke in the eyes. “At least you’re back now.”
“Don’t bring me into your weird twisted lives!” Locke relents and shivers. “Fucking twins. K, I need you to get on that brain bleach pill.”
“Knew he’d back down first,” I mutter to Nik.
“Works every time.” Nik laughs and rolls out of my lap to lay on the floor.
“For the 100th time, I won’t Eternal Sunshine you no matter how much you beg.
” K doesn’t look up from her book. She’s been playing with drug compounds since she was a kid.
Her mother fed her indulgence too, and goddamn, does she have a gift for it?
She’s created half the drugs we take recreationally, even tailoring them to different members’ body chemistry.
“Do you personally hate me, K?” Locke abandons us to plead his case to her.
“Yes, it’s personal why I won’t let you destroy your brain.” K sounds exasperated.
“What did dad want?” Nik stretches out.
“I think he wanted information.” I’m the only one who doesn’t have our father blocked and I know it pisses my other siblings off, but I have my reasons.
“Why do you indulge him?” Nik asks, and I don’t mind the question. We formed a pack against him when Mom kicked him out two years ago.
“How many times do I have to tell you, because I have my own information to gather.” I know eventually he’ll slip and when he does I’m going to ruin his life with it. He doesn’t just get to move across the world and start over.
“You’re never going to figure out who he is.” Nik drapes an arm over his face. While he and my other siblings were happy to just disown my father, I vowed revenge, and I wasn’t going to fucking let up until I figured out who he let come between mom and him.
“If it takes me until my deathbed, I will figure it out.”
“Typical man, always blaming the other person,” K mutters.
“I’m not blaming her. I just want to know who he is to use it against them both.” I growl, not even sure why I’m explaining myself. They should be happy someone is going to hold Dad accountable. “You’re not even involved in this.”
King walks in glancing around. “Why so tense?”
“Good of you to join us…” I check my watch. “Thirty-five minutes after the meeting should have started.”
“No one else is even here.” He waves at the mostly empty billiards room where we hold most of our meetings inside the Vault.
“And I don’t want to hear it from you. You’ve been MIA since the start of school.
” King gives me a knowing look and now I’m wondering if he’s digitally stalking me. I don’t like it.
“No one else needs to be here. For a computer guy do you even read your emails?”
King glances around clearly clueless.
“It’s board members and as needed only.” Locke returns to the middle of the room. “We need to make sure the next event is ready to go. The invitations went out this morning and the prospects should be well into their puzzles. Did they all get delivered without hiccups?”
K and King confirm they were.
I watched Ash through the window as he opened his, and I was dying to get back and see how he does with the puzzle. I have high hopes, but since he won’t really speak to me, I don’t know how he’ll do with some of the harder parts of it.
But I believe in my baby and I’m not exactly against helping him a little, if he decides to be nice. And no that doesn’t mean trade sexual favors for clues, although that would be fun if Ash stopped denying he wants me to suck his dick.
“Rurik.” Locke snaps his fingers in front of my face.
I grab his wrist in a flash and bring his hand to my mouth, biting him.
“What the actual fuck is wrong with you?” Locke yanks his hand back, wiping it on his pants.
“Don’t put it in front of my face if you don’t want me to bite.” I can’t let him realize I’m distracted.
“You really are just a wild fucking animal.” He collects himself, calculating his next move. He may hate that I act on my instincts without thinking, but he’s so easy to read. Predictable, something I’ll never be. “Are all the pyrotechnics ready to go?”
“I always do my job.” I wave him off.
“It’s my job to check.” Locke moves on with his meeting notes. “King, anyone get the first clue yet?”
“One of them.”
I sit straight up, forgetting my whole ass chill, but no one seems to notice. Thank fuck.
“That was fast. K—”
I cut Locke off. “Who figured it out?”
“I haven’t looked. They are pretty masked. I’m going to have to do some digging.” King’s words give me a little tiny spark of hope it’s Ash, considering how well he evaded King’s traps before.
“So you’re just slacking now?” I know exactly what motivates King, and I would be lying if I said I don’t use it against him all the time. But it’s not my fault people have buttons and let me push them. That’s on them and their therapists.
“It only just happened, and I’m here.” King gestures at the meeting. “And you already complained about me being late.”
I shrug, blowing him off, which will only make him more annoyed.
“Can you not?” Locke sees through me. “Moving on. K, are the pills ready?”
“Nearly.” K shifts in her seat. We all turn to look at her. Usually she’s the first one done with anything. “I’ve had a busy semester, and I’m tweaking the formula, which requires testing. Get off my arse.”
Everyone is fucking distracted, I guess. But since it’s keeping them from noticing my new obsession, I’m just going to leave it be.
“If you need a test subject…” Nik jumps up, wiggling his brows, and usually, I’d be all over it with him—I love trying experimental drugs. I’ve been on some truly weird and horrifying trips.
Perfect way to add whimsy to a Tuesday afternoon.
Locke grabs Nik on his way towards K and shoves him back towards his seat. “Cut it out. We need to get through this.”
“What crawled up your ass?” Nik lands gracefully but isn’t about to let the action go unchecked.
They’ve never gotten along. Neither of them will let anything go. It’s so much easier not to give a fuck.
“I just want to get through this and since King was late, we’re already taking more time than this needs to.”
“I won’t apologize for having a life.”
“Do we have anything else?” K picks at one of her nails that are all filed to stiletto and as sharp as they look. “I won’t be here next week, by the way.”
“Why?” Locke glances up from the notes he doesn’t need.
He has an eidetic memory but learned at a young age it made people uncomfortable that he never forgets a goddamn thing, so he fakes it.
We all know, but he’s so deep into his character he never breaks it.
I guess it helps him blend in with his classmates, but it’s honestly just comical.
K kicks her knee-high-booted legs over the edge of the chair, leaning back. “It’s none of your business.”
“Why are you being weird?” Locke asks.
K shrugs.
Locke gets through the rest of the business then opens the floor for questions. A few more things get discussed but since Locke is a control freak, he mostly handles anything making these meetings something that could have been an email.
“Are we done? I have a date.” K is already on her feet.
Rage flickers behind Locke’s eyes. “Does anyone else have anything for K?”
No one says anything.
“I’ll see you later.” K blows kisses at me. “I’ll text you.”
“Can I go?” I’m already on K’s heels, getting some major fomo and sure Ash misses his shadow.
“Whatever.” Locke sighs.
Nik follows me to the door and I do not need this confrontation. “Where have you been?”
You’d think being around more for a couple of weeks would make him chill, but he knows me too well.
“Busy. You know.” I do hate lying to him but I just don’t know how to say I’m kinda obsessed with someone. I don’t need them to stage an intervention or something.
“If this is dad stuff you should just let it go.” Is that what he thinks this is about?
I can work with that. “I can’t.”
“Can you try? Talk to your therapist?”
I barely hold back a laugh. Like I tell my therapist anything. I’d have been grippy socked years ago. Wild our mother thought it was a good idea to put us all in therapy after the divorce. Like there’s a collection of personality disorders between us.
“I’m good. I love you. Always. And I promise I’ll be around more.”
“Okay. Kiho and I miss you.” Nik is really going for the gut. He knows I can’t say no to him and my best friend.
“Let’s plan something. We can go out.” Two birds. I can make Ash jealous.
“Okay.” Finally Nik lets me leave.
I glance at my watch to figure out where Ash will be in his routine but I’m stopped in my tracks.
He still looks for me every time he leaves a building.
I need to decide when to make my reappearance to bring the most shock and delight.
I miss the time with him, but he has to learn that asking me to leave has its consequences, and I don’t think he appreciates me enough.
“Rurik.”
I spin around, caught off guard for the second time in less than an hour. But for Ash’s face, I’ll fucking allow it.
“Yes, baby?”