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Rain made an angry noise that made me feel oddly pleased. I loved the thought of being under his skin. Maybe if I dug in deep enough, he’d open his fucking eyes to what was in front of him before it slipped right through his fingers.
“Honest to fucking Christ, Romero, if you let that fucking guy move in with you without saying anything, I’m going to be so pissed at you. We barely know anything about him, and now Isobel keeps running off with him, and wasn’t that enough for us to have to worry about? Now I have to worry about him having some kind of psychotic episode and butchering you in your damn sleep. For fuck’s sake, Rome, what were you thinking?”
Rome.
This was the second time he’d called me that, and it was just as good now as it had been the first time.
“Rain, you’re being fucking ridiculous. He’s not going to have a psychotic episode, and both Isobel and I are going to be just fine. Honestly, I’m more worried about you losing your shit than him. Just relax. Calm down. Go smoke some of that wacky weed with our girl.”
“Ha-ha, you’re fucking hilarious. She’s already in her room for the night, and Baxter’s here. I can’t do drugs with Baxter here. He needs at least one adult in control of their faculties. That’s—”
“Are you expecting company?” Ariel asked. “I hear a car outside. I know I haven’t lived here in a while, but I’m still attuned to everything about this place. You learn to pay attention to these things after you go through something like what we did with Chucky.”
Fucking busted.
And that creep who attacked her and my son was lucky he was already dead, because I could dream up a whole lot of worse ways for him to die.
“Is that my baby girl?” Rain asked. I’d forgotten I was on the phone with him for a second there. “What’s she doing over there? Since when does she hang out at your place when she could be over here with me?”
Oh, for fuck’s sake.
“Rain, I’ve got to go. My roommate just got home.” I hit the X in a circle on the screen, ending the call before he could attempt to boss me around any furtherorinsult me.
“Roommate?” Quinton asked suspiciously. “Who moved in with you?”
“What did my dad want?” That question was, of course, asked by Ariel.
“I think it’s time for us to head home and leave my dad alone for the night.” That suggestion came from my son who would always look out for me as if it were his job to be the parent.
I should remind him that it was my job to take care of him and not the other way around, but the whole thing just made me terribly sad. I really tried not to think so much about the horrible things my son and I were forced to endure. Those types of thoughts usually caused me to spiral into a deep, dark depression that wasn’t good for anyone around me, myself included.
I heard the front door open and then close, and I just knew the proverbial shit in my life was about to hit the fan.
I heard Finn’s heavy boots on the floor as he walked down the hallway, headed straight for the kitchen. Couldn’t he just go on up to his bedroom and call it a night just this once to give me a break?
I heard shuffling around the table as the three of them pushed their chairs back and stood up. I didn’t watch them, seeing as my eyes were locked on the hallway entrance into the kitchen.
I thought about calling out a warning to Finn and immediately rejected it. It would only make it look as if I was trying to hide something. I was, but I’d be damned if I was going to be uncomfortable in my own home. I could have whoever I wanted living with me, and there was nothing to be embarrassed or ashamed about.
I was the adult here.
Or so I would keep telling myself until I actually believed it. I always felt like a fraud because I’d been forced to leave my son with evil people for so long. I’d missed out on so much of his life that I sometimes wondered if I even deserved the right to refer to myself as his father outside of our shared DNA.
You see, this was what I was afraid of and why I never let my mind travel down this road.
Finn stopped dead in his tracks in the entrance of the kitchen. His eyes widened in surprise before he schooled his features and carefully blanked his face. He was far too good at masking his emotions, and not for the first time, I found myself wondering what he’d gone through to have to pick up such a trait.
Finn had deeply rooted secrets, and I wanted to know each and every one of them.
“What in the actual fuck is he doing here?” Ariel whispered in a voice filled with shock.
“Dad?”
Quinton threw his head back and roared with laughter. “This is too fucking good. Of all the things you and Rain get up to, this one really beats them all.”
Dash gestured rudely at Finn. “What does this asshole being in my father’s goddamn house have anything to do with Rain?”
This time, it was Ariel who threw her head back and burst into loud laughter. “Maybe Finn’s joined their harem now too.”
