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It didn’t help that Wes refused to let me put him down and insisted on touching everything.
Once the popcorn was in the microwave, I finally pried Wes off me and set him down on the counter while we waited for it to cook.
He played with my moon necklace—a gift from Ace for my sixteenth birthday—and told me some incoherent story about a dog (or a cat?) he saw while on a walk with our dad around the neighborhood.
I nodded along, barely paying attention, my thoughts somewhere else.
I hadn’t heard from Ace since our conversation at school earlier that day. I didn’t like going so long without talking to him. It made me worry.
As if on cue, my phone started to vibrate in my pocket. I pulled it out and immediately answered when I saw who it was.
“Hey!”
“Hi, baby,” Ace replied in his deep timbre. “Fuck, it’s good to hear your voice.”
I let some of the concern dissipate from my body. Although I knew Ace was perfectly capable of handling himself, I still couldn’t help but imagine the worst every second that I didn’t hear from him.
Especially as I knew he’d gone to confront his scary and extremely unpredictable dad.
“I’m happy to hear from you too,” I replied. “Is everything okay now? What happened with your father?”
“Everything worked out. I took care of him.”
“Did you hurt him?” I pushed. “Did he hurt you?”
“I’m fine, baby. There’s no need to worry about me. I’ll tell you more when I get home. I’m on my way to the plane right now. I’ll be by your side again by morning.”
I wasn’t sure whether to be grateful for his vagueness. Maybe it was best if I didn’t know the details.
It couldn’t have been too bad though. Mr. Stoll might have tried to murder someone, but his son would never attempt such a thing.
“Wow, that was fast. I thought you were going to be gone for at least one more day,”
I said.
“I thought so, too, but the longer I spent with my father, the angrier I became.
Especially when I remembered everything he did to you. He’s lucky I made our meeting quick.”
Wes shifted against me. I looked down at him to find him yawning.
I patted his back to wake him up. He had the habit of falling asleep before his bedtime, then would struggle to sleep through the night or wake up extremely early in the morning.
It was only six o’clock. I needed him to stay awake for at least a few more hours.
I sighed. “How’s your cousin?”
“He…he’s been better,” Ace replied. “But it has nothing to do with my father’s attempt to murder him.”
“Then what’s wrong?”
Wes’s eyes drifted shut. I hoisted him onto my hip and began bouncing him. Wes whined.
“The love of his life is missing.” Ace’s voice became deeper, almost as if he were speaking a warning. “Ran away from him.”
“Did he deserve it?”
Ace hesitated. “It’s complicated.”
“Sounds to me like he definitely deserved it.”
“It’s more complicated than you think, Doe,” Ace repeated.
“All I know is, if you ever ran away from me like that, I wouldn’t be able to function until you were by my side again. I wouldn’t sleep, wouldn’t eat, wouldn’t do anything until you were found.”
I laughed. He sounded ridiculous.
“Then you’d better not do anything stupid enough to make me run from you.”
A quiet growl came through the phone. “It’s not always that simple. I wish it were.”
The microwave timer beeped behind me, letting me know our popcorn was done.
Wes cried at the sound.
“You have to stay awake, Wes,” I whispered to my brother as I walked to the microwave, continuing to bounce him on my hip. “You can’t fall asleep yet.”
“Hold on,” Ace said. “Your parents left.” It wasn’t a question.
Shit. ?“How do you know that?” Pressing the phone between my shoulder and ear with one arm still around Wes, I pulled the bag from the microwave and grabbed a big bowl from the cabinet.
“Your dad texted me earlier. I’m just getting to look at my phone now…” He trailed off for a second. “He said you would tell Madoc to stay with you but…” Another pause. “Doe, are you by yourself?”
My head dropped. Of course everyone texted Ace and told him everything.
I was already so done with this conversation. I nearly hung up on him then and there.
“No, I’m not alone,” I grumbled. “I’m with my brothers.” I put the bag of popcorn into the bowl, grabbed some napkins, and started to make my way back to the living room.
I sighed when I noticed that Wes was now completely passed out in my arms. We couldn’t get the kid to take a freaking nap but falling asleep in my arms at inopportune times he was able to do.
“You and I both know that’s not what I meant,” Ace replied in a curt tone. “You might be taking care of your brothers, but who the hell is taking care of you?”
“I’m taking care of myself—” I came to an abrupt halt when I entered the living room and took in the sight before me.
All my brothers were dead asleep on the living room floor. Some still had pizza in their hands, their mouths open mid-bite, as the movie continued to play on the TV.
“What?” I murmured.
“What?” Ace demanded in my ear. “What happened?”
I laid Wes down on the couch and put the bowl of popcorn next to him. Then I bent down and shook Felix’s arm. “Felix, wake up. It’s not bedtime yet. You didn’t even finish your movie.”
He didn’t even shift, completely dead to the world.
I straightened. “All my brothers fell asleep,” I said to Ace. “I left for a few minutes to make popcorn and they…they’re all asleep now.”
“What did they eat?” Ace asked.
“Pizza. I ordered pizza from Lucy’s. And soda. I didn’t give them anything else.”
I tried waking Thomas next, nudging him with my foot. His eyes remained shut.
“Fuck,” Ace hissed. “Fuck!”
I tugged my eyebrows together. “What?”
“Doe, I need you to listen to me. Your brothers were poisoned. They’re coming for you next. You need to get out of the house. Right now.”