Lyon's Family (The Lyon #5) (8 page)

“Permanent like how?” I stopped and looked down at her.

“Tell me first daddy.” What the fuck did I get myself into now?

“Uh, I don’t want it permanent.”

“Then you don’t need to know.”

“What the… KAT.”

“What is it now?” she came out the room and glared at me.

“You been watching after this kid?”

“Of course I have what kinda question is that?”

“How does she know about making potions and shit that can do permanent damage?”

“I don’t know, she gets that from you.”

Everything’s my fucking fault around here; except when they’re dong the right thing, then they’re mommy’s little darlings.

“Daddy you want me to help or not? I was busy.”

“Busy doing what, listening in at keyholes? Didn’t I tell you about that shit?”

“Daddy, I don’t do that, you were yelling. Now you want me to do it or not?”

“Do what; Colt what are you two up to?”

“None ya.”

“Catalina?”

“Nothing mommy, I’m just showing daddy my new trick.” Damn she was good; if I didn’t know what we were just talking about I would believe her. She had the innocent little angel act down.

“Kat, you sure they gave us the right one at the hospital?” I had to say that shit out the side of my mouth because she hears everything with her nosy ass.

“Colton.”

“Just checking. Come on Mengele let’s go show daddy your new trick.” They have to be a boot camp or some shit that would take this kid.

I don’t care what Kat and her mother in law says, I’m not letting these little punks get away with fucking with my kid. I followed Hitler’s youth to her little science corner in my basement and listened as she told me about all the different products she had in neat little rows.

I’m thinking it’s a good thing I did that because some of the most innocent shit you’d find in any household apparently could be used to destroy shit. “Catalina where did you learn all this stuff?”

“I read it in grandpa’s book.” She was busy mixing shit in a beaker with her little tongue caught between her teeth in concentration. “So what are you making there?” I was beginning to rethink this shit; maybe it wasn’t such a good idea. What the fuck was I thinking getting my kid involved in this shit?

“Oh this, it will make you sick if you eat it in your food, not bad sick just make you go to the bathroom a lot-lot-lot.” What the fuck! How the fuck do I get outta this? “Listen kid I changed my mind.” She really scares me no joke. She gave me a put upon look and walked over to the sink to pour out her concoction. I watched to make sure it was all gone but what was the point? She’d whipped up her little batch like a pro.

I headed back upstairs to her mother. “Kat don’t keep things from me again, anything happens to my kids I wanna know immediately. Did you talk to the principal?”

“Of course and the boys were reprimanded but I didn’t want to make a big deal because these days they kick kids outta school for the littlest thing.”

“Their asses need to be kicked out. I’m surprised that you of all people are taking this shit so lightly. They cornered her Kat.”

“ Colton I know what you’re saying, but the way Caitie described it, it didn’t sound like anything more than high school horsing around. The kids are gonna face those things babe, it’s just a part of life.” She can keep that shit. I don’t trust these little teenage fucks.

I decided to snoop around and get the names of the kids who’d messed with my kid. I wasn’t gonna do much more than put fear in them and warn them to stay the fuck away from her, but if my wife knew she’d raise hell. She still wears rose tinted glasses and thinks people are redeemable. I say they’re all fucked in the head young and old.

Lyon

***

When I wasn’t dealing with Kat and her kids, or killing myself at the shop trying to meet quota, I was thinking up ways to fuck the Porters. It wasn’t my style to let things wait this long and it was killing me, but things were finally moving thank fuck.

Old man Mallory had come through with some shit this afternoon that I felt I needed to share with the guys from the meet, but I had to wait until the coast was clear before I could start that conference call. The people in my house, especially the ones that were missing a chromosome are nosy as fuck, there’s no telling who’s listening at the door and shit.

“Hey Caitie Bear.” I caught her at a rare moment when her damn shadow wasn’t around, and barely stopped myself from asking where he was. That’s some dangerous shit in itself. I’ve grown so accustomed to seeing those two together, that although I wouldn’t dare mention it to my wife, it feels off when I don’t see him sitting in the little alcove off my kitchen doing homework with her.

“Hi daddy.” She smiled bright and closed her book, patting the seat next to her for me to sit. I’m a grown man, some might say a hard ass, but when my little girl smiles at me like that, and wants my company, I’m putty. “What you doing there baby?” I sat and put my arm around behind her.

When I look at her I see the best of me, and Kat. I see that first year of loving and fighting and getting to know each other. I see me panicking the day she came into this world, scared the fuck outta my mind. Never knew it was possible to love this damn much, doesn’t seem like a body could hold that much emotion.

“I’m studying for the SATs.” What the fuck? Isn’t that what you do when you’re leaving high school to go off to college? She still had two more years. “Come again.” I didn’t want to freak out because around here that’s grounds for hilarity. Fucking Kat and her kids always find something to laugh at my ass about.

“Why are you doing that now? I thought that was next year or the year after.”

“No daddy, remember? I told you and mom weeks ago that I had to take a test and if I did really well they would let me take them early. I passed daddy isn’t that great?” What the fuck is going on in these schools? I went to school with motherfuckers that didn’t graduate until they were staring nineteen in the ass. Granted they were dumb as a stump but what the fuck? Because my kid was smart I had to lose her a couple years early? We’ll just see about this shit.

“That’s real good baby daddy’s proud of his smart girl.” I kissed her hair and hugged her shoulder; still no awkwardness. I was waiting for the day, dreading it more like, when she wouldn’t want her old man’s hugs. She prattled on about some shit some girl at school had said and what some other one had done, and then of course I had to hear about Todd and some funny thing he’d done or said and my eyes started to cross.

I sat with her for a little while and did the dad thing. My sons were upstairs somewhere. I knew this because the little fucks were trying to jump through the flooring up there with their shit. I hadn’t seen hide nor hair of Kat the sneak. “You finish your homework baby, I’m gonna go look for your mother.”

“Okay daddy.” Her head was back in her book and I stood in the doorway and watched her for a few seconds more, wishing like fuck that these moments weren’t coming to an end anytime soon. Fucking kid owns my ass.

I found her mother, my wife walking around the living room with the baby in her arms trying to put him to sleep. My boy smelt me and picked his head up. “Oh good you’re home, here.” She passed the kid off, pecked me on the lips and tried to escape.

“Not so fast you. You tell my kid she could graduate early?” She rolled her eyes. “It’s an option Colton.”

“I opt no.”

“Seriously Colton, you’d really keep her back? She’s worked really hard for this, you can’t…”

“She’ll be sixteen, that’s too young for her to be going off away from us.” I wasn’t even thinking about the assholes that were after her, them I can handle. But once a kid heads off to college that’s it, they never come back. I was not ready for my little princess to fly the coop.

“You do know that that’s what school is for right? And that it’s a good thing that ‘Our’ kid is doing so well. I spoke to her teacher and she’s way ahead. If we keep her back now it might do more damage than good.”

Fucking woman always has an answer for everything.

“I gotta sign anything to make that shit happen?”

“Colt…” Uh-huh, I ain’t signing shit. I rubbed my face against the baby’s head and held him close. “How was he today, still colicky?” She’s so good with the kids sometimes it seems I’m just ballast. I don’t know how she does it either what with running her company from home and keeping the house in order. I help there of course, but somehow my little contributions never seem to be as much as hers. She does it all, my little wonder woman; pain in the ass.

“He’s doing better aren’t you baby? She made cooing noises at Cody and he giggled and rutted around in my arms. “Fuck Kat, what’re you feeding this kid? He weighs a ton.” The lil freak hefted her tits at me and grinned. I smirked at her because we both knew I got about just as much of that shit as he does. “I can vouch for that, I think I put on a coupla pounds myself.”

We both had a good laugh at that one before we talked about our day. She’d stopped pestering me about my visit to Law’s days ago and although she hadn’t told me what it was that was bothering her she seemed fine and at night when I watched her sleep, she wasn’t restless so I’m thinking we’re good.

Things have been smooth sailing on the home front thank fuck, none of the drama that is usually running rampant around here with a houseful of hardheaded fucks who took after their mother. No one had broken any bones lately and the school wasn’t calling us to complain about some shit that had nothing to do with me.

I don’t know how many times I have to tell them whatever these kids do on their time is their headache. As long as they don’t put hands on my kids, we’re straight. But every other week at least there’s a call for a parent teacher’s meet. The fuck, I live there?

Lyon

***

Later that night, when the house was quiet and I knew Kat’s ass was down for the count because I’d fucked her into the springboard, I snuck into my office to make the call I’d been waiting all day to make.

“Hey Law, it’s me, you’re gonna need to call Creed and them military boys in on this one.”

“Why what’s going on? No Dana Sue go back to sleep. Hang on Colt let me get to where we can talk.”

I heard ruffling and kissing noises and then he was back.

“Tell me.”

“I got some Intel from old man Mallory today about our little situation.”

“Hang on let me conference.”

Shit went dead for a second and then I heard ringing on the other end. “Yo.”

“Logan it’s Law, I got Colt on the other line says we need a conference hang on I gotta call Creed.” What the fuck! more dead air and then another hello. Sounded like we interrupted Creed.

“This had better be good or some fuck’s gonna get it.”

“Creed we gotta talk Colt has something.” There was some mumbling in the background and another grown man had to explain to his owner why he was leaving her in bed. Fucking saps, the only ones that seemed up and ready were the military fucks and who knows what the fuck they’d been up to before we called.

“Okay everybody here, or you boys need some more time to placate your women? Fucking leashed.”

“Shut the fuck up Lyon, I’ve seen you with your woman you don’t fare much better.” Creed laughed and the rest of them joined in. We shot some shit with each other before getting down to business because I was pretty sure that they knew whatever was coming wouldn’t be good.

“What did you hear?” That was Logan, fucker’s always serious, can’t say that I blame him, dealing with this fuckery.

“Right, this Stockton guy was in bed with the Porters we knew that already, but did you know that one of the Porters has the ear of one of our past presidents, anyone wanna take a guess as to which one?”

“Fuck, the fuck up?”

“You guessed it Law. Apparently while the rest of the world is under the impression that these fucks were after oil and other natural resources they had something more lucrative on the side. I’m guessing from all the silence that you already knew all this as well. I guess the big news then is that this desert guy whoever the fuck is headed stateside.”

“How does your guy know this?” That sounded like Connor but what the fuck do I know?

“I’m guessing you don’t know much about old man Mallory, you don’t ask those kinda questions unless you wanna get dead.”

“When?”

“He didn’t say, only that they were plans being made.”

“If this is true then we’d better get to work boys, he wouldn’t risk coming here if it wasn’t important, there has got to be something else going on that we haven’t found yet. I can’t see him coming here behind this shit.”

“I say we end all the fucks and be done with it, Mallory gave me the names of two guys that might be able to help, maybe you know them.”

“Who are they?”

“Mancini, he’s some kinda spook outta New York very hush-hush and the other one’s closer to our neck of the woods a Gideon Thorpe.”

“Never heard of them. Creed you’re pretty quiet, what’s up?”

“Well Law, I know of Mancini and heard of Thorpe. If either of these two are coming onboard then Logan’s right, the shit’s about to hit the fan. Mancini is a dangerous fuck and Thorpe, well he’s not one you wanna play with. They both have experience dealing with trafficking rings, that’s how our paths crossed in the past.”

“I’m with Con, that demented fuck isn’t coming here because of child trafficking, that shit’s child’s play to a fuck like him. I say we follow Lyon’s suggestion and start ending these fucks.” That’s my boy Ty. I knew I could count on him to have his head on straight.

“Hold it, we need to check this Intel, no offense to you or your friend, but if The Fox was heading this way don’t you think we would’ve heard something?”

“No offense but do you think these conniving fucks will tell you the truth? I don’t know who you’ve got on your end, but from everything I’ve heard so far, there’s more shit being held back from you boys than what’s being shared. Like I said before, I’m not beholden to any organization and I barely tolerate the laws that we have here since they change the shits as they go. I don’t give a fuck who did what to who, all I want is the motherfucker that put my little girl in that book.”

“We all want that Colton, but like we told you before, this thing is more intricate than the surface and your Intel if it’s correct just proved it. This is a dangerous motherfucker no doubt and he has the money and the reach to make shit happen. My girl was in there too and believe me I wanna hop on a plane and go put one in the fuck myself, but they’re others who need us and they need us to keep our heads and do this thing the right way.”

“I hear you Cord and I didn’t forget that you got a dog in this fight. I didn’t forget that all of you have a stake in this. But you boys, including you Law and you Creed, have had that military training and forgive me for saying it, but I’ve never been on that leash. I don’t care if I have to walk across the fucking Euphrates to get to this fuck I’d do it to keep my family safe. Creed, since you’re the only one who knows these two boys that Mallory mentioned what do you think? You think it would help if we reached out?”

“It couldn’t hurt, I’ll have to find Mancini though, he’s never in one place too long. I tell you what, I’m sick a this shit. Seems like the more we dig the more shit we unearth and we’re still no closer to finding out the whys behind this thing. I haven’t shared any of this shit with my girl, but she’s starting to get suspicious on account of I won’t even let her cross the door without someone on her.”

For some fucked up reason, Char’s words rang through my head just then. I might scoff at her shit and the fact that I have no idea how that shit works scares the shit outta me, but she’s always on the money. Creed sounded like he was at the end of his rope and I imagined the others weren’t far behind. “Uh, what’re you boys doing for the holidays?”

“Say what now? Lyon you domesticated fuck, what’re you talking about?”

Yeah, I’m domesticated but when we were at his place, his girl had him running in circles. “Law, you know every year we have the big shindig what’s a couple more mouths?” What the fuck am I doing? “That goes for you boys too, you should bring out the wives get out of dodge for a few days. There’s more than enough room here and at my folks we can all spread out. And if you boys ride your rig out then we can hook it up.”

“Fuck Lo, we forgot the holidays we’ve been so busy focusing on this bullshit we dropped the ball.”

“Don’t panic Zak, it’s weeks away.”

“Fuck that Lo, what about baby Zak? We gotta get her Santa’s list how the fuck do we do that? We gotta get on that shit like now.”

I laughed my ass off at Ty and his rumblings while his brothers ribbed him to death. “We forgot something else, there’re four pregnant women in this crew, and Law’s is breeding too, y’all sure these girls are up to taking this trip?”

“I don’t see why not Quinn. They made it a month or so ago, plus we can always fly out. What do you think Lo?” That was the first time Devon spoke since we got started. That boy reminds me of someone with his silent shit, I don’t trust it one fuck. Fucker’s probably the deadliest one of the bunch.

They talked it out while I sat there wondering what the fuck had happened to my life. It was passing strange to be discussing holiday plans and fuckery in the middle of a shit storm, but seems that’s way we were going. “One thing boys, we don’t discuss this shit while you’re here, not unless we’re one hundred percent sure there’re no ears around. My family are heavy into this Xmas shit, I don’t want anything fucking that up.”

“Lyon, your word that you won’t move on this until we’ve done some searching.”

“I don’t make promises, but I can tell you that if those fucks don’t make a move towards me I’ll hold off. You fucks take too long though who knows.” Logan didn’t seem too pleased with that but he’ll have to deal, he ain’t my damn team leader.

In the end, they said they’d get back after discussing things with their women and I went to tell Kat that we might be having about twenty more mouths to feed in a week. I was already regretting that shit. What the fuck was I supposed to do with these fucks if they show up here?