Heartbreak hotel

Chapter 21

After Julian waved off his neighbours, he closed the door, pressed his forehead to the cold material and exhaled a breath of relief. It wasn’t anybody he knew; he was still safe, and everything was as fine as could be in the Tomas household.

When he walked back into the living room through the sliding doors, the yelling had somewhat calmed down, and the unknown man was staring at Uncle Alex with something undecipherable in his eyes.

“Where the f**k have you been?” Alex snapped as he shoved at the man. “Seth, I thought you were dead. You were presumed f*****g dead.”

Seth ran a hand through his hair, continued staring at Alex, and then looked away. “Look, we can’t stay long. We’re only here to give you a warning.”

“What warning?” Erza asked, her eyes narrowed.

“You are on the radar of some very questionable people. Whatever it is your doing, you need to stop. Lay low, all of you.”

“And you couldn’t say that over the phone?” Ash snapped.

“I wanted to see Alex.”

“Bullshit,” Alex spat, scowling at Seth. “If you wanted to see me, you would have come around these past five years?”

“I couldn’t.”

“Couldn’t or wouldn’t?”

“No, we need to go back to what you said,” Ash spat, glaring at Seth and the woman. “What do you mean we’re on their radar? I need a lot more than that.”

“I can’t say much.”

“No,”

“Romeo.”

Ash whirled around to glare at Sebastian and the others in the room. “You left. We left. So, s**t like this would not cause an issue for them while they grew up.”

Erza sighed. “Ash, they have grown up, they’re no longer the annoying little teenagers we took in. Looka t them.”

“Those three are as high as kites,” he snapped, pointing over at Isaiah, Midnight and Royal, who were, in fact, high as kites.

“Don’t look at them three,” she replied. “Look at the rest of them. Melody has the best aim out of all of them; she can shoot from three miles away, Silas can take down a man four times his size, Isaac and Isaiah when sober, well, we’ve all seen what they can do, Thea’s following in your footsteps with the tech and so on and so forth. They’re old enough to protect themselves.”

“We’re still out,” he repeated,

“I’m still in, and so are the Romero’s,” Erza replied.

Julian looked over at Ash, and he could see his eyes darting around the room, the anxiety and panic laced in them, the way he was pulling the skin off around his nails and biting his lips. He was scared. Of course, he would be; what parent didn’t care for their child’s safety, no matter their age?

“I want them off our trails, and I want them gone fast. I want all of the kids to be tested in all their abilities, and the ones who pass, you can use them to help.”

Julian knew he wouldn’t pass the training; he didn’t like the idea of blood, nor was he strong enough to win a fight. In high school, there had been a few times when he had newly been adopted that a couple of the kids had wanted to see the Tomas’ new child, to see what he could do, and he would say with no shame that he ran away. He knew not to pick battles he couldn’t win, and many of those had been them.

He stared at his cousins, family, friends and more; as Erza had said, many already knew what they wanted. Thea wanted to dabble in both sides of the law, and as far as he was aware, Melody was training to be an assassin, which, as ridiculous as it sounded, was okay with her parents; she did have the best aim out of all of them. Isaiah was always too stoned to focus, and Isaac had gone to university with Ace and Silas. Silas lived to protect him.

But what about Julian? What did he want? It had nothing to do with fighting, close combat, or any sort of combat; he would not pick a fight he would lose.

~*~