Page 120 of Crimson Flames

“If you want to be mad at anyone, be mad at me.”

Throwing her hands in the air, she screams under her breath. “I’m mad at all of you!”

“Then be mad,” Kai yells back, stunning us all into silence. “You can be mad all you want, Mom. But I want to know this stuff. Ineedto know it. Case in point, the fact that you’re still alive and breathing, and the two people who thought they could break in are dead.”

He steps closer to her. “Did you know they came to my room first? I was hiding, but I followed them here after taking my gun out of my nightstand where I keep it to protect me and the others. We both know there’s no way you would have woken up to respond in time. So be angry, but I don’t regret a thing.”

Kai meets her toe to toe, even if he’s nearly a foot shorter than her. A pained expression crosses Nessa’s face as tears well in her eyes. But she doesn't let them fall. Instead, she stares at Kai with her jaw clenched.

“I agreed to teach you to shoot,” she tries but he rolls his eyes, sliding the knives into his pocket and placing the gun behind his back.

“Yeah, and you have made an excuse not to every time I’ve asked.”

Blowing out a breath, she looks back at Boris and me.

“Who all is working with him?”

“Everyone,” I answer honestly.

The cat’s already out of the bag, might as well admit it has kittens too.

“Oh for the love of feck,” Nessa groans, rubbing a hand over her face. “What exactly have you learned? Other than knife throwing from Evie?”

She no longer looks angry when she asks Kai about the training, but I don’t know where she’s going with this.

“Damien and Alexi have taught me some hand-to-hand combat and wrestling. Lev and I have talked about computers, and Pops helped me learn a lot of legal and illegal business trade information. Daddio showed me how to wield obsidian blades and let me use your long-range rifle in Russia.”

“What?” Nessa whips her head towards me, and I sheepishly shrug before staring at Kai.

“Last time I agree to train your ass,” I mumble, but the kid only chuckles like I’m joking.I mean, I totally am, but he should take me more seriously. Aren’t sons supposed to respect their fathers or some shite?

“I’ve worked with Akio and Adrian too. Laney and Havoc. Arrow taught me about poisons during this last trip, and Damien let me blow something up.”

Nessa sits down on the bed, her hands pressed together as she likely prays for patience.

“I want to talk to Dr. K about this,” she says finally.

“We already have,” Boris states like that should make her feel better. “We work with Kai only in ways that Dr. K believes he is ready for. And we always give him the choice as we all agreed. He is aware that he is never expected to do anything he does not wish to do and will always be given a choice. But right now, he is choosing to learn from us. If anyone understands what makingtheir own choices means to them, it would be you. Please let us continue to do this for him.”

She shakes her head as I’m preparing the speech of a lifetime in mine, but her next words stop me from spewing it.

“No. if you’re going to do this for him, and it seems I am clearly outnumbered, then I want to be part of that too. Not just you.”

Standing, she walks over to Kai and pulls him into a tight embrace.

“I love you, and if this is what you need, I want to be able to give it to you.”

He hugs her back just as fiercely. “I love you too, Mom. This is what I want. This is who I want to be. And I wantyouto help me be one of the best.”

With a heavy sigh, she pulls back, looking him in the eye. “Then let’s go practice.”

They step over the bodies in the doorway as if they’re just a mild inconvenience as the rest of the family makes their way here.

“Where are you two going?” Damien asks, his gaze staring at the man on the floor with a knife embedded in his jugular.

“He said he wants to be the best,” Nessa hollers back. “Clearly that means I need to be the one teaching him.”

As if that were a challenge, we all follow behind, determined to be the one who shows our kid the best skills to have in this world.

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