Page 200 of As The Shifter World Turns

“It’s not that bad, Neil,” Toby said as he tucked into his burger, his gaze on my face.

Martin wasn’t fooled though and he leaned toward me, and lowered his voice. “What is it?”

I gulped and opened my mouth. No sound came out when I made to speak.

“Is it Daire? Archer’s baby?”

I shook my head and used facial recognition to open the phone and handed it to him. He scanned the message and his body tensed. His jaw hardened. Luckily Toby had somehow discovered that the boy at the next table was a fan of the medieval period and one of his hobbies was live action role play. The pair were chatting about Toby dressing up as a knight and joining in the next time they had an event.

“What the fuck is this?” Martin hissed under his breath. The words in the text from Xavier were playing over and over in my head.Nobody tries to ruin my business and gets away with it. I will make you pay.

My focus was on getting oxygen into my lungs and when I finally spat out the word, “Xavier,” Martin fisted his hands.

“Leave this to me.” He slammed a fist onto his palm and I was thankful Toby was so engrossed in the world of knights and battles and wasn’t aware of how angry his dad was and that I was completely freaked out.

“No.” I grabbed his hand, anchoring him to me because I was worried he’d run out of the restaurant and head to Xavier’s office. “You won’t.” While I was flattered that he wanted to protect me, I couldn’t have Martin beating up my former boss and possibly going to jail. “What message would that send to Toby?” I asked. Reacting to a threat with violence would escalate the problem and I wasn't about to spill blood in order to intimidate anyone.

At school, my peers saw me, a slightly overweight kid with spots, and assumed I used my size to menace people. But what was inside didn’t match my outward appearance. I’d never hit anyone and loathed violence of any kind.

I swallowed before saying, “We’re going to finish our meal, enjoy the movie and when Toby has gone to bed, we’ll discuss what to do.”

Neither Martin nor I paid any attention to what was happening on screen and when we got to Archer’s house, Toby ran into his and Martin's apartment as Daire and Micah came onto the porch. My old school friend wore his concerned face.

“You told them.” It wasn’t a question.

“Had to or I would have punched the guy’s lights out,” Martin muttered.

“We’ve contacted our lawyer.” Daire’s glowering look, his grizzly visible in his eyes, was pretty scary. “I wanted to have my bear terrify him but Micah said going the legal route was the way to do it.” He mumbled, “But if the guy doesn’t back off, I’ll be in his face.”

“Me too.” Martin and Daire were on the same page.

“The lawyer will send him a warning. He is to have no contact with you either in person or online,” Micah informed me. “If he threatens you again, we’ll call the police.”

“No need for that,” Martin said through clenched teeth and Daire nodded.

“Thank you.” Tears filled my eyes as I hugged both Daire and Micah and wished I was in Sunshine Manor.

That night neither Martin nor I got much sleep and in the days and weeks that followed, I regressed to former Neil. Neil who worked from home but didn’t leave the manor. We had to take Archer up on his offer of having Toby sleep in their guest room on the nights Martin stayed at my place.

But Toby was a trouper. While he wasn’t aware of what had happened, he volunteered to sleep on my sofa some nights. I loved that boy. And his dad. But my life had been turned upside down. And not in a good way.

86

TREASURE HUNTING TIME

Martin

I was worse than Toby at Christmas. He would sneak out early in the morning and stare at the gifts hoping to… I don’t know... magically see through the wrapping or possibly get X-ray vision or something.

Only instead of gifts, I was staring at the treasure map, the one everyone else insisted wasn’t treasure and was instead the product of some kid's crazy imagination. And sure, there was the potential it was that, but my gut told me it was more.

The details were too specific and it was less of a map and more a trail of clues. No, this felt like an adult’s doing or possibly multiple adults.

But I couldn’t go anywhere. Not now. Neil was having a rough time, a really rough one, and he wasn’t up for leaving Sunshine Manor. Having his former boss threaten him had destroyed much of the progress he’d made over the last year.

“Maybe bring the map over to Neil’s and the two of you can figure out the clues.” Sometimes my boy saw more than he should. “It will be fun. I have homework though.” He scrunched up his little face. “Probably best I bring it and be sponsible.”

“You mean responsible?” I asked, not wanting to correct him while at the same time giving the opportunity for him to fix it if he wanted.

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