Page 36 of Unhinged
“These are my brothers, Asa and Avi. They’re assholes, but you’ll get used to it. Eventually.”
They pulled from the lot, and Noah was relieved to see them head towards the highway and Adam’s loft.
“We’ll drop you at your place,” Adam said, not sounding like it was a suggestion.
“No. We want to hear about your little side project.”
Noah watched as Adam glanced in the rear-view mirror, scowling at his brother. “What side project?”
“Whatever side project you have Calliope working on.”
Noah shot a startled glance at Adam, who placed his hand on the console, palm up. Noah took it, threading their fingers together. Had he ever held hands with a boy? No, definitely not.
“Calliope runs her mouth too much,” Adam muttered.
Asa’s laugh was deep and rich, almost melodic somehow. “I mean, technically, she only mentioned it to Dad, who mentioned it to Atticus, who told August, who then told me, and I told Avi, obviously. The only one not in the know is Aiden, but you know him. He’s always a lone wolf.”
Adam shook his head, seemingly irritated. This clearly wasn’t the first time he’d dealt with this level of…whatever this was. Noah didn’t understand the whole brotherly love thing and wondered how his life would have worked out if he had a big family, somebody who could have protected him. But that would have just created a larger victim pool for his father.
“It's none of your business.”
“Well, you letting your boyfriend walk free after he tried to kill you, even though he knows our secret, is our business. But we haven’t held that against you. Even if it could get us all thrown in prison.”
Noah’s mouth ran dry. “I’d never tell anybody anything. I didn’t know what my father was. I didn’t remember...” He trailed off.
“Remember what?” Avi asked.
Adam looked like he was about to rupture a blood vessel. He was clearly furious about his brothers’ prodding, but they were right. Noah did know their secrets. It was only fair he shared his. He sighed. “I was one of my father’s victims. I blocked it out, I guess. After Adam showed me the video, it all started rushing back in weird flashes. There were others. More than a few of them. They watched. Participated. Filmed.”
“They filmed?” Adam asked, sounding surprised by that information.
Truthfully, Noah was surprised, too. He hadn’t meant to say it, but as soon as Adam pointed it out, he realized it was true. They’d definitely filmed it. “Yeah, I think they did.”
“You want some help?” Avi asked, his jovial personality replaced in an instant by that same lifeless stare Adam got when he didn’t have to pretend to be somebody he wasn’t.
“Not yet,” Adam said. “Once we see how big the ring is, how it works, whether we can identify the targets…I’ll take it to Dad.”
Asa nodded. “We’ve never had a family project before,” Asa said, affect flat.
“How do you guys do that?” he asked.
Adam frowned. “Do what?”
“Just turn it off like that?” Noah asked. “One minute, you guys seem completely normal, and the next, it's like somebody flipped a switch.”
Asa and Avi exchanged glances before Asa shrugged. “Practice. From the time Dad took us in, we learned to act normal. We can’t process emotions like fear, anxiety, sadness. They don’t exist for us. We had to learn to fake it. Not just fake it but…believe it.”
“But you can experience other feelings? Like happiness?” Noah asked, twisting in his seat to look back at the brothers. Maybe if Adam could experience other things, one of those things was love?
They looked at each other for a long time, and Noah had the creepy feeling they were communicating somehow. Finally, Avi said, “Yeah. We can be happy, sad, jealous, angry, surprised. Psychopathy doesn’t mean we feel nothing. It just means we don’t form attachments in the same way others do.”
“Right.” Noah’s voice sounded more disappointed than intended. “How did your father teach you to fake emotions?” he finally asked, refusing to dwell on Adam’s inability to form attachments.
Asa seemed almost eager to talk about the process, while Avi and Adam remained silent, though not uncomfortably so. “There’s a professor—Dr. Molly Shepherd. Our dad met her after he donated money to his alma mater. She was guest lecturing. She had spent thirty years researching psychopaths like us and used her own son as a case study. That’s where our dad got the idea and the techniques he employed to teach us to be more…human.”
“This is all so interesting,” Noah managed, squeezing Adam’s hand. “Why are you willing to tell me all of this?”
Once more, Asa and Avi exchanged meaningful glances. “Can’t hurt now. You already know too much. Besides, our father will do whatever it takes to protect us, to protect what he created. So, if you betray us, he’ll probably kill you.”
