Page 124 of Grin and Bear It

“I painted them… together,” Cole explained in a much softer voice.

“You did what?” Nash barked.

“I wanted…” Cole shrugged. “I felt like I had to capture Ellie, store her away, just in case she…” He swallowed hard. “It was a work in progress and it was locked up in my studio. The kids know better to go down there and…”

Everyone’s eyes went to the cut lock on the table.

“The boys wouldn’t cut the lock,” Tyson said. “They know where the key is and they don’t go in there, but…”

Wet footsteps alerted us to their presence, the two boys emerging still dripping, wrapped shivering in towels. Both boys saw the lock, their eyes widening in a way that couldn’t be faked, cogs whirring in their heads.

“What happened?” Nash growled.

“We had some people over—” Knox started to explain.

“Declan, I said. I told you no one else,” Nash replied.

“Well, Dec told some people that you guys were out, and they told some people—”

“That’s how this happened?” Maddox’s voice cracked on the words, his head whipping around. He shoved his hands into his brother’s chest and no one could’ve been more surprised than Knox. He went stumbling back, but Maddox was on him. “Your dumb fucking plan. You let people into our house, random people, into our den. They came here and broke into Cole’s studio and what? What, Knox?”

We all wanted to know the answer to that.

“I didn’t know,” Knox protested. Tears filled his eyes, welling but not falling. “I didn’t see anyone go into the studio.”

“How could you?” Maddox snarled. “The place was fucking full of kids.”

“It was what?” Cole’s growl was just as loud. “What the fuck were you doing, filling the house full of kids when we were out?”

“Oh, like you didn’t do dumb shit when you were young?” Knox shot back at his uncle.

“Not like this!” Cole snapped. “I didn’t fucking shift in front of the whole damn school.”

“Enough,” Ellie said in a firm, flat tone.

“You fucked everything up.” Some days I wondered why the fuck we’d formed a sleuth with Cole, and today was one of them. He could keep his temper most of the time, right up until he couldn’t. But when the prick came out swinging, he didn’t care who he hit.

“Cole—” I said, stepping forward.

“No. No!” He held up a hand to ward me off. “You lot have been too fucking soft on the boys for too long.”

“Enough, Cole.” Ellie got to her feet, shoving her chair back.

“It’s not enough.” Silence reigned in the kitchen. “It’s fucking not. Kids would’ve filmed this. The school will have to call the cops. Circulating that painting? That’s gotta cost Ellie her job. Did you think about that, huh? Well, did ya?”

“Enough!”

Ellie wasn’t our mate now, but a mumma bear protecting her cubs. She stood between the boys and Cole, staring him down, bristling with defiance, but something else as well. Her whole body shook, like she was riding out an earthquake. There were seismic shifts in her life shaking her to the core, but still she protected the boys.

“Don’t do this. Don’t fucking lay this on the kids. They’re young and make stupid mistakes. That’s what kids do. But us? We’re the adults, we’re supposed to be the responsible ones and no one could say that…” She swallowed hard. “Was a responsible act.”

“No good will come from going soft on the boys,” Cole growled.

“And none comes from shaming them and making them feel worse than they already do.” She turned on her heel then, facing the boys. “Come upstairs. You need somewhere to rest, calm down.”

It was only then that I actually noticed the rapid intake of the boys’ breath, their chests heaving, their eyes glowing bright gold. They were on the brink of another shift, and it was all our fault.

Ellie grabbed a big bottle of water and some apples from the fridge, leading the boys down the hall and then upstairs, if the muffled thump of their feet was anything to go by.

---