Page 126 of Grin and Bear It

“Cole—” Ty started to say.

“She will.” He stared at each one of us with a kind of certainty that turned my guts to water. “She’s lost her job because of us, because of the fucking… Because of my painting. I fucked up.”

“We were there with you,” Tyson said. “We never said no. We wanted it too.” He let out a sigh. “I guess we never thought—”

“Never thought.” I smiled then, my muscles fighting the movement, but I did it anyway. “I think that encapsulates the situation perfectly. I never thought we’d become the boys’ guardians, when Sharney and the boys went overseas. I never thought I’d fuck up so badly, looking after them. Cole never thought that someone might see that fucking painting, see our mate…” My brows creased as I thought about it. “I never thought, when I dropped the boys off at school this morning, that I’d get a hysterical call a few hours later to find out…”

My eyes went to the ceiling of the kitchen, like I could see past it to the boys, to Lin and Ellie.

“I fucked up. I should’ve—”

“We all fucked up in different ways.” Tyson’s voice was crisp, cutting across all of our confessions. “We can stand around here moping about that, or we can figure out a way to get past this. Way I see it, we have a few problems. The boys had people around here without permission and that created a shitty situation for everyone, but especially Ellie. I’m not sure…” All that confidence seemed to falter for a second, before he drew in a deep breath and straightened up. “I’m not sure how we fix that, but we need to find a way, and soon. But the most pressing thing is the fact that people know about what the boys are, what we are, and we need to manage that situation.”

I jerked my phone out of my pocket and glanced at the screen to see who was calling. June Clements, the assistant principal.

“Looks like the school wants to do the same thing,” I said grimly. “The AP is ringing me.”

“Set up a meeting,” Tyson instructed. “She’s just one person.” He glanced at Cole, then me. “We can… have a chat, make her see the seriousness of the situation.”

“The three of us?” Cole’s smile was wicked, the man seemingly grateful for a plan of action, one that took him out of his head. “I’m sure we could make her see sense.”

“June,” I said as I answered the call.

“Mr Walker.” The woman was trying to sound confident, contained, but I heard the waver in her voice, the slightly hysterical edge. “I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news but—”

“We know what happened,” I said, cutting her off at the knees. “And we’ll be at the school in half an hour to discuss the situation in your office.”

“Well, I don’t think—”

“Talk to you then,” I said, ending the call.

“Contain the situation, make sure Ellie’s job is secure and the boys are protected.” We nodded as Tyson listed the objectives. “Let’s get this shit sorted out for our kids and our mate.”

“Our kids and our mate.” Cole sounded a lot less confident, but he nodded anyway, a dangerous gleam in his eyes. I just hoped he could hold onto that energy as we went to meet with the assistant principal.

When we got to the school, it was a whole different reception than on our last visit.

“Mr Walker…”

The stench of fear clouded the school reception as we walked in through the door. The receptionist got to her feet, but I wasn’t sure if it was to run or to let us through into the office.

“We’re here to see Ms Clements,” I told her.

“So June is—” she babbled.

“Ready to see us now.”

Cole stepped forward, his pale blue eyes glowing in his skull as the bear inside him pushed forward. The woman saw that, and the flash of his fangs as his lips peeled back, and she hit a button to allow the door to swing open. I felt sorry for the woman, quivering behind her desk, but if we couldn’t persuade them to do the right thing, then scaring them into doing it would also work. I took point, striding forward, knowing exactly where we needed to go. People saw us walking down the hall, and shrank back to let us pass, disappearing into photocopy rooms or other offices, then slamming doors. We didn’t care, because there was only one we were focussed on.

“How the hell did you get in here?”

The man was an older guy, with a greying beard and short cropped hair, and by the look of the business attire he was working, I was willing to bet he was the principal.

“I think you’ll find we’re prepared to do just about anything to protect our nephews,” I said, taking a step forward. The man backtracked as a result, so we managed to herd him inside the office where June was getting to her feet, phone at the ready.

“If you think I won’t call the police…” Her voice was artificially high and quavery. “They’re already on their way around to your place to investigate… to investigate…”

“You can’t even say it,” Cole sneered. “So what the hell are they going to look into?”

---