Page 32 of Dragon Stepbrother's Secret Baby

“Don’t worry about Riley,” a young woman farther down the table called out. “I’ll take her to the computer lab and show her around.”

“Thanks, sweetie.” Kingston walked away, and in a minute, he, Connor, and the other boys left the dining room.

I glanced over at the young woman. She couldn’t be any older than me and she smiled so brightly that I couldn’t help but like her.

Her long, curly blonde hair tumbled past her waist in a cascading waterfall of gold. Piercing, crystal-brown eyes flashed every time she smiled. Hidden flecks of gold and flame-orange blinked in their depths.

She had the same intense gaze that Kingston and Connor had. In fact, nearly every one of these people had intensely brilliant eyes of some hypnotic color. Even Wilcox and Ximena had the same eyes. They were just different colors.

I couldn’t understand why, but Samira’s comments about Connor were starting to make sense. She looked into his eyes and said he had the signs. That’s how she recognized that Connor was Kingston’s son and belonged to Clan Heller.

I didn’t know what signs she saw, but it must have something to do with his eyes.

This young woman still hadn’t even introduced herself, but at least she wasn’t one of the Hellers that said they should throw me out for being a traitor and an outsider. This woman had been going out of her way to say nice things about me ever since dinner last night.

Kingston’s mother and aunt and cousin did the same thing, but it still took an almighty effort to trust these people. How did I know they wouldn’t change their attitude toward me later on?

Kingston said they wouldn’t. I should have believed him. I guess I’d just been running and hiding and fighting people for too long. I couldn’t change that overnight. I wasn’t sure I even wanted to.

I stuck my fork in my food, but I couldn’t bring myself to put anything in my mouth. Stress still plagued me and I couldn’t relax even now that I knew I was safe. My body remained locked in a state of permanent tension and anxiety. I should have turned it off, but I couldn’t.

The young woman left the dining room long before I finished eating—or pretending to eat. Kingston would get worried if I didn’t eat something, but the thought of putting anything in my mouth made me sick.

My own permanent state of alarm and paranoia didn’t become so obvious until I got behind these solid rock walls. I didn’t notice it while Connor and I were on the run.

Now it hit me like a ton of bricks. Would I always be this jumpy? Would I always feel like an outsider at war against the whole world? At least Connor could settle in and enjoy himself. That on its own made coming here worth it.

I finally gave it up and tossed the fork down on the plate. Everyone else had already left the dining room. I was the last one here and maybe that was for the best. Then I wouldn’t spread my doom and gloom to the rest of these people.

They all seemed so happy and productive. They all had thriving careers, and if Samira was telling the truth about everyone getting paid for their time and effort, that explained why all the adults here seemed so successful.

They acted like high-powered executives. They talked and networked and worked on their devices as though they were running a multi-billion-dollar corporation instead of a family trust.

Sitting here alone in silence wouldn’t get my questions answered. I stood up and pushed my chair in. The rest of the Clan just left their dirty dishes and cutlery lying around on the table.

My mother’s instinct kicked in and I started stacking the plates when the young woman came back. “You can leave those there,” she told me. “The KP team will clean it up later.”

“What does that mean?” I asked. “KP is a military term and you aren’t the military.”

She burst out laughing. “That’s what we call the teenagers who get assigned to work in the kitchen. A team of seven works in the kitchen every week and then they trade off with another seven. They take turns doing all the cooking and cleaning for the rest of the Clan. We all went through it when we were their age.”

Her eyes twinkled, but I couldn’t soften toward her. I didn’t know how to relate to her. She might be the friendliest person in the world, but she still belonged to a culture I didn’t understand.

No one would explain the rules to me, not even Kingston. He didn’t seem to understand that there were any rules I needed explained to me. He just expected that I would pick it up through the airwaves or something.

The young woman’s eyes sparkled in a way that told me she knew I needed something explained to me. She read my mind and stuck her hand out. “I’m Lacey. I’m Kingston’s cousin.”

I shook her hand, but I found it hard to look at her. Her intense brown eyes made me nervous. “Everyone around here is Kingston’s cousin.”

She laughed again. “Everyone except his mother, his aunts, and his uncles. Come on. I’ll show you the computer lab.”

She turned away, and at that moment, a bunch of teenage boys and girls came into the dining room. They talked and joked and called insults back and forth while they got to work clearing the table. They all wore white aprons stained with food.

Two of the kids wheeled carts into the dining room and the crew loaded all the dirty plates, glasses, cutlery, coffee cups, and food scraps onto the carts.

“Where do you get all your food?” I asked Lacy.

She laughed again. “Maybe you should do a week on KP so you can find out all our secrets. Come on. A computer expert like you is way too valuable to do KP.”

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