Page 5 of Fight

“By this point, it had been long enough since everything had happened that Emmy presented me with a choice, I could either stay away from the town and build a new life for myself, or we could sneak back into the town, stay on the Hawthorne estate and do what she was doing before, keep an eye on the families and gather information for Demelza to hopefully use to take them on if she ever came back. Emmy was getting updates every few months or so from the staff that was left here, and it was all pointing toward disaster.” She turns to look at Mason and Malachi and continues, “I thought you were still there by that point; I had been gone for years, trying to get my strength up, learning to walk, and then getting strong again and learning my limitations as well. Our last update said that you were there and giving them hell. That was a couple of months before, and we hadn’t had another one yet.

“I decided that I wanted to go back. I couldn’t leave you boys there dealing with them. I couldn’t let them get away with everything that they had done and everything that they had put the town through as well. So we went back, and as soon as we managed to get up to the house safely, I instantly checked on you, hoping that I could get you out, only to find that you were already gone, and I was so fucking proud of you. I knew that you were safe, which was a massive relief, but I also knew that there was no way that the parents were going to let any of you escape, especially since you escaped together. So, I stayed, and here I am all these years later.”

“And then they managed to track me down when Silas started to use the townspeople as target practice just for fun,” Demelza adds.

Gerald practically growls as he says, “I wanted to give him a taste of his own medicine, but Deme talked me out of it, reminding me that we needed to play the long game with this. We also found Jynx and had been trying to find out if she were better where she was, we wanted to meet her and know her, of course, but if she were living a good life, bringing her into one that could potentially be dangerous would’ve been selfish, and that’s how the whole plan to bring Jynx to the house and to fake Deme’s death while I became a butler of sorts to keep an eye on Jynx and all that came about.”

Jynx nods, her eyes slightly too wide, and I know she’s reaching the end of her shock meter. I can’t say I blame her. There have been so many in the last few hours that even I’m getting to the point where I almost don’t want to know anymore for at least a few hours.

Mason interrupts before Jynx can say anything in reply to Gerald, “Malory, I’m so fucking sorry. If I weren’t so scared of the stupid training exercise, then none of this would’ve happened.”

Anger clouds Malory’s expression, and the sight of it instantly calms Jynx, who is no doubt about to go on a rant chastising Mason for something so ridiculous. I know I was about to.

“Shut the fuck up, Mason,” Malory replies firmly, and I smirk, “If I could go back and do it all over again, I would do it exactly the same way. I wouldn’t change a thing.”

Mason’s smile is small, and he obviously doesn’t entirely believe Malory’s words, but he nods and replies, “Alright, Malory, I hear you.”

Malory narrows her eyes, clearly picking up on the same disbelief as I am, but she decides to let it go and not say anything. He’ll believe it eventually. The guys and I have been telling him that it wasn’t his fault for years, and now Malory herself is telling him; I also have a feeling that Jynx is going to be telling him the same thing as soon as they’re alone as well. He’s going to have no choice but to believe.

Demelza decides that it’s a good time to interrupt since there’s now a building tension in the room, “Malory has been a massive help during this whole thing, she’s been helping me misdirect the attention onto each other as far as the families are concerned, which has minimised the amount of work that I’ve had to do to eliminate them, and the whole time, she’s also been studying to become a teacher.”

“You have?” Malachi asks, seeming surprised and then shrugging like he’s rethought his first reaction, which is proven correct when he adds, “Actually, you were always really good with us, so, yeah, I could see you being a teacher, and if you wanted to teach older kids then you’d be able to scare them straight so, either way, I think you’ll be great at it.”

Malory tilts her head and smirks, “Thanks, I think. I don’t want to be doing this for the rest of my life; it’s already taken far more of my life than I would’ve liked it to. When you guys and the town are officially safe, I want to work in the school in town, maybe even get married and be normal for once in my life.”

“I hope you get your normal,” Jynx tells her. It seems to be a theme these days.

Jynx

“Thank you,” Malory replies to me, and I hope she knows that I actually mean it. Her smile widens as she adds, “I can tell that you are very important to my little brothers, and if I’m guessing correctly, the others too, but we haven’t actually been introduced. I’m Malory, the twin's big sister.”

I’m suddenly nervous; it’s really important to me that she likes me; she means a lot to the twins, and I really don’t want her to think that I’m taking advantage of them by dating both of them and the others as well.

Smiling and deciding just to bite the bullet and get it over with, I reply, “I’m Jynx, I’m dating all of the guys, and I’m also apparently an heir.”

“She forgot to mention that she’s deadly in her own right and has connections to some highly influential people in the criminal world, some of whom are terrified of her and what her presence in their midst means,” Rip adds, looking at me proudly.

I have to admit that his words make my cheeks heat, I’m damn proud of everything that I’ve achieved, but it's weird to hear it said out loud.

Malory’s eyebrows raise, “That’s damn impressive. I think we’ll get on great. I take it you don’t have any aspirations to have a different career.”

I grin, relieved that my credentials and background haven’t put her off; despite the fact that she’s lived a dangerous life as well, hers has been relatively isolated, whereas mine is spread all over the country. I shake my head, “No, a normal life isn’t for me. I might slow down at some point far into the future, but I could never give it up, it’s in my blood, and I’d be bored without the danger, thrill, and challenge of this life.”

Malory shares a look with my grandparents, who are smiling so wide their cheeks are all bunched up as pride shines in their eyes, and Malory says to Demelza, “She definitely takes after you,” then looking back at me, she says, “you’re perfect for the guys, even I know that there’s very little chance that they’d be able to give up this kind of life.”

“You’re right,” Ace agrees, speaking for the first time since Malory came into the room, and shocked the shit out of us all, “none of us were made for normal lives. This is probably as normal as we’re going to get.”

“Normal is overrated anyway,” Rome shrugs, smiling at me.

“I couldn’t agree more,” I smile.

Since I’m still sitting on Mason’s lap with my legs over Mal’s, I can feel that the tension has left them. I can’t even imagine the shock of finding out that their sister was alive; actually scratch that, I might be one of the only people who can understand what it feels like to think a family member is dead and then they turn out to be alive.

The conversation quickly turns to catching up instead, as Demelza and Gerald bring in hot chocolates, and we spend a while just talking as Mason and Malachi start to get to know their sister again, and I get to know my grandmother while trying to reconcile that Gerald is my Grandfather.

After a while, Demelza looks at her watch and says, “Goodness, it’s quite late. Would you all like to stay here tonight? I know that we have some things that we need to discuss, but under the circumstances, I think it can wait until tomorrow.”

The guys all look at me to make the decision, and I really don’t want to trek all the way back down to Rome’s house, which was honestly quite disturbing, which is why I say, “Yes, please. If that’s okay.”

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