Page 10 of Fight

My smile is wide as I reply, “She’s awesome. Come on, let's go before she leaves without us. I want to see the reunion and the shock on your grandparent's faces.”

“Oh fuck, we’ve got to get all the way down to our car.” Rome reminds us as we step outside, and I feel momentarily confused because there’s no car there.

“Fuck,” I reply as we head off, “I really wanted to be there to see all of their faces.”

“We will be,” Mason replies, and when we all look at him curiously, he adds, “Demelza was still in her pyjamas; assuming that they’ve been the ones riding motorbikes up here, she definitely couldn’t ride a bike in her nightdress, so she’s going to need to get dressed first. So, if we’re quick we can get there before they do, and then just sit back and enjoy the reunion.”

I grin, “I love how smart you are. Come on, let’s go. I’m willing to jog for this.”

“Seriously?” Ace asks, sounding shocked and horrified but catching up to me easily as I reach the gate and start climbing.

“Definitely,” I reply with a grin as we reach the top, and I launch myself over it, landing on the other side, and turn to wait for the others to catch up.

It doesn’t take us long at all until we’re all taking a gentle jog down the coast road to get to our car.

“I hope everything is where we left it,” Rome mutters, not sounding winded at all as we stick to the edge of the pathway, avoiding the cliffside.

“We need to check it over quickly to make sure no explosives have been put on it.” Ace reminds us.

“If his people were following us as closely as we thought they were, then they’d know that we were here already,” Rip points out as we get to the point in the road that is in particularly bad condition.

“This means he’s either biding his time and making a plan, hoping to lure us into a false sense of security, or he is completely freaking the fuck out and has shut down. Either way, we need to be on our guard and make sure we take the back roads as much as possible.” Mason suggests.

As the car comes into view, looking whole from this distance, I say, “Wouldn’t he expect you to use the back routes to get to places?”

Mason shrugs as we slow down to assess the area around the car to make sure it’s as safe as it appears, and answers, “You’d think, but in all honesty, our mother was the real brains behind it all, he may be the official Heir, but he’s not that bright and is prone to panicking. He could organise and send people after us when we weren’t here because he wasn’t immediately under threat from us.”

Malachi takes over the explanation, “And even then, they weren’t organised very well and failed. They didn’t exactly get close to being able to take us in or take us out.”

“No, that’s true,” I concede, “but that reminds me of something. Why did he want to bring you in and not just have you taken out?”

“Because he wanted to see with his own eyes that we were all dead. He didn’t want to risk one of us getting out alive, and he didn’t want to risk one of the people that he hired going rogue and letting us go.” Mason replies.

Ace, who has been thoroughly checking the car over with Rip, and looking for things that I definitely wouldn’t notice and should probably ask them to train me so that I can spot them, says before I can reply, “It looks all clear, no nasty surprises. If you put something in the grass at the edge, don’t forget to grab it before we set off.”

I’d completely forgotten about that, but fortunately, I hadn’t put anything there anyway. I get in the car, willing the guys to hurry up.

Once Rome gets into the driving seat, I can’t help but ask, “Are you going to be okay reversing all the way back down? It’s not very wide.”

“Yeah, I should be fine,” Rome replies and then adds with a smirk, “It’s not like we’ve got much choice. We definitely can’t turn around.”

“Okay, good point,” I reply, still feeling slightly nervous because the road is narrow, and there’s not much room for error if it does go wrong.

Sensing my unease, Rome adds more seriously, “Don’t worry, Koroleva, I drive better going backward than I do forwards.”

I chuckle, “That’s reassuring.”

No doubt, in order to distract me, Rip asks me, “Are you okay? And I don’t mean with Rome’s driving. I mean, with your Grandmother and Gerald and all of those revelations.”

I really think about the answer to make sure that I’m answering truthfully and not just giving them the generic, yeah, I’m fine, answer that I usually would. Last night I was too overwhelmed to tell the twins anything different, but I’ve had more time for it to settle now, “I think I am. I mean, I’m still somewhat in shock that she’s alive and that Gerald is my grandfather, but underneath that is happiness. I’m not as alone as I thought I was. I know I have D, and I have Atlas, Rage, and Alaric as well as various other people who I consider family even though they aren’t my blood, and you guys who mean more than that to me, but to still have blood out there, from my father’s side, which I have also always wanted to know more about is quite a big thing.”

“It’s definitely a huge thing, and that’s why we’re checking in with you to make sure that you really are coping with it as well as you appear to be.” Rome points out, and I know he’s still annoyed that he didn’t see how worried I was about Micha until we knew he was going to be okay.

“I really am okay with it. I promise that I will let you know if I start to struggle with it.” I reply honestly.

“Deal,” Rome replies, still effortlessly reversing down the track.

There’s no sign of my grandparents yet, so unless they have some sort of back way to get to the estate, which now that I’m thinking about it is entirely possible, then they won’t beat us there, and we might be able to give the grandparents at least a slight warning that they’re all about to be really shocked.

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