by C. A. Rene
“Forever.” I nod.
She blinds me with her wide smile and slips out of my room and out the front door.
It’s Friday morning and the week flew by pretty quickly. This weekend Ember’s parents are going away and she has Emmett coming to spend the night then leave Sunday morning. My phone pings with a message, I open it expecting Em but see someone unexpected.
Scott: Hey Son, do me a favour, I already know Ember sneaks to your house every night so can you keep an eye on her this weekend? Might as well sleep here.
Well, Em wasn’t as sneaky as she thought.
Me: You got it OG
Scott: Bring your own beer
Me: Damn, ok
Scott: Check out the garage later, see what was delivered today
Me: Cuda?
He sends me a thumbs up and I chuckle, I can’t wait to rub it in Em’s face that her father knew what she was up to this whole time.
The respect I’ve always had for Scott is high, he has been more of a father to me than anyone else. I’ve looked up to him since I was young and he always took me under his wing. He taught me about cars and expanded my interests of them, now I find just as much a thrill in finding these oldies as he does. Being in love with his adopted niece is just the cherry on top.
24
“Ember!” My ma screams from the bottom of the stairs, “come have lunch with us before we go.”
“Kay!”
I throw on a hoodie and join them in the kitchen. This weekend Emmett and I are going to come up with some explanation about his existence so he can finally meet our true family. I’m excited and I know both my parents will welcome him with open arms. Their hearts are just so big and they deserve to know they also have more family.
“Vin is going to stay with you here this weekend, saves you from sneaking out and going to him.” My dad says with a knowing grin and a wink.
“Well, that was a lot of work for nothing.” I pout.
“We do have a video surveillance that alerts us about movement outside.” He replies with a lifted brow.
“I avoided cameras.”
“Not well enough.” Ma laughs.
“Maybe I wanted you guys to know.” I shrug-I totally did not.
“Sure.” Dad grins.
“What time will you be back on Sunday?”
“Not sure, this whole weekend is a mystery. We are to just relax and let everyone plan everything for us. Don’t expect it to be too early though.” Ma sighs with contentment.
“You guys deserve this break. You work way too much.”
“I agree,” Dad nods, “we do need a break. But we are going to miss you.”
“You could come along!” My ma says, clearly excited. “We could just pay for Ember.”
“Guys…” I put my hands up, “I love you and all, but we are not making this a weird third wheel romantic weekend. Please go and I will be fine.”
“You sure? We would get you your own room, and there are spas and massages.” She continues.
“Trust me, I’m sure. None of that sounds appealing. Do they have punching bags and ring matches?” I ask.
“No.” Ma scrunches her nose.
“I’m good here.”
My dad chuckles and gets up from the table, he ruffles Ma’s hair and kisses me on top of mine. “We should hit the road.”
“Yeah, at this rate we will waste the first day of our free weekend.” Ma nods.
I watch them put their bags into the back of the same Mercedes they picked me up in and get a rush of panic. I’m not sure why, maybe it’s because this is my first real weekend of not having them here. Yeah, I leave for New York but they never leave me here. I calm myself down and plaster a smile on my face. They really deserve this and I won’t let my abandonment issues resurface and stop them.
“We stocked the fridge and there’s some cash in the top drawer of your dad’s desk.” Ma says.
“We will still be monitoring the surveillance, but if there is anything, no matter how small you think it is, call the police.” Dad swings his finger at me.
“Don’t go all Blurry and try to take on anything yourself.” Ma adds. I snort at that because if only she knew what I was capable of.
“Got it! Don’t worry I’ll be fine.” I say, exasperated. I grip them both in a group hug and breathe in their scent. My eyes start to tear up and I can feel that familiar lump in my throat, I’m being such a little princess right now.
“I love you guys.” I say as I clear my throat.
“We love you, too.” Ma says as she kisses my head.
“Behave and don’t throw wild parties.” Dad says, kissing the other side.
“No parties!” Ma screams on her way to the car.
“Don’t worry, I don’t like people enough for that.” I wave.
“Ugh, we got so lucky with her. Anti-social and an ass kicker.” Dad sighs and waves back.
I watch them start the car and drive down the ridiculously long driveway. When They turn out onto the road I am shocked to feel a tear drop hit my lip. What is up with me and these emotions? They’ll be back, it’s just one fucking weekend. I wipe my tears off my cheeks and run my hand down my face. Get it together, Ember!
Emmett shows up about an hour later, sans Carm. I invited them both and I’m a little disappointed that Carm isn’t here. He was supposed to tell me all about his meeting with Talia.
“Where is he?” I ask, my arms crossed on my chest.
Emmett is pull his bag off the back of the bike and removing his helmet. His brown hair sways in the breeze and his turquoise eyes lights up with mischief. “I’m not good enough?” He teases as he drags me in for a hug.
“I invited both of you. What was his excuse?”
“Apparently you caused a bit of an uproar with the other Heads. He’s been stuck in his office doing conference calls and basically calming everyone down. He has a lot of back log work because of it. Why didn’t you tell me about that?” He narrows his eyes.
“Less you knew the better, I didn’t want Carm knowing ahead of time.”
“You went in full makeup too, huh?” He chuckles.
“Yeah, I did.” I grin back.
“Okay, show me this fuckery of a mansion. It’ll be nice spending the weekend in an actual house and not an underground one.”
See? He needs to come here, living in that compound-no matter how luxurious it is- is still underground. He could ditch the tutors and homeschooling and actually come to Precious Blood with me.
“I can’t believe Carm let you come alone.”
“He’s not my parent.” Emmett shrugs.
“He is your guardian though.” I elbow him.
“No, Dad was and when he died his lawyer filled out the work to emancipate me. I have a lot of liquid funds and am capable of taking care of myself.”
“Oh, that’s weird.” I shake my head, ‘I just thought Carm would want to be your guardian.”
“Yeah he acts like one, but there was no way he could do it properly with how much he’s dealing with.”
“Yeah, I get that.”
I take him into the house and show him around. He looks just as much like the bird sipping water thingy as I did when I first saw this house. I know you know what I’m talking about. He picks the guestroom just down the hall from me so he can be close and we go to hang out by the pool.
“This is nice.” He whistles as he checks out the fountain.
“Wouldn’t you like to come to Precious Blood Academy with me this year?”
“Why the fuck did they name it that?” He looks at me with a mix of disgust and outrage.
“Catholic.” I say with a shrug.
“I haven’t been to a real school.” He looks out at the pool.
“Always homeschooled?”
“Yeah, always.”
“Hopefully we can change that for this year and you can learn to play with other children.” I give him a
wide toothed smile.
“Or I can avoid playgrounds and not stab anyone.”
I snort out a laugh and he joins me. It doesn’t matter what he says to me, I saw the gleam in his eye when I mentioned him coming to school with me, he looked excited and to be honest so am I.
“What do these people do for work?” He asks me while looking around the lush surroundings.
“Uncle Scott looks for classic cars and sells them to his customers. That’s how I have Shelby. Aunt Debra is an interior designer, she works for a firm that has a TV show.”
“Wow.”
“They are really great people, when I first met them I was angry as fuck seeing all this and comparing it to what I grew up in. But afterward all I saw was love from them.”
“What did you live in before?” He asks me, his face serious.
“Mom ran away from here to be with our father and her rich ass parents disowned her. We were pretty fucking poor, to be honest. We lived in roach infested apartments, slept on one mattress and ate a lot of fucking ramen.”
“Fuck, I’m sorry Ember.” He looks at me with pity.
“It is what it is. I’m stronger because of it.” I shrug, “you don’t apologize, it was our father’s fault mostly and he paid for it.”
“Yeah, he did. I saw his body by the way, I was actually the one to find him.” He shakes his head, “I stood there staring at him and then I felt the smile come over my face. Finally, the piece of shit was dead.”
“I couldn’t apologize for that if I wanted to. Although, I still dream about the things I did to him.”
“You skinned his face,” he scrubs a hand down his face, “the damage I saw to his body was crazy, we all thought it was a rival gang. Then Carm said it was you.”
“I wanted to kill Carm, too. I would’ve if he was still in the spot I left him, I came back to find him.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, I hated everyone inside that compound.” I nod.
“Understandably, you know Carm was the one who kept the guards away while you were with Father?” When I shake my head, he nods, “yeah. He ordered everyone away. Said it was family business.” He runs his hand into his hair, “when I saw you fight, Father said you were there for us, that you chose to be there. I swear I didn’t know you were taken.”
“I believe you.” I nod, “I also don’t care anymore. If I wasn’t taken, I wouldn’t have been able to kill that fucker.”
“True that.” He nods, “I wish I had you when we were kids though.”
The breath lodges in my throat, did he feel like I did when I was a kid? Like I was an outcast and I was missing a part of me. I couldn’t form the proper bonds for friendship, even Tommy wasn’t all that close. There were a lot of things he still never knew about me.
“I grew up alone, I was such a fucking lonely kid. Carm was older and he was angry all the time and I was surrounded by guards. I always felt like there was something I was missing, something that would make me happy.”
“Me too.” I whisper.
“Yeah?”
I nod, my voice lost for words. I can’t believe we both felt that way, like we knew we developed together in that womb and as soon as we were separated we felt the loss.
“I would’ve liked to have met her.” He says looking sad.
“We look like her a little, our eye colour came from her and our smiles.”
“Are there pictures?”
“Yeah, I have a whole bunch, did you want to go see them?”
He nods and gives me a smile. We gather our stuff and I bring him inside to the box Vin found me and the photo albums that Ma has. I spread everything out and watch as he flips through them.
“This is our aunt?” He asks pointing at a wedding photo.
“Yeah, and our uncle. I call them Ma and Dad though now. They can’t have children.”
“That sucks.” I watch as he runs a finger down a picture of our mother in a Precious Blood Academy uniform. His face is unreadable but I see the slight tremor in his hand. “I want to know why she left me.” He whispers.
“Me too, Em.” I say as I wrap my arms around him, “and I’m going to find out.”
“I know that you can.” He nods.
“Ember!” Vin calls from the front door.
“In here!” I yell to him to come to the family room.
I watch him walk into the room, his baseball hat tugged down low on his face, his two-day scruff lining his jaws and an aura of overall not giving a single fuck. He’s wearing a pair of faded blue jeans and a black t-shirt that’s molded to his arms and chest.
“What are you guys up to?” He asks.
“Showing Emmett family photos.”
“Sup?” Vin nods at Emmett.
“Nada Bro, just trying to wrap my head around some stuff.”
“I hear that.” He nods, “what are we doing for food tonight?”
“You’re staying over?” I smile wide.
“Can you believe your sister is this bad ass assassin but she can’t even sneak out of the fucking house properly?” Vin says to Emmett.
“Seriously?” Emmett looks at me incredulously.
“Shut up.” I groan, tipping my head back.
“Yeah, your aunt and uncle caught her weeks ago and just let her be.” Vin chuckles, “she thought she was slick.”
They laugh and after a bit I join in too. It is pretty disgraceful that I don’t know how to sneak out of my own house. In my defence, I never had a parent who cared if I came and went before so it’s all new to me.
“Carm didn’t come?” Vin asks.
“Nah, he had a ton of work.” Emmett shrugs. “Just me.”
“That’s cool,” Vin walks up to the TV. “You game?”
“Yeah, sometimes.” Emmett says.
“Let’s play.”
I watch as they settle into the sofa and I can’t stop the warm feeling I get when I see them like this. I’m happy they get along because they are both so important to me. I decided tonight that I would spend some time with Emmett and Vin and then tomorrow I would invite Travis and Adri over. I just wanted this time with my family, for Emmett to be here with me and become comfortable.
25
Adri: Hot brother is there? Count me in
This bitch. Now I regret asking her if she wanted to come hang out with us today. Travis still hasn’t answered my text and I am getting the feeling he is not liking the idea of Emmett hanging with us.
Me: I take it back, keep your slut ass home.
Adri: C U in 10
I smile and shake my head. She is my bestie, slut or not. I watch as Vin and Emmett toss a football back and forth in the backyard, I want this so bad. I want Emmett here and I don’t want him to leave. I can’t explain this ache I get in my chest when we are apart.
Travis: I guess. Need beer?
Finally. He doesn’t sound too enthused though but there’s nothing I can do about it. Maybe if they hang out a bit more they will begin to like each other. I lay back on my lounger by the pool and try to catch some sun.
“You have Father’s skin.” I hear Emmett say beside me.
“I did notice that.” I nod, “you have more of Mom’s skin. Be careful, she would freckle in the sun.”
“I get some freckles on my nose and cheeks in the summer.” He nods.
“Do you have any girlfriends back in New York?” I ask teasingly.
“Nah, not for a while. Nothing has caught my eye recently.” He shrugs.
“What type of girls are you into?”
“I don’t really have a type…” He says trailing off.
Vin comes and pulls me up so I can lay on him as he settles behind me. I love the heat from his skin and I instantly relax, the smell of his coconut lotion and Dolce cologne is an intoxicating mix and purely Vin.
“I want to do something different today.” I say, “I’m tired of drinking beer and chilling by some sort of wat
er.” Vin chuckles behind me.
“We should get tattoos.” Emmett pipes up.
“Yes!” I sit up. “Do you speak Spanish fluently?”
“Yeah.” Emmett nods.
“See Vin’s tattoo?” I move and show him Vin’s ‘Tainted Blood’. “I want this in Spanish. Would ‘Sangre Manchada’ work?”
“Yeah, it’s the closest you will get to that.” He agrees.
“Ember, you sure you want that?” Vin asks me.
“Yes, we both have the same feelings when it comes to our fathers. I even want it in the same spot.” I look to Emmett, “do you have tattoos?”
“Yeah, my back is done.” He pulls off his t-shirt and turns his back to me.
His back is completely covered in a large tattoo. It depicts a scene with a young boy and what looks to be the Grim Reaper holding hands. They are surrounded by trees and the moon is shining down on them. Both have their backs turned but you see a side profile of the boy as he looks up at the Grim Reaper with awe. It’s fucking dark and it feels sad to me, it somehow twists my insides.
“Why this?” I whisper.
“It shows the death of my innocence.” He says as he shrugs his shirt back on.
“What happened?”
“Can we save that for another time?” He asks me.
“Yeah, we can.” Vin answers, “we don’t pry.”
“Thanks man.” He nods.
“Okay, I want that first tattoo,” I say, changing the subject. “I also want a Yin and Yang with Emmett.”
“Yin and Yang?” Emmett asks.
“Yeah, opposites that belong together. Me and you, twins. Get it?”
“I like it.”
“I want mine on my shoulder blade, where are you going to get yours?” I ask him.
“My chest. Over my heart.”
“You get the white side and I will get the black side.” I tell Emmett, “Vin will design it.”
“Sounds about right.” Emmett nods with a chuckle.
“Me?” Vin asks.
“Yes please, something that is just for us.”
“I can do that.”
I hear the doorbell and get up to answer the door while Vin and Emmett are in a deep discussion regarding the tattoo. I get to the front door and hear both Travis and Adri outside and they are already bickering.
