“Focus, boy,” the man hissed just then, forcing his gaze back to his face. “I’m asking you a question.”
“He is,” Dom quickly answered for him, voice shaking.
The man’s eyes never left Conor’s. “Not a very good leader if you can’t answer that for yourself. Also, can’t be good if you’re a leader and you’ve lost a friend playing a game of Hide and Seek.” The man took a step forward, a small step, his eyes growing colder as he continued studying Conor. “Also…not a very good leader if you have just one boy behind you. Where’s the other one?”
“We told you, he’s lost,” Dominic stuttered.
“No,” the man retorted, that cool smile reappearing. “I’m not talking about the little one that’s always crying. I’m talking about the mouthy one you left behind. If I were either of you, I’d be running back in there and looking for him in case he doesn’t disappear, either.”
Dominic was fidgety now. He was ready to run and do just that, but Conor felt like he’d just been kicked in the stomach. Panic and terror swarmed his insides as he realized what Dominic might have been too scared to notice.
Dom began to shake uncontrollably. “Conor,” he whimpered, grabbing at his arm now. “Conor, we have to go!”
“Time is ticking, boy,” the man said to him just then, the smile growing.
Dominic tugged harder on Conor’s arm.
Conor didn’t want to go.
He stared at the man with horrified eyes, knowing…knowing he knew where Max was.
The second the man took another step closer, Conor snapped out of his terrified trance and ran back into the forest with Dom.
Chapter Twenty
Thames
He started to get up early in the mornings.
The first morning he got up before Charlotte, he woke Penny up and together they descended the stairs and went to the kitchen.
“You know how to make pancakes, Pen?” he asked her quietly.
Penny smiled. “Yes, Daddy. Are we surprising Mommy?”
He nodded, smiling back. “Yeah, baby. I want to make her something good before you go to school.”
Penny was a whiz in the kitchen. She knew where everything was placed. She knew the recipe like the back of her hand, and she gave him directions, even helping him when he struggled. She loved baking and food, he’d learned. He’d always seen her at Charlotte’s side as she cooked.
She sat on the edge of the island – something Charlotte scolded her often for doing – and watched him mix the ingredients in the bowl.
“We should serve her breakfast in bed,” she suggested.
He nodded. “That sounds like a good idea. What else can we do?”
“I don’t know, romantic stuff.”
He grinned. “Like flowers?”
Her eyes brightened. “We have flowers in the garden!”
“They’re still alive?”
She nodded. “Yeah, they’re sort of droopy but they’re still good. Want me to grab some?”
“We’ll do that together.”
The consistency of the mix seemed all wrong, but Thames had time to master the art of pancakes. He felt his chest swell at that thought. Time. He would have so much time to treasure his girls.
He knew he needed to help out more. Maybe he’d clean the house. There were always dishes in the sink, and Charlotte was frequently running in and out of the laundry room with baskets of clothes.
“She’s done everything alone, hasn’t she?” he murmured softly.
“Mommy?” Penny asked.
“Yeah, she doesn’t ask for help.”
“She does everything, Daddy, everything. Sometimes she works at nights and I have a babysitter. Sometimes Grandma takes me on sleepovers.”
“How are those?”
“Super fun. Lily always makes nachos and we build a forte and watch movies. This winter we’re going to do ice skating together. Mommy always takes us places. She used to take Lily to her dance classes, and I’d go just to watch her dance. She is really good at it.”
He set the pan on the stove. “Is Aunty Ember ever around?”
She shook her head. “No. She’s always out. I think Kane sees her more than I do.”
He gave her an odd look. “Ember hangs around him?”
Penny shrugged. “He says he sees her. He sneaks around the house a lot after bedtime. There’s a lot of people at his house some nights”
Thames suspected Reid was throwing a lot of parties and Ember was hanging around, still getting shit-faced. So fucking typical of Ember. Her daughter was growing up before her eyes – he’d have done anything to trade places – and she had wasted parenthood for booze and boys.