with an adult. He wasn’t sure why, that was just how the conversation leaned. Tell him I’m only a little mad.
ok. oops gotta go. i didn’t text you, ok?
Ok. Brannigan stared at the bizarre conversation on his phone. He took a screenshot of it, then deleted the messages. K ignored his pictures for the most part, but the text messages he monitored.
Just who was that? And how upset was K, that this person would intervene on his behalf?
Brannigan tapped a thoughtful finger against the top of the desk. Well. Maybe there was some hope after all.
4
Kyou
Kyou came out of the shower, hair still damp and with low-slung sweats and a worn-in shirt hugging his body. He was all set to wander into the kitchen and get some coffee when he saw his niece sitting in his computer chair. Remi had her legs tucked up under her, monitoring Brannigan on three of his monitors, her cup of soup clutched in both hands. She was here this morning, instead of at school, because of a fever. Ari had errands to run, so he was babysitting her until her father could get back. Kyou didn’t mind the company because, even sick, she was fun to hang with. But there was something off about…wait. That top drawer had been firmly locked and closed before he went to take a shower. It wasn’t locked now and was ever so slightly open.
He stalked to the drawer and yanked it open. Sure enough. One of his burner phones was out of position, ever so slightly, as if it had been replaced in a rush. He stared at Remi from the corner of his eye. “Want to tell me something, princess?”
She slumped in the chair. “Busted.”
“What did you need with one of the burners?”
Remi hunched in a bit more, not looking at him. She looked a second away from pulling the hood up of her Zelda hoodie. Her borrowed Zelda hoodie, as that one was definitely his. That scamp, when had she raided his closet? “I texted him.”
“Texted who…? No, shit, tell me you didn’t text Brannigan.” Kyou felt true alarm spike his blood pressure.
“I didn’t tell him who I was,” she defended herself, still only looking at the monitors. “I just asked him not to be mad at you.”
Kyou counted to ten, reining in his temper. “Why would you do that, Rems?”
“Because he said he didn’t want to talk to you.”
He went abruptly still. Shit. “He really said that?”
“To the other guy, the bald one,” she related, peeking up at him from under her lashes. “He said he was mad and he didn’t want to talk to you right now.”
Shiiiit. “So you texted him. What exactly did you say?”
“That I was the reason you won’t meet him. He said he wasn’t really mad, but hurt. He wants you to trust him. He wants to meet you.”
Kyou hunkered down onto his haunches, leaning his forehead against the arm of the chair. He just needed to take that in for a second. Brannigan had been trying to catch him for years. It was pride, and aggravation, and curiosity that drove the man. Kyou would have sworn on a bible that hadn’t changed. So when had it become something else? When had it changed that Brannigan was now hurt because he wouldn’t meet him? That Kyou wouldn’t trust him? And it wasn’t even a matter of trust, it was…hell, it was a lot of reasons.
“It’s not really you, Rems. You’re not the main reason.”
She put the cup down on the desk with a clatter before twisting around to face him. It jostled the chair some, her long brown hair smacking him lightly in the head. “I’m not?”
“No, princess, I refused to meet with him long before you came along.” Sighing, he lifted his head. “And it’s not because I don’t trust the man. Brannigan is one of the most trustworthy men I know.”
“Then why don’t you want to meet him?”
“It’s more like, I don’t know how.” Kyou couldn’t figure out how to explain the complexity of the situation to a ten-year-old. He wasn’t sure if he could explain it to an adult, for that matter. “I’ve been protecting this man for twelve years.”
Remi squeaked surprise. “Twelve?!”
“Yeah. Your fathers and uncles, they only know about six of those years. But I’ve been watching over him longer than that. I’ve been watching him for so long that he’s his own circle. And then in a different circle, I’ve got you, and your