by Lila Dubois
When he didn’t, Langston shook his head. “Dude. It’s only been two weeks.”
Oscar laughed and placed his hand on his brother’s shoulder, the two of them walking back toward the van. “I’ll fill you in on all the details at the hotel.”
Chapter Nineteen
Oscar took a swig of wine. He would have preferred beer, but when in Rome—or when several hours outside of Rome. “And then the next thing we know, we’re all on a plane headed for Rome, ten minutes after Owen tried to arrest Luca. It’s been a crazy month, and it started with you getting called to the altar.”
Langston was leaning back against the headboard of the bed in his hotel room, three pillows behind him, as Oscar sat in the desk chair, his socked feet—he’d kicked off his shoes earlier—propped up on the bottom of the mattress, crossed at the ankle.
Oscar had left Selene and Luca in the suite next door an hour ago, both of them lying down in the bedroom, looking like a couple of zombies. It had been a long, emotional, stressful-as-fuck day, and he suspected they were both sound asleep by now.
Oscar couldn’t shut his brain down, so there was no point in trying to sleep. There was too much rambling around in his head. Besides, Langston hadn’t been willing to give him a bye on filling in the blanks, and he’d been grateful for the distraction from all the shit stressing him out.
So he’d covered his lovers with a blanket, given them both a kiss, then ventured over to Langston’s room to split a bottle they’d ordered from room service and tell his brother about everything he’d missed after taking off on his honeymoon.
“Told you you’d join,” Langston said smugly, once Oscar had finished his story.
He hated when his brother was right. Oscar had spent the past few months swearing off the Trinity Masters, calling them a cult and claiming the society wasn’t for him. “I was coerced,” he grumbled.
Langston rolled his eyes. “No, you weren’t. You’re a stubborn bastard, and you never do anything you don’t want to. You can protest until the cows come home, but you and I both knew you were always going to join. If anyone is a loose cannon, it’s Walt. Who the fuck knows what he’ll do? Or where he is.”
Oscar chuckled. He and Langston both lived on their family’s land, behind the house they’d grown up in, and before the Masters’ Admiralty and Trinity Masters had crashed into their lives, the two of them had frequently hung out at one of their places each evening, chatting over a few beers and a frozen pepperoni pizza or three. Walt also had a home there, but he was never in it.
“I’ve missed this. Hanging out with you. Shooting the shit,” Langston said, his thoughts clearly mirroring Oscar’s. Not that he was surprised. Mama claimed he and his two brothers shared a hive mind.
“Me too.”
“So you’ve basically caught me up on all the stupid boring stuff.”
Langston’s perspective on life was pretty skewed if he found mercenaries and blizzards boring.
“Let’s get real here. What’s the deal with you, Dr. Tanaka, and, uh, Luca?” Langston asked.
Oscar took a long sip. He’d been expecting this question, and he was actually glad to have Langston here in Rome to bounce some of his concerns off. He and his brothers didn’t have secrets between them.
“I fucked up,” Oscar admitted.
Langston frowned and sat up straighter. “What do you mean? I thought the three of you looked pretty happy, considering everything that’s going on.”
“I’m in love with them, bro.”
Langston’s eyes widened. “Oh shit. Nice!”
“That’s not a good thing, Langston. For God’s sake, I just joined the Trinity Masters. I don’t get to fall in love and pick who I marry. I literally just agreed to that, then went and fell in love.”
“Maybe the Grand Master will put you with them.”
“I doubt Juliette’s going to do that, and I’m pretty sure she’s not a fan of mine after I kept a copy of the bomb design and triggered that webcam.”
“Pro tip, call her the Grand Master, not Juliette.”
“I’ve been careful around Selene and Luca.”
“You haven't seen her in scary mode yet, but trust me, she can be.” Langston made a face.
“She strong-armed me into joining a cult. I’ve seen the scary mode.”
“Mmm hmm.” Langston shrugged. “Anyway, she recruited you after that. And if not Selene and Luca, she definitely won’t put you with people you’re incompatible with. Sort of defeats the whole purpose of the secret society.”
“I know, but…I can’t see myself with anyone but them.”
Langston climbed off his bed and reached for his laptop case.
“What are you doing?” Oscar asked. Here he was baring his soul to his brother, and the asshole was what? Checking email?
“This is too good to keep to myself. We’re Zooming Walt and Sylvia.”
Oscar snorted. “Jesus Christ. Do we have to get the whole family involved?”
“If I thought Mama and Papa could figure out how to get into Zoom, I’d link them in, but I don’t want to waste an hour talking them through it.”
The computer started to ring.
“Walt’s busy with work. He probably won’t—”
“Well, this is a surprise.”
Before Oscar could finish his thought, he heard Walt’s voice through the speakers. Langston had climbed back on the bed, so Oscar moved his chair to his side of the mattress so he could see the screen too.
“Hey, you’re together,” Walt said, when Oscar entered the screen. “Thought you were in Texas, Langston.”
Sylvia’s face popped onto the screen in another window, and she squealed with delight when she saw all three of them. “Oh my God. You’re all here! Did I forget my birthday or something?”
Prior to this month, it hadn’t been uncommon for Oscar to Zoom with his siblings a couple times a week, usually one at a time. It was rare for all four of them to manage to get online at the same time.
“Wait,” Sylvia said. “Where are you and Langston? I thought you were still in Boston, Oscar.”
“We’re in Italy. Outside Rome.”
Sylvia blew out a loud, disgusted breath. “Seriously? Why the hell wouldn’t you tell me you were crossing the pond? Do you know how close you are to me?”
“I’m in North Africa, Sylvie,” Walt pointed out. “You haven’t come to see me once.”
Sylvia rolled her eyes. “The last time I visited you when you were in Haiti, you had me proofreading grant reports and unpacking boxes of weird medical supplies. No, thanks. Rome, however, would be a lovely trip.”
Oscar and his siblings hadn’t lived in the same house in many, many years, and they’d grown accustomed to Walt, who’d spent most of those years in other countries, and his virtual visits. But with Sylvia living in England now, and Langston moving to Texas with Rich and Mina, Oscar would be the last Hayden at home, and suddenly, he was homesick for his siblings.
“Okay, simmer down,” Langston said. “This isn’t exactly a social call. I have news.”
Oscar crossed his arms. “Fuck you.”
“Given Oscar’s response, I’m going to go out on a limb and guess it’s actually his news,” Walt mused. “Wait. Is this about Faith? Did the two of you get back together again?”
Oscar hesitated to respond, hung up on Walt’s tone. His brother didn’t sound upset, exactly. Rather, his question was posed with almost no inflection at all, completely wooden.
“Faith?” Sylvia’s face seemed frozen in a polite smile.
Oscar wasn’t totally surprised by Walt and Sylvia’s assumption. After all, he and Faith had been somewhat notorious for their breakup/makeup routine, and while they’d been split up a couple years now, this actually wouldn’t break the record for their longest time on the outs.
“Nope,” Langston said gleefully. “I think our Faith years are finally behind us for good.”
“For good?” Sylvia asked almost hopefully.
Walt didn’t reply to Oscar. Instead, he focused on Langston. “Be very sure, bro. We start trash-talking her and he goes back, we’ll all be in the doghouse.”
Langston’s smile never faded. “He’s not going back. He’s in love with someone else. Two someones.”
“What? Who?” Sylvia asked.
At the same time, Oscar grumbled, “Doghouse? One of you fuckers better tell me what you’re talking about.”
“No one liked Faith,” Langston explained almost gleefully.
What? “What?!”
Walt shrugged. “She wasn’t good for you, Oscar. None of us thought so, but you never wanted to hear that. After the first breakup, we all did the usual you’re-better-off-without-her pep talks, listing all her faults, of which there were many. Two weeks later, you were back with her and pissed as fuck at us for talking bad about her. You didn’t speak to me or Langston for nearly two months. After that, we learned it was better to just keep our mouths shut.”
Oscar frowned. “I don’t remember that at all.”
Sylvia laughed. “I do. Y’all had just graduated from high school and, Oscar, you read both of them the riot act for being assholes about your girlfriend. You even told Faith what they said, which just got her to dig her claws in deeper. Suddenly, you were doing family holidays and crap like that with her family, not ours. So after that, the rest of us sort of made a pact to never talk bad about Faith until we were sure—really sure—you weren’t going back with her.”
“But you wanted to say bad things about her?” Oscar asked.
Langston sighed. “Dude. She kept your dick tied up in knots for years. She was selfish.”
“Had to be the center of attention,” Sylvia added.
“Insecure, and every time you did something awesome, she made it about how she was worried she wasn’t good enough for you so that you’d stop talking about your awesome thing,” Walt provided.
“Vain,” Langston said.
Oscar raised his hands to cut them off when it became clear they could keep the list rolling for a while. “You’re right,” he said. “She was kind of a bitch.”
“I object to the use of bitch as a derogatory term,” Sylvia declared.
Oscar ignored her with the ease of practice.
“She was…Faith was all that and more.” Admitting it felt like a catharsis. Freedom. “God. I was a fucking idiot.”
There was nothing fake about Sylvia’s smile now. “Wow. Breakthrough.”
“So, who do we have to thank for this miraculous change of heart?” Walt asked.
“Dr. Selene Tanaka,” Langston said cheerfully before his tone darkened a bit. “And the guy who strapped a bomb to my wife.”
“The guy who set off all those trash can smoke bombs in Boston?” Walt asked, alarmed.
“Wait, what?” Sylvia demanded.
Oscar narrowed his eyes. “Thought you understood why,” he muttered to Langston.
Langston shrugged. “I do. I get it, and in his place, I would have done the same. To protect you, or Walt, or Sylvie.” Langston took a breath. “But…but Mina has nightmares. And I’m not sure how Rich will handle this.”
Mercifully, Sylvia moved them away from the stickiness of that topic. “You’re in love? With both of them? Wait. Did you join the Trinity Masters?”
Oscar nodded.
“Congratulations,” Walt said. “Figured it was just a matter of time.”
“Everybody thought I was going to join?” Oscar asked.
All three of his siblings nodded.
“Yep,” Langston said. “Knew it would happen once you managed to pull your head out of your ass over Faith.”
“And now you’re in love,” Sylvia said with a happy sigh. She was a poet with the heart of a true romantic. “But…” Her expression changed, and he felt the weight of his sister’s eyes on him even through the computer screen. “Oh. Oh my.”
Oscar stroked his beard, grateful it was hiding the tender bruise his brother’s punch had left behind. Otherwise, he and Langston would have been subjected to one of their kid sister’s speeches on why violence never solved anything. “Yeah. They aren’t my trinity. They’re not mine.”
No one spoke for a moment as those words sank in. Sylvia had fallen in love with Hugo and Lancelot before she even knew the Masters’ Admiralty existed. But she’d gotten lucky. The fleet admiral, Eric, had seen the budding romance between the three of them, and he’d used it to lure Sylvia away from joining the Trinity Masters. Oscar had been there to witness the posturing between the leaders of the two secret societies, and he and his brothers had also been offered membership to the Masters’ Admiralty.
“What are you going to do?” Walt asked.
Oscar shook his head. “What can I do? I knew the price I would pay when I joined. I just…didn’t…”
“Expect to find them,” Sylvia said, the compassion in her voice reflective of someone who’d been there. “Maybe you could ask Juliette to place you in a trinity with Selene and…I’m sorry…I don’t know the bomber’s name.”
Langston and Walt chuckled as Oscar reluctantly grinned. Leave it to Sylvia to find a way to make him smile.
“Luca,” he said. “His name is Luca Campisi.”
“Is he a member?” Walt asked.
“He is,” Oscar said.
“So I’ll ask again,” Walt said. “What are you going to do?”
“Tell them I love them. And then, somehow, someway, find the strength to walk away from them when all of this is over.”
“When it’s over?” Leave it to Walt to tackle the tough stuff.
“Walt—” Oscar started.
“Bro,” Langston interrupted. “I’ve seen you with them. You’re in too deep.”
“What are you saying?” Oscar asked even though he knew the answer.
Sylvia, never one to shy away from emotions, gave him a sweet, sad smile and said the words he needed to hear, even as they broke his heart. “Love isn’t absolutes of black and white. It’s a gradient. The more time you spend with them, the deeper the love will root.”
Oscar swallowed. “You’re saying I need to…”
Sylvia didn’t bother to hide her tears as she said, “Don’t wait until your time in Rome is over. End the romantic relationship now. Tonight.”
Oscar quietly let himself back into the hotel suite. Neither Selene nor Luca was in the sitting area, so he figured they must still be asleep. He crossed to the bedroom and peered through the open doorway.
Selene was on her side, her arm wrapped around Luca’s bare waist, sound asleep. Luca was on his back, and until he spotted Oscar, he’d been staring at the ceiling, a million miles away.
He gave Oscar a small smile.
“You okay?” Oscar whispered.
Luca nodded, but Oscar knew the response was a lie, Luca’s attempt at setting Oscar’s mind at ease.
“We’ll find her,” Oscar said softly.
Selene shifted and blinked her eyes a few times. Late afternoon was giving way to evening, and the room was only dimly lit by the slightest bit of remaining daylight.
“How long was I asleep?” she asked.
“Couple of hours, maybe a little longer,” Oscar replied. “Was coming in to see if y’all wanted to order dinner from room service?”
“That sounds good.” Selene slowly pushed herself up. She’d stripped down to her bra and panties for her nap, her gorgeous breasts drawing his attention. Oscar figured he could look at Selene for years and still never get enough.
“Is Langston eating with us?” Luca asked.
Oscar shook his head. “No. Said he was wiped out. Got the red-eye to Rome, forced to fly coach since he bought the ticket last minute.�
� Oscar gestured at his build. “I’m afraid these bodies need more legroom than the few measly inches of space they give you on commercial flights, so he couldn’t get comfortable and didn’t catch a wink of sleep. Poor guy’s dog-tired, too beat to eat.”
Luca smiled. “You have an interesting accent. I very much like listening to your expressions.”
Selene laughed. “Our Oscar is what we Americans call a redneck.”
“Damn Yank,” Oscar threw back at her with a grin. “Come on. Throw some clothes on and we can call down an order. I’d…I need to talk to y’all.”
Selene paused in the middle of pulling a sweater over her head. “Everything okay?”
Oscar pasted on what he hoped was a reassuring grin. “Yeah. It’s fine. Just find it hard to concentrate with the two of you half-naked and looking sexy as hell in that bed.”
Luca chuckled, throwing on his jeans. He didn’t bother with a shirt, and instead wiggled his eyebrows suggestively as he walked by Oscar into the sitting room.
“Tease,” Oscar said, slapping Luca’s ass as he passed.
Selene decided to add her own fuel to the fire, not bothering to put on pants. Her teasing earned her a quick, hard kiss as penance before he let her pass by.
Once they were all seated, Oscar took a deep breath and said the words he’d only ever said to one other person—the wrong person, according to his siblings. “So here’s the thing. I, uh…I’ve fallen in love with both of you. I didn’t mean to, but—”
“Oh God,” Selene said, cutting him off. “I was so afraid it was just me. I’ve been lying to myself, trying to pretend…” Her voice cracked as she looked at Luca and then Oscar. “I love you too. So very much.”
She and Oscar shared a sad smile. “We called it practice, but it’s all too real. We fucked up, Tanaka.” Oscar swallowed hard, trying to dislodge the lump in his throat, trying to beat back his sadness with a lame attempt at humor.
Luca, who’d been grinning as they professed their love, suddenly sobered up. “Perhaps the Grand Master will place the two of you in a trinity together.”
Selene reached over, grasping Luca’s hand. “Luca, we don’t get to choose our partners. The Grand Master forms the trinities, and while compatibility comes into play, love isn’t the predominant deciding factor and members don’t get to ask.”