The bar door opened and the next wave of people entered and made their way to the big, communal table their group tended to take over.
Javier, the motocross spinal injury.
Andre, the torn rotator cuff.
Duke. Owen had never pinned down exactly why he was at the physical therapy center. With Duke came Levi, Zaki and a few others. Even Ian’s roommate, Ryan, showed up. But still no Blake. Kade and Jaxon were also noticeably absent, but those two had odd schedules compared to the rest of them. If he had to guess, Kade was on duty down at the fire station and Jaxon was avoiding his cousin Andre.
“Penny for your thoughts?” Aunt Liv leaned toward him, bumping his shoulder with hers.
Ian was digging into his dinner. If anything, the guy was more wound up about his sister than when he’d arrived.
“Which one?” Owen smiled up at Liv. She had the same white-blonde hair and bright, piercing eyes as her nephews, Erik and Felix. Those three looked like they stepped out of some Viking story.
“That one, right there.” Aunt Liv flicked her finger across his cheek.
“Just...worried about Blake. The usual.” He shrugged.
“You’re a good friend.”
“Have you seen him recently?”
“He popped in yesterday for a minute to talk to Erik. He looked good as ever.”
Owen nodded. Aunt Liv wouldn’t sugar coat things if Blake was in trouble, and she was perceptive enough to note when something was off. Like that stint when Blake was taking too many pain killers.
“What’s that smile for?” he asked.
“Oh, nothing.”
“Come on, tell me.”
“There’s change in the air. Something’s going to happen. I can feel it. Can’t you?” Her gaze traveled over the rafters, but with a sense of wonder. Aunt Liv had a story for every occasion.
“I don’t have your gift. Do you think it’s a good change?”
“I think so. I hope so.” She smiled, eyes sparkling.
“How is it some guy hasn’t snagged you up yet, Aunt Liv?” Owen smiled his best, most charming smile. “You wouldn’t go out with me, so what’s it take to win you over?”
“Stop that!” She tossed her head back and laughed. “I’m old enough to be your mother.”
“So?”
“Oh, I almost got married once.” She put her elbows on the table and gazed up at the rafters. “He was an American traveling through Helsinki when I was vacationing with some girlfriends. We spent a month together that week. At the end of it he asked me to marry him, you believe that? I wanted to say yes, but my girlfriends nagged me out of it, told me to think about it. So we both went home, tried to connect, but this was before the Internet and all we had was the post and telephones. He moved. Told me he’d call from his new place, but I never heard from him again. Last place I had for him was right here. Just a few blocks away.”
“That’s so sad. And you never found him?”
“Nope. I came here a few years back thinkin’ I’d run into him on the way to work one day. Nothing yet. Guess it wasn’t meant to be.” She sighed and swiped her rag across the table top, cleaning up imaginary bits of debris.
One of the waitresses called Aunt Liv back to the bar, leaving Owen to his mental pin board of information. He did his best to remember the details no one else did. Visualizing the information as a corkboard with notecards helped keep it all in line.
He couldn’t put Ian’s family back together, and he couldn’t make Blake live again, but...maybe...just maybe he could find Aunt Liv’s old flame. It was worth a try.
Javier Martin:
Always the center of attention, Javier flourished as an adrenaline junkie until he was faced with his own mortality. Now, left to pick up the pieces of his life, he has to figure out, what’s next?
Javier stared into his frothy beer.
He was a lucky son of a bitch and he knew it. Listening to Ian rant about family problems drove home the fact that even at his lowest, Javier was still a blessed man. He might have a long way to go with his recovery, but he had two legs that worked, a couple steel plates helping him along and people who gave a damn about him.
His phone vibrated in his pocket. He knew without looking who it was. What it would say.
Pia was a damn angel. Even when he’d been an asshole, high on his own success, she’d been there for him. Sure, he’d lost a lot of people because he’d been arrogant, thinking the world was his oyster, but he hadn’t lost her.
There were so many things he’d missed. Her college graduation. The death of her mother. And smaller things. Her first 5K. Movies. Birthdays. The number of things just kept adding up, leaving him in a deficit.
The truth was he’d been a shitty friend. Was being one right now.
Pia needed to wake up and realize she was better off without him, before he wised up and took advantage of her kindness.
He wasn’t a good person.
She, of all people, should be able to see that.
“I don’t know what ta’ do.” Ian turned his pint glass round and round. The angrier he got the thicker his Irish brogue became. Soon enough no one would understand a damn word he said.
Javier had met Delilah during a particularly rough session up at the therapy building. He’d been unwisely pushing himself to do vertical jumps the way he’d done before the accident that’d cracked his spine in half. She’d fallen flat on her face, looked up at him and laughed. He couldn’t remember what she’d said, but the way she’d picked herself up, crutches working double time had enchanted him.
If a little girl could be excited about falling flat on her face, the least he could do was be satisfied with a two foot vertical. For now.
“What was her old man going to do there anyway?” Javier asked. If he were Delilah’s dad, what would he do? Likely find a reason to not be there, and that wasn’t right.
Ian blinked at him.
A couple of the other guys stared.
Yeah, so Ian wasn’t Javier’s favorite person. He was a goodie two shoes, a lot like the detective over there, but this wasn’t about them. It was about Delilah. That little girl was one of the special ones. He wasn’t much for that woo-woo shit, but there was no denying that Delilah emitted some sort of positive, happy mojo that changed people. Hell, she’d made him smile and see some good in his recovery. She’d reminded him that just being able to walk, much less jump and run, were major miracles.
“Nothin’.” Ian shrugged. “He wouldn’t do a damn thin’.”
“Yeah, I figured.” Javier rolled an idea around in his head.
It was stupid, but he’d spent a lot of time in rehab. He’d seen a lot of people come and go. Some of those kids were friends with Ian’s niece.
No one was going to go for the idea, but it was a good one. He knew a rock solid concept when he sunk his teeth into it. It was a gift.
“Hey, Felix?” Owen leaned forward.
“Yeah?” The Norwegian Viking looking dude kept peeling the label from his beer.
“Your aunt, she said she was looking for someone when she first came here?”
What the hell was Owen meddling in now?
The guy was always sticking his nose in everyone’s business.
“Some guy she met when she was younger.” Felix shrugged.
“You know his name?”
“No.”
“Oh.” Owen sat back in his chair.
“Erik probably knows, though.” Felix flicked his fingers toward the bar where his cousin held court with some other regulars. Where Felix was the Instagram-pretty kind of Viking, the only thing missing from Erik’s busted ass face was some blood and gore.
Javier tuned out their conversation, focusing on Delilah. He might as well put it out there.
“What if we went to the party?” he asked.
“What the hell would you do at a kid’s party?” Duke sipped his beer, one brow arched.
“I don’t know.” Javier shrugged. He wasn’t good wi
th kids, but he knew what it’d meant to have people visit him. The difference Pia’s smiling face had made. They might not be Delilah’s dad, or even related to her, but if they all showed up it had to matter, didn’t it? “You said it was a princess party, right?”
“Yeah,” Ian said slowly.
“Okay, so...the kids will all be dressed up, right? Or I’m assuming from what you’ve said some will be dressed up?”
“I think so. That’s what Chloe’s email indicated.”
“What if we, I don’t know, dressed up, too?”
“What? Like princesses?” Duke barked a laugh.
“No, don’t be stupid, man. We could be the dudes.”
“Princes?” Owen said.
“Yeah. Princes.” Heat crawled up Javier’s neck. Okay, so the idea was stupid when voiced to the others, but damn. He hated the idea of Delilah getting her party spoiled because one guy didn’t know the value of family.
“Fuck that noise.” Felix tossed a few bills on the table. “I got to go. Owen, I’ll text you.”
Javier leaned back in his seat and glanced across the bar at a table of pretty girls. He should stick to what he was good at—not that he knew exactly what that was these days.
“I’d do it,” Ryan said.
“Sure, how hard could that be?” Owen spread his hands. “Get a cape, hand out balloons? What do you think, Ian? Would your niece like that?”
Ian glanced around the table, then at Javier directly.
“It’s just an idea, man.” He shrugged and sipped his beer.
“Delilah would eat that up. You think...you think a couple o’ you would mind doin’ it?” The way the guy’s voice lilted up at the end was full of hope.
“Shoot, man.” Duke shook his head.
Javier doubted Duke would be party to something so silly, but Javier didn’t care. Let him go tinker in his garage.
“Alright. Fine.” Duke rolled his eyes and grimaced. “Tell me where to be. I ain’t wearing tights, understand?”
Javier did a double-take. Sometimes it was hard to read Duke’s face. He had that stony look down to an art.
“You guys aren’t serious, are you?” Levi blinked up from his phone. Usually he was lost in his own little world on that tablet screen of his, but every now and then he showed that he was genuinely listening.
“Sure, why not?” Javier grinned. He jabbed Levi in the side. “You’re coming with me, nerd boy.”
Javier might let some of the guys make their own call about whether or not they’d participate, but Levi? It was Javier’s mission to push the nerdy researcher out of his comfort zone.
“How do we even go about doin’ this?” Ian’s brow was lined, his lips turned down.
“I know a guy who owns a costume shop. We could start there.” Owen pulled out his phone.
Javier sat back and grinned. Man, Pia was going to laugh when he told her about this crack-pot plan of his, and then she’d likely try to help. What was he going to do about her?
Ryan Scott:
Retired Marine who never lost the taste for danger. Enjoys working for Aegis Group and the different jobs it throws at him. He and his family are better off with miles between them.
Ryan strolled between the racks of fur, sequins and pleather.
When Owen had said ‘costume shop’, Ryan had pictured one of those pop-up stores that showed up around Halloween. Not this stuff. He hadn’t seen a one-piece costume yet, except the yeti and that just looked like a heat stroke waiting to happen.
Last night when Javier popped off with this idea Ryan hadn’t thought he’d been serious, but it’d quickly snowballed into a thing. Everyone was involved, from Javier to Duke.
Ryan wasn’t sure what he thought about doing it yet, but when Ian headed out the door to go to the costume shop, Ryan had opted to ride along with his roommate.
No matter what, Ryan had intended on going to Delilah’s party. Chloe looked after many of the Aegis Guys who’d moved to Seattle. She opened her doors, making them dinner and offering her spare room until the guys relocating found a space of their own. The least Ryan could do was show up and man a trash bag or something. Besides, Delilah brought life and laughter wherever she went, and part of him felt for her. He knew what it was to be born into a family where one parent didn’t want him, and the other didn’t know what to do with him. If it hadn’t been for his grandfather, Ryan wasn’t sure where he would have wound up in life. It sure as hell wouldn’t have been in Seattle.
“Hey, what do ya think?” Ian held up a rhinestone studded Elvis costume.
“Shit, no.” Ryan shook his head. That costume was made for someone with no shoulders.
“What’s up with you? You’ve been all quiet and broodin’.” Ian smacked Ryan’s shoulder and placed the jumpsuit back on the rack.
“Nothing.” Ryan shoved his hands in his pockets.
“You pissed Felix got put on your job? You could just talk to Zain.”
“No, a day off is nice.”
“Then what’s your deal? Usually I can’t get ya’ to shut up, and today you’ve hardly said five words.”
Ryan didn’t want to talk about it. Since Javier’s crazy idea was hatched, Ian had been in a better mood. Ryan didn’t want to jinx it and bring on the storm clouds. His friend had an awful temper when it came to his ex-brother-in-law. But Ian was also the kind of guy who’d worry a bone to splinters.
“Just...this thing. The party.” Ryan turned to study a wall of masks.
“Yeah, it’s fucked up, ain’t it?”
“Sure is.”
“You’re thinkin’ about your ma, ain’t you?”
Ryan flinched.
Was it that obvious? He didn’t want to make this about him. If he could be there for someone else the way his grandfather had been there for him, could he repay karma at all? Make up for some of the wrongs he’d done in life?
“I guess so,” he mumbled.
He was a grown fucking man. A normal person would have moved on by now, but he was clearly a special kind of screwed up.
Ryan had never mattered to his mother, not as much as her work did. That’d been obvious from the beginning, when he was very little.
Which was why, if there was anything he could do for Delilah, to let her know she was special to someone, he was all in. Even if that meant wearing tights and making a fool of himself.
“The gingers. What up, man?” Javier rounded the end of the rack of clothes and smacked Ryan’s shoulder. At least he’d stopped putting his hand in Ryan’s hair when referring to it.
“Hey. Thanks for showing up finally.” Ryan jabbed Javier in the ribs. Not too hard, the guy could tweak his back turning to check out a chick.
“Hey, don’t hate. I’ve been talking to Erik. He wants to book his friend as our DJ for the party. You think your sister would be okay with that, Ian?” Javier held up his phone.
“I don’t know man, that’s expensive.”
“No, Erik said he wants to pay for it, and we should hold him a costume.”
“What?” Ryan gaped at Javier. Was he hearing him right?
“Yeah, pretty sweet, right? I was thinking, I know all the kids can’t walk and stuff, but I thought we could get a couple wagons and, I don’t know, have a train or something.”
Who the hell was this guy, and where was Javier?
He grinned at Ryan and Ian.
Seriously, had aliens abducted the guy when they weren’t looking?
Ryan didn’t mind Javier’s swagger. He was a minor celebrity who’d crashed and burned. More often than not he was all talk. But this? Pulling out the stops for a kid’s party? Maybe Ryan had him all wrong. Hell, maybe he didn’t really know some of the guys. First Javier, then Duke, now Erik? Next they’d have Jaxon and Kade on board. Granted it wouldn’t be hard to convince Kade. The Texas firefighter was good like that. Speaking of, Ryan should probably put him on notice.
“Okay, so, prince costumes. What are we lookin’ at? I have to have a swor
d. They have swords, don’t they?” Javier headed across the shop, through the racks of costumes.
It was a weird, magical world they’d found themselves in, and Ryan was looking forward where they’d go next. Even if he arrived wearing spandex.
Levi Bennett:
The self-described geek of the group, Levi has built his life around making things go faster. Under the intellectual exterior is a man who has a thing for speed.
Levi pulled at the cravat. At least he was pretty sure that’s what the scratchy, lace lined length of fabric wound around his neck was supposed to be.
Children in wheelchairs chased their friends on foot or on crutches. Balloons created a sort of invisible boundary line for where the kids were allowed to be. Parents hovered nearby, more than a few watching Levi.
No pressure, right?
“Okay, that should do it.” He peered up at the speakers, mentally doing calculations in his head. He might not know a lot about kids or fairy tales, but he knew what it was like to be an easily overwhelmed child.
The DJ powered up his sound system, and Levi stepped back onto the ten by ten dance floor, peering up at the lights. Showing up to the party and supplying bells and whistles was great, but not if those add-ons were going to scare the kids.
Levi had grown up acutely aware of what over stimulus could do to a sensitive mind. His sisters were prodigies, but the tradeoff was steep. Lulu, his oldest sister, was on her way to some groundbreaking research in how spinal injuries were treated, but she got migraines easily. Music too loud or lights flashing in her eyes would set her back a whole week. Linda, the middle sister, was a brilliant architectural historian, but she’d fought with debilitating epilepsy her whole life. Considering the concentration of special needs children at Ian’s niece’s party, Levi calculated a high probability that they would have similar issues here. If all he did was help make one of the kids more comfortable at the party then his job was done.
Twisted Royals Origin Story Page 2