“So you were still kind of sweet, albeit in a sad and obnoxious way, weren’t you?” Griffin’s eyes twinkled.
“Not as sweet as I should’ve been.” I shot him a rueful smile. “I’m sorry. I’m a rotten girlfriend sometimes. I don’t put other people’s needs before my own. I should’ve sat here unmoving until you woke on your own.”
“I guess it’s good that I got thirty-six hours of sleep in two days then, huh?”
I bit my lower lip. Was he messing with me or hiding hurt feelings? “Are you angry?”
“No.”
“Are you hurt?”
“I have a head injury, but other than that I’m fine.”
“That’s not what I meant,” I prodded. “Are you hurt because I wasn’t watching you sleep? A good nurse would’ve watched you sleep.”
“I’m not upset about any of that. Trust me.” Griffin’s eyes were busy as they looked me over. I couldn’t help but wonder what he was thinking. “Did you get any sleep last night?”
“I got a couple hours. That’s all I could manage, but I’m fine. I just don’t want you angry with me.”
“Well, I’m not angry with you,” Griffin said. “I am intrigued by your mother showing up. What do you think she wants?”
“We’ll find out as soon as you have breakfast,” I said. “You need your strength. Do you want me to go down and bring it up or do you want to go downstairs?”
“Oh, baby, we’re going downstairs,” Griffin said, brushing his lips against mine before rolling out of bed. “If you think I don’t want to see your mother locked in the dungeon, you’re insane.”
“So … you’re really not angry?”
“Get moving, woman,” Griffin ordered. “You have a dungeon, and there’s actually someone locked in it. Normal people can’t say things like that. I need to see this.”
He’s a cop. I just admitted we kidnapped someone with the intention of mentally torturing them until we get answers and he didn’t bat an eyelash. I think we’ve been a horrible influence on him.
“TAKE IT, Mrs. Grimlock,” Jerry instructed, a plate with a croissant resting on it in his hand as he stood on the other side of the dungeon bars. “You need to keep your strength up before we string you up and poke you with sticks.”
Griffin shot me an amused look as we padded into the basement. The house was old enough that the basement was nothing more than a cement pad with a few storage rooms and a renovated wine closet. The dungeon actually was used to confine people – usually servants suspected of robbery – before modern times. Now it was simply a room we made fun of when the mood struck.
When I was younger, my brothers told me the basement was full of snakes to keep me from spying on them. Now I couldn’t enter without checking every shadow for serpents – and full slippers to make sure my feet were covered. I stole a pair of suede moccasin slippers from my father’s closet so Griffin wouldn’t risk getting bitten, although he couldn’t stop laughing when I ran through the dangers of poisonous snakes.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“Well, Jerry insists on feeding Mom, and she’s sitting in the corner and pouting,” Aidan supplied. He sat on a canvas chair in the middle of the floor, my other brothers surrounding him.
“Where did the chairs come from?”
“Do you remember when Dad insisted we were a normal family and made us go camping that one summer?” Redmond asked, a glass of orange juice sitting in his chair’s cup holder as he stretched his legs out in front of him. I couldn’t help but notice he wasn’t wearing socks – let alone slippers – and inadvertently shuddered.
I nodded. “You mean the summer he made us go north to that campground in Gaylord, spent three hours setting up camp, and then realized he would have to sleep on the ground and made us pack up again and check into a hotel?”
“That’s the one,” Redmond said, causing Griffin to chortle. “These are the campfire chairs he bought. They were in the storage room.”
“You know, you guys made this basement sound scary,” Griffin said, glancing around. “You could turn it into something cool if you put in a little effort.”
“No way,” I said, shaking my head. “Didn’t you hear me when I told you about the snakes?”
“The snakes aren’t real, Ais,” Cillian said. “Redmond told you that so you would stay away from his pot. There are no snakes.”
“Oh, there are snakes,” I muttered, my eyes darting to my left when I thought I saw a hint of movement that could’ve easily been the tail end of a cobra.
“I’m serious,” Griffin said. “You could put a pool table down here … maybe a theater room … and this could be a lot of fun.”
“You know we have a game room on the third floor, right?” Braden interjected, wrinkling his nose.
Griffin frowned. “You have a game room?”
“Yeah. It has a pool table, skee ball, vintage video games, a full bar and even a dance floor,” Braden answered.
“How is it that I’ve never heard of or seen this room?” Griffin was dumbfounded.
“It’s a big house,” I shrugged. “That’s why we don’t need the basement … or the snakes.”
“Stop freaking out about snakes that aren’t even here,” Redmond ordered. “I lied about the snakes. There are no snakes.”
“Come on, Mrs. Grimlock,” Jerry pleaded. “It’s a fresh croissant. It’s not warm anymore because I had to eat my breakfast first – and you know how I feel about hard pancakes – but it’s still good. I even put it on a doily for you.”
I moved to Jerry’s side and peered through the grate. It was dark inside, Mom opting to flick the light switch off, and I couldn’t make out any movement. “Are you sure she’s in there? I don’t see her.”
“Maybe one of the snakes ate her,” Aidan suggested.
“Maybe she ate the snakes,” I shot back, hopping when Mom’s pale hand reached through the grate and clawed at my face. She made an odd hissing sound from the darkness, causing my skin to crawl.
Griffin slipped his arm around my waist to hold me steady. “Are you okay?”
“Mom doesn’t seem happy,” I said.
“I don’t understand why,” Jerry said. “The croissant is fresh and it’s full of buttery goodness. She needs a full stomach before we hang her up by her thumbs and question her.”
I shot Aidan a challenging look. “What have you been letting him watch? You know he can’t watch old movies without letting his imagination run wild. We’re one step away from him suggesting we tie her to the railroad tracks.”
Aidan shrugged. “We like to play cops and robbers sometimes. Sue me.”
“That was an overshare.”
“Oh, puh-leez,” Aidan scoffed. “I’ve shared a wall with you two for the last several months. I’ve heard the sick things you do together.”
I risked a glance at Griffin and found his cheeks flushed. I needed to change the subject. “Where is Maya? I need a female to talk with.”
“Bug!” Jerry shifted his eyes in my direction. “You wound me.”
“It wasn’t an insult,” I said. “I just … .”
“Oh, Griffin, help me take the ring of power to Mordor,” Aidan said, mimicking my voice. “Oh, Griffin, help me blow up the Death Star. Oh, Griffin, giddyap!”
I ran my tongue over my teeth and scowled. “We have never played Star Wars or Lord of the Rings. Stop exaggerating.”
“And yet the horse thing totally happened, and that was the worst one,” Redmond said, shaking his head. “You’ve defiled my sister, Detective Dinglefritz. You’re lucky I haven’t locked you down here and thrown away the key.”
“To be fair, no one was technically a horse,” Griffin clarified, seemingly unbothered by Redmond’s tone.
“There was some very enthusiastic riding,” I said, relishing the frowns on my brothers’ faces. “Get over it. You’re all such prudes where I’m concerned. You seem to forget I’ve seen all of your horrible behavior when it comes to women.�
��
“What horrible behavior?” Redmond was in the mood to argue. Mom’s proximity had everyone on edge and this was the only way we could vent our frustration. It was juvenile and completely gratuitous, but it’s the way we’ve always coped.
“How about the time I saw you running out of your bedroom with the feather boa wrapped around your neck?” I challenged.
“You were supposed to be in bed early that night because you were grounded.” Redmond shook his head, annoyed. “That was your fault.”
“You were still playing a perverted game,” I challenged.
“That game wasn’t perverted,” Redmond said, smiling at the memory. “That was Sandy Sue Dickerson … and she liked to perform little dances.”
Braden and Cillian laughed while I narrowed my eyes.
“You’re a pervert, Redmond,” I said.
“You are a pervert,” Griffin agreed, strolling closer to the dungeon. “You know, it just occurred to me that I’m a police officer and I probably shouldn’t be condoning this.”
“Oh, really? It occurred to me upstairs,” I said, flicking Redmond’s ear to irritate him.
“You probably should’ve said something rather than bouncing up and down on me to wake me up.”
“What?” Braden made a face and slapped his hand over his eyes. “Don’t tell us that. She’s our sister. We don’t want to hear that she’s a … deviant.”
“First, I bounced up and down on the mattress – not him – in an effort to wake him because I wanted to see what was happening down here,” I said. “As for deviancy, I happen to know that you talked Lana Detmer into eating family dinner with us without underwear when you were nineteen. It doesn’t get worse than that.”
Braden ran his tongue over his teeth as his cheeks reddened. “How did you know that?”
“I heard you talking afterward,” I said. “I also know you had her panties in your pocket, so don’t call me a deviant.”
“Leave my Bug alone,” Jerry said. “We have bigger worries. Mrs. Grimlock won’t eat … and I’m kind of afraid she’s turning into one of those bug people from Mimic or something because we can’t see her.”
“You watch way too much television,” Cillian said, moving to Griffin’s side. “Can you see anything?”
“She’s in there, but she’s hiding as far back as possible,” Griffin answered. “As for the television, I’ve told Jerry and Aisling they watch too much of it, but they ignore me. You’re wasting your time arguing with them.”
“I’ll have you know that we watch just enough television,” I sniffed. “As for the big bugs in Mimic, you don’t have to worry about that, Jerry. Those bugs grew to be like humans. Mom is a human – maybe – so she can’t turn into a bug.
“Snakes, on the other hand, are a different story,” I continued. “I read in the newspaper that people flush snakes down the toilet and they grow into mutants. We could have a mutant snake down here and it could meld with Mom and overtake the world.”
Griffin snorted and cast a glance at me over his shoulder. “The National Enquirer is a not a real newspaper.”
“Let the snakes go,” Redmond snapped. “I’ve never seen a snake down here. The worst I’ve ever seen is a really big spider.”
“Ugh.” I scanned the floor. “That doesn’t make me feel better about the snakes. It only makes me worry that snakes and spiders are joining together to take over the world.”
“Come here,” Griffin said, holding out his hand. “I won’t let snakes or spiders eat you. I promise.” He pressed a quick kiss to my cheek and wrapped his arms around my waist. “Is it wrong that I’m happy there’s something I can actually protect you from? Usually you’re doing the fighting and I’m the one … hitting the pavement.”
I knit my eyebrows as I studied his profile. “Are you worried about that?”
Griffin’s smile was rueful. “I know I shouldn’t be, but … I was supposed to protect you,” he said. “That’s why I was there. Instead, you killed a wraith with a nail file and then saved me. It kind of puts a chink in my armor.”
“I think your armor is intact,” I said, resting my cheek against his shoulder. “Neither of us saw the wraith. You got hit first because you insisted on putting yourself in a position to protect me should there be an attack.”
“There’s really no fault in it, man,” Braden said. “Wraiths are tricky, and no one could’ve expected it to attack in a hospital parking lot in the middle of the day.”
“Except that it’s happened before,” Aidan said, shrinking when I shot him a dark look. “I was trying to help.”
“Please don’t worry about stuff like that,” I said. “I … .”
“I don’t need you to stroke my ego, Aisling,” Griffin said. “It’s okay. Next time I’ll do better when I’m supposed to be protecting you.”
“She doesn’t need any of us to protect her,” Cillian pointed out. “She’s taken out more wraiths on her own than we have combined. She’s done it in fairly ingenious ways, too. I mean … would any of us have thought to stab a wraith with a solar garden light?”
“She’s still my baby sister,” Redmond said. “It’s our job to keep her safe. Dad always told us that. What happened at the hospital wasn’t Griffin’s fault, though. If you two weren’t together the wraith would’ve been able to grab you when you were alone and walk away without a fight. Everyone is okay, so don’t dwell on it.”
“That’s true,” I said, poking Griffin’s side.
“I’m not pouting,” Griffin said. “I will do better next time, though.”
“Maybe you should have her yell ‘giddyap’ before your next showdown,” Aidan suggested. “That seems to get you going.”
“Shut up!” I can only take so much of my brothers. Sharing a roof with all of them for an extended period was starting to get to me. To my surprise, it was starting to get to someone else, too. I heard a sniffle from inside the dungeon.
“Are you okay, Mrs. Grimlock?” Jerry asked. “Are you crying because we’re going to waterboard you for information?”
“Knock that off, Jerry,” Cillian commanded, moving closer to the door. “Mom? Is everything okay?”
“I always imagined this.” Mom’s voice was faint. “I always pictured you guys arguing and taking up for one another as adults. Seeing it is … special. You all grew into fine children – Aisling and Braden’s deviancy notwithstanding.”
Cillian snorted. “Yes, well, we’re … .”
He didn’t know how to finish the sentence, so I did it for him. “Our father’s children,” I said. “We used to be yours, but that time has passed. If you think this is going to make us sympathetic, you’re wrong. If you want out of there, you have to tell us the truth.”
“Aisling is right,” Redmond said. “We lost our mother. We’re not going to lose each other. Tell us what’s going on or you can rot in there.”
“And then we’ll waterboard you,” Jerry added.
Mom exhaled heavily, and when she moved to the grate in the door her face was streaked with tears. “Get your father,” she instructed. “I think it’s time we all had a very long talk.”
27
Twenty-Seven
“I still don’t understand why we couldn’t do this in the basement.”
Dad sat behind his mahogany desk, his arms crossed over his chest, and glared at Mom. After she agreed to talk, we let her out of the dungeon and led her to the office, being careful to keep her between us in case she tried to run. Now she was in Dad’s inner sanctum … and the man wasn’t pleased.
“We couldn’t stay in the basement,” Redmond said, sitting on one end of a leather couch. Cillian sat on the other end, and Mom was sandwiched between them. Aidan, Jerry, Griffin and I shared the couch closest to the door – Jerry promising to tackle Mom and give her a solid hair pull should she try to escape – and Braden sat in a chair close to Dad’s desk.
“Why couldn’t you stay in the basement?” Dad challenged. “I saw that you set
up chairs while torturing your mother overnight. I’m glad to see those chairs get some use. You were such weaklings when it came to camping.”
“We were weaklings?” Redmond cocked a challenging eyebrow. “Weren’t you the one who sat on your sleeping bag for two minutes and then announced we were going to the Ramada Inn?”
Dad licked his lips. “They had a pool. I didn’t hear you complaining.”
“That’s because we didn’t want to camp in the first place,” I said. “You made us go. You said it would be a bonding exercise after … .” I broke off, glancing at Mom.
“After what?” Griffin prodded.
“After Mom died,” Braden supplied. “Dad didn’t know what to do with us because everyone was so sad. We were too old for amusement parks or the zoo, so he made us go camping. He wanted us isolated so we could talk about our feelings – which didn’t exactly happen.”
“Ultimately, it was a good bonding exercise,” Cillian said, smiling at the memory. “We played in that pool for hours. We even got Jerry to go in after a little bit.”
“Why wouldn’t Jerry go in the pool?” Griffin asked.
“Because public pools are germ factories,” Jerry replied. “You can get tape worms … and herpes … and cooties.”
“Ah,” Griffin said, not bothering to hide his smile. “Have you guys ever considered you come up with a lot of fake maladies and scares? Between Aisling and the snakes, and you and your … germ phobia … I’m not sure how you managed to survive your adolescence.”
“That makes two of us,” Dad said, shaking his head. “Go back to the part where you let this thing out of the dungeon and brought it to my office. Why did you do that?”
“Aisling is afraid of the snakes,” Aidan replied.
“Oh, Aisling, let the snakes go,” Dad said, shaking his head. “I know your brothers enjoyed teasing you when you were younger, but the snakes aren’t real, sweetheart.”
Grim Reunion (Aisling Grimlock Book 4) Page 23