CHAPTER 3
Everyone’s sitting around the dining room table the next evening. And by everyone I mean the guys and Kellan. Somehow everyone came to an unspoken agreement that he’s to be included in our little safety network where friends who stick together, don’t get kidnapped together.
We no longer all fit at the breakfast bar, so every meal got moved to the dining room. Currently, the table is filled with various dishes that I have absolutely nothing to do with. Just the way everyone likes it.
I’m filling my plate with oven roasted brussel sprouts with pancetta and a piece of chicken breast. Well, at least I’m trying to, because most of my plate is filled with roast potatoes. Which I love, but it doesn’t leave much room for anything else. And if I don’t fill my plate right now, I won’t get any at all.
Rooming with five fully grown men means that food goes fast. There have been moments I had to defend the contents of my plate because someone tried to steal what I still had left. This must be what people growing up with brothers must experience every single day. No wonder people with male siblings are tough at nails, they really have had to fight for their right of survival.
“So, what are the plans for tonight?” O asks before he starts digging in.
“Another wonderful night of sitting around, doing abso-fucking-lutely nothing,” I mumble before I stuff my mouth with food.
Kellan nods at me. He’s getting fed up, sitting around, doing nothing, worrying about what’s happening to Meggy. I don’t allow myself to let my mind wander to places where she meets a fate just like Julia Collins. Every time my mind seems to go in that direction, I make sure I get distracted. I read one of Gil’s extremely addicting books and then act upon the hot sex scenes that I find in them. There’s usually a willing victim around the house to help me out with that.
Kellan does not have that option though.
Jonah’s phone that’s laying next to his plate lights up. It’s an unknown number, and he picks up in a heartbeat. Maybe it’s news about Meggy? I don’t know why they’d call Jonah about it, but it could be because he’s the one being blackmailed or something?
My heart starts beating like a maniac. What if it’s bad news? What if they found her body?
He picks up, pressing the phone against his ear, as his face sours. Before he says a thing, he frowns and hangs up.
“Who was that?” Dean asks, the corners of his mouth pointing uncharacteristically down.
“Collect call from prison, so my mother. I’m not interested,” he answers with his eyes down on his plate.
Kellan watches his little brother with trepidation when his own phone starts to ring as well. I can’t see his screen, so I don’t know who’s calling, but I have a suspicion.
Kellan does accept the call.
“What do you want?” he says without any form of greeting or warmth in his voice. The warmth in his voice has been slowly fading over the days since Meggy got abducted.
I’m willing him to put the phone on speaker with my telepathic powers, but it isn’t working. Rats.
“Well, figure it out yourself,” Kellan says. Jonah is studying his brother, and I’m studying him. The knuckles on his fingers are white from grabbing his cutlery too hard, and he seems to be biting the inside of his cheek. I lay a hand on his knee and gently squeeze. His pretty green eyes find mine, and I can see a world of hurt behind it. God dammit, I hate all the baggage he has to carry.
Kellan hangs up the phone and sighs before he pushes his chair back and starts pacing while he rubs his face. When he lets his hands down, he turns to Jonah. “She’s getting out. Two weeks. She needs a place of residence for parole and she asked if she could move in. That’s obviously never going to happen.”
There’s this marvelous thing I see happening in Jonah: It’s like the shared hurt they have over their mother is dissolving their troubled start. No matter how different their upbringings have been, they both share the same shitty mother, who never gave those little boys what they needed. Jonah hearing Kellan deny his mother does something to him. The look in his eyes changes, and that fragile, broken kid is coming to the surface.
“I’m not helping her,” Kellan says when Jonah doesn’t answer. “Not now, not ever. She didn’t want me, well, she can have it.”
Kellan is just as damaged as Jonah. He might have had a father that took care of him, but he feels just as rejected by his mother as Jonah feels rejected by his father.
They might actually have a lot more in common than they think.
Jonah still keeps quiet, but loads a heap of roasted potatoes on his plate. I raise my brow when I watch him do it. Since when does he eat carbs like that? Last time I checked he was mainly on a rice, chicken and broccoli streak. Me? I’m on a cookies, ice cream and chocolate diet. Not that I’m complaining to see him eat, he should eat a lot more if you ask me. Then again, food is my answer to most questions in life.
“Wanna go for a run after dinner?” Jonah asks his brother when he finally lays his eyes on him. Kellan takes a deep breath, his posture relaxing a bit.
“I don’t have any work-out clothes with me,” he answers.
“I’ll lend you some if you want to run,” O answers without looking up from his plate. Somehow this whole conversation feels private and like we’re invading it.
The corner of my mouth pulls up in a crooked half grin. I think O is mainly happy that he doesn’t have to run with Jonah. He almost hates working out as much as I do, the only difference being that he actually does it, and I, well, don’t.
“Sure. Let’s go for a run.”