Page 10 of At Their Mercy: Part I

I heard the sound of paws hitting the floorboards too.

Rolling onto my side, I forced my eyes to flutter open. Blink. Blink. Crap. I was drowsily staring at the back of River’s head. Or was it—no, it was River. He was sitting on the floor with his back to the bed, and he had Romeo with him.

Aside from being a shade darker, Romeo was calmer than Lima, so the twins had their favorite.

I loved both pups equally, even though they were growing up so fast. I would’ve wanted the puppy stage to last longer. Except, I wasn’t going to miss the puppy teeth.

As mixed breeds of golden retrievers and German shepherds—and possibly something else—they wouldn’t grow up to be lap dogs, no matter how much Lima fought for it. They were like…fifteen, sixteen weeks old…? Something like that. But Lima acted like a newborn Chihuahua and wanted a permanent seat on someone’s lap. Usually Reese’s, ’cause he couldn’t say no.

I drew a breath, wondering when River was gonna speak. He knew I was awake. I’d stopped asking how they knew after a number of times of hearing, “Your breathing pattern changed.”

I was ready to listen. While something felt fundamentally wrong, I couldn’t find my anger anymore. The hurt, however… I needed them to fix it.

River took a sip of his coffee.

Romeo headbutted his knee before he climbed up on River’s lap. Tongue out, tail wagging, expectation in his eyes. Calmer than Lima…but still a rambunctious puppy who wanted to play a lot.

“You ready to hear me out, baby?”

There we go.

“I guess.”

He nodded once. “Then march your ass over to our bed. You never belonged in this one.”

Prove it.

I watched him get to his feet, and he brought his coffee over to the nearest nightstand. Romeo followed.

I blew out a breath and sat up, and I ran a hand through my hair.

“Did you put Reese on a leash?” I asked.

We had an agreement in our triad. Reese didn’t handle the aftermath of any conflict. Because he couldn’t. He was too impatient for shit to be good again, so he rushed things.

We didn’t want another Silver Diner Debacle of 2019 on our hands.

“I put him in charge of the next stage of our plan,” River replied. “You’ll hear all about it once we’re home again.”

Fair enough.

I trailed over to the bed too, and I sat down on the edge next to him.

He put a hand on my leg and gave it a little squeeze.

My dogs weren’t allowed in bed, so I refrained from picking up Romeo. Poor boy would have to suffer on the floor.

“What it boils down to, Shay, is that Reese and I are clearly struggling bringin’ two worlds together,” he said quietly. “We’ve never done it before. When we met the other founding members and became friends with them, different rules applied. Greer could draw enough conclusions based on his own past, and nobody pushed for details. They respected our privacy. Hell, it became a source for jokes about what Reese and I did for a living.”

I knew that.

“But you’re not our friend,” he sighed. “We fucked up.”

I scooted back a bit and crisscrossed my legs, wanting to face him better.

“Logically, we know a birthday is important,” he went on. “We’ve just never celebrated ours. We’ve picked other occasions.”

Christmas was important to them.