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Coming home after the first of several wakes she was expecting to attend over the next couple of days, Genesis felt exhausted.
She’d traveled back with Kiefer and Egan and as they entered the house, the mood was sombre. Egan’s normal upbeat attitude and questioning disposition was subdued, and she knew he likely was processing the events. This was his second funerary process in a handful of days.
“Egan,” she led him into the living room and sat with him on the sofa. “How are you holding up?”
Kiefer followed them in, leaning against the door frame and watching them carefully.
“I’m okay. When we were at Auntie Astra’s funeral there wasn’t so many people. This time there were lots of people and many of them were very sad. It made me sad too.”
“I feel very sad as well,” Genesis told him. “Do you have questions or anything you want to talk about?”
“Not right now.” He shook his head. “I think,” he sighed, “I’d like to go to bed though. Can you read me my stories Mom?”
“I would love to read your stories to you,” she nodded. “Do you want a warm shower before bed or a bubble bath?”
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“A bubble bath would be really nice.”
“You go on up and get your pjs ready and I’ll be right there.”
“Can I have a snack after my bath?”
“You sure can. Maybe while I’m helping you with your bath, your dad can find you a snack.”
2/11
“Nothing crumbly Dad,” Egan looked at his father, “I don’t want crumbs in my bed. It makes me itchy.”
“How about a banana or an apple?” Kiefer asked with a half smile.
“Sure. Can I have some peanut butter with it?”
Kiefer cocked his head to one side, “you want peanut butter with your banana or apple?”
“Yes. If you put some peanut butter in a dish I can dunk the fruit in it. Mom gives it to me all the time.”
“I will make it happen,” Kiefer winked at him and held his hands out as Egan got off the sofa and walked into his father’s embrace. Kiefer squatted down, “I was enormously proud of you tonight. It’s not easy to be the leaders of our family when everyone is hurting. You did really good, Egan.”
“Thanks Dad. I just watched you and Granddad Lorcan and Uncle Tadgh and tried to be like you.”
E
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4/11
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Thank you going to past End and then head up.”
She watched him start to walk away and then called out, “you can’t shower yet.”
know “He ralled back as he continued on his way.
Veler met her eyes, “you’re still pissed at him.”
The gave a one–shouldered shrug “I’ll get over it. I watched him behave tonight like he was a god amongst mortals. You would never have known he almost died two nights ago from the way he greated every single person tonight “She made a face, “evet
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5/11
the FBI agent which tried to get close to the private property of aur hall seemed perplexed at the fact the man who was rumored to have been shot with a cannon was walking around like it was nothing.”
“The FBI are being assholes. They were really surprised to see you tonight.”
“I know. I made a point to wave.”
“Flipping them off with your middle finger wasn’t waving,” Tadgh commented dryly as he looked up from his phone. He looked at Kiefer, “we needed to relocate your barrel. The entire warehouse was sorted before they tried to run their raid this morning.”
“There was a raid?” Genesis looked at Tadgh in shock.
“Yes. However, we had a two hundred men fixing the entire warehouse and putting it back in order within two hours. By the time the agents descended on the warehouse not a single bullet hole or blood droplet existed.”
“It’s kind of cool how you can move shit so fast.”
“Right?” Kiefer grinned at her. “You know the agent who pressured you into signing the statement so they could arrest me seven years ago?”
“What about him? I didn’t see him there tonight.”
“Because he’s dead,” Tadgh snorted. “He wanted so much to get
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inside the warehouse, Kiefer kept him there for the last seven years.”
“What?” Genesis was stunned. “You killed him?”
“He might have rubbed it in Kiefer’s face how you were willing to betray him. Kiefer took it personally.“”
6/11
Kiefer made a face as if he didn’t really care, “he was rude. I gave him what I wanted. I gagged him, bound him, fit him in a barrel and let him watch all the comings and from the barrel. The barrel needed to be relocated.”
“He also dropped acid into the barrel through the same holes he could see out of,” Tadgh seemed content.
“On that note,” Genesis rose, “I’m going to bathe our son. I wonder why the boy is so weird and then find out you do shit like this.” She shook her head.
“You’re not mad,” Kiefer laughed at her as she climbed the stairs.
goings
He wasn’t wrong. She’d hated the particular agent who’d come at her while she’d been devastated over the loss of her son. She’d used the man as a means to an end. She wasn’t sad he was dead.
Entering the room, she found Egan naked and standing in front of a mirror in the bathroom.
“What are you doing?” She questioned him as she turned the taps of his tub on.
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“Do you think I’ll grow up to be as big as Granddad?”
“Probably not. He’s an anomaly in the family.”
“That is an anomaly?”
“Something different. There isn’t anyone built like Lorcan in the family. You’re more likely to be as big as your father and Tadgh.”
Egan grunted and pulled his penis, “why is there even freckles on my wiener?”
“It’s a penis, not a wiener, let it go before you pull it completely off and it has skin. Your skin on your body doesn’t differentiate where the freckles go.”
He turned and looked at his backside, “do I have freckles on my butt?”
“Egan, get in the tub.”
“Do Dad and Tadgh have their freckles in exactly the same places since they’re identical twins?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t know.”
7/11
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“How do you know they don’t?”
“I know because Tadgh has a freckle on his chest your father doesn’t have, and your father has freckles on his ear and Tadgh doesn’t.”
“Do they have freckles on their penises?”
“I don’t know.” She waved at the tub full of bubbles, “get in.” When he climbed into the bath she asked him, “what story do you want to hear tonight?”
“Mortimer and then Goodnight Moon.” He splashed happily in the water. “Why does Monica have big breasts and yours aren’t so big?”
Genesis caught Kiefer’s startled gaze as he walked into the room and before he could walk back out, she got to her feet. “You need to help Egan with his routine.”
8/11
“Um, no,” Kiefer shook his head. “I brought up the snacks. I was only going to ask if you wanted me to get you a glass of wine or tea or something to take to bed. I’m going to go help Dad.”
Nope,” Genesis wagged her finger at him. “Egan has lots of questions for his father. He’s waited his whole life to have a dad he can ask questions. I’m going to get his books together and make sure his pjs are warm enough for him.”
“Gen,” Kiefer protested as she pushed him into the room and ducked away with a big smile.
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“Sucker,” she whispered as she got past him, and he choked out his surprise.
Egan asking him if his penis would keep growing as he got older and if so, does it grow as long as elephant trunks made Genesis shake her head.
She ducked across the hall to her own bedroom to get changed.
Lorcan ducked his head into the root, his sandwich in his hand. “Don’t bother getting changed. I want you to sleep in my t–shirt I wore earlier.”
“You’re being very bossy.”
“Because I’m the boss.” He looked in the direction of Egan’s room, “how long before he’s asleep?”
“Right now, he’s chatting Kiefer’s ear off about penises.”
“It’s normal for a boy at is age.”
“At any age,” she scoffed as she grabbed a hair tie and pulled her hair into a ponytail and then entered her own bathroom to wash the makeup off her face.
“True.” He leaned in her bathroom and watched her. “You’re a beautiful woman.”
“Thanks.”
Kiefer’s voice from the door made Genesis grin.
9/11
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10/11
“I swear to God Genesis if you don’t get in here and help me with this, I’m shipping the kid to Siberia with Nazar to start Sokolov training.” He looked at his father, “he just asked me if I ever sniffed my own butt.”
Lorcan laughed and shook his head. “Curiosity is a good thing, Kiefer, Better to have him curious about the world than indifferent.”
“Do you want to go answer his questions?” Kiefer asked sarcastically.
“Not in a million years.” Lorcan headed out of the room. “I’ll be reading in bed, Gen. Come find me when you’re done playing twenty questions. Don’t forget you’re wearing my clothes to bed.”
“Sure.” She scrubbed her face and looked at Kiefer. “You can’t leave him alone in the tub, Kiefer.”
“You owe me a blowjob,” he grunted as he started back in the direction of the other room.
“As if. I’ve done this on my own for six years.”
“You made a choice,” he yelled across the corridor.
She couldn’t help herself and giggled. This all felt strangely normal, and right and very much as if they were getting ba
