Page 95 of Fool Me Twice
Eyes were blinking at them as they volleyed back and forth, mouths were open wide, and Midas’s hand rose several times to say something before he finally put it down in his lap, looking at Fix for direction.
“Okay!” Fix said, schooling his stern voice into something soothing and comforting for them all. “I know tensions are running high, but jumping down each other’s throats isn’t getting us anywhere.”
“Neither are stupid jokes, but here we are,” Hart said.
Ash sat up in his seat. He dislodged Black from his position, sending him sprawling onto the couch behind his back, and dragged Morgan along with him. “You know what—”
Fix stood up and placed himself in the middle of the room, a huge presence with his arms out.
“ENOUGH!” His voice boomed through the house, loud enough to catch everyone off guard. Fix didn’t shout. “Either you all behave, or we take a break and come back here when you’re ready to act like adults.”
“Hart,” Cane said, as if trying to placate him. Cane trying to placate him. “As much as I hate to admit it, that idiot is right. I can’t really go toe to toe with your brothers right now, so how about we cool it?”
Hart sniffed. “I’m perfectly cool.”
“Said no one about you ever,” Black quipped.
“You want to know what people say about you?” Hart fired back, voice sharp.
Black’s playful grin faded.
“Hart, enough!” Fix hissed. “What the hell has gotten into you?”
“Besides the obvious,” Ash said nastily.
“You know you keep starting it, right?” Cane said casually. “Don’t start shit you can’t finish.”
“Who asked you, Candy Cane?” Ash said, standing up and pointing at him. Fix placed a hand on his chest to hold him back, and Morgan grabbed him by the arm to hold on in case he pounced. “You don’t live here. You’re not family. You don’t get a say.”
“Why is Morgan here then?” Hart spat.
Morgan flinched a little, and Ash must have felt it.
“Morgan’s more family than he fucking is!”
“You’re right,” Cane said. “I don’t live here. I’m not family. But when it comes to Hart, I do get a say until he tells me I don’t.”
“Because you just started fucking?” Ash said sarcastically.
Cane didn’t say anything in response, but his lack of answer was enough to hint at the elephant in the room. It didn’t take a genius to put together the signs.
“Maybe you should start at the beginning,” Midas signed eventually.
He’d been silently observing the whole time, looking at a crestfallen Black, who was still weakly signing for him.
Hart knew he should feel bad, but that emotion didn’t come.
“All you need to know is that Cane is going to be staying with us until I can figure out his curse,” Hart said primly. “He wasn’t safe where he was.”
“It’s reasonable that you had Cane moved,” Fix said diplomatically. “What people are…aggravated about is that you didn’t run it by us first before moving him in here. I’m sure we would have unanimously agreed to let him stay if you’d asked, but you just turned up with all his stuff and then…well…it was hard not to hear. We’re just confused, Hart.”
Hart knew he should have felt ashamed. That emotion didn’t come either.
“It was a tense situation,” Cane said. “I don’t think Hart has processed it properly, which is why he’s acting a little out of it.”
Hart turned his frown on him now. “I said I’m fine.”
“I can get my shit and get out of your hair,” Cane continued like he hadn’t heard him. “Despite what you may think of me, I’m not here to fuck up your lives and cause chaos.”