Inferno (4 page)

“Mariana.”

Danny’s jaw dropped. “You remarried?”

Charles turned and stared at Danny. “Did you expect me to mourn my first wife for the rest of my life?”

Danny quickly lowered his eyes, his father’s gaze too intent. “No.” Danny just wondered why he was only learning of his father’s new wife now. “How long have you been married?”

“Two years, give or take a month.”

Two years. He had had a stepmother for two years.

“Did you elope?” he asked.

“No.”

Danny started to get a queasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. Maybe his invitation had gotten lost in the mail. “Did you have a big wedding?”

“Yes, I’d say it was fairly big. I believe Mariana said the guest list was over two hundred.” Charles seemed very proud of that fact. “It was the social event of the season.”

And that right there was why Danny never received an invitation to the wedding. His father wouldn’t allow him to attend the social event of the year. He might bring shame to the family name.

“Well, congratulations.”

Charles stared down at him, blinking slowly before turning away without another word. Danny sighed and followed after his father. Even if he wanted to meet this new stepmother—which he didn’t—he doubted the mysterious woman wanted to meet him. Who knew what she had been told about him.

He was, after all, the family shame.

When they reached the study, Charles walked right on in. Danny paused just outside the door, knowing deep down inside that once he crossed the threshold, his life wouldn’t be the same. Something was going on here that made the hairs on the nape of his neck stand on end.

And what was that delicious smell?

“Daniel, I’m waiting.”

“Sorry, sir.” Danny hurried into the room, his heart sinking when he realized that every member of his family was inside, including a blond-haired woman sitting by his father. He assumed it was his stepmother considering the way she sat on the arm of his father’s chair.

Two of Danny’s brothers stood behind his father, the other one sitting on a couch by the window with his sister. Danny was a little surprised to see his father’s lawyer in the room. He had seen Darren Sanders from time to time growing up, but he had never actually spoken to the man.

It was the others in the room that Danny didn’t recognize. Two strangers stood near the fireplace, both with a glass of amber liquid in their hand. And geez, they were big burly men, standing inches taller than everyone else in the room.

Danny suddenly felt like he couldn’t breathe. Every eye in the room was on him. This must be what goldfish felt like inside their glass bowls. Danny rubbed the back of his neck, his nerves rattled by the intense attention aimed in his direction.

Was he supposed to say something?

“As you can see, he is fine.”

One of the men by the fireplace walked over and grabbed Danny’s neon green cast, gently lifting it into the air. “You consider this fine?” The man’s voice was deep and rough and almost made Danny swoon as it rumbled through his body like an electrical shock.

Danny’s chin was grabbed, his face tilted back into the light. “And what about this?” the man asked as he pointed to the stitches on Danny’s forehead. The man had deep-amber eyes that glowed with some internal light. They blazed with fire but softened when they looked down at Danny.

“I fell,” Danny murmured.

What was probably the largest, strongest hand in the history of hands, gentled as it stroked down the side of Danny’s face. “That will no longer be allowed.”

“Okay.”

Wait.

What?

Had he just agreed to not fall down anymore?

Feeling more uncertain and bewildered with each passing second, Danny pulled back out of the man’s alluring touch. As he did, he realized that the second stranger had moved up to stand on the other side of him. He was surrounded.

“I need air,” Danny wheezed as his chest tightened in a fraction of a second. “Please, I need air.”

It was clear for anyone looking at the gorgeous little man that Daniel was having a panic attack. The soft tittering of conversation that just barely filled the air was an indication that the others in the room couldn’t have cared less if Daniel passed out on the floor. They probably wouldn’t even check to see if he was breathing.

And that made Abraham Lake so angry he had to dig his fingernails into the palms of his hands to keep from lunging across the room and attacking the very people that had been tasked with caring for Daniel.

Abe gestured with his head for his brother to take Daniel off to one side and make sure he was okay. He had people to deal with. Once Benjamin had escorted Daniel to the corner, placing himself between the little man and the idiots in the room, Abe turned his attention to the growing group of people on his loathing list.

“Does someone want to explain to me why Daniel is injured?”

Abe swore he could see beads of sweat forming on Charles O’Shay’s forehead. And well the man should be nervous. He had been charged with caring for Daniel until his twenty-fifth birthday, which had been a mere week ago. It was obvious from Daniel’s injuries that no one had been looking out for his safety.

“As I have told you,” Charles said, “Daniel insisted that he be allowed to live on his own. Since he was a legal adult when he turned eighteen, there was nothing we could do to prevent his leaving.”

“He was considered an adult by human standards, not ours.”

“But legally, he could do as he chose, and he chose to move away from home.” Charles’s eyes darted to the far corner for a moment. When they came back to him, Abe knew from the glint in the old man’s eyes that whatever was about to come out of his mouth was going to be a lie. “I tried to talk him out of it of course, but he insisted. There was nothing I could do to dissuade him.”

Likely story
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“And you didn’t think it would be a good idea to assign someone to watch over him?” Abe’s lip curled back, the disgust he was feeling rolling into the rage that was slowly building. “How could you be so careless with his safety?”

“Daniel is very headstrong,” Charles insisted. “He refuses to listen to reason. No matter how much I insisted he move home, he would not listen to me.”

Abe opened his mouth to argue that point but the others standing around Charles all nodded their agreement, making Abe wonder if they were right.

In all fairness, he knew next to nothing about Daniel O’Shay. Neither he nor his brother had been allowed to approach Daniel until his twenty-fifth birthday. They had received monthly reports about the man, and even some pictures, but not one word had been spoken between them since the day Daniel was sent away.

“They’re lying, Abe.”

Abe glanced back over his shoulder when his brother used their twin bond to speak to him in his head.
“I know that,”
Abe replied just as silently.
“I’m just not sure if they’re lying about everything. You read the reports just like I did. You know Daniel is headstrong.”

Ben glanced down to the little man standing in front of him.
“I’m not so sure about that, Abe. I can smell the fear on him.”

Abe barely kept his eyebrows from shooting up as shock rolled through him, along with a growing dread that they might have been lied to all this time.
“You think they lied to us in the reports?”

“I didn’t when I first walked in here but now I’m not so sure. He’s so scared he’s about to shake apart.”
Abe saw the same rage he felt mirrored in his brother’s eyes when Ben glanced back at him.
“Let’s just sign the papers and get this over with, Abe. I want to take Daniel home.”

Abe nodded, understanding his brother’s need. His skin was starting to tighten and he could feel his other half waking up, which was never a good sign when he was pissed. If he became too enraged, he wouldn’t be able to keep his beast from coming out.

Abe returned his attention to the others in the room. “Do you have the papers?”

The lawyer opened a file he held in his hand and laid it out on the table, setting a pen down next to it. “Everything is here just as Charles and your elders agreed upon.”

Abe’s stomach twisted into a knot at what was the most important moment in his life being regulated to something so simple as signing a piece of paper. Disgusted, he quickly read over the agreement between his elders and Charles O’Shay.

Everything seemed to be as his elders said it would be.

Charles O’Shay had received a large sum of money every month for Daniel’s upkeep and care. Daniel was to be given the best of everything—the best education, living environment, and even the best opportunities life had to offer. The house they were currently in proclaimed that at least his growing up years had been the best. The place was practically a palace.

Abe couldn’t help but wonder about Daniel’s current accommodations if his childhood home was anything to go by. He was a little worried about taking Daniel home to their much more humble abode. They did not live like kings.

Hell, they still lived in the same house they grew up in.

Abe was pretty sure he knew why this place was so opulent. In exchange for caring for Daniel, Charles O’Shay would receive one large lump sum when Daniel turned twenty-five and was turned over to Abe and Ben.

Abe could see no conceivable reason not to sign the agreement, no matter how much he didn’t want to give Charles a single cent. He signed on the dotted line and then tossed the pen down on the desk and walked over to take his brother’s place guarding Daniel so that Ben could go sign his name.

Ben nodded and walked away. Abe turned his attention to the small man standing in front of him. Daniel was so much shorter than him that Abe was staring down at the top of his reddish-brown head. He was almost an entire foot taller than Daniel, the man’s head reaching mid chest on Abe.

It wasn’t a bad thing to have such a smaller mate. Abe could actually picture curling up with Daniel somewhere and relaxing in the sunlight as they both slept the afternoon away. And Daniel would fit perfectly in the bed between him and Ben.

“Is your breathing any better?”

Eyes the color of dark moss blinked up at him. “I’m okay.”

“You’ll let me know if you’re not.” It wasn’t a question. Abe would be keeping a close eye on Daniel. He didn’t like the way the man was breathing. It seemed a little too rapid, too labored.

“I need my inhaler.”

Abe frowned. “Inhaler?” Daniel had an inhaler? Why was that not mentioned in his medical records? Abe and Ben were supposed to be kept appraised of any and all changes to Daniel’s health and well-being.

Daniel breathed in as deeply as he could, pressing a hand against his chest. “It’s in my bag in the laundry room.”

Abe’s feeling that there was a lot more going on here than he knew about, or had been informed of, was growing stronger with every passing moment. The things that he was seeing just weren’t matching up to the things that he read about in the monthly briefings that had been sent to him and Ben.

He tried to seem nonthreatening as he smiled down at Daniel but he wasn’t sure he had achieved his goal when Daniel gulped. “You have nothing to be afraid of, Daniel. I would never hurt you.” He’d rather cut off his arm than raise a hand to Daniel.

“Danny.”

“Excuse me?”

“My name is Danny. Only my father and siblings call me Daniel.”

Abe’s jaw dropped. “Your father?”

Danny nodded. “Charles O’Shay.”

“Daniel, Char—”

“Danny.”

Abe smiled, nodding. “Danny.”

“Thank you.”

Abe nodded again.

“What were you going to say about my father?”

“Uh…” Abe suddenly didn’t want to be the one to tell Danny that Charles O’Shay wasn’t his father, especially if he had grown up believing differently. Taking away his father also meant taking away his brothers and sister. It would leave Danny without the family he had grown up with. He just couldn’t do that to Danny.

“We should really go get your inhaler,” Abe said instead. “We can talk about Charles later.”

Abe grabbed Danny’s good arm and started toward the door. Danny cringed and pulled back, trying to yank his arm away. “Please, I don’t like to be touched.”

“Oookay.” Abe would find out why that was if it was the last thing he did. If Danny grew up in the loving bosom of Charles’s family as they had been led to believe, then what had happened to him that made him afraid of touch?

Abe met his brother’s eyes as he walked by. “We’re going to get Danny’s inhaler.”

“Danny?”
Ben’s eyes moved to the smaller man as he spoke silently to Abe.

“He prefers to be called Danny. He says only his father, Charles, and his siblings call him Daniel.”

“But—”
Ben’s lips thinned as he pressed them together.
“Is that what he really believes?”

“Yes.”
Abe growled out loud even though he sent the word mentally to his brother. He just couldn’t keep from making the deep menacing sound, not when he was so enraged that his beast was starting to rouse even more.
“We need to hurry up and get this over with so we can leave here before I rip this fucker’s head off.”