“Right.” Noah’s voice sounded more disappointed than intended. “How did your father teach you to fake emotions?” he finally asked, refusing to dwell on Adam’s inability to form attachments.
Asa seemed almost eager to talk about the process, while Avi and Adam remained silent, though not uncomfortably so. “There’s a professor—Dr. Molly Shepherd. Our dad met her after he donated money to his alma mater. She was guest lecturing. She had spent thirty years researching psychopaths like us and used her own son as a case study. That’s where our dad got the idea and the techniques he employed to teach us to be more…human.”
“This is all so interesting,” Noah managed, squeezing Adam’s hand. “Why are you willing to tell me all of this?”
Once more, Asa and Avi exchanged meaningful glances. “Can’t hurt now. You already know too much. Besides, our father will do whatever it takes to protect us, to protect what he created. So, if you betray us, he’ll probably kill you.”
Asa said it so casually it took a full moment for the threat to penetrate Noah’s brain. “Oh,” was all he could think to say.
Never ask a question if you can’t handle the answer. That was what his father used to say. It seemed like solid advice in that specific moment.
Adam’s blood boiled at his brother’s casual threat. Were they trying to intimidate Noah? Scare him? Make him leave? Noah’s thumb began to lazily stroke the side of Adam’s hand, as if he could sense his agitation and wanted him to relax. Maybe he could. Maybe that was Noah’s superpower. He had too much empathy and Adam had none at all. Was that a bad thing? To Adam, it felt like balance. Did Noah feel the same?
“I think you’re making our baby brother mad,” Avi said, amused. “He doesn’t like when you threaten his new toy.”
Asa snickered. “Atticus said this one is different.”
“Well, we know that. When have you ever known Adam to bring home any of his playthings? Hell, when was the last time he even saw the same boy twice? Yet here he is, all tied up in knots over this one in just…what? A week?”
Two days. Just two days. But it felt like more. It felt like he’d met Noah a million years ago and they’d been separated all this time. And now, he was back. Back where he belonged. With Adam. And that was how it would stay, no matter who tried to get in their way. But Adam kept that to himself. He wasn’t allowed to threaten his brothers.
One of his father’s many rules. Never turn on family. What if they turned on him first? It felt like they were threatening Noah, like they wanted to make Noah so scared of them that he wasn’t willing to risk life with Adam. His jaw clenched and relaxed, clenched and relaxed, his whole body flushed with…something…at the thought of Noah leaving him. Noah could never leave him. Never. He belonged to Adam. No matter how wrong it was. Or crazy. Or possessive. Noah was his.
Noah’s thumb stopped stroking and his hand squeezed Adam’s hard, pulling him out of the rage spiral currently consuming him. Asa and Avi had their creepy twin thing, so they were only talking out loud to piss Adam off and to make Noah uncomfortable. Brother stuff. That was what his father called it. He said it made them seem normal. Siblings teased each other. Siblings had banter.
His siblings were going to need a ride the rest of the way home if they didn’t shut the fuck up because he was going to dump them on the side of the highway. They had it coming. Even his father would see that, once he explained it. They could call an Uber.
Noah craned his head around to give Adam’s brothers a hard look. “I don’t know if this is, like, your attempt at intimidating me, or if you’re just trying to piss him off, but if I tell you I’m suitably terrified, can we please move past whatever the fuck this is?” he asked, gesturing between them.
The twins blinked at each other, then at Noah, their confusion obvious. Adam squeezed Noah’s hand this time, giving him a smile he hoped conveyed how…proud of Noah he was. He was so soft in some ways. His skin, his features, the way he melted into Adam’s arms and his brown eyes went hazy when he let Adam take control. But he wasn’t a pushover. He wasn’t one to back down, even if it killed him. That was a necessary trait to navigate a life with Adam.
“What do you know about Noah’s case? Get us up to speed,” Avi finally said.
Adam’s shoulders sagged, all the tension leaving his body. He gave them what background he had before adding, “One of the men Noah remembered hurting him was his father’s best friend, Gary. He owns the strip club where Noah works.”
“You work for the man who molested you?” Asa asked.
Noah nodded. “I didn’t know he molested me when I started working there. I needed a job and a place to park my trailer. He seemed surprised to see me. It had been a long time. Looking back, he definitely tested me to see if I remembered anything about when I was a kid. Since I didn’t, he eventually caved.”
“That’s smart. Getting in with him like that. That takes balls,” Avi said, sounding impressed, though begrudgingly. “Have you learned anything about this Gary guy since you started working there?”
Adam glanced at Noah, his face half obscured in shadow. When he didn’t seem interested in answering, Adam did it for him. “We broke into his house last night and scored a key and half of an encrypted hard drive Calliope’s trying to crack. But that’s it. She’s trying to track down where the key came from, but it’s most likely a dead end.”
“Why half a hard drive?” Asa asked.
“We were interrupted while I was cloning it. It was an almost three hour download,” Adam said, eyes flicking to his brothers in the rear view mirror.
“Christ, that’s a lot of kiddie porn. Sick fuck,” Avi noted. “Who or what interrupted you?”
“A stranger,” Noah said. “I’d never seen him before.”
“Conan Greevey,” Adam explained, squeezing Noah’s hand. “Calliope ran him down quickly. He wasn’t trying to hide. Runs the city’s youth programs, which means, given his association with Gary, he’s definitely ending up on our list.”