Kozy Killz #4 - August & Lucas - ch. 2 (Patreon)

Sorry it took a bit. Unbeta'd/Unedited. This sort of ended up a love letter to Cricket but it also gives you a bit of insight into August and Lucas and the kids. Brahms’ Hungarian Dance No. 5 in G Minor played through August’s headphones as he watched his children tear around w

Sorry it took a bit. Unbeta'd/Unedited. This sort of ended up a love letter to Cricket but it also gives you a bit of insight into August and Lucas and the kids.

Brahms’ Hungarian Dance No. 5 in G Minor played through August’s headphones as he watched his children tear around what was, in his opinion, the child equivalent of a prison yard. The facility was clean, brightly colored, and filled with activities, but it was enclosed on all sides by floor to ceiling walls with only one entrance and exit monitored by a single attendant. 

It made it easy for August to sit and monitor his children, even when they were crawling through giant tubes overhead like hamsters like now. 

He gave a small wave to AJ who loomed about ten feet above him, lying on his belly with his face pressed to the clear plastic. AJ waved back. He looked flushed, cheeks pink and hair damp. He still wore his Bluey shorts and button down. The one he insisted on wearing three days a week despite having several other Bluey outfits to choose from. He had reached that stage of independence where he was determined to dress himself and had no interest in adult input. Luckily, Cricket had come up with the idea of pre-matching all of his outfits so he was only picking things that were suitable for school. 

The girls were nearby. August couldn’t see them as clearly due to the red tinted plastic that turned them into amorphous blobs, but he would know his blobs anywhere. They moved as one, gestures often perfectly mirrored. They sat in the same tube as their brother but a bit away from him, heads together…probably scheming. He shook his head with a smile. 

They were always scheming. 

Beside him, Cricket ceased typing to give him a confused look. She somehow looked totally different, yet completely the same as she had the day they’d met. Nine years had passed since then, or close to it. 

She’d had pink hair when they met, though her hair color was naturally more blonde like Lucas. He hadn’t been lying when he said they looked alike. This time of year, she preferred deep colors in her hair, dyes with names like cherry cola or diablo. This time her hair was a deep magenta that brought out her blue-green eyes.  She called her holiday hair. 

Autumn and Winter were her favorite times of year and she went crazy with the decorating and the activities…and her appearance. Her singular nose ring had grown to three, a gold leaf in her septum and two amber jewels in either nostril, held together by a delicate gold chain that draped across her perfectly shaped nose. 

She’d put on weight after carrying three babies over two pregnancies, but August thought the added weight suited her. It softened her features and the kids said it made her more fun to snuggle then daddies. Not that Cricket cared about his, or anyone’s opinions about her body. She was the most confident, independent person August had ever met. She just sort of sailed through life. 

She’d once told him that after surviving getting kidnapped by a serial killer most other problems seemed silly in comparison. Especially when so many others hadn’t. August’s chest tightened. He hadn’t thought about that in a long time. The series of events that had led August to Lucas and, by extension, Cricket. It seemed so long ago now. They’d been entirely different people then. 

He shook his head, letting her know he wasn’t asking anything of her. Her brows knitted together but she went back to tapping her keys, easily slipping back into work mode. August, once more, glanced overhead, frowning a bit when he didn’t see his children above him. 

But the entire warehouse space was a giant maze of tubes, tunnels, ball-pits, trampolines, ziplines and more. They could be literally anywhere. But there were no adults allowed in the play area unless there was an issue and they had to be accompanied by a worker so August wasn’t overly concerned. Unlike Lucas, who tended to hover. 

 Cricket was content to trust the staff with their children. She was neck deep into the last year of her masters in business, her dream finally within reach. August was truly awed by how much she’d accomplished. 

Cricket had a plan. She was going to open her own coffee shop. She’d wanted it for years. A little cozy coffee shop and bookstore with a shop cat and fresh baked desserts. August and Lucas had offered to front the start-up costs years ago, when she was undergoing all the invasive tests for in-vitro, before they’d decided she would be both the egg donor and the surrogate. 

She’d refused outright. She wanted to start a business only after she was certain she knew how to ensure its financial stability. Hence her business degree. August and Lucas would have paid for that too, but free classes were a perk of working at the college. 

Cricket was remarkably practical for someone so young. It was why she was such a good mother. That and her seemingly endless supply of energy. She went to school in the mornings, worked as August’s secretary in the afternoons, took care of the children two to three nights a week or more, spent time with Calliope and Lola, went out with the feelings faction and had a successful social media presence where she talked about coffee and books. 

She had carried out this schedule through two pregnancies— one of which had her carrying not one baby, but two—without so much as a single academic stumble. She maintained a 3.9 GPA in an ivy league school where she’d only been granted her admittance due to her employment. She said it made her feel like she had to prove she belonged there. And she’d done that. That and more. 

August didn’t worry about Arabella and Adelyn because they were surrounded by smart, strong, freakishly capable women. 

August examined Cricket once more. Maybe it was selfish to ask her to do it one more time? It wasn’t like they’d never discussed it, but it was a while ago. Maybe she’d changed her mind? Maybe she wanted to focus on herself for a change? 

August removed his headphones, wincing as the noise filtered in, echoing off high ceilings and concrete floors. Sneakers squeaking and peals of laughter, adults shouting for their kids and employees shouting out order numbers from the food counter behind them. 

Cricket halted her typing once more when she noticed him staring, removing her own headphones. 

“What’s up?” she asked, tone bordering on suspicious. “You’re acting squirrely even for you.” 

August was used to Cricket’s no-bullshit way of speaking by now. Still, he found himself feeling…hesitant, like he was forcing her into a conversation she might not be ready for. Or worse, a situation where she felt obligated to comply. “I talked to Lucas…” 

“I should hope so, he’s your husband,” she quipped. When August continued to give her the same flat stare, she rolled her eyes. “About?” 

“Another baby.” 

“Oh,” she said, her body deflating against the chair like she was relieved. “Did he give the green light?” 

August nodded, studying the mother of his children carefully, looking for any signs of stress or concern. Instead, she opened her phone, rapidly flipping through screens then studying something for a long moment. 

“Well, it’s late September now. I’ll have to get with the doctor to make sure that all my plumbing is still intact—I already keep track of my cycles so I know when I’m ovulating—barring any unforeseen circumstances, we can probably start trying during winter break?”

August blinked at her. 

“That’s it?” August said. “No questions? No concerns?” 

Cricket looked at him like he was the one acting strangely. “About what?”

“It’s a big commitment.” 

Cricket snorted. “I don’t know if you noticed, but we already have three kids together.” 

August sighed. This was why he let Lucas handle this sort of thing usually. “You know what I mean.” 

Cricket made a face, her gaze floating away from him like she was contemplating something. Finally, she looked at him, leaning in. “Well, if I’m being honest, I really hate all the hormone shots and the petri dishes. Like I get how it worked for Lola since she was just the egg donor but I’m the egg and the incubator. Can we just turkey baster this one?” 

A man walking by snapped his head around to look at her, receiving twin glares. He tried to make a hasty exit, tripping over his own feet in the process. Once he was gone, Cricket turned her attention back to August. 

“I live across the hall so it's not like collection would be an issue. God knows you two fuck like rabbits enough for me to have ample…supply,” she said carefully. “You know how bitchy I get on those shots. They make me ragey.” 

August blinked, processing her response. That was it? That was her only request? “You still have eight months left of your master’s and then you wanted to open the cafe. Are you sure you want to take this on too?” 

“This was your idea? Why does it feel like you’re trying to talk me out of it?” she asked, amused. 

August shook his head. “I’m not. I just want to make sure we’re not putting our plans ahead of your plans.” 

Cricket scoffed. “Your plans are our plans. We all agreed to ride this out together, no?” 

August nodded. “Yes.” 

Cricket smiled. “Listen, I’m not the smartest or the prettiest but when it comes to childbearing, I’m a world champion. It’s my European ancestry. I got those wide birthing hips, bay-bee,” she said, pointing in the vicinity of said hips in a lewd gesture.

August snorted out a laugh. Sometimes he forgot how young she was, barely thirty-two years old. “I happen to think you’re both smart and beautiful. And I don’t say that lightly.” 

Cricket batted her eyes. “Aw, thanks. I think you’re pretty, too.” 

“Smartass,” August muttered. 

Cricket laughed, delighted, then returned to her phone. “I’ll just need to make sure I have baby bonding time and enough time to stockpile my breast milk. Breastfeeding during class is a bitch.”

“I can only imagine,” August said, hoping he sounded sympathetic. 

“And I’m going skiing with Calliope and Lola at the end of November, don’t forget that.”

“Leaving the day after thanksgiving,” August recited. “It’s in our family calendar.” 

Cricket nodded. “Yeah, but other than that, I’m wide open. If we try during winter break and I do manage to get pregnant in that window, I’ll be done with school before the baby is born, then I’ll use the following year to make my business plan and scout locations for the shop. That will give me plenty of time to bond with the baby and make sure I have enough breast milk stored, yada, yada, yada.” 

August listened as she chatted, making notes on her phone. 

When she finished, August shook his head. “I really expected you to be more…concerned about this.” 

“Why?” she asked. “We already talked about this. We’ve said from the beginning we wanted a big family. Well, after the girls were born and we proved to you that you weren’t going to snap and Hannibal Lector our young. You’re free to look for another surrogate if you think-” 

“Stop,” August cut her off quietly. “We have no interest in a surrogate. You’re not a surrogate. You’re their mother. They call you mom. We just want to make sure you’re comfortable and that our needs aren’t getting in the way of any of your long-term plans.” 

Cricket frowned. “You guys are my long-term plan. You’re my family.” 

August gave her a soft look. “You know what I mean. Your degree. Your shop. Pregnancy is hard. You could have complications. If you want to think about it, we’d understand.” 

Cricket arched a brow. “Why are you being so weird? Well, weirder. We’ve had this talk before? You’re being so…emotional about this.” 

August frowned. Emotional? He took a moment to evaluate his feelings. He wasn’t feeling any different than usual. That part of him that should have felt anxious or concerned about Cricket’s wellbeing was as dormant as always. There was no guilt in the asking. He had just been well trained. He knew what he would feel if he was a normal neurotypical human and he acted accordingly. 

Of course, he didn’t want Cricket to be hurt or for anything to keep her from reaching her own goals, but he didn’t feel it in the same way Lucas did. He just couldn’t. 

“I’m not being emotional. I’m simply ensuring that you’re safe and comfortable. Lucas would skin me alive if I attempted to push you to do something that might stall your plans.” 

Most people would have found August’s lack of sentimentality offensive, Cricket just laughed. “We wouldn’t want that.” 

“What wouldn’t we want?” 

Cricket and August turned in tandem to find Lucas walking towards them, hair windswept and lips slightly chapped from the chilly Autumn air. August’s nostrils flared, heat blooming in his belly. His husband looked good enough to eat. Again. 

Lucas plopped himself into the booth beside August, smashing cool lips against August’s warm cheek. 

“Your husband was worried about using me for breeding purposes. He thinks I might find it taxing given my timeline for school and the business. I was assuring him that I am more than capable of doing everything that needs to be done.” 

Lucas snagged her hand. “Nobody is doubting your capabilities. We know you can do it. We just don’t want you feeling like you have to. Three kids, a master’s program, another pregnancy and starting a new business is a lot,” Lucas said. “Are you really okay or are you just in denial?” 

Cricket gave him a baleful look. “If I asked for a nanny would you get me one?” 

Lucas scoffed. “Of course.” 

“If I asked you to keep the kids on my nights, would you?” 

“Of course,” August said. 

She tilted her head. “Do you know how many women out there have four kids and no help and are still managing to do the same things I am? Too many. Way too many. I live in a fancy as fuck apartment that you bought, paid for, and decorated. My children want for literally nothing. They have the best clothes, the best education and a grandfather who spoils them so badly they’re going to grow up to be total assholes if we don’t stop him.” 

Lucas bit back a smirk. “Ouch.” 

Cricket shook her head. “I’m serious. You’re not going to refuse me anything I need to make this work. You guys are already far too generous,” she told them. She gave them a haughty look. “Any other woman would totally have taken advantage of you by now. You’re lucky you saved my life.” 

Lucas looked at August and shook his head. “Why do we even bother worrying about her? She never hesitates to say exactly what she’s thinking.” 

“You’re damn right. Now, I’m going to wrangle the kids to the table so we can eat,” Cricket said, sliding from the booth and heading to the single entry point where an attendant in a garish red shirt and lime green ponytail stood watching the children play with boredom in her eyes. 

Lucas sighed heavily, then dropped his head to August’s shoulder, rubbing his cheek against it like a cat. 

“Tired?” 

Lucas nodded. “Someone wore me out over lunch.” 

August chuckled. “How was your meeting? What did he want to talk to you about.” 

Lucas sighed. “It was a pre-meeting meeting to talk about the upcoming meeting.” 

“Ah, one of those.” 

“Mm,” Lucas said. “This pre-meeting meeting was to discuss my tenure before the committee meets. He not so subtly implied that I’ve met all the necessary requirements for tenure, but they’d like me to have another psychological evaluation.” 

August’s temper flared. “What? Why? They’d never ask that of any other professor on campus and god knows there’s more than a few who definitely should have had one.” 

Lucas wrapped an arm around his and squeezed. “Baby, it’s not surprising given my past.” 

August’s fists clenched, his breaths coming faster. “They can’t do that. You’ve given them no reason to doubt you. You’re a highly published, highly respected member of your field. People pay you to lecture at other schools. Students beg to take your class-”

“That’s cause they think I’m hot,” Lucas chimed in, tone smug. 

“They’re right, of course. But that is not the only reason. Your seminars on behavioral profiling are so popular there’s a waiting list. The FBI—the same people that got you tossed in a hospital in the first place—still asks you to consult on cases when they’re stumped. The fucking audacity. Who was it? It was Jacobson, wasn’t it? That little fucking worm. He’s so jealous of you. I’ll string him up by his fucking balls.” 

Lucas picked his head up, unable or unwilling to stop the grin that spread across his face. “Relax, honey. They’re going to offer me tenure. This is just a precaution. They don’t want to offer a life-long position to someone who might go coo-coo bananas and like…start eating the chalk or something.” 

August snorted at the idea of Lucas eating chalk. He could barely choke down his pills in the morning. Still, Jacobson was going too far asking Lucas for a psych eval. He was just trying to put him in his place, to remind him that even though Lucas was superior to him in every conceivable way, he still held more power due to nothing more than age. 

“Of the two of us, which one is more likely to lose his mind?” August said, heart still racing. “I should show Jacobson what crazy actually looks like.” 

August wanted to kill someone, hurt them. It had been weeks since he had been on a kill. Things had quieted down while Noah and Calliope did their thing, ensuring potential targets met the code their father still adhered to. Though there were rumblings that Zane’s mother had finally pushed his father over the edge. August had seen his father face off against a lot of nasty people, but only Beverly had ever made him consider forgetting their code just once. Now, apparently, they didn’t have to. Whatever she’d done, it must have been bad.

“Stop,” Lucas teased. “You’re the levelheaded genius, I’m the crazy guy who tricked you into marrying him.”

August ground his teeth until his jaw popped. “I’m not feeling particularly levelheaded right now. In fact, I’m feeling a bit stabby.” 

“Well, get it together, Mulvaney. Our children are here,” Lucas murmured. 

“Daddy!” 

Lucas turned just in time to catch the almost three-year old hurtling towards him, pulling him into a big hug. August’s heart did that thing where it tripped in his chest. AJ was definitely biologically Lucas’s son. Side-by-side the resemblance was uncanny. The blonde hair, the pale green eyes, the nose, the lips. The slight pull of the corners of his mouth when he was stressed, the way his brows furrowed when he thought he was in trouble. 

Like now.

“What’s wrong?” August asked, reaching over to pet through their son's long sweat damp curls. 

Cricket approached the table, her hand on the back of each of the girls’ necks like she was anticipating them making a run for it. It took him a moment to notice their disheveled hair and rumpled uniforms. Not entirely uncommon given the wildness of kindergartners, but one look at their faces—at the anger flashing in their eyes—August knew there’d been an…incident. 

Again. 

He sighed, glancing up at Cricket. “What did they do now?” 

“Tell him,” Cricket said, pushing them towards their fathers. 

“Mom,” they whined in unison. 

“Out with it,” Lucas said, rocking AJ like he was a baby. 

In addition to Lucas’s looks, the boy was already showing signs of autism. They wouldn’t take him for a full diagnosis until he was older, but both August and Lucas knew the signs. The repetitive almost OCD like behaviors, lining up his cars, obsessing over letters and numbers, rocking and putting his fingers in his ears when he was stressed. The list went on and on. 

“Nothin’. The bigger kids were picking on AJ,” Ady said, a coldness in her tone that brought August’s head up. 

Ari nodded. “We stopped them.” 

“Bigger kids?” August asked, frowning. 

“Stopped them how?” Lucas asked almost as quickly. 

Ari turned, pointing an accusatory finger at the two girls who sat over by the pit full of foam blocks. They were glowering at the twins. 

“Why were they picking on him?” Lucas asked. 

The girls' expressions grew stormy and they looked at each other for a long moment. Lucas reached out and put his hand between them at eye level, blocking their ability to look at each other. Neither August or Lucas knew exactly how their twin telepathy worked but they’d come to suspect they needed to be looking at each other to make it happen. 

“Uh-uh. No getting your stories straight. Just tell us what happened,” Lucas warned. 

Ady huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. “A little boy named Caleb said someone took his red truck. AJ pointed to the bigger kids. When the little boy went to get his truck back, he snitched and said AJ was the one who told on them.”

Snitched. There was that word again. The children of the Mulvaney family often sounded like mob enforcers when they talked and if August had been capable of being concerned, he probably would have been. Instead, he pinched the bridge of his nose. 

Cricket frowned, leaning down to stroke the boy’s hair. “AJ, did you see them take the red truck?” 

“He saw it in his mind,” Ari said sagely, tapping the side of her head. “Like daddy does.” 

Lucas pulled AJ back from his hiding spot in his neck, cupping his face. “Is that true, baby? Did you see it in your head or with your eyes?” 

AJ popped his thumb in his mouth. “Wan’ go home.” 

Lucas gave August a pained look as fat tears welled in their toddler’s eyes. He was both incredibly fragile but often apathetic. He laughed when he was supposed to cry. He often woke up screaming. He was terrifyingly smart. 

But nobody knew better than August what it meant to be autistic and something else. August wasn’t simply an autistic genius. He was also a psychopath. AJ wasn’t just on the spectrum, he could see things in his mind, things a child shouldn’t see. This incident confirmed it. 

The three adults exchanged nervous glances, then August nodded. “Yeah, let's just take the pizza to go.” 

“I want mommy,” AJ sobbed. 

Cricket took the boy from his arms. “I’ll take the kids tonight.” 

“Are we in trouble?” Ari asked, looking at each of her parents suspiciously. 

“Of course, not,” August said. “You have the right to defend your little brother. But only if others start it. And violence is never the first answer.” 

“But it is an answer,” Ady confirmed with confidence.

August bit back his snort. These kids were the best and worst of their parents. All of their parents. He still wasn’t a hundred percent sure what the girls had done to the older girls but since nobody appeared to be bleeding and they didn’t seem like they planned on demanding justice, he was willing to let it go. 

August’s phone rang, dragging his attention from the boys. He flipped it over on the table as Cricket left to order their pizzas to go with AJ in her arms and the girls trailing behind. 

Noah. 

August picked it up, inserting one of his headphones. “Hello?” 

“Can you do a job tonight?” 

August rolled his eyes. “Hello to you too, Noah. I’m wonderful. And you?” he said, just to give him a taste of his own medicine.

Lucas snagged August’s other earbud, sliding it into his ear just as Noah said, “It’s another one of his men.” 

“Whose men?” Lucas said, reflexively.

Noah didn’t miss a beat at Lucas’s voice. “Jeffries. There’s still five of them out there. Well, four now. Calliope tracked one to a hotel three hours outside of the city. Lola went and got him and is driving in with him tonight.” 

August’s brows went up. “Lola? I thought she retired.” 

“This one’s personal. Besides, I think she’s bored. She misses bounty-hunting. She’s thinking of going back to being a full-time PI,” Noah said.

Lucas shrugged. “Couldn’t hurt to have another investigator in the family.” 

August mulled over Noah’s request. Not because he was thinking of refusing, but because he didn’t trust the numbers. Calliope had only found eight men total in Jeffries little corner of the darknet, but people like him were only patient zero, their sickness infecting others than spreading outward exponentially. 

Just because Jeffries had only indoctrinated eight members into his serial killing little cult, that didn’t mean there weren’t others brought in by his members. Maybe August could drag some answers out of the man tonight. 

He gave a quick look at Lucas, who nodded. “Yeah, sure. I’ll do it.” 

“You should take Lucas,” Noah said, tone bordering on chipper. 

August frowned. “What? Why?” 

Lucas might be able to see something in the man if August couldn’t carve it out of him. But those kinds of things still tore at Lucas who worked hard to hide his fragile human side, but it was still there, just like AJ’s. 

“I don’t know,” Noah said, like he didn’t like being questioned. “It’s just a thing we’ve been doing. Adam took me. Jericho took Freckles. Hell, Asa took Zaney. It’s the Mulvaney’s version of a date night. Just feels like if Lucas doesn’t go we’re now breaking with tradition and the whole operation will be cursed.” 

This family was so extra. Still, August shot a look at his husband, gauging his reaction. 

Lucas nodded. “Why not? Cricket has the kids.” 

“Yeah, sure,” August said to Noah. “Make sure we’re somewhere private. I don’t want anyone hearing him scream.” 

“Jeffries man or Lucas,” Noah quipped. 

“Both,” August shot back. 

Noah cackled. “On it.” 

“Are you sure you’re okay with this?” August asked when Noah ended the call. “I know you don’t like getting this close to killers if you don’t have to.” 

“I married a killer,” Lucas murmured. 

When August raised a brow, Lucas shrugged, draping his arm over his husband’s shoulder to whisper in his ear. “I rarely get to see you work anymore. How often does someone like me get to observe a psychopath and his victim up close?” 

August pulled back enough to look at him, gaze raking of his perfect face, his thoughts growing dark and very much x-rated. “You’re kind of a freak, Mr. Blackwell.” 

Lucas dropped a kiss to his jaw. “Right back at ya, professor. Now let's go take home our kids.”