Maniac - Necessary Evils #7 - Ch. 13 (Patreon)

Unbeta'd, unedited. This is just pure Mulvaney madness with a little bit of schmoop. Hope you like. ThomasThomas woke to find Aiden lying on his side, head propped on his hand, studying him, expression inscrutable. A shock of warmth bled through Thomas at just the sight of Aiden’s face. Was this what he’d been denying himself for so long? How many times had he imagined a life where he woke up to that face every morning?When Aiden didn’t acknowledge Thomas, he frowned. How long had he been watching him? What was he thinking about? Was he sleeping with his eyes open? Almost as quickly as the thought came, Aiden reached down and cupped Thomas’s chin, turning him so he could look at him more thoroughly.Thomas smiled to hide the surge of lust that shot through him. “Should I be concerned about you watching me in my sleep?”Aiden continued to hold his chin as he leaned down and pressed their lips together, before saying, “I’ve heard it's considered romantic.”Thomas grinned. “Did you read that in Serial Killer Monthly?”Aiden snorted. “Quarterly, actually. I can’t afford the monthly subscription on a PI’s earnings.”It was a joke. Thomas knew—for obvious reasons—that Aiden was worth a fortune. He lived like a hermit in the middle of the woods in a cabin he’d built himself. He drove a jeep that was over ten years old. Every dime Thomas had paid him over the years had gone into a separate account that Aiden used to donate to people who needed it and to fund his somewhat disturbing hobby of building medieval torture devices.This knowledge didn’t stop Thomas from saying, “You know I’d give you anything you asked, right?”Aiden’s smile fell, his expression becoming guarded. “Except you.”Thomas had walked right into that one. Aiden was right. All he’d ever asked of Thomas was this…was them. And he’d wasted years torturing himself, torturing them both really. But Thomas had been so committed to spending his life alone, to paying for his sins that it now seemed insane to just change his mind. Wouldn’t that just be the shittier thing to do? Did he even deserve Aiden after dragging him over broken glass all these years?Thomas didn’t know how or why, but in the last seventy-two hours or so, this thing, this one event in his life that had seemed like a mortal sin now seemed…insignificant. Maybe it was knowing his children didn’t hate him? Maybe it was knowing Aiden was still there after everything. But the fear Thomas had spent years choking on had just evaporated.But that was worse somehow. Knowing he’d denied himself and Aiden a lifetime together felt like a far worse sin now. And it had happened in the blink of an eye. He didn’t deserve Aiden’s love. He didn’t deserve Aiden’s forgiveness. It didn’t matter though. Because Aiden had told him last night he wasn’t leaving and Thomas had acknowledged it as fact.Somehow Thomas had been dragged kicking and screaming to the finish line and he was still getting to walk away with the only prize he’d ever wanted. It hardly seemed fair. Thomas shouldn’t still win.He pulled himself from his thoughts to see Aiden looking morose. Aiden hadn’t posed his last response as a question, but looking at him now, Thomas knew it was. Aiden was practically holding his breath waiting to see if Thomas would disappoint him for the millionth time.Thomas was waiting too. Was he a coward like Aiden said? Or was he as brave as his sons believed him to be? Was being with Aiden selfish? Had Thomas earned Aiden? No. His heart slammed against his ribs. Every fiber of his being was telling him to run away…again. But he couldn’t. He wouldn’t.“You have me, Aiden. Even when I’m not right next to you…you have me. There’s only ever been you.”“I don’t care if you’re pining for me from a distance. I need you next to me,” Aiden said. “I’m done giving you chances.”The lightning sharp pain in his chest was so acute Thomas thought his heart might have just stopped beating. What the fuck was that supposed to mean? Aiden had said months ago that he was giving up on Thomas, had told him not to call, not to text, to just leave him be. He’d said he was sick of him constantly martyring himself. But Thomas had thought they’d gotten past all that.Was he wrong?“I’m not leaving you. And I’m not letting you leave me. I can’t,” Aiden said. “I know myself. And I know if you deny me again, it will literally become my villain origin story. I will go full on scorched earth, Tommy. I’ll become the monster you feared your sons would be.”It wasn’t said as a threat, more like a dire prediction. Thomas knew Aiden meant what he said. For better or worse, Aiden always told the truth. Thomas had admired that about him. Aiden knew himself, knew what he was capable of. That’s how he was different from all the others.Before Aiden, Thomas had thought that the essential element of psychopathy was a lack of empathy. When psychopaths killed, they did so with a clinical detachment that allowed them to play with their victims because they lacked the ability to put themselves in the victim’s place.But Aiden had taught Thomas there was something far more terrifying than a psychopath… and that was a dark empath. A rather gimmicky new age buzzword that hid a very real, very twisted darkness. Aiden was empathetic. He felt things deeply. Hurt, sadness, guilt, remorse.He felt them so deeply in fact, that he easily picked up on even the subtlest of tells in others. He was practically a human lie detector. It let him hone in on the things that scared people most. The things that scarred them deeply. It let him look into others' psyche's with an almost Lucas level of insight. But while Lucas used this gift to create profiles, Aiden used it for a much darker purpose. He used it to create a weapon, one custom made to inflict maximum physical and psychological damage on his victim before he ended their lives.Aiden exercised impeccable restraint on most days. But Thomas believed him when he said he would become the monster Thomas created. Because that’s what Thomas had set out to do all those years ago. Create monsters to do his bidding, just for good instead of evil. And, for the most part, he’d succeeded.But he couldn’t let Aiden off his leash. He loved him too much. The Mulvaney code was unbreakable. Kill without permission and you die. But Thomas knew he could never kill Aiden. No matter how bad he got. In that way, Aiden was like Shane. Thomas didn’t know what that said about him. Nothing good. But Thomas was only human.“Don’t say that,” Thomas begged.“You know it's true. Are you going to turn me away again? Send me back to Washington? Pretend none of this ever happened? Was what you said last night a lie?”Thomas shook his head. “I wasn’t lying. I’m not sending you away. I’m not. I should. I don’t deserve you. I don’t deserve this. But this time I’m going to be selfish. I’m going to be selfish with you. I’m going to keep you. Here. With me. Forever.”Aiden’s gaze went wide, like he’d expected to have to fight like hell for Thomas to agree to be with him. But there was no sense in fighting the inevitable. And they were inevitable. They were destined to come back to each other again and again because the truth was nobody could ever truly understand them but each other.Aiden ducked under Thomas’s arm, his cheek pressing against Thomas’s chest, directly over his heart. It took a full thirty seconds to realize Aiden was just…holding him. Tightly. His arm locked around his waist, one leg thrown over both of Thomas’s. He hated how natural it felt, how right it felt. Aiden and him just fit, like torn paper, edges frayed, but still perfectly matched.Thomas swept his knuckles along Aiden’s bare back lazily, content in the silence. He was almost dozing again when Aiden asked, “Why were you holding that gun last night?”Thomas opened his eyes, glancing down at the top of Aiden’s head. He took a deep breath and let it out. Why had he been holding the gun? “I just needed to feel like I could protect my family. Like I’d called you all home to keep you safe, not to use you as human shields to protect myself. I guess I was just feeling…vulnerable.”“There’s nothing wrong with calling your family home to protect you. We protect each other. That’s what family is for. You’ve been saving those kids their whole lives. Let them do the same for you. It makes them feel better. Especially the feelings faction. If they had their way you’d be tucked away in a panic room, swaddled in a blanket burrito and being forced to listen to nature sounds or monks chanting.”“A blanket burrito?” Thomas echoed.Aiden nodded against Thomas’s chest. “Yeah, it's like a straitjacket, but fuzzier and full-body. Like thunder jackets for dogs.”Thomas sat in stunned silence, imagining his children holding him hostage in blankets. “Aiden?”“Yeah?”“Please don’t let my children put me in a fuzzy straitjacket for dogs.”Aiden snickered. “I’ll do my best, but they’re hard to resist when they’re all heart-eyes and Care-Bear stares.”Thomas chuckled. “I always wanted one of those.”Aiden craned his head back to look up at Thomas. “Heart eyes?”Thomas shook his head. “No. A Care-Bear. My father said they were for children.”“Weren’t you a child?” Aiden asked.A deep sadness settled over him. “No. I really never was.”“Is that why you built a palace for the girls filled with toys they’re far too young to even enjoy yet?” Aiden asked.Thomas smiled thinking of the two girls sleeping peacefully in their beds.“Yeah. Maybe so,” Thomas agreed. “I just want them to have time to be children. There’s going to come a time when we all have to decide whether we let them in on our family secret, tell them who we are—who we really are—or hide it from them and pray they don’t find out?”“Those are August’s children. There’s a chance that no matter how good their parenting skills, they may be predisposed to their father’s psychopathy,” Aiden said.Thomas nodded. “But we now know not all psychopaths kill. Especially those raised in loving and nurturing homes. I could have just tried to protect them when they were little instead of stealing their childhoods. My boys. I could have given them therapy and…burrito blankets…and maybe they would have never wanted to kill at all. I-Maybe I ruined them.”Aiden sat up, turning to face him, legs crossed to tuck himself against him as close as possible. “Sure you taught them how to shoot and fight and kill. But you also let them swim, let them play sports, let them be mathletes and race cars.”“As a cover,” Thomas said, shaking his head.“They had a blast. And look at them now. They’re all married, all successful, all thriving. The only one who doesn’t truly enjoy what he does is Atticus and he was smart enough to fall for a man that not only enjoys killing, but brought along his own school of murderous muppets to join the party. There’s a whole school full of psychopathic Gen-Z’ers who are proving that your theories—though slightly self-serving—have merit. You didn’t ruin anyone or anything. Someone has to take out the trash society can’t. That’s us.”Thomas sighed. “I just want Adelyn and Arabella to have a normal childhood. The same with any other grandchildren I have.”“Did you want more?” Aiden asked, studying Thomas’s face intently.“More? Grandchildren? Not really my call. But I hope so. I love when the girls are in the house. Just knowing they’re there is…a relief, I guess.”“I meant children…of your own?” Aiden asked. “Of our own.”Thomas felt like he’d been sucker punched. “Our? Children…”Before Thomas could formulate some kind of response, Aiden’s phone began to silently vibrate its way along Thomas’s side table.He picked it up and looked at it, before saying, “Hello?” There was a female voice on the other side. “Did you find something? No, don’t tell me yet. Let me get the rest of the group together and I’ll Facetime you—Nobody cares if you have on makeup—or a bra—Fine. Fine. Thirty minutes.”Thomas chuckled when Aiden hung up, happy to shelve their current topic of conversation before he had a panic attack. “Lola found something?”“I guess we’ll find out. Archer and Mac were doing some digging last night and found some stuff too,” Aiden said, climbing over Thomas, making sure to drag himself against him as he stood.“Like what?” Thomas asked, taking Aiden’s offered hand and allowing him to pull him to his feet.“I’ll fill you in while we shower.”“We’re showering together?” Thomas asked, not resisting as Aiden tugged him towards the bathroom.“Yes. Do you have a problem with that?” Aiden asked, giving him a stern look that went straight to Thomas’s dick.“No, sir,” he said, voice low with just the slightest hint of mocking.The heated look Aiden gave him showed him he was choosing to ignore the teasing and focus on the dirty suggestion in his tone.###Thomas had spent a lot of time wondering about what Lola looked like ever since Aiden said they were…close. But nothing could have prepared him for the woman who was now staring out over a sea of strangers with a look of both curiosity and confusion.She was tall, at least six feet, but currently wearing brown suede boots that went to her thighs, tight jeans that hugged her curves and a sweater that looked like it had been painted on under a brown leather jacket. Gold jewelry adorned her neck, her ears, her fingers and her wrists, highlighting terra cotta colored skin that looked like it glowed. Lola was stunning and probably scared the shit out of insecure men. Thomas liked her immediately.“Am I doing a debriefing or a TED talk?” she asked.There were some snickers from around the room. For the most part everyone had returned to their seats from the previous night. The only exception were that Thomas and Aiden sat across from Calliope at the conference table, chairs turned towards the large screen where Lola currently loomed.“Lola, my family. Family, meet Lola,” Aiden said, amused by the varied expressions on their faces. “Where are you?”She ignored his question, then plopped herself up on her kitchen counter, legs swinging as she grabbed a mug of what Thomas could only assume was coffee.“Charmed, I’m sure,” she said with a heavy fake Southern accent.“She’s a goddess,” Seven said in wonder.“She's a badass,” Noah said.“Have you ever thought of modeling?” Felix asked.Lola pretended to push back her wild hair, smiling and preening. “Stop,” she said in a tone that clearly said go on.“No, seriously,” Felix said. “Call me. You’d be killer in my spring line.”“Can we focus on the task at hand?” Aiden asked, sounding exasperated.Lola tsked. “Don’t be mad cause I’m prettier than you.”Asa’s eyes lit up. “I like her so much. Let’s adopt her. We need more girls in this family.”Cricket, who had left the girls with the nanny, gave Lola a flat stare. “Don’t fall for it. It’s a trap. They’ll just try to use you for breeding purposes.”“We would have gorgeous babies,” Felix said, giving Lola an appraising look.“Easy, kitten,” Avi said. “Let’s at least meet her face to face before we start trying to mine her girl parts.”“Did you actually find anything?” Aiden said loudly.“Well, maybe?” she hedged. “But when I say I had to go way back? I mean way way back. Most of the people who were involved in the ‘accident’ are long dead.”“Why are you air-quoting accident?” Aiden asked.Lola took a sip of her coffee, eyeing him over the brim. “Like you don’t know? It wasn’t an accident. It was a murder-suicide. It was a cover-up. A really good cover-up, but a cover up nonetheless.”“If it was a good cover-up, how did you figure out it wasn’t an accident?” August asked.“Since the deaths occurred at the lake house, which is in an unincorporated part of the community, it was handled by the local cops. There were only three of them and to say they were ill-equipped to handle a mass murder is an understatement. The sheriff was Methuselah old when it happened, died not long after the crime itself, one deputy took over as chief but died two years later in a car crash five years later. The third deputy moved far away. I finally chased down the third deputy who was no longer a cop but a politician. He was…uncooperative.”“Uncooperative?” Jericho parroted.Lola nodded. “Yeah, implied that there’s a lot of ways nosey people tend to go missing.”“He threatened you?” Aiden snapped.Lola teetered her hand back and forth. “Meh, nothing as overt as that but I was definitely picking up what he was putting down. He was telling me to just forget about it.”“And did you?” Thomas asked. “Forget about it?”Lola’s gaze snapped to him, giving him a hard once over, eyes locking on where Aiden’s fingers threaded with his own on the arm rest. “I see you’ve finally decided to stop being a dumbass.”“Woah,” Seven whispered. “Did she just call a Mulvaney a dumbass?”Noah’s spine straightened, his expression turning stormy. “Don’t talk to my dad like that.”“Yes, he’s stopped being a dumbass,” Calliope said. “For now, anyway. Can we just not do the male posturing today? Too much testosterone gives me a headache.”Lola gave Calliope a once over of an entirely different kind, biting her full lower lip before smiling. “Me too. I can only take men in small doses…women though…that’s entirely different.”Thomas turned as Calliope rocked in her chair, giving a smile Thomas had never seen on her before, then held up her hand in a call me gesture.“What is happening?” Zane asked, looking back and forth between the two women.“I’m pretty sure Lola is hitting on my mom,” Dimitri said, not sounding even remotely bothered by the turn of events. “Happens all the time. She’s hot.”“Your mom is so cool,” Nico whispered.“Can we focus?” Atticus asked. “I have research to get back to and I can’t do that until we figure out who’s after dad.”“I was entirely focused,” Asa said. “In case anybody was wondering.”“We weren’t,” several people chorused.“Rude,” Asa muttered.“What did you find, Lola?” Aiden asked, his exasperation obvious.“Like I said, most people were dead or scattered to the far reaches of the Earth, but then I found something. The coroner. I figured if there was something weird going on, like a cover up, he’d know all about it.”“And did he?” Adam asked.“Yeah, did you talk to him?” Lucas asked.“No. He has dementia. He’s in a care facility and they wouldn’t let me talk to him because I’m not family.” Thomas watched as people all around the room seemed to deflate with disappointment.“So how did you find out it was a murder suicide if you didn’t talk to the coroner?” Calliope asked, leaning forward, sounding excited.“I talked to the nurse. She mentioned that nobody ever comes to see the patient, even his family because he was a real asshole and apparently a bit of a hoarder. She then casually mentioned that they disliked him so much that they had pretty much just locked the door to his house and never went back.”“But you did?” Calliope prodded. “You went to his house didn’t you?”“I did. It was just like the nurse said. Filled to the brim with boxes and papers and notebooks and photographs. Including the real Mulvaney crime scene photos.”“We need to get our hands on everything in that house,” Aiden said.“I figured as much,” Lola said, before hopping from the counter and grabbing her phone. She panned the camera around the room, showing dozens of boxes. “He lived about an hour away from you. I’m already here. I’ll drop a pin with the address.”“Aren’t you worried people will ask questions if we all just swarm into some old guy's house?” Cree asked.“The man lived alone on six acres,” Lola said. “His nearest neighbors are livestock. Trust me, nobody is gonna notice.” She gave the boy’s and then Thomas a thorough once over. “I’d leave the Prada at home though. This place isn’t going to win any good housekeeping awards. Dress accordingly.”“Is she saying those are her casual clothes?” Felix asked, then looked at Avi. “She’s perfect. Seriously. Hot, smart, stylish. Can we keep her?”Cricket snorted, then looked at Lola. “Girl, run.”Lola cackled. “See you soon, Mulvaney’s and assorted Mulvaney associates.”