DarkMage6: I have to agree. As hard as she is to live with and handle, he has no right to do the things he does to her. Debwood-1999: Yeah, Mindy needs hugs and you're going to need like three seatbelts because this will be that big of a ride. Menaji: It'll be one hell of a battle, that's for sure. SlytherinQueen020: Exactly. Those three are his weak spots, although one would have to be either insane or have a death wish to try to go for them. Messing with the people he loves the most is a guaranteed way to wind up on the wrong side of his knife. JacktheSinister JaketheJust: Kane has serious issues. He loves Mindy but hurts her in a lot of ways. It's not a healthy relationship. Mark knows James can handle himself; Glen's nuts but James is the bigger and stronger of the two. Esha Napoleon: Yeah, well Glen isn't exactly a big sweetheart here. He can make it very hard to side with him. ExternalxInsanity: It'll definitely be interesting, to say the least. Souless666: *pats head and hands tissues* There there. NeroAnne: Poor Cooper's always the babysitter. It's the price he pays for being the responsible one. And yeah, I felt terrible for that squirrel too. And given how her twin is, Trish has to be parental. Before Kane, she was the one taking care of her. slashdite: Nobody knows with Connor. The kid is all over the place. As for the rest of your review…well addressing those matters would be called spoilers and I do not indulge in those lol.
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"No no no no!" Mindy cried out, grabbing the flour and placing it back into his hands. "That's not enough! The cookies will come out bad if you don't put more in!"
James frowned in confusion. She was trying to teach him how to make chocolate chip cookies and so far it didn't seem to be going so well. "The recipe says-"
"That recipe is BAD!" she said vehemently, snatching the piece of paper away from him and throwing it away. "They NEVER get it right. Now add more flour!"
Normally he did not take getting ordered around that well, but he was so amused by Mindy that he let it slide. "Yes ma'am," he said, saluting her and doing what he had been told.
She giggled and ran her fingers over his arms, lingering on the strong muscles. "Can I asks you something?"
"Technically you just did," he pointed out, cracking the first one of the eggs that he needed and putting the yolk into the mixing bowl.
"Well I has to asks you sumthin' else," she informed him.
"Okay. Ask away."
"You says that everyone is scared of something. Well who scares you?"
"Nobody scares me," he replied, which wasn't actually a lie. Being afraid of something happening to Mark, Cooper or Connor didn't count as a who, and the fact that he absolutely refused to even think about such things made it so that he wasn't about to admit that out loud. Physically he knew that they could all handle themselves, but having cancer take Annabelle away from him before they were even thirty had left its mark.
Mindy frowned at him. "I think you're lying."
"I'm not. You want to know why?"
"Why?"
"Because the only person that ever came close to scaring me is dead."
Her eyes widened. "Really? Who was he?"
"My mother," he said darkly. He tilted his head to the side and pointed to a large scar that was on his neck. "You see that? She tried to slit my throat with a wire hanger when I was three years old."
"Really?" Mindy asked with a gasp. She reached up and traced her fingers over the scar. "Poor baby…how did she die?"
James looked around to make sure Trish wasn't around before leaning in close to Mindy and talking in a hushed voice. "Can you keep a secret?"
She nodded.
He looked around again before putting his mouth up to her ear and whispering a confession. "I gutted her like a fish and then burned her body up."
"You did?" Mindy asked, breathlessly giggling as she did so.
"Yeah, I did."
"Well you wanna know what?"
"What?"
"I killed my mommy too."
He raised his eyebrows at her. "You did? What did she-"
"Daddy!" Connor yelled, coming in and breaking up the conversation. He had his beagle Snoopy clutched tightly in his arms and he appeared to be very distressed about something. "That mean kitty growled at Snoopy!"
James raised his eyebrows. "You took Snoopy to meet Oxa?"
"Yes! I wants them to be friends but Oxa is MEAN!" Connor stomped his foot unhappily.
"Well keep Snoopy in the other room then," James replied. He really did not want the poor dog getting eaten by that cat. Connor was deeply attached to the animal and Thorn's pet would end up horribly murdered if the precious puppy was hurt.
Connor pouted his lips and growled before storming back out of the room. Mindy watched him go before looking up at James. "He acts like a baby," she said wisely.
"Yeah," James agreed. There was no denying that.
"Is he broken?"
"He's an incest baby," he said with a shrug. That was the only explanation he had for Connor's fucked up mental state.
"Incest baby?" Mindy asked with a wrinkled nose. "Why would you have sex with someone in your family? That's nasty!"
He chuckled before grabbing his wallet and taking a picture out of it. "This is Annabelle," he said, handing it over to her. "As for why it happened…well shit, that's just too complicated to get into."
Mindy looked at the picture carefully. Annabelle was sitting in a swing at the park, holding a two year old Cooper in her arms. Her pale skin contrasted sharply with her rich, dark brown hair and her smile showed just how much she had adored the baby in her arms. "She was pretty," Mindy admitted. She tilted her head to the side and started laughing. "Look at Cooper's hair! It was orange!"
James laughed too before taking the picture back and putting it away. "That's Mark's fault. He and Annabelle got friendly one night after drinking a whole bunch…actually that's the only time they really even liked each other. The rest of the time it was purely a hate/hate relationship." He looked away as Mark entered the room. "Marky!" He bounced over to his lover and hugged him tightly. "We're keeping Mindy."
Mark raised his eyebrows. "She ain't a dog Lawson. We can't just keep her. Besides, I think baby brother will have an objection to that." He pulled his phone out of his pocket and began playing the voicemail he had gotten.
"MARK!" Glen snarled, sounding positively enraged. "Mindy and the children are fucking gone! That bitch took them Lawson, I KNOW she did! Your boyfriend is DEAD when I get a hold of him!"
James tilted his head to the side and stared at the phone for a moment before laughing uncontrollably. So Glen wanted to kill him? Well they were just going to wait and see about that.