Here is my new chapter! I hope you enjoy it!
Melinda cradled her arm against her body and looked down at her smarting palm. She thought she saw a symbol shine on the surface, but she blinked and it disappeared. Gavin reached over for her hand and brushed his thumb over her palm.
"Are you ok?" He asked, rubbing her palm gently. The pain stopped almost instantly and Melinda frowned. She pulled her palm back to her face and looked at the surface.
"I don't know what happened," she said. "It just felt like electricity zapped it or something." She rubbed it again and nothing changed. It didn't hurt anymore and whatever she thought she saw wasn't reappearing. She thought that Gavin had gotten a little stiff next to her, but couldn't figure out why.
"Maybe it was static electricity," Gavin offered. He stood up from the bench and held out a hand to her. "I didn't realize how late it had gotten. Do you have time to get something to eat before work?" Gavin tried to remain calm and not act like anything odd had happened. He knew that they had not gotten to know each other well enough to explain his family and what they could do. Also, he hadn't asked permission to put the mark on her and he knew from his uncles that some of his aunts had not been pleased when it had all been explained to them.
Melinda looked up at him and didn't say anything for the longest moment. She also didn't reach out to take his hand immediately either and Gavin could feel a bead of sweat snake its way down his back. He kept a smile on his face and concentrated on not rubbing his left hand, which was currently itching like mad, on his leg.
Finally, Melinda reached up and took his hand and let him pull her off the bench. "I could eat," she slowly said.
Gavin smiled, leaned down and gave her a quick kiss. He kept hold of her hand as they walked back to his car. "Do you have anywhere in particular that you want to go to?"
Melinda shook her head, "I haven't tried anywhere in town really. Anywhere that you know has good food works for me."
She sneaked him a glance under her lashes as she buckled herself into the car. Melinda still wasn't sure what had happened on the swing or if anything had actually happened. She could have sworn it felt like magic, but Gavin wasn't acting unusual or that anything had happened. Melinda decided to put it on the back burner, but she definitely needed to look up the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter that she remembered from school. Even though he was not one of the daughters, he was still related and that bore more looking into.
They talked of inconsequential things as he drove to a small local restaurant that was well known for using local ingredients. It wasn't till they had been seated and were looking over the menu that Melinda broached a topic that had been in the back of her mind.
"I know that I mentioned that I don't date very often, but what about you?"
Gavin looked up from the menu and looked at her thoughtfully. "I don't want to upset you, but my parents have a lot to do with my romantic history and stuff."
Melinda raised her eyebrow as she drank some water. "Why would that upset me?"
"When you talked about your parents having a rough relationship, I didn't know how to respond because my parents have a very different relationship."
Melinda pursed her lips and thought for a moment before responding. "I know that my parents had a very different relationship than most people grow up watching and thinking is the norm. I want to hear about your parents and how they affected you. I want to learn more about you." She put her chin in her hands and leaned over to him.
Gavin paused as they gave their orders to the waitress and took a sip of water as he aligned his thoughts.
"You know that my mom is a recording artist, right?"
Melinda snorted, "Everyone in the world knows that Joley is a megastar recording artist. When she toured, everything sold out. My mom and aunts went to one of her concerts years ago."
Gavin laughed a little. "Right, duh. Well, my parents met when my dad was assigned to be her bodyguard after she had gotten some threats on one of her last tours before she had kids. They fell in love almost immediately." Gavin now wondered to himself if that was true. His brother had been born about 10 months after his dad had started protecting his mother and she had said last night that she had refused to talk to him for a year.
"They got married basically right when the tour ended and got pregnant with my eldest brother, Alexi, right away. I have never doubted that my parents loved each other and deeply. Even in the chaos of having seven sons that are pretty much within nine years of each other, I can remember my parents dancing around the kitchen together, laughing together, and just being together. They had their fights, everyone does, but I was never afraid that they would stop loving each other and being there for each other. It was a safe and secure way to grow up.
"It is also the reason that I have tried to keep out of deep relationships unless I thought they were going to last. I want what my parents have and I didn't want to settle for the first girl that I thought was pretty or that I had a connection with because I had romanticized what it could be like." Gavin laughed a little and dragged a hand through his hair. "Unfortunately, I think that means I went the full opposite direction and didn't date for a long time because I had actually romanticized that the perfect woman would just fall in my lap one day."
Melinda smiled at that and tucked her hair behind her ear. "I can understand trying to avoid doing one thing so you run full tilt in the opposite direction. It's not always the best decision either way."
Gavin reached over and gave her hand a gentle squeeze, "Well, hopefully we are both fixing those issues."
Melinda felt her heart squeeze a little at his words and her left hand, which was being held so gently by Gavin, started to faintly itch in the dead center of her palm. She had never felt such hope before on a date, even with talking about her parents and their issues she still felt so good and whole for once.
Melinda felt like she was walking on air as she came back into the house after Gavin dropped her off. It had been a wonderful first date, weird hand thing aside. She headed upstairs to her room to change for work. She knew that her cousins would be wanting an update, but she wanted to hug the memories to herself as long as she could.
Melinda was folding the sweater back onto the shelf in her closet when her school books caught her eye. She remembered that she wanted to look up the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter family or at least the lore around them.
"There is something in here about either them in general or a specific family," she muttered to herself as she dug through the shelf looking for the history and lineage books in the back. Her own family had several chapters on matriarch families and prophesied lines in witch families. She was paging past Melinda Warren and assorted relatives when Pepper came in.
"Have you seen the time?" Pepper was pulling on shoes with a purse dangling off her shoulder. She desperately wanted to ask about the date, but also knew that Melinda would have to bring the conversation around herself.
Melinda glanced at her watch and cursed, she was running super late and hadn't finished changing yet. "Remind me to read this later." She asked Pepper as she shoved the book to the side and dragged on a black work shirt.
Pepper tilted her head to the side and read the title. "Uh, we graduated school already. There is literally no need to read that again."
"I have a question that's been bugging me about seventh daughters of seventh daughters. I wanted to look it up while I was thinking about it. Didn't realize how late it was." Melinda hopped on one foot as she attempted to tug her shoes on as she went down the stairs.
"Anything to do with the Drakes?" Pepper asked as she followed her out to the car.
Melinda gave her a puzzled look, "How did you know it was them that I was curious about?"
Pepper rolled her eyes, "They are literally the only family that has seven daughters that we know. There are families of three galore, since it's a powerful number, but they are the only ones that have seven."
"Gavin walked me by their house," Melinda explained as she pulled into the club parking lot. "It's huge and something about it nudged at me. It had a similar feeling that the manor has, and it's also passed down in the family. The seventh daughter always lives there. It's just a little too much like us for me to ignore."
Pepper raised an eyebrow at her cousin, "Are things feeling more serious with Gavin now? Did you kiss him?"
Melinda blushed and refused to look at her cousin.
"You did! I am so proud of you!"
"I kiss guys," Melinda protested.
"You kiss short, safe guys or you kiss family friends like Ethan that don't feel that way about you. I can't think of a tall, sexy, slightly dangerous man that you have kissed ever!"
Melinda opened her mouth to protest that summation of her dating experience and shut it again before saying anything.
Pepper pointed a finger at her in triumph, "See, you can't think of a single guy to prove me wrong. That means that I'm right."
Melinda did what all Halliwells did when pressed about something they didn't want to talk about, she deflected. "Well. We were talking about his cousins and how they could be a seventh daughter line. We were not talking about Gavin and me kissing."
Pepper frowned and started stacking glasses behind the bar, "Are you that concerned about his family having magic? Are you feeling more serious about him?" Pepper regarded her cousin carefully. They had a long standing and well respected family rule about not using powers on each other, but she was so tempted to reach out with the cupid senses and see what was going on.
Melinda shook her head and started putting chairs back on the ground as she laughed a little. "We had a good first date and I really think I like him. It's more curiosity about his cousins than anything else. Besides," she said looking at her cousin more seriously. "Male lines don't have the powers that female lines do so even if they do have power, he won't."
Gavin and his brothers walked into Speakeasy to Me a little after 9pm that night. They all wanted to get another look at Melinda since Gavin had marked her that afternoon. Gavin had let it slip accidently to his brothers when he had dropped by the house looking for his dad. He had really wanted his advice on what to do now that he had marked her and still had not explained the family history and legacy to her. His father hadn't been home and all his brothers had immediately guessed why he was looking for their dad and had relentlessly asked until he had admitted he had put the mark on her palm.
More than anything else, the Prakenskii mark meant that she was the destined mate for him and the next mother of the seven sons. It simply wouldn't have taken to anyone else. Gavin didn't know that was the real reason they had come, he thought it was just a brother's night out and he had wanted to see Melinda again.
His head turned as they walked to a large enough table for all of them to sit together. Normally, she was walking the floor or by the band making sure everything was running smoothly, but tonight he didn't see her.
"There she is," Andrei laughed and bumped his shoulder. Gavin looked the way his brother was pointing and saw Melinda behind the bar mixing drinks. "I wonder what happened to her other bartender?" Andrei continued.
"She mentioned that one of them needed tonight off for a family event," Gavin responded. His eyes narrowed on Melinda as he watched her heft the large tray of drinks and start serving tables across the club. "She is supposed to have another waitress though."
The brothers were distracted from questioning the lack of staff by the arrival of Chris and Ethan.
"That one," Gavin gestured with his chin as he turned in his chair to have a better vantage point. "The taller blond one is the friend that Brody met. Ethan."
It was almost as if Ethan had heard him, though over the din of a crowded nightclub that didn't seem possible. But, his head swung in their direction and a sharp smile spread over his face as he saw Gavin and all his brothers. Ethan and Chris changed course and walked over to where Gavin and his brothers were.
"Hey, it's Gavin right?" Ethan shook his hand again and nodded at the brothers as Gavin made quick introductions. Chris had met almost all of them that worked with the Sheriff before. He introduced himself to Alexi, Nicolas, and Stephen who were the brothers that didn't.
"Would you like to join us?" Alexi asked. He wanted to get to know Melinda's brother better, especially since they were going to become family. There were also still a lot of question marks about the Halliwell family and maybe Chris would open up more in a casual setting.
Chris and Ethan exchanged quick glances. Ethan shrugged and Chris turned to the brothers.
"Sure, why not."
"How long are you planning on staying in town?" Gavin inquired.
"For a few days at least," Ethan answered. "I have some business to deal with for my family and I want to hang out and spend some time with my friends too." He reached over and clapped Chris on the shoulder. "Of course, I had no idea that Chris was injured as badly as this, so I'll probably stay a little longer than originally planned. Gotta help Christopher Robin get back on his feet." He laughed as Chris shook his head and muttered to himself.
"What kind of business is your family in?"
"Some real estate dealings. We own a great deal of land in Northern California and there are some talks about a developer wanting to buy it. My family is pretty opposed so I was sent up here to look at some other areas the developer has worked on and see what we could be getting into."
Gavin looked a little surprised at the answer. "That wasn't what I was expecting to hear. I thought maybe you were into restaurants and bars like the Halliwells."
Chris turned back from where he had been scanning the floor and keeping an eye on Melinda. "Ethan has been a family friend since we were all in school. That's how we all know each other, it's not from out parents working together or anything."
"Gotcha. Question," Gavin indicated Melinda with a tilt of his head. "She mentioned that she had a bartender that needed the night off for a family event. But why is she also bussing tables and delivering drinks?"
Chris grimaced, it was at moments like this that he desperately wished he hadn't hurt himself and could help her. "She had to fire Nicole, the waitress that dropped things. It had gotten to the point where Melinda was losing money every night she worked and it was killing the bar timing having to make drinks 2 to 3 times. So, until she hires someone to replace her, Melinda is basically filling in as a waitress. Pepper is helping too, but she wasn't expecting tonight to be as busy as it has gotten."
Gavin frowned and looked over the crowd that had gathered. He shoved his hand through his hair and tried to ignore the little itch that had sprung up as he had started to think about Melinda. He wanted to go over and grab a tray and start helping, but he didn't think that he would be welcome yet to do that with her.
Melinda eased down onto a chair behind the bar to give her feet a break. Firing Nicole had been the right decision, but she had forgotten how hard to it was to carry the heavy trays all night. Melinda made a mental note to check club profits and possibly give the staff a small raise or a bonus to show her appreciation, being down in the ditches with them had reopened her eyes to the work.
The club seemed to be a rousing success, most nights they were packed if not busy and even week nights when the community was naturally quieter they still had people coming in for the music and a bite to eat. She glanced over at the picture of her mother and traced a fingertip over Piper's smile. She knew in her heart of hearts that Piper was aware of what she was accomplishing and proud of it, but it couldn't stop the longing of being able to see her. Melinda wondered when the Elders would agree that they were ready to be able to summon her spirit and see her. Grams still popped by fairly often, and Grandma had been known to summon herself when she thought they needed a kick in the pants, but never Piper.
With a little sigh Melinda stood back up and started checking trays of drinks for what needed to be taken to tables. She heard a little cheer go up over at the darts area and glanced over. To her shock she saw Chris and Ethan playing darts with the Prakenskii brothers. She squinted to see the score and rolled her eyes that Chris and Ethan were winning, she would bet her last dollar that either Chris was cheating with telekinesis or Ethan was using werewolf reflexes. Since one of the drink orders was for that group she hefted the tray and headed over.
Melinda arrived right as the current game was ending and the brothers were muttering about how Chris and Ethan were too good.
"I was literally raised in a bar," was the explanation that Chris was attempting to use as she arrived. Melinda raised an eyebrow at that, but didn't say anything that could raise more questions and started handing out drinks.
"Are you as good as he is?" Andrei demanded as he accepted his beer.
"I actually don't know. Chris refuses to bet with people anymore so we haven't played a darts game in years."
"What would you bet on?" Gavin wanted to know.
"Uh, little things like chores or pocket money for gas and stuff. Grandpa caught us once betting on doing homework or something for each other and he got really upset so we stopped." Melinda looked over at Chris and they both laughed.
"Well, Chris has beat us every turn so how about we make a bet with you?" Andrei smiled a little and held out a dart.
"What do I win?" Melinda asked, she laughed and shifted the still mostly full tray of drinks to her left hand.
"How about if you make it closer than Gavin he makes you dinner and if he gets closer you make him dinner." Gavin turned in his seat and looked at his brother closely. Why was he pushing this bet? Gavin was a good shot with the dart, but he really hadn't been playing with them.
"Deal, but Gavin has to go first," Melinda stepped back and still holding the tray waited for Gavin to take his shot.
Gavin gave his brother another inquiring look, but took the pro-offered dart. Stephen and Brody sent him thumbs up and Gavin realized that his brothers assumed he would win and use this as a chance to spend more time with her. He stepped to the line and debated on whether or not to use his gifts to make the dark sink into the center and not lose in front of his brothers.
Gavin threw the dart and just nudged it a little with his mind, dinner was on the line after all and he couldn't cook worth a damn. It sank in just a little left of center and his brothers all cheered. He turned and gave Melinda a little smile as he moved so she could step up to the board.
"I hope you can cook, Melinda," Brody casually shouted out.
Melinda shook her head and turning to smile at Gavin threw the dart without looking at the board. It hit the dead center. Gavin could feel his jaw drop open, he turned and saw his brothers with similar expressions.
"I hope you can cook, Gavin." With that, Melinda dropped off the rest of the drinks and headed back to the bar.
"And that, is why I don't bet anymore," Chris said with a grin. "If I was raised in a bar then obviously she was too and now she owns one. You can't bet against the house."
Ethan laughed and stood up. "Well, gentlemen after that I think I'll take my leave. There's a beautiful woman that I saw that is calling my name." He turned to Chris, "I'll come back and pick up Melinda if you ride home with Pepper and Primrose." Chris nodded and Ethan waved a goodbye to the other men before turning and disappearing into the crowd.
"I can take Melinda home," Gavin offered. It had made him jealous, that casual statement of taking Melinda home. It reminded him that while he had managed to put his mark on Melinda's hand, they were not actually a firm couple in any sense yet.
"Ethan probably already has her keys. She had mentioned it was stuttering or something and Ethan wanted to take a look at it earlier. If he strikes out with the girl he might tinker with it to save face." Chris quickly said. He didn't want any questions of where Ethan was actually going or what he was actually doing.
In reality, there was no beautiful woman in particular that Ethan was looking for. He needed a reasonable excuse, especially since those Prakenskii men seemed to be more aware of their surroundings than others that he had met. Ethan had been tracking the rogue werewolf and was pretty sure he knew where he was going to be holed up for the night. The longer the rogue was wandering the woods the more chances he had to simply disappear and escape Pack Law.
Ethan slipped out the side door that Melinda had pointed out to him earlier. His bike was back at her house since he didn't need it where he was going tonight. He had already folded his jacket and tucked it in the bag Melinda had thoughtfully left for him and was about to pull off his shirt when the door swung open. He hastily tugged the shirt back down and pulled his phone out of his jeans pocket to seem like he was finishing a phone call. He glanced behind him and it was the club chef, Camille coming out with a bag of trash. Ethan made a show of saying goodbye to the nonexistent caller and shoving his phone away.
"I would have taken that out for you," he stated. He needed her to go back inside quickly.
"Oh, I didn't realize that you could…." Camille stopped and stared at this random hot guy that was standing out the back of the club.
"Sorry," Ethan offered a crooked smile and took the bag from her hand. "I'm Ethan Woolton, a family friend of Melinda's. I'm staying in town for a few days to hang out and catch up, normally end up helping at one of the clubs. I should have had Melinda introduce me to all the staff so I don't look like a weirdo hanging around."
"Oh, my cousin mentioned meeting you earlier. Brody Prakenskii, the sheriff's deputy. Well, I'll let you take care of the trash then." She gave a quick small smile and headed back inside.
Ethan smiled back until the door shut behind her. Heaving a sign he tossed the trash in the dumpster and quickly stripped. Summoning the wolf to the front of his mind, he stretched and transformed. The change was quick now that he was older and as part of him as the color of his eyes or his favorite food. He shook off the encounter and raced into the woods.
Camille shook her head as she opened the door back up, "Hey, I realized the door was locked from the inside…" Camille frowned as she realized that no one was there. "Maybe he walked around to the front," she muttered to herself. Glancing around one last time to make sure, she slowly shut the door again and walked back to the kitchen.
Ethan stopped at a stream that ran through the woods and crouched to wash the blood off his hands. The quietness of the forest surrounded him like a balm. There were times were being the Pack Enforcer pressed on him like bricks, weighing him down with guilt and despair. His father, his family depended on him to watch for danger and to remove any that presented itself, but if he allowed it that responsibility could become a dark cloud. This was one of the reasons that he had yet to settle down and find a mate, he didn't know how to not bring this back with him every day or every night. If she was mortal there were certain things that she would never really be allowed to know, and if she was a wolf there was sure to be a time that he had to enforce on someone that she cared for or knew. He had known that this would be his job and his life since he was a teenager, but it wasn't making it any easier to continue with.
The hoot of owls in the trees made him relax and release the tension that had tightened his shoulders and back. He opened the pouch that he had kept around his neck and dropped the four canine teeth in it to send back to his father. All things in the pack had a certain amount of ceremony attached, his father claimed it was to separate them from the animals they were all close to becoming. The teeth would be locked up and if needed for a lesson to impart to younger wolves, brought out to show that the Law was real and taken very seriously. They also made sure to never keep evidence like that on the enforcer or any of their bags.
Ethan turned and surveyed the rogue werewolf where he was tied to a tree. The man growled at him, bared his teeth, such as they were, and struggled against the neat knots that Ethan had made. He walked over and crouched in front of him, he waited until the werewolf had ceased his struggles and was looking at him.
"You have broken the laws and the Alpha has found you guilty. By the authority that rests in him to protect both Pack and the humans that live around us, he decreed that you were to lose your teeth. Furthermore, if there are any other attacks made by you on either wolf or human, you will face the ultimate sentence of death. This was already stated before punishment was enacted, but is stated again to make you fully aware of the repercussions of your actions. Do you understand?"
For a long moment Ethan thought the wolf wasn't going to respond. According to the Law, he had to at least show that he understood that he wasn't out of danger yet and his actions were still being taken account of. Ethan would make him respond if need be.
Finally, with blood dripping from his mouth, the wolf curled a lip in anger. "I understand."
Ethan nodded and cut the ropes that bound him to the tree and tossed them back to the tent that the rogue had been sleeping in. "I will be staying in the area for a while, make sure to stay on your best behavior."
Ethan walked away into the deeper trees and kept an eye on him for a little while. The rogue had immediately dug out a bottle of alcohol and rinsed out his mouth before drinking some. He muttered and tidied up the camp before rolling into the pile of blankets still cursing Ethan's dad's name.
Ethan transformed again and headed back to the club. He was under no illusions that the rogue would simply leave it at drinking and cursing, but his ability to bite and transform people was done. What the lore and movies tended to get wrong was it wasn't the bite itself that changed people, it was the canines in particular puncturing and spreading the werewolf gene or mutation into the blood stream. That was why so many people didn't survive the bite, it literally wasn't something that their bodies were built to handle.
He checked the parking lot and surrounding sidewalks around the club before trotting over to the bag that he had left his clothes in. Ethan grabbed it with his teeth and carried it back into deeper shadows before transforming again and pulling his clothes back on. He pulled out his phone and texted his dad.
Rogue taken care of and warned. Sending package tomorrow morning.
He checked the time and headed back into the club to get Melinda and help her clean up before driving her home.
Melinda hummed to herself as she harvested vegetables from her garden. The last few days had passed in a happy blur, Gavin and she had gone on more dates, the club was doing really well and Chris was healing. Tonight was when Gavin had to cook her dinner since she had won the bet. Melinda couldn't remember the last time she had been so happy and settled around a guy. Her palm seemed to itch at weird moments and she had taken to rubbing it on her jeans to relieve the itch. She also thought she had heard Gavin's voice at moments that he couldn't have been around her, but she was trying to just ignore that and enjoy the life she was living.
They were still reaching the demon that had attacked Chris, but since it could take any face it was harder than expected to prepare to vanquish it. Poppy and the twins had been reading the Book of Shadows and FaceTiming them to talk about theories and ideas, but nothing concrete had come of it. Chris pointed out that without him at 100% anyway they couldn't take on the demon easily.
Wyatt had gotten caught up in a last minute emergency on his project in Africa, since they weren't being attacked openly they had managed to settle him down and convince him to stay and see his project through.
Melinda wanted to put all of that out of her mind, she wanted to simply enjoy her new relationship, her successful club, and the fact that she had her favorite people living with her at the moment.
She glanced up at footsteps and smiled as Ethan settled down next to her, her smile quickly disappeared when she saw his face. "What's wrong?"
Ethan signed and stole a cucumber out of the basket, taking a bite right out of it. "State police are officially investigating the attack on the rogue with the help of the local sheriff's office." He mumbled around the food in his mouth. He stared off for a minute and swallowed before speaking again. "My dad wants me to continue to stay and hang out. Make sure the rogue doesn't attempt to name me or press charges. We're surprised that he's cooperating with the police to begin with, normally wolves, especially rogues avoid cops."
Melinda's lips firmed into a line, this was not the outcome they had been hoping for. They weren't sure how, the rogue had been living deep in the woods when Ethan had found him and administered pack justice, but the sheriff's office had found him. The rogue had been taken to the hospital and since his teeth had been removed recently the cops had started an investigation. Luckily, Ethan had already mailed the teeth to his father and they had gone through all his things to make sure there wasn't any blood anywhere.
"Has this ever happened before?" she asked.
"Not to my knowledge or my dad's. We avoid outsiders as much as possible," he elbowed her gently. "Present company excluded of course."
Melinda rolled her eyes and got to her feet. "Well, if you're staying you can have the upstairs guest room then. Pepper and Primrose are heading home today."
Ethan rose to his feet and took the heavy basket out of her hand. "Really? Why are they heading back?"
"Chris can get around on his own now and doesn't need as much help. His appointments are at the same time every day and I can drive him since he booked for when I was awake and not working. They also need to get back and work at their own jobs. No one expected them to stay for nearly a week." They walked back into the kitchen and Ethan grabbed a beer as Melinda cleaned her vegetables.
"I'm staying until the investigation is closed and the rogue is on his way. So, if you need help," Ethan trailed off and Melinda smiled at him.
"I know I can always count on you." Her palm tingled as she said it and she rubbed it on her jeans without thinking.
"Hey, you've been doing that a lot recently." Ethan observed.
"Doing what?" Melinda looked over at him perplexed.
"The hand thing, you've been scratching or rubbing at your palm a lot. Did you get poison ivy or something?" Ethan reached out to take a look and was surprised when Melinda stuck her hand behind her back.
"It's fine. It's not a rash or anything, just feels itchy sometimes. No biggie."
Ethan's eyebrows shot up at that, but he nodded and finished his beer in silence. He remembered that she had started doing that after her first date with Gavin. He didn't know much about magic or anything, but he knew there was more than meets the eye with that man and his family. They bore looking into at this point.
I hope you enjoyed it! Big action and confessions in the next chapter. Till then!