No Mercy

Chapter 15

The room is silent as everyone stares at our unexpected guests. The four members of the unit stand in a protective diamond around Ezra, but I'm unsure if they are trying to protect us from him or him from everyone else in the room. My eyes don't move from him for a solid minute, darting around his features to see if anything has changed in the 8 hours since I last saw him.

I never want him to leave our sight again. I ignore Najee as I avert my eyes from his intense gaze and look around the room for the first time since he showed up.

I didn't even notice that Deniel and Silas are both already on their feet and standing in front of the children laying on the floor, prepared to jump into action if need be. As I look around I see that all of the men in the room are on their feet, positioning themselves so that they can protect their wives, children, and siblings.

I force myself to relax, slackening my arms that have automatically crushed the twins to my chest in order to protect them, or maybe myself. I remind myself that this is what I wanted and draw a smile to my face as I address the room.

"Everyone it's all right," I try to laugh off the tension suffocating the room as I raise a spoon full of jambalaya to my mouth once more. I swallow the mouthful of food and immediately replace it with another, retrospectively wishing I had gotten a bigger spoon.

"I told them to come here. They're welcome guests," I mumble around the food in my mouth. Everyone turns to look at me, confused by the forced easiness in my tone.

"Wonderful!" My father lets out a booming laugh as he plops back onto his chair at the dining room table, reaching for another roll that is in the basket at the center of the table. "The more the merrier!"

Slowly people begin to take their seats and eat their food again, although Deniel and Silas remain standing in front of the kids on the floor. I tell them to sit down too and as they move to take their seats the silent conversations through the mind link start up.

Rylan what the hell is going on? Deniel asks as he tenses on the edge of the couch cushion, never taking his eyes off of Ezra.

Silas' questions are hot on his heels. Did you know this was going to happen? Why didn't you tell us about this beforehand? Do you really think this was the most appropriate time and place for this shit?

My father's tone is light and playful, despite the biting undertone of his words. When I told you to give the kid a chance I didn't mean to bring him to family dinner tonight. I was thinking more like, call him next week.

I ignore all of the voices coursing through my head and address the group that is still standing rigidly in the hallway.

"Please, all of you go fix yourselves a plate. The food is in the kitchen. Help yourselves." I point my empty spoon at the open doorway to the kitchen before I scoop up a helping of macaroni and cheese and shove it into my mouth. The group moves toward the kitchen in formation and the entire downstairs is silent except for the scrape of wooden utensils rubbing against the cast iron pots and pans.

Once they have all gotten something to eat they move as a group back into the main area. The woman to Ezra's left places a hand on his shoulder and directs him to the vacated couch on the opposite side of the sunken living room from where I am still sitting. As he walks his eyes never leave mine, allowing the woman to blindly direct him to a seat. A guard sits down on each side of him while the other two pull chairs up so they can sit down behind the sofa.

After a few moments, tentative conversations begin to pop up around the room as everyone tries to return to the way things were a few minutes ago. I look down and to my left when I feel Julian's hand tugging on my sleeve.