The Reckless And The Brave

An Old Married Couple... Or Three

Emily's POV

"Okay, I'm putting my foot down," Asher announced. "We are way too old for this."

"So what do you want to do, bring the kids out here to fight our battles for us?" I demanded. "I don't think so."

"That's not what I said." He rolled his eyes. "Next time that guy calls, I'm not going."

"No need to pout," Tatum laughed, looking at Asher, who had his arms crossed. "I'll go if he calls again. This is kind of fun."

"Almost killing each other is fun?" Spence exploded. "I'm sorry, what about that is fun?"

"Um, the lifetime protection bit?" She arched an eyebrow at him.

"Okay, we're getting nowhere by arguing about it," I cut in. "Come on, they're here." We hid in the bushes together, trying our best to stay out of sight.

"All right, let's... pray they don't have bombs or something," Jake whispered from behind me.

"Honey, there's one thing I get on my knees for and that's not it," I muttered under my breath. Asher's face went bright red, and he stomped on my foot. "Hey. Don't injure me before a fight."

"Don't say things like that in front of a kid," he shot back.

"Um, actually, I'm thirty—" Jake started, but we cut him off.

"Shh," we both hissed at him.

"I can say whatever the hell I want to say," I told him, crossing my arms.

"We are going to talk about this later," he ordered.

"What, in the family discussion? Who gave you the power to do that anyway?"

"You made me a father, so looks like it was you."

"Whatever. Fuck off," I spat, turning away from him.

"You're already arguing like an old married couple," Ryder teased.

We glared at him. "We are an old married couple," Asher and I said simultaneously. But before we could get another word out, we all flinched at the sound of a gun going off.

"That was a warning," a female voice called. "Wherever you are, you can come out now and we can solve this problem like the adults we are."

"Are we classified as adults?" I asked quietly. No one responded. We all just sort of... looked at Spence.

"What the fuck are you looking at me for?" he demanded, voice still hushed.

"You know I can hear you, right?" the voice called. I sighed, rolling my eyes and popping out of the bushed.

"What do you want?" I asked, crossing my arms. I was so done with this shit. I wanted to go home.

"I'm assuming you know what our original goal was," she said. The army behind her looked intimidating, but I wasn't scared. I didn't know how that life protection thing worked, but those guys had to save us if things went wrong. "So you can imagine how disappointed we were when we got to the palace, only to find no one there."

"You want the king and queen," I realized.

"Emily, if they shoot you, I'm gonna kill you—"

"Shut up," I hissed at Asher. "I got this."

"Yes, you're correct," the woman said, with a slight smirk on her face. "And if you give us them, no harm will come to you, or anyone else for that matter."

Suddenly, Spence rose up and stood next to me. "Fuck you," he spat, pointing a finger at her. "Those are my parents you're trying to kidnap. And they might love my wife more than me, but I still love them. So there."

"You can't have them," Tatum said as she stood.

"Oh? And why is that?" the woman asked.

"They're a lot more than just royalty," Asher explained, coming to stand on the other side of me. "They're parents for all of us. Grandparents to our kids. And I'm not expecting you to understand or have any feelings about this at all, but I am expecting you to take your very intimidating-looking army and turn the hell around."

Ryder and Jake popped us well. "Yeah," Ryder added. "Everything that they said. Except better."

"Me too," Jake said, which didn't really make any sense but no one questioned it.

"Looks like we have something to fight over then," she decided, crossing her arms. Her army began advancing, and we all looked at each other. None of us was panicking. We were ready.

Camille's POV

"If they die, I'll never forgive myself," I muttered, pacing the floor in front of Malakai and our grandparents.

"It won't be your fault, darling," Grandma said softly. "They're just looking out for you. Besides, they're very good at this sort of thing."

"How—why—-when—"

"Save it for the family discussion," Malakai said, almost laughing.

"Uh oh," Grandpa chuckled. "Your dad is having another one of those, is he?"

"How'd you know it was him?" Malakai asked.

"Sweetheart, no one else cares that much," Grandma laughed.

"Ahhhh!"

Suddenly, the door burst open and Dad appeared in front of me, followed by everyone else. "Camille. You need to move," he ordered.

"Which way?" I asked, eyes wide.

"Um. I don't know. Go hide. We're leading them into a trap." And then he was gone. Malakai and our grandparents went off to hide somewhere, as everyone else had already done.

"They don't have a trap set up," I whispered to Malakai.

"Something tells me they know this place a little to well," he responded, wrapping his arms around me. I melted into him, and he pressed a kiss to my head.

"When did this happen?" Grandma asked, smiling.

"About twenty minutes ago," I replied.