Page 22 of Little Fury

“AVA!!!! I understand you're worried, but there is no reason for you to swear,”she scolds me.

“Sorry,” I mumble.

I pick up the book I was reading last night and try to get lost in the story, but my brain is not cooperating. When I’m just about to throw the book across the room, we see headlights on the road. I run out of the house to greet the guys.

Marcus opens the door of the truck before it even comes to a full stop. He runs to me, hugging me hard. And I return it just as fiercely.“I missed you!”I tell him.

“I missed you,”he tells me with his head buried in my neck.

We turn to head to the house“Hi, Harry,”I call back to him.

“Hello, Ava.”Harry says as he grabs the bags from the back of the truck and follows us towards the house.

We walk into the house just as Beth pulls dinner from theoven.“Perfect timing, guys. Sit down; dinner is ready.”

We all sit in our usual spots and begin filling our plates. Once our plates are full and we’ve started eating, I look over at Marcus.“So? How was it? Bad? Good? Way worse, way better?”

“It was fine. But that’s only because my mother's family was there so my father was on his best behavior. You were right, Harry. They had no idea he had threatened to kill me but instead sent me here.”

“Did you tell them?”Harry asks Marcus.

“Nah, my dad will get his when it's time. And it will be me who delivers it, no one else,” he says. The words sound like a vow.

I catch the look between the adults, but I don’t care I’m just too focused on having him back.

After dinner we head up to my room to talk.

“So? How was it really?"I ask him.

“It was fine, honestly. I barely saw my dad and his new wife and son. I spent the majority of the time with my mother’s family. The trip back to New York was the worst of it. My dad drilled it into me that I was to tell them I chose to live here at the ranch. Because the training Harry provides is invaluable.”

“But how do they not know? How has no one let it slip that your father is a piece of shit?”I ask him, genuinely curious.

“Simple. With my mom dead and me being 12, who is going to have contact with them? The Russians here are more worried that the Sokolov’s will decide to move here and take everyone out so they can run things. So, no one was ever going to give them a reason to pay closer attention to the world over here.”

“That makes sense, but how does someone like your father have so much luck?“

“No idea.”

“So, what did you do all week?"I ask.

“A lot of things with my mom’s family. I stayed with them at the hotel, had all my meals with them. I spent a lot of time with my cousin Alexi. He’s four years older than me, but he was cool. My grandfather asked me many questions about what I was doing here. If I truly wanted to be at the ranch. They also asked if I wanted to return to Russia with them.”

I look over at him, panicking for a moment that he would leave me for good.

“Relax. I have no desire to go to Russia. I think the winter here is shit enough that I have zero interest in living through a Russian one.” he says,“But really, I had fun. It was nice feeling like I had family again.”His words sting a bit.

“You’re my family, Ava, but this was blood.”

I don’t understand the distinction between the two, so I smile and nod. We talk for a while longer, Marcus telling me how cool Alexi is, about everything he did with his grandfather. I don’t know what it is; I have no explanation other than a feeling but there’s a shift with us. It's slight, and I can’t put into words what it is, but our bond is different somehow.

When Marcus goes to his room to sleep, I stay up for a bit thinking about what he told me—how much it meant to him to have blood relations. As far as I'm aware, I have no blood relations anywhere. It's why I ended up here and not with them—or at least no blood relations that want me. I have no idea if I’m just being sensitive to Marcus being so happy with his family, but either way, something feels different to me.

The next morning, Harry was at the kitchen table waiting for us. Beth had made some pancakes, but she was nowhere to be seen. I knew the minute I stepped into the kitchen that I was right; something had changed.

“Eat up, guys. We have some stuff to do.” His voice seems to be missing his usual undercurrent of amusement.Once we’re done eating Harry tells us to head up and get changed.

Wear things we can exercise in.

---