Page 24 of Little Fury

” You shower first.” I nod, not bothering to inform him I had no intention of not showering first.

The morning comes way too early.“7 a.m., time to get up,”Harry announces from my door as he flips my light on. I flop over and bury my face in my pillow, and groan. I hear Harry at Marcus’s door. Marcus is less polite than I am. I hear something hit the hallway wall.“You’ve got a good arm there. Now please get the fuck up. Beth has breakfast almost ready.” Harry calls out to us with way too much enjoyment.

I drag myself from bed, less sore than I was expecting to be. My abs hurt like I’ve never felt before, but the rest of me isn’t too bad. I head into the bathroom to brush my teeth and pee. Marcus knocks, walks in and joins me at the sink. We have our morning routine down pretty well, so sharing the bathroom never really bothers us.

I return to my room, throw on some sweats and a T-shirt and head down the stairs for breakfast. The minute I hit the first step, every bit of yesterday's lesson comes back to me, and my legs almost give out. I have to grab the banister to stop from falling. I laugh at myself because my legs hurt so bad I can’t really hold myself up. Then I laugh harder becauselaughing hurts my abs so much, I have tears in my eyes.This is going super well.I slowly make my way down the stairs, I’m almost at the bottom when I hear Marcus squeak behind me as he hits the first step. Satisfaction rolls through me at the sound. I may love Marcus, but I’m not above wanting him to hurt as much as I do.

I sit at the island, resting my head on my knuckles, watching Beth flit around the kitchen finishing up the food for us. Marcus joins me at the island and mimics my position. Harry is reading the paper, sitting in his usual spot. Today is eggs, bacon and potatoes.

Taters if you’re the Scotsman to my left.

Fresh fruit and toast, as well as Beth’s homemade jam. She places everything but the eggs on the table.“Sorry, Beth, I should be helping you.” I move to get up, noting Marcus doesn’t.

“Nope, you sit; I got this,”she tells me with a wink.

We start to fill our plates, and Beth comes to each of us and puts freshly cooked eggs on them. She finishes cooking her eggs, then sits and joins us. We eat in relative silence for a bit.

“How are you two feeling today?”he asks us, no mocking in his voice.

“Oh, today you care?”Marcus asks Harry and I whip my head towards him, surprised by the tone.

“Let's get a couple of things straight right now, kids,”our guardian starts.“You two have been here long enough now to have at least a small idea of what it is I do, and what this Ranch is for. Yes?”

Marcus and I nod and mumble yes, food still in our mouths.

“Good, so I don't need to explain that part to you? You are aware I train people to steal things, I train them to use guns, knives, explosives and many other things all designed tocause damage, maim or kill?”He pauses again, waiting for us to acknowledge his words. We nod.“You’re aware that Parker trains people on the computer side of things? Hacking, coding, bypassing computerized locks and scanners?”

“Yes,” I say.

“Yes,” Marcus tells him.

“Ok, so I’m going to assume you also know people here are trained in hand-to-hand combat?”Harry says, looking at us.

Both of us nod back at him.

“Amazing. Now, have both of you pieced together why you were sent here?”Harry demands.

We’re silent. Beth is just looking back and forth at all of us.

“They're only twelve. Maybe…”

Harry turns to Beth. All of his usual playfulness when he talks to her is missing.“Beth.” she glares at him.“I agree they’re only twelve. I had hoped to have at least two more years before training started, but Enzo fucked that up for everyone here.” He pinches the bridge of his nose, something he only does when he is trying not to yell.“Enzo demanded Marcus start training now. Yuri also thought it was time. Enzo demanded that since he was paying for him to live here, he should have gotten so much more back on his investment at this point.”

“I thought that you ran everything autonomously.”Beth questions.

“I do. Every contract states my word is law. But Marcus and Ava aren’t my typical students, so concessions had to be made on my part in order to keep him here. Enzo wanted to keep him, hire some random assholes to teach him what he was paying me to teach. I was having none of that.” Harrys worked up now, and his accent is getting thicker with every word.

“We have strayed from the topic at hand. Where you twoare concerned, I’m being strongly persuaded to start training you now. The fact that Parker has been slowly teaching you guys things over the last few years is apparently not enough. So as of yesterday, you have both officially joined the program.”Harry says looking resigned to all of this.

“I made my own requests and stipulations. Enzo and your grandfather accepted them. You will both still attend school like normal. You need to be able to hold normal conversations, you need to be able to hide in plain sight with the regular folk and I have no desire to teach either of you calculus, nor do I feel comfortable having a teacher who isn’t part of this world here at the ranch daily teaching you. So, after school and on weekends you will train. You will train with me, Parker, Theo, Wes and Carter. You will train a bit from time to time with Sebastian, but honestly, till you guys are older, I’d rather keep that crazy fucker as far away from you as possible, and Ava, you will be seeing a lot of Miss Bennett.

“Questions? Concerns? Observations?”He asks the last one directly at me.

I smile despite the life-changing announcement he just dropped on us. “Not really an observation but more of a question: who is Miss Bennett? And why will I be spending time with her and not Marcus?”I ask with a bit of a smile.

“Because she instructs females only. She teaches them female things,” he tells me.

“Well, that clears it up for me, thanks.” I shake my head.

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