Page 4 of Shattered

Mackenzie stood off to the side, proud of his growing family, and took another sip of his coffee. “It’s going to be a good day.”

“Hey Charis—” Riley stepped into the kitchen. “Oh, my God! They’re so adorable.” She went straight to Julius and Fern. “Whose idea was this?”

Mikey peeked over at Riley and gave her a toothy grin. “Mine.”

“I love it. They’re so cute.”

“Babies,” Liam muttered. “Makes everyone lose their dang mind.”

Mackenzie snorted. For as much bluster as the boy had, he didn’t mean a word of it. He’d had his eyes on the twins since the moment they were born. “All right now, if you don’t get going, you’re all going to be late.”

“Shoot!” Charisma sighed as she picked up the twins’ car seats. “We’ll see you after school. If you need anything, just call.”

Mackenzie handed Liam and Riley their lunches. “I know. Have a good day, pups.”

He followed them out the door and waved when Charisma’s mini-van pulled away. Mackenzie let out a breath and trudged back inside. He didn’t have time to wallow in his self-pity. He had to meet Rapier at a new site near the edge of the county.

With the success of the apartments in Massachusetts, Rapier wanted to experiment in Window Rock as well. Lucky for him, a few weeks ago, a developer picked out a site and opened it up for bidding.

Rapier jumped on it.

The eldest Dryer won the contract, and today, they were going to stake out the foundation. The quickness of it all, surprised Mackenzie. There were several steps that needed to be complete before they could even think to frame out the grounds, however a leveling crew had already been out there and had given them a nice-size pad of land to work off. The developer had a good feeling about the area.

Rapier agreed.

Mackenzie grabbed his lunch pail and thermos then headed back out the door to his truck. As he pulled out of the driveway, he looked at the house and wondered if he should sell it and find a new place to call home. There were too many memories in that place. Some were good. The majority of them were bad. He hated the idea of uprooting the kids, but even if they didn’t think he watched them while they were in Everett, he did. They were freer there. He liked to think it was because they were pretending to be someone else, but he knew it was due to them being away from the house they called home.

Because, he felt it, too.

Even with Charisma and Royce trying to navigate their relationship, being in Everett had been liberating. There were no memories to haunt them there. There was no negativity. Staring at the olive-green and white façade of the house he’d lived in for far too long, the place was saturated in negativity. Maybe, his family needed a new start. A new home to make happy memories in.

While Mackenzie drove to the new site, he tried to run the numbers. Between the money he’d saved up over the last year while working in Massachusetts and the little bit he’d put back over the last ten years, he could swing a down payment on a new or newer home. What he couldn’t do was pay two mortgages. He huffed a curse. He couldn’t even put them into an apartment while he sold the house. It would eat up the savings he had.

For now, they were stuck while he looked for a new place to call home.

Mackenzie turned off the main road and followed the development signs. When he pulled up to the parcel of land, Rapier and Saber were already there along with Kalkin, Jerome, and Christoph. Mackenzie narrowed his eyes. The boy was still wet behind the ears when it came to being the Alpha of his budding family. So, it begged the question, why was he there?

He got out of the truck and grabbed his shit before strolling over to the waiting group. Mackenzie took in their posture. Every one of them was tense, poised to pounce on whatever might be lurking. He didn’t like it. After all the shit they’d been through, he hoped to have a quiet rest of his life. He wanted to raise his kids and watch his grandchildren grow. He was done with messing with things he had no concern for.

“Morning,” Kalkin said.

“Morning.” Makenzie nodded. “Did you bring donuts?”

His brother laughed. “Nope. Keeley put me on a diet.”

Mackenzie snorted. “Sure, she did.”

“It’s a fish diet. All I can eat.” Kalkin grinned.

Rapier groaned. “Jesus, it’s never ending with you.”

“Sure ain’t.” He motioned for Mackenzie to join them. “We have something we need to discuss and, since there isn’t shit for miles, this is the perfect place.”

So much for living out his days in peace. “What happened this time?”

Christoph stood a little taller, and the frown between his brows deepened. “We have a problem.”

When didn’t they? Window Rock, in the last eleven years, had been a hotbed of things going wrong or things happening. Somedays, he wished he’d never told Rapier where he came from let alone returned. He had a feeling today he’d be regretting it more. “Great.”

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