Page 7

“Guys,” Zack remonstrated and stood up, pulling out a chair next to him. The girl let go of him, skipped to Zack and held up her hand for a high five, which Zack immediately did. “Good job, Martha.” Martha carried on and took a seat between a slightly older girl and a teenager he recognized from the same high school.

“Mo,” Zack prodded. “Come and sit. You must be starving.” Conversation started up again. “Eat, and I’ll introduce my crazy family.”

Mo walked to the seat and sat down, smiling politely at everyone. A younger woman turned from the counter and grinned. “Coffee?”

He nodded gratefully. Zack nodded to the cream and sugar in front of him, and she put a mug of coffee down in front of him. “I’m Cassie. Zack and Riley are my brothers.” He smiled hello and introduced himself as Mo.

“Daddy?”

Mo glanced at Zack, who had turned to his other side at the sound and watched as Zack got the little boy some milk and cut up a pancake.Daddy?This was Zack’s son? He gazed in confusion. This was the weirdest shit he’d ever seen. It was like being in some alternate dimension. Because he absolutely knew he’d been here for more than one night for his injuries to heal, which meant somehow, and he had no idea how, it looked like he’d been kidnapped by the freakin’ Brady Bunch.

He took a sip of coffee to try to cover his confusion, then Zack groaned and at least six of the men all looked at the double doors. He followed their gaze to see what they had heard that he obviously hadn’t and gaped at the gorgeous man who strode through the doors as if he owned the place.

“Victor,” Zack nearly growled the name. Victor came to a stop and simply stared at Mo. Mo couldn’t have looked away if his life depended on it. Bad analogy, Mo admitted, because the man fairly oozed danger.

The woman—Cassie—with the coffee rolled her eyes, murmured something about men and pushed a mug into his hands. “It’s just coffee, but you can get extra testosterone at the table.”

Quite a few of them chuckled. Mo didn’t. Zack didn’t, and Victor didn’t seem to either. Mo looked from one to the other, recognizing the apparent dislike and, yeah, challenge almost. They both looked at him, and Mo sighed. He had no idea what was going on, but these two clearly didn’t like each other, and somehow he had managed to get in the middle of that.

Could his life get any more complicated?

Mo watched as Victor accepted a coffee from Cassie with a tight if polite smile, then he got distracted as three different people all passed him huge platters of food, introduced themselves, and carried on talking as if nothing unusual was happening. Mo smiled back and insisted everyone call him Mo. Zack kept trying to tempt him with different things he kept refusing until Martha, who kept sneaking looks at him, put down her fork and sighed. She pushed her plate over. “Are you sad ‘cause all the chocolate chip pancakes are gone?” She beamed. “You can share mine. I don’t mind.”

Mo had to swallow particularly hard, feeling a little foolish if incredibly confused. He shook his head but politely thanked her, then decided to help himself to a blueberry one, then added syrup and a couple of strips of bacon. Zack topped Mo’s coffee up as if it was a normal everyday occurrence.

“What’s everyone got going on today?” An older man—Christopher, he thought his name was—asked everyone.

“I’m meeting Shelly at the mall and staying over at hers tonight,” Cassie said brightly. Mo nearly laughed when he saw about six pairs of male eyes all stare at her disapprovingly. Christopher’s eyes narrowed. “I’m going to need you to call me in view of—” he stopped. He didn’t look at Mo, but Mo knew he’d second guessed what he was about to say because Mo was there.

“We’re staying in, Dad,” Cassie said and took her own empty plate to the sink. “Boys, you’re on cleanup.” Alex, Tyler, a young man he thought was called Mac who looked to be in his late teens, plus a younger one that looked about ten, all groaned, but stood obligingly and headed to the sinks. Shocked, Mo kept quiet and thanked Tyler when he took his empty plate away.

“Who’s got homework to finish before school tomorrow?”

Tomorrow? So it was Sunday? This was getting weirder and weirder. Christopher asked again. There was another round of groans, but Tyler met Christopher’s gaze.

“I was going to go ask Luke for some help.” He sounded embarrassed and shot Mo a look. He knew some of Tyler’s background. He’d been located a year ago when his parents had died, and Mo believed his brother was his guardian. Tyler hadn’t had much of any schooling, and he’d been home-schooled for a year before coming to the high school. Mo looked around, doubting if one of the guys was his brother, then caught himself and cringed. He knew better. Hewasbetter. Just because Tyler’s skin color differed from the other men sitting around the table did in no way mean he wasn’t their brother.

“You okay?”

Mo looked over at Zack and noticed a few people had left. He nodded because he couldn’t give him any other answer. The boys made quick work of the plates. Christopher stood and held out his hand for Zack’s son, swept a giggling Martha up, and another little girl called Beth eagerly joined him.

“How about we go see if Shay wants to play hide and seek for a while? I’m pretty sure we could gather up another few stragglers who didn’t want to get up for breakfast this morning.”

Martha giggled. “Kaiden, an’ Kaia, an’ Dakota, an’ Grayson, an’ Harlowe.”

“When’s Isaac and Zane coming home?” Beth asked.

Mo tried not to gape. Exactly how many people lived here?

Christopher chuckled. “Next Saturday. Stop wishing their vacation over.” He gathered up the kids, then glanced over at the boys. “We can catch a game later if anyone’s interested?” They all enthusiastically agreed, then Christopher swept the little ones out. After another moment, all four boys left as well. Which left Mo with Victor, Zack, and Riley. He wasn’t too thrilled and was waiting for the questions to start.

“You have a lot of kids.” Mo commented, half in awe.

Zack chuckled. “Well, Mattie’s mine. Riley over there has two. My other brother Asher, who’s on vacation with his husband, has three. The other three boys Mac, Alex, and Jamie came to us as foster children, but are now officially adopted along with Mac’s sister, Beth. We just successfully placed a five-year-old girl and a seven-year-old boy with adoptive parents, so we do have some empty beds,” he grinned. “Tyler, who you know, has two sisters and lives in a house with the rest of his family across the way, but we asked him over for breakfast because we thought it would feel less like you were being kidnapped.”

Mo couldn’t have come up with an answer to that if his life depended on it. Maybe the men had kept him and allowed his injuries to heal before they dumped him? But that made no sense either. Riley grinned at Zack’s comment, and Victor, who up to that point had just glowered and remained silent, even cracked a small smile. “I ought to leave and go to the cops, I guess,” Mo said. Not that he was going near the cops, but they would think it odd if he didn’t say something.

“Lachlan Granger?”