Page 47 of Black and White, Twice the Might (Cadenbury Town #8)

I t doesn’t take as long to get home, and as soon as we walk through the door, the boys slam into Sly, hugging the stuffing out of him and peppering him with questions.

I walk to John. “Thanks for staying with them.”

“No thanks needed. I’m afraid we stopped off at the bakers on the way home, and I bought them the biggest cakes I could find,” he nods towards Sly. “Sly, okay?”

“Yeah. His family kidnapped him, but he escaped. They then tried to blow us up, but I promise Ernest and everyone else is fine, none of us were injured,” I put in quickly. “Two of Sly’s family were killed, though, and we found a weird portal that we’ll go through when we have a plan of action.”

John shakes his head. “Bad business, especially with people dying.”

Sly and the boys walk over and join us, and they hug me.

“Notice I'm home, did you?” I quip.

“We saw you, but we were more concerned about Sly,” Xander tells me.

“Not that we weren’t concerned about you as well,” Enoch puts in, “but you weren’t kidnapped and thrown into a van.”

I laugh at him. “I know.” I look at John. “Are you staying for dinner?”

John shakes his head. “I won’t if you don’t mind. Your dinner is cooking and should be ready in,” he looks at his watch. “Fifteen minutes.”

Now he’s mentioned it, I can smell something cooking.

“Thanks, John, you didn’t need to do that,” Sly says.

“The boys helped, and we had fun. Now I know you’re safe, I’m off. Your keys are on the kitchen counter.” John hugs us all as the boys thank him, and we wave as he strolls down the front path.

“Are you really okay?” Enoch asks as the front door closes.

“We can listen if you want to talk about your feelings and stuff,” Xander offers. “Our therapist said, talking about feelings was important.”

After we rescued the boys, I thought it would be a good idea for them to see a therapist. They had been dealing with and hiding so much, but Enoch confessed one day that he thought he was to blame for the abuse.

Both Sly and I assured them both that they had done nothing wrong and all the blame rested with our father.

Also, I wasn’t sure how I could help them.

We saw the therapist as a family and worked through a lot of emotions, feelings and thoughts.

It didn’t magically make everything better, but it helped and gave us the tools we needed to keep helping and supporting the boys.

Plus, Sly and I both did lots of Internet research and reading.

Sly touches both their shoulders. “I promise, physically I’m fine.

My feelings are mixed at the moment. I detest my family, all of them, but two of them died today, killed in an explosion.

Seeing their bodies was shocking, and for a moment, I felt sad for them. So yeah, mixed feelings at the moment.”

“I’m sorry they died, death always upsets people, whether you liked them or not,” Xander comments.

A strange beeping sounds just then.

“Dinner’s ready,” Xander announces.

Now that beeping makes sense, it’s the oven.

The four of us walk into the kitchen. I look at the table and see that it has already been set.

Sly opens the oven door, and we’re hit with the full scents of dinner, a large dish of lasagne. Sly carries it over to the table before going back and pulling out a tray of chips.

Xander opens the fridge and pulls out a bowl of salad, and it gets added to the table.

“This all looks amazing,” Sly says, taking the oven gloves off and putting them next to him.

“It really does,” I agree.

The boys beam.

“Grandpops showed us how to make it. He started bits and then let us take over,” Enoch tells us. “We made the sauces from scratch.”

“And we made this rainbow salad,” Xander points to it with a bit of a frown. “Is it weird that the peppers aren’t cooked?”

I start cutting into the lasagne and plating it up for us all as I answer. “Not really. Just try it and see what you think.” I hand the plates out and sit down as we add salad and chips.

Sly takes a bite first and groans in delight. He swallows his bite. “This is amazing.”

I eat a bite and agree. “We need to get that tomato sauce recipe from John.”

Sly agrees, and I watch Xander try some uncooked peppers from his salad.

“Huh, it’s not totally gross.”

“I don’t like the red peppers,” Enoch starts picking them out of his salad.

“I’ll have them,” Sly says, holding his plate out to Enoch.

Enoch passes them over.

We finish enjoying the meal, and Xander looks at Sly. “So, what haven’t you told us?”

“The parents think I’ve been brainwashed into believing I married your brother.”

I snort out a laugh.

“Seriously?” Enoch queries.

Sly grins and nods. “Oh yeah.” The smile falls off his face, and he fiddles with his fork. “They tried to kill us all and escaped through a portal.”

“What was through the portal?” Enoch enquired.

“No idea. I wasn’t allowed to look,” he grumps out.

“We’re going to look, but we need to plan first and not just walk into an unknown, potentially dangerous situation, and anyway, Temp and I weren’t allowed to look in the farmhouse.”

Xander looks at me. “Why not?”

I touch his arm. “We wanted to come and reassure you that Sly was safe and unharmed.”

Enoch leans forward. “You know, Grandpops brought your car back? We could go and have a look now.”

Xander smiles. “Can we?”

I look at Sly, and he looks at me.

“If we go without Temp, he’ll kill me,” I comment.

“Invite him to come along with us,” Enoch suggests.

“It wouldn’t hurt to look,” Sly says, grinning madly at me.

I sigh. “I’ll message Temp.”