Page 10 of Monochrome (ORCA #4)

CHAPTER

TEN

ETHAN

For the second time in as many days, Julius rang my doorbell.

This time, though, I was half tempted to pull him into my arms and kiss him.

I hadn’t meant to fall asleep the night before, but after the fantastic orgasm and the comfort of being cuddled up in a sleepy panda puddle with Lily and Jude, I found I couldn’t keep my eyes open.

When I’d woken up in the wee hours of the morning, I’d found Julius had covered the twins with a blanket and folded my clothes.

And then I’d found his note in the kitchen that promised he wasn’t running away, and if I hadn’t already been pretty sure I was falling for him, the note would have sealed the deal.

Well, the note and the spotless kitchen.

As predicted, the twins came barreling out of their playroom, charging for the door.

“Who is it?” Lily pressed her face to the glass sidelight, trying to see out.

“More pizza?” Jude pressed his face to the opposite sidelight.

“It’s Julius!” Lily squealed.

“And some lady.” Jude sounded unimpressed.

I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing and swung the door open.

“Julius!” Both twins yelled in greeting, shoving each other out of the way to try to get to him.

“Hey, guys. I brought a friend to meet you. Can we come in?”

They clambered back, so Julius and the young woman I assumed was Athina could come in, but they didn’t go far, hovering near the door, curious expressions on their little faces.

“Ethan, Lily, and Jude, this is my friend Athina. Athina, this is Ethan and the twins, Lily and Jude.”

Athina was petite with long, dark hair, naturally tan skin, and large eyes that were a shocking shade of bright green.

She held out her hand to me, and when I shook it, I was surprised at the strength of her grip and the calluses on her palms. “It’s nice to meet you, Ethan.” Her English was lightly accented, though I couldn’t quite place it.

Before I could ask, she offered her hand to Lily, who shook it enthusiastically, then to Jude, who reluctantly took it, then dropped it as fast as possible, wiping his hand on the front of his shirt.

He always took a little longer to warm up to new people.

The only exception to that rule had been Julius.

Jude tugged on my pant leg.

“Unca E, why is Afina here?”

I crouched down to his level and held his gaze.

“Athina wanted to meet you to see if you guys could hang out while I’m at work. What do you think? Do you want to show her your playroom?”

Jude looked over his shoulder, sizing up his opponent, and I saw Athina bite back a smile as she too crouched down to his level.

“Can I tell you something, Jude?”

He stared at her, then gave a cautious nod.

“I love art. Painting is my favorite, but I love all kinds of art. Do you like to draw?”

Jude’s eyes lit up.

“I love to draw and color.”

“Me too!” Lily said, jumping into the conversation.

“Awesome! I brought some special markers”—she held her hand up like she was telling them a secret—“some stickers, and some fancy paper. Do you have a place where we could do some drawing?”

To my shock, Jude grabbed Athina’s hand and tugged her down the hall toward the playroom, where they had a little round table with four chairs, Lily jumping around them excitedly.

“I think that went well.” Julius was beaming.

“Time will tell, but as far as first meetings go, that’s the best one they’ve had so far.”

Julius’s smug smile faded.

“While they’re getting to know Athina, I think I owe you a conversation.”

“Let’s sit outside.” I led him through the kitchen and out onto the back patio that overlooked a small section of forest. The weather was mild, and for now, it wasn’t raining, though there were storms in the forecast for later in the afternoon.

Watery sunlight streaked through the clouds, and as I settled into one of the Adirondack chairs next to the small propane firepit, I breathed in deep, filling my lungs with the scent of pine and wet earth.

Julius lowered himself into the other chair and took in the view for a few moments before he finally spoke.

“I’m sorry I lied to you.”

His words had played on a loop in my head all morning, and over time, I’d come to terms with a lot of what he’d revealed the night before.

“I would have done the same thing to keep my family safe.”

“I appreciate you saying that, but I also want you to know I hated lying to you. I hated every second of it. If you would have been a total dick, it would have been easier to keep up the charade, but you aren’t, and every day I sat in your office, I wanted to tell you why I was really there.”

I shrugged his comments off.

“That’s all behind us now, and I’m over it, but I am worried about what you’ve found out is happening with my company.”

“Me too. I spoke to Felix last night, but I don’t have much new information to share. We’re hitting dead end after dead end trying to track down the principals for any of the shell companies we’ve uncovered. Felix and I spent some time last night cross-referencing people who scanned into the Grove Core building with the security footage of when they left on the most recent date transactions were deleted from the records, but there are a lot of people coming and going throughout the day, and it’s been a slow process. Felix is trying to work up a program that will do it for us, but that takes time too.”

“So, you don’t have any leads?”

“None. Not unless you can point us in a direction. We’re coming up empty on our end.”

“How can I point you in a direction? Until last night, I had no idea any of this was happening.”

“Do you have any enemies at Grove Core? Anyone who would want you to be removed as CEO?”

My humorless laugh echoed around us.

“Right now, I think the entire board wishes I weren’t leading the company.”

“Can you get me a list of names?”

“Of board members? No problem, but are you sure Felix hasn’t already pulled it from our servers?” My tone was a little more bitter than I’d intended.

After all, without Julius I would never have known about the embezzlement that was happening until it was too late, but I was still pissed and a little embarrassed it had been happening right in front of me.

I was also trying to figure out how I hadn’t noticed the discrepancies when I was CFO.

The whole thing was mind-boggling and more than a little frustrating.

“He might, but if there is anyone in particular leading the charge, it would be helpful to know.”

“Let me think, and I’ll get a list together of possible people who may be holding some sort of grudge.”

“Great.”

The back door flew open, and I winced as it hit the house, Lily and Jude running barefoot out onto the deck.

“Unca E, look what we made!” Jude held up a piece of paper with his handprint traced on it several times.

Each handprint had been turned into a different animal.

Some were easily identifiable.

The others…not so much.

“Wow, that’s awesome!”

He turned his paper around to study it.

“Afina helped us.”

“Look at mine, Unca E!” Lily shoved Jude out of the way and presented her paper too.

Different handprint animals and one footprint animal covered the page.

“Lily, your uncle has room for both of you. Did you need to shove your brother?” Athina’s gentle question made Lily look up at her.

“Nope. Sorry.” Then, to my ultimate surprise, Lily put her hand on Jude’s shoulder.

“Sorry for pushing you, Jude.”

I felt my mouth drop open.

Who were these children, and where were my niece and nephew?

It was clear Athina was a magician and had cast some kind of spell on the kids.

Snapping my mouth shut, I smiled at Lily.

“Nice apology, Lil.”

Jude apparently couldn’t care less.

“Afina, can we go do some more feet animals now, please?”

She nodded.

“Absolutely. Let me just talk to your uncle for a quick second.”

Lily and Jude both stopped moving and turned to look back at Athina, then at me.

“Are we in trouble?” Lily looked confused and like she was trying to figure out if she’d done anything wrong she hadn’t already apologized for.

Athina shook her head.

“Nope. Not at all. I was just going to ask your uncle if I could hang out with you a little longer.”

Jude jumped up and down.

“Yes!”

Lily joined him.

“Please, Unca E!”

“Give me one minute, then I’ll meet you back in the playroom.”

The twins took off inside, and I blinked, trying to make sense of what I’d just witnessed.

“Name your price. You can have whatever you want. I’ve never heard one of them apologize to the other and mean it like that before.”

Athina beamed.

“I tried a trick my mother used to use with my brother and me. If we fought, she would end whatever we were doing until one of us apologized to the other. They started fighting over the markers, so I told them the markers had to go away until they apologized and were ready to share.”

“Magic. You’re magic.”

Athina shrugged.

“Not really. I did come out here for a reason, though. Quin said you and Julius were supposed to go on a date last night. Why don’t you go out for lunch? I don’t mind staying for as long as you’d like today.”

I looked at Julius.

“I know it’s not the dinner I promised, but are you free for lunch?”

The smile he gave me made my face heat and my cock twitch.

“Lunch sounds great.”

Athina clapped.

“Perfect. We’ll be here when you get back, and I’ll start full-time on Monday.”

For the second time that afternoon, my mouth fell open.

“Are you serious?”

She nodded.

“I really like Lily and Jude, and I think we’re going to get along well.”

Looking over my shoulder at Julius, I whispered, “Did we enter an alternate reality at some point?”

Julius laughed.

“Not that I know of.”

“Okay, just making sure.” Turning back to Athina, I said, “That sounds amazing. Thank you.”

“My pleasure. We can talk about the details when you get back from your lunch date.”

I nodded, and she disappeared back into the house.

“I owe you big time, Julius. Thank you.”

“You don’t owe me anything.”

“I do, but for now, let me buy you lunch.”