Page 42 of TAINTED by TWINS

I can feel one of the twins approach from behind me, jet black hair filling up my peripherals. "My love... you will never guess who took control over the Mexican drug cartel."

"Jonah," I greeted him, smiling as he took my hand and kisses the back of it. He was about to kiss me, but I stopped him. "Not in front of them, please. I thought Jade went to the Mexican border to open more branches of Nightingale?"

"A rebellious daughter of the Mexican Mafia ended up working for Nightingale, and instead of giving her to the cartel, my brother proposed to give her protection and partial ownership of one Nightingale branch; in exchange for being the sole distributor of cartel drugs in the club industry.

" Jonah remained by my side, unable to keep his hands off me as he laid one of them on my back.

"Since Nightingale is the only place that people can get drugs, his competition will dry out.

With that girl as his business partner, he became untouchable in Mexico. "

I exhaled sharply.

"You're not jealous, are you?" Jonah chuckled.

"Jade used to be straight."

"What he is doesn't matter if you hold his heart in your hands, and his eyes on the other," Jonah kisses my shoulder, and I became conscious of whoever may be watching. "No woman or drugs could replace the high you give us. And Jade is surrounded by both."

"Lady Velomina will have a heart attack," I chuckled, looking at him whose eyes have only been for me, even with the huge healed scar on my face. "Jade is on the way to being a Mafia boss, Jonah. Do you have plans to build your empire?"

"I'm the happiest serving yours," Jonah lifts his hand to touch my chin with the intentions of pulling me closer—

"Daddy!" calls out a tiny voice from the garden.

Lord Deveroux kisses his hand before waving at her lovingly.

The little girl's mother, Lady Catarina of Moscow, was in the pavilion having tea with her lady in waitings.

She was telling them about the Lord Deveroux, "He is kind and keeps to himself, I wouldn't want to bad mouth him.

We are set to divorce when the kids turn of age. "

"And you don't have an issue with that, Lady Catarina?"

"Why would I? A husband that provides yet leaves me to my own life and lovers, I find that arrangement satisfactory," she takes a sip of her tea before telling her screaming daughter, "Let's not bother your father, Lily. Play on your own terms."

6-year-old Lily frowned as she just waved back at her father, before turning back to her mud castle where she was playing with two boys. One of which is her brother, and the other one a child of the servants.

"Ya daddy's always with his friend," teases the servant's child, curly brown hair unkempt and messy with his tooth gap and freckles. "He loves his friend more than your mother, I hear. They were lovers, I hear."

"You heard wrong, Dane!" Lily protested, "Uncle Jonah just takes care of him. Two men can't be lovers."

Her older brother, the 12-year-old heir of the Deveroux estate, has a sour look on his face upon hearing that. "Yes they can. The servants have seen dad kiss Uncle Jonah."

Dane corrects him as he fixes the mud castle, "No, they said he was kissin' ya Uncle Jade. Either way, that's kinda gross."

The heir gives him an unreadable look on his face. His eyes matching his father's, dark and mysterious as well as firm. "You're calling my father gross, Dane?"

"Yeah, he's cheatin' on your mom with ya Uncle... that's kinda... uhh..." Dane looks intimidated by the heir's piercing stare at him, burning holes in his little 8 year old head. It's a stare similar to Uncle Jonah's. "I-I mean... that' just be rumors, yeah?"

"Mother doesn't mind," the heir finally tore his threatening eyes away from Dane.

"And father is happy with them. So why not let him be happy.

I think it's beautiful... the love between them.

I heard Uncle Jonah made people disappear, and he told me he is willing to burn the world for my father. That's beautiful, that's loyalty."

He looks up at the veranda where he can no longer see his father and Uncle Jonah, as they may have gone inside. "I want someone as loyal as Uncle Jonah, too."

Dane scoffs, "Good luck tryin' to find someone who will kiss ya dumb face. They do that a lot, I still think they' lovers."

"No they're not!" Lily protests, throwing mud at the laughing Dane.

The older boy reached forward to gently wipe the mud off Dane's freckle-filled face. "Lovers or not, I want it. Uncle Jonah has told me if I want something, it'll always be mine and I should never stop until it knows it's mine."

Dane looks at Lily, who was too busy decorating her castle. He looks back at the older boy and gives him a nervous laugh. "C'mon Zenith, you really shouldn't listen to ya creepy Uncle who touches ya dad a lot—"

"Zenith, Lily?" their father calls out, entering the garden with Uncle Jonah behind him as always. In an instant, Lily stood up and ran towards him.

"Daddy! Dadddyyyyyyy!" The little girl ran. Her mother was about to call for her retrieval, but Lian didn't mind the muddy hands and he picked up his little girl. She was heavy, but her leaned his arms against his cane so it's not so tiring. "Daddy, do you like my mud castle?"

"Of course I did, princess... such lovely creations," Lian kisses her at the cheeks as Jonah shook her little hand.

The two young boys were staring at them. Dane whispered, "That's not how they were seen kissin'. It's not at the cheeks, they do it at the mouth. Eww..."

"Dane if you don't shut up, I'm gonna kiss you on the mouth." Zenith turns to glare at him, his eyes darting from Dane's lips to his eyes. Intimidated, the boy surrendered and shyly went back to his mud castle. Meanwhile, Lian was looking at his eldest son, waiting for him to come.

"Stay here," he commanded to Dane before getting up and standing in front of his dad. "Yes, father?"

Zenith smiles, bluntly asking, "Father, when can I have someone like Uncle Jonah by my side? Someone should be with me at all times, yes?"

The two adults stared at him dumbfounded. He probably means a personal chauffeur, personal assistant, someone who will take care of him. Lian looks to Jonah for answers but even he doesn't know what to say.

"Well... I believe you can choose whoever you want to be by your side," Lian says while bouncing Lily on his arms. "Just make sure to—"

Zenith had already left and ran towards Dane, who was looking up at him with his gapped teeth. "You. Get up. Let's go."

"H-huh?"

"You have to bathe me. Get up."

Lian looks at his persistent son with worry. He kisses Lily's cheek before putting her down, urging her to go play. Then the Lord Deveroux sighs, "Why do I have a bad feeling with you mentoring my heir?"

"Having an heir like me is not a bad thing, my darling," Jonah smiles, hand on the Lord's lower back. But his phone rang a specific tune, and he need not to pick it up to learn what it is about. "Jade's here."

"That quick?" Lian turns with his muddy clothes to meet Jade Deveroux inside.

Now the twins look entirely identical. Both with a mop of dark curly hair—Jonah's is slicked back, clean, the facial hair of a professional man and a smile to die for, and electric blue eyes that will kill.

Meanwhile Jade walks in with full body tattooes from roses on his pecs to skeletons on his hands, and thorns on his face.

His curly hair is gelled wet but free, and he removed his sunglasses to show eyes that are not so different from Jonah's.

"Baby brother," Jonah greets, and Jade responds by punching him in the chest.

Lian laughs, "Both of you stop doing this, the servants have seen us and the kids hear about it."

"It's that Catalina, she doesn't defend you from them!" Jade accuses while his tattooed hands are groping the lover he hasn't seen in 4 days.

"Catalina's a good girl, you just hate Russians, because you have a rivalry with the Russian mafia," Lian dismisses. "Look at you, my big bad mafia boss."

"We still haven't proved she isn't associated with them—and I'm not a mafia boss, I'm just mob associated," Jade says, watching his twin light up a Cuban cigar. "Since when do you smoke, Jessica?"

"Oh, this is a gift from mother. She was in Fiji doing god knows what but she's on the way here for Lily's 7th birthday—basically doing anything but getting herself a girlfriend," Jonah says, walking towards Lian to share the cigar with him, in the form of leaning towards his lips and exhaling the smoke that he didn't suck into his lungs.

Lian smiles at him, facing both twins while taking the cigar for himself.

"You smoke too, man that stinks!" Jade complains, leaning against the table behind Lian. "Mom was right, you are a bad influence, Jonah."

"Yep, and Zenith is acting weird too," Lian agrees.

"A what?!" Lian was flabbergasted but he was already out of the door.

Jonah was horrified too, "Oh god, who gives a little girl a pirate ship? Tsk tsk..."

Jonah follows his twins outside where Jade picked up Lily and turned her into an airplane flying around.

Lian walks into the garden smiling, looking at the blooming blood red roses on the bushes.

He sighs, "Everyone gets what they want.

Especially you, father..." he looks up at one of the windows where a paralyzed aging man looks down upon his kids.

"I got a son on the first try. And a beautiful girl with my mother's eyes followed.

Don't worry father, I'll make sure you live out your days watching a family you could never hurt again. "

"Daddyyy!" Lily calls on him, and as Lian walks over Jade teased her for being too heavy to be carried.

"My little girl will not be too much of anything for daddy's love, isn't that right my princess?" He says to her, and she squealed. "Now kick Uncle Jade for me."

"Hahahaha!" She gleefully used her legs while Jonah's hand was on Zenith's back, watching them.

"What do you need the chemical for, little King?" He asks Zenith, heir to the Deveroux estate. Dark hair, dark hooded eyes that looks too mature for his age.

"Someone's not cooperating, Uncle," he says quite emotionlessly, eyes specifically on their little playmate who refused to serve Zenith.

"That should be the last resort," Jonah sighs, "You should be nice to them. Use your words, don't force. Make them feel special, unable to refuse... cherish the the guardian angel you want, and it will watch over you."

Zenith smiles at his favorite Uncle, "Did my father cherish you so you stick with him at all times?"

"It's the other way around," Jonah answers as he looks at the one and only Lian Deveroux, "To ensure an angel stays on earth with you—you have to taint it."

THE END