Breaking the Habit - The Devereaux Case Files, Book 7

Chapter 9

Ayah was not surprised that she walked into the living room to find the twins and Dicken sitting watching the end of the first Bourne movie. She had left the options to Reed, since he knew what the boys could handle, considering they heard worse swearing on the streets. Reed was pretty sure that he had heard Morgan, in particular, saying some swear words that even he wouldn't use. But then, he had never been particularly vulgar in that way, though he did have a tendency of swearing at Murray when he got on his last nerve.

"Everything go All right?" Ayah wondered as she slipped onto the arm of Reed's armchair, trying to be quiet and inconspicuous as Olivia slipped past them all and made her way up to her room. She was covered in dirt and beaming like it was the best day ever. "We've been gardening. Can you tell?" She asked, laughing to herself as she showed him her hands, which were just as dirty as Olivia was, with dirt right up her nails. He was so amused he didn't even bother complaining as he took her hand and remembered another rainy day when she had been gardening. It was one of the best days of his life.

"Yes, it went well. Caleb's coming to realize that he needs to learn maths to be a good agent. We're studying when the film is finished." Reed explained quietly, wrapping his arm around her waist to draw her a little closer. There was so much to think about, so much to worry about now that he didn't even know where to start. He needed Ayah to know why he was training ten year olds to fight the same way he would soon be training the eighteen year old Dicken. It was important that she understood what was going on.

"I just want them to be prepared. This thing at the school...this Morgan kid...I'm not having them stuck in that situation again. They had no clue what to do and I know they're still young but that's no reason they shouldn't be able to defend themselves against bullies." He confessed heavily, scared that such things as Morgan's attitude to dirty habits had extended beyond just cigarettes. He didn't want Caleb or Mason being bullied at school and keeping quiet. If anything was going on, he wanted them to be honest about it and able to be the better person.

"I know. And I understand. It's especially important with Kelly still out there somewhere. He'll come back for revenge at some point, he always does. And we need to be prepared as a family, for that." Ayah hadn't wanted to let on about her knowledge of Kelly beforehand. But now that Reed was also worried about the boys safety, as they reached the same age Dicken was when Kelly started playing his games, she didn't feel so bad. It wasn't easy to think about Kelly still being out there, knowing the lengths he had done to before to get his revenge. It was frightening to think he could do anything, at any time and no-one could stop him, at least, at the moment.

"I wasn't sure if you knew he'd be back or not. I didn't want to say anything." Reed said quietly, watching the boys as they turned off the DVD once it was finished, and started chatting animatedly about what they had seen and when they might be able to learn it. He was pleased that they were taking to the training so well and looked forward to doing more.

"I know that. You're trying to protect us all, but you can't do that yourself. We need to work as a family unit. Only then can we keep each other safe." Ayah didn't want Reed to think that he had to take on the mass responsibility of protecting the whole family from Kelly, by himself. He had Reyes and agency friends who could help him, Murray on his side and a lot of techniques and favors he could utilize to keep them all safe. They already had security measures on the house, the museum and the phones belonging to every member of the family.

What they really needed was to find Kelly, get a tracker on him and keep it there. At least long enough that Reed could be sure, every day for the rest of his brother's life, exactly where he was at every moment. But it just wasn't possible. Kelly had fallen off the radar completely and no-one knew where he was. It was torture, never knowing if it was safe.