The Scroll of Knowledge

Chapter 8

"When he went inside, there was the cow," I said. Brennan was laughing so hard his face was red.

"I wish I could have been there to see it," he said. "I'm definitely going to try that one with Zahir."

"If you think that was bad, you should have seen what Paige and I did when we were in high school. My mother grounded me for the prank but was so proud of our creativity."

"I never went to high school but if I did, I doubt it would have been as much fun," he said.

"You never went to school?" I asked.

Brennan took a sip of his tea. "I went to kindergarten and primary school. I started high school in New Zealand but then my brother died and I came to live with Zahir to help him with his work."

"Your brother died? And why do you call your father by his first name?" I asked.

"The answer to the first question is complicated. As for the second," Brennan thought about it for a moment then shrugged, "Junaid always called him Zahir and I guess the rest of us just followed. We all just did whatever he did."

"Who is Junaid?"

"Thomas and Junaid are one and the same. It's complicated."

"If he's the eldest shouldn't he be the one to take over the business?"

"Again, it's complicated."

Complicated sure seemed to be the right word. "Thomas kind of scares me," I said.

"He's harmless," Brennan said.

"Tell that to the men he beat up." I swirled the spoon in my tea. "He has the earrings and the tattoos and sort of weird but kind of cool eyes and that metal arm. The arm is probably the scariest."

"Let me rephrase that," Brennan said. "He's harmless unless you threaten Shay. Don't say anything about the arm. He's only recently gotten used to it and stopped hiding it. Before he never let any of us see it because he said it made him feel less human. Don't mention the earrings either. Shay gave them to him. He never takes them off unless he has to. He's sentimental like that. He says he hasn't removed his wedding ring since Shay put it on two years ago."

"Wow," I said. "I didn't know guys get so attached to things like that." I didn't think Derek was attached to anything, not even to his phone or car like most other guys I knew. He'd always had that air about him that made it seem as if he was above worrying about things like that, like he could loose all his possessions and wouldn't care even a little.

Brennan rolled his eyes. "Who would want to lose their wedding ring? And the earrings were a gift from someone special. What kind of person would you be if you didn't treasure it?" He frowned and his eyes looked sad for a moment. "Looking back, I realized that we never gave him anything. Anything we wanted he would get it for us, one call and he would appear no matter what he was doing at the time but I never even remembered his birthday." He paused. "I hated him for trying to leave us and then leaving us for real to be with Shay, then I saw how well she treated him and I understood. She didn't forget about him like we did. He was smiling for the first time in years." He looked at me. "I made that mistake once and I won't do it again. I will destroy anyone who touches Ju, or any of my other brothers and sisters."

I couldn't help but smile.

"What?" he asked.

"You're cute," I said. He tried to hide his blush by sipping his tea which only made him look cuter. "Sometimes I wish I had brothers and sisters. You're lucky. I don't even have any cousins."

Brennan's face darkened. "Don't talk to me about cousins. They terrorized Ju. Luca told me stories." He took a deep breath. "What about your father?" he asked. "You told me about your mother but you haven't mentioned your father."