Julianna laughed again, and for a moment, Ethan felt lighter. Maybe he didn’t have his mother or the rest of his family, but it felt so good to just talk about them, to remember the good parts of his childhood. It had all been overshadowed by the dark, bloody memories for so long, but there had been good parts. Fun parts.
“Ethan!” Marcus’s loud voice was like a thunderclap breaking over his head. He winced and even Julianna gave a little jump. They both looked over at the open doorway to find Marcus standing there, flanked on either side by Bel and Rafe. “What are you still doing here? You should have been gone hours ago!”
“I’m sorry—” he started to say but Julianna interrupted him.
“Marcus! I raised you better than that. Ethan has been working very hard for you. We were just talking. It’s my fault that he’s stayed so late. Now apologize to this lovely young man.”
“I’m sorry, Ethan, but you need to leave now,” Marcus said firmly, his eyes narrowed in nearly a glare.
“Really, Marcus. You can do better than that. Ethan is such a nice young man.”
Behind Marcus, Rafe was laughing like a hyena, while Bel’s expression had turned more speculative and curious, as if Ethan had suddenly become a very interesting specimen that needed studying. Ethan did not want to find himself under Bel’s microscope. Marcus still didn’t look pleased, but the glare had been replaced with more of a look of resignation.
“Ethan is well aware that I appreciate his hard work,” Marcus grumbled.
Ethan opened his mouth to make a playful, snarky comment, but a single, sharp shake of Marcus’s head had him biting his tongue. The comment would have given away that there was more going on between them than a little packing, and Ethan didn’t need to force Marcus to admit anything to his family that he wasn’t ready to. Marcus deserved the right to figure things out at his own pace.
“Thank you, Mr. Varik. But you’re right. I need to leave. It’s past my dinnertime.”
“Oh! Then you must join us!” Julianna cried, clapping her hands together.
A fresh peal of laughter from Rafe echoed through the hall, and even Bel snickered. Marcus only groaned. His every attempt to bring things under control had them slipping further from his grasp. Ethan decided to have pity on him. It was smarter. It also increased his chances of getting another kiss from the man sometime soon.
“Thank you, but I can’t tonight. Can I have a rain check?” Ethan asked, placing his hand over Julianna’s.
“Of course. I understand. We would love—”
Whatever Julianna was going to say was stopped by a loud explosion in the front foyer that seemed to rock the entire house. Ethan stumbled to the side, trying to keep his balance. Julianna was thrown into him and he instinctively caught her, cradling her against his slightly larger frame, protecting her as best he could.
There was a loud ringing in his ears, and he blinked several times. The world didn’t make sense for a moment. He looked at the doorway and the cloud of smoke that was rolling through the hall. Marcus and his brothers had been thrown forward and were in the process of picking themselves up off the floor.
The front door had exploded.
But…that would mean someone was attacking Marcus’s town house.
Marcus met Ethan’s eyes, fear twisting up his features. “Run!”
Chapter Seventeen
Panic slammed into Marcus as he picked himself off the ground. He quickly looked around to see Bel and Rafe rising as well. Ethan was holding his mother steady on her feet. Someone had set an explosion off against his fucking front door. There were deep voices shouting directions. Their attackers were coming. He needed to get Ethan and Julianna to safety.
Looking at Ethan, he could think of only one thing.
“Run!” he bellowed.
Ethan’s terrified gaze held his for a moment before he gave a sharp nod and started pulling Julianna toward the other door out of the library. It would lead him to the rear parlor, which had a door onto the hallway farther into the town house. They could escape through the kitchen and out the back door, assuming they weren’t already surrounded.
A different swell of fear threatened to consume Marcus. These attackers weren’t the only threat to Ethan’s life. If this attack triggered another episode in Julianna, Ethan would be defenseless. He had no way of protecting himself against her.
“Bel, go with them!”
Bel wordlessly ran after Ethan and Julianna as they disappeared into the dark room. His heart went out to his brother, who was still anxious around their mother following her latest attack. He wasn’t comfortable being around her alone yet, and it would likely take several more months before that occurred, but Bel knew that of him and his twin, Rafe was the stronger fighter.