Putting Kids To Bed

**Camden**

I yawn and stretch out, careful to wake the teenagers at my feet. Kassius is on the edge with Atticus curled up against him. They look so much alike, having the same blonde hair. It makes sense since Kass is Razz’s cousin, which means Atticus is Kass’s cousin as well. Xavier Jamison, also known as Razz. He is interesting. He is comfortable in his skin and knows who is. I can admire that since I hide myself behind a façade in public. Here at home. I don’t have mirror looks and say what I think would be appropriate. Razz and Ronin saw that, yet they stayed the night. Razz even got comfortable using me for a pillow, his drool rolling down my arm. He is cute and I’m shocked by how quickly he let his guard down. The same cannot be said for Ronin. He stayed awake like I did, not only watching the movie but the surrounding people.

Atlas is sound asleep in his arms. They say children and animals can sense if a person will harm them or not. I’ve always found that to be true.

Anytime Indiana would growl or offer to bite, we knew one was a rotten apple that needed to be pruned from our tree. We would do a deeper background and install surveillance. We would observe them, and they would do something against our rules that would cause an execution. Every. Single. Time. Slater and I have rules and those are to be followed. The last guy the kids would shy away, and Indy tried to eat, was having sex with dogs. We couldn’t let that slide, especially when we found his wife discovered what he was doing to their infant daughter. She caught him on a nanny cam, same with the dog. He just needed an exit ticket from this existence, and Slater said I could. I had so much fun torturing him. The things I did could be depraved. I think of it as justice. Must be the Libra in me. No part of my body touched the disgusting filth, but that’s not to say objects didn’t. I loved hearing his screams. He was being for mercy. He showed no mercy to his victims, so I gave him the same courtesy. He croaked out when his intestines came out of his rectum. Justice for the animals is what I called out.

Anyway, back to the family. Slater is asleep with his head in Artemis’s lap and her head is resting against the couch cushion. AC and Ash are both on the floor. I snapped a picture for blackmail later. AC is face down in Ash’s crotch with his arm wrapped around the slender boy’s waist. They haven’t known each other for long, but those two are thick as thieves. A week into the murder twins joining Ash at the academy, the three of them ended up in the Dean’s office for getting into a fight during class, of all the stupidest things. I get they were defending Ash and have the whole alpha dog mentality, but there are better ways to fight someone where they won’t get caught.

“You want to help me get the kids to be so we can wake up the others in a fun way?” I ask Ronin who is being to not move a muscle in case he wakes up our son. He gives me a concerned look. I chuckled at him under my breath. “You won’t wake Las is if you move. When that kid is asleep, he is dead to the surrounding world. He is that heavy of a sleeper. Now, if you were holding Atticus, it’d be a different story. With him, you handle him delicately, like a grenade with the pin pulled, but you don’t want it to explode just yet,” I explain quietly.

“Sounds familiar. Razz is precious about his sleep. Think you can handle moving away from that bomb with him exploding?” Ronin volleys.

“I got skills. Watch this.” I move so that my hand is cradling Razz’s head, keeping it immobilized in place. His eyelids don’t flutter. I rise, carefully and slowly, so that I don’t disturb him. I leaned down, carefully lowering him to the couch cushion I was sitting on. He moans, so I rub his back, soothing him back to sleep. For now, anyway.

I smirk at Ronin smugly. “The words ‘told you’, better not exit your mouth next, Killer,” he warns. I stick my tongue out at him. It’s his turn to smirk. “You keep sticking your tongue out at me. I will put it to use for my pleasure,” he growls the last three words, and I cover my dick to keep from seeing my body’s reaction to him. I was too late. He noticed, judging by his seductive grin. “Don’t be shy now, Killer. You’re the one who started this.” The pretty boy is confident too…Daddy likey.

I give an incredulous look. “How did I start this?” I whisper-yell at him. He simply arches his eyebrow at me. Well, that’s no fun. “Boo, you whore!” I hiss at him. Again, I’m met with nothing but a single raised eyebrow. I like to get a rise out of people, and he isn’t taking my bait.

He calmly stands holding Atlas in one arm. “Where’s the bedroom?” I point down the hallway and hold one finger to indicate to him to wait a moment. He nods in agreement.

I squat down in front of Kassius and Atticus, both of whom are snoring. I mentally snort. These two are related. They even snore the same. I look back at Razz, who is breathing heavily and drooling on the couch. I point at him with my thumb. “That’s adorable.”

Ronin shakes his head at me. “Not when you wake up with it in your hair,” he grumbles. He shakes his head at me. “Don’t ask. Long story.”

I grin. “Those are the best. I’m gonna get you drunk and get that story,” I assure him. He shakes his head at me again, so I go back to focusing on my goal of extracting Atticus without waking him up.

The last time this kid was unceremoniously woken up, he screamed like a siren. It took hours to get to settle back down enough to fall asleep on Slater’s chest. Slay was exhausted when he came home late that night from putting out fires at Raves. Atticus was refusing to go to sleep. Artemis and I tried everything to calm him. Slay demanded that Artie and I hand the kid over to him. He turned on Attie’s favorite cartoon mouse and sat in the recliner. The moment Slay did, Attie settled. They watch TV. It only took ten minutes for them to both be fast asleep.

I picked up Atticus and then swiftly cradled him to my body and patted his bottom rhythmically. I stand, gesturing with my chin for Ronin to follow. We travel down the hallway to the last door.

I open it up to the twins’ bedroom. We converted their cribs into toddler beds. Above on the wall are custom paintings of their names by Lachlan Hartley. Depictions of their Greacen namesakes are in the background behind their names. We gently lay the boys down in their footed pjs and covered them with their favorite blankets. Not having woken them, I close their bedroom door with a soft click.

Now for beanpoles on the floor. Do we wake them, carry them, or just cover them up? Ronan answers that question for me when he lifts Kassius in his arms. I snapped a picture for more blackmail later. I mouthed for Roan to follow me. We go to my bedroom, where my king-sized bed is centered against the far wall. It’s covered in black satin sheets and a thick comforter. I like the feel of satin on my skin. Neither Artemis nor Slayer enjoys sliding around my sheets. I turn on the bedside lamp so we can see to tuck the teenagers in.

I walk back to the living room. I barely touch Ash on his shoulder and the kid is awake with wide eyes, looking for an escape. His jerky movements wake up AC. “Easy, kiddo. I will not hurt you. I will not touch you. Okay?”

“Cam?” AC’s question turns into a yawn. “What’s going on?”

“Just moving you three to my room so Slater doesn’t trip over you when he wakes up for his morning run,” I explain.

AC takes Ash’s hands in his. “Look at me,” he commands. Ash does. “Good. Now I want you to breathe with me.” AC takes and deep and slowly releases. In moments, Ash is deep breathing along with him while AC uses his thumbs to tap the back of AC's hands in an alternating rhythm. As soon as Ash is calm, they stand and follow me. They climb into bed with Kass before AC reaches over to turn off the light as I shut the door.

For Ash to panic like that, he has trauma similar to Slater’s. He has been abused.

I want to kill someone for him. Hopefully, in the future, I’ll get to.

The teenager reminds me so much of Slater at that age. I was like AC, protective and able to ease my friend’s anxiety to manageable levels. Slater went through so much at the hands of his uncle and from what Sawyer has said, Ash had the identical things happen to him, only Ash went through so much worse. Axe might have filmed, but he let no one else touch what was his, not even when I took Slay’s place.