While I Breathe: The Veiðimenn Mob, Book One

Thirty-Five

“Do you have kids, too?”

“I have two boys, but they don’t know about my work. You’ll meet them someday, though,” he promised. He genuinely wanted his boys to meet Phoenix, but he was currently fielding his wife’s horrible temperament. Trace looked down at the mini version of Callum as they walked the grounds of the Towers. Hans asked them to take the boy outside for a while to enjoy the good weather they were having, but it also gave the team a chance to get to know the little boy a bit better.

“Et toi, Oncle Thomas?” Phoenix asked, continuing to pry for information.

Thomas laughed, indulging the child. When they first met the eight-year-old, he was shocked to hear him speak French. After learning the circumstances, he swore to never treat Phoenix any different than his own child as Ambrosia didn’t want her son to struggle socially due to his intellectual difference from others his age. “Ah, oui, I have a son, too. He is visiting his grandparents in Quebec with his maman, so he’s not around right now. I think you and Memphis would be great friends, though. Does your mother let you call your dad’s friends “uncle”?”

Scowling cutely, Phoenix nibbled his lip as he tried to voice his thoughts. “I mean, she’s okay with it, and Uncle Declan told me that you guys were like brothers in a way other than blood. Well, what he actually said was that Dad’s team was like a crew of brothers from different mothers who shared a common goal and worked together to achieve it.”

While the three newcomers had been living in the Towers for nearly six months, none of their people were worried. Well, none except for Trace. He’d inadvertently pissed Ambrosia after a mission and ended up sporting more bruises than when he walked into the infirmary. After that, he started avoiding her as much as he could. “Your mother scares the Holy Ghost out of me, Nix.”

“I noticed,” the boy said indifferently, finding himself distracted by a large beetle he’d spotted nearby. Tilting his head to the side, he looked around. However, not finding anything out of the ordinary, he returned his gaze to the beetle.

Noticing that his friend was acting a bit off, Thomas scowled, “What the heck is going on with you? You haven’t been yourself since Saturday.”

“My family is strictly against the big D, but I think I’m headed in that direction. I don’t want to lose my family, I really don’t, but Isabella just keeps wanting more and more. I can’t afford her lifestyle with the boys to raise and bills to pay. I’m still paying on the house she wanted.”

His smile fading, Trace shook his head as his phone rang. “And of course, I got a call to go into the college this afternoon. Mr. Mulroney is off sick, and they need me to cover for him.”

Thomas also glanced down at his own device, letting out a heavy breath, “Come on, Little Prince. We got to bring you to your grandfather for a while because we just got called in to the schools we work at.”

The boy’s attention was still locked on the out-of-place critter. Rather than follow it, he took out the phone his father bought for him and videoed the area. “Something is wrong.”

Trace, confused, raised a dark brow. “What?”

“I said, something is wrong. That bug I was watching was an American Burying beetle,” Phoenix explained. “They don’t commonly reside in areas like this as they need carrion for food. So, in other words, where that kind of bug is, there’s a dead body.”

Glancing at each other, the men with him called over a few guards with orders to check the surrounding foliage and carefully pruned thorn hedges. Within minutes, pale and looking worried, one of them called someone inside to come out. Minutes later, Ross and a handful of other soldiers were on their way over to them.

“Good call, guys,” Ross stated as he joined them. “There was apparently a ‘surprise’ left by an unknown not long ago. IT is working the security feed to find out more intel. You two head to work, and report in at five this evening. You have graveyard shift tactical training with Greg.”

Thomas shook his head, “Not us, Sir. It was Nix that caught the tiniest detail we all missed entirely.”

Laughing, Ross commented under his breath. “He has it, too. Well, then.”

“I have what?” Phoenix asked, curious.

“Nothing, kiddo,” Ross replied quickly. “Just talking to myself.”

“Bella’s gonna kill me for working OT again this week,” Trace breathed as he pulled out his phone to send his wife a text. Seconds after sending it, his phone rang. “Yeah, I was called in to do additional training for work. I’m teaching the class. No, it’s… Bella, it’s random selection. Yes, I’m serious. I’m not cheating, Bella. Are you being serious right now? No, you know what? Let me hand you to my Supervisor. He’s standing right beside me.”

Giving the device to Ross, he watched the man grimace. Grabbing the device, he rolled his eyes. “Mrs. Roberts, this is Ross Drake from the Evertte Holdings Inc. main branch over at Everett Towers. I’m afraid that we’re going to have to borrow Trace this evening. Ma’am, I understand your concern, but it’s mandatory training, and the coach selection is completely random as well as performance based. Trace’s name got drawn to teach the class this evening. .”

Handing the phone back to Trace, he levelled the man with a dark look. “If she’s that bad, get a divorce, but don’t ever put me on the spot like that again.”

“Is everyone but me in the loop here?” Trace demanded in a defeated voice.

“Trace, she uses the boys to get you to do what she wants. That’s not love, that’s manipulation. You and the boys need to get out before she destroys you and turns your kids against you. You’re devout Christian, but that doesn’t mean you got to risk your or your kids’ mental and emotional health to stay with that money-hungry w***e,” Thomas replied.

Wincing, Trace nodded as they made their way to the parking garage. “I hear ya, man. See you later.”

Hours later, after he’d finally gotten through the day’s usual grind, he trudged up the stairs to the house he and his family occupied. His wife had no idea he worked with the mob, and he wanted to keep it that way. He loved his kids more than their mother and had spent a chunk of the evening thinking about what Thomas and Ross said.

Divorce wasn’t something to be taken lightly, and he felt like he was being backed into a corner with everything going on. Quietly taking off his shoes, he heard the shrill voices of his wife and her friend coming from the living room. Moving quickly, he tried to get to the second floor without notice, but that was in vain.

“Tracy! Where the hell have you been?”

Biting back a sarcastic reply, he forced himself to relax before looking at Isabella. “Sorry, babe. I didn’t want to disturb your conversation with Felicity when I came back from work. I did tell you that I was pulled to teach a class at Everett -”

“You know, that’s really funny,” the other woman with Isabella scoffed. “See, I heard you were seen at the upscale mansion known as Everett Towers.”

“Would you mind not butting into my marital issues, Felicity? I was there, yes, but that’s also the main branch of Everett Holdings Inc. Mr. Fennic, my direct super, doesn’t actually own the place. In fact, the supervisor that Bella was talking to earlier is the right hand of the legitimate owner, Hans Stevensson.” Trace countered.

Calming himself, he glanced at the top of the stairs where Markus was. The boy seemed to be off in his own world, but Trace still felt that it would be for the best if the kids didn’t get involved. “Honey, listen, please. I’m really tired right now and put in for a week off to spend time alone with you and the boys. I was talking to another teacher friend who does physical training for the OPP and the security team while waiting for the CEO to tell us if we were in the clear or not. I got chosen; Thomas got off with it. You can call him if you want to. Just because he’s my friend doesn’t mean he’s going to cover my ass for anything I do wrong.”

“Did Thomas say when Memphis will be back?”

Caught off-guard by the excited voice of her eldest son, Isabella looked at the top of the stairs. “Mark, I told you to stay in your room.”

“But I heard Daddy, and wanted to say goodnight,” the boy whined.

Rubbing his heart, Trace forced a gentle smile as he looked at his son. “It’s okay, Mark. Vati will be there to tuck you and Lukas in shortly, okay?”

“Okay, Papa!” Beaming happily, Markus ran back to his room, leaving the man behind to face the women who were slowly ebbing away at his sanity.

Growling in frustration, Felicity gave him a shove. “Why do you talk in that God-awful language?”

Keeping his voice low, he said, “My family is German, and my boys will learn the language in order to talk to their overseas relatives if and when they want to. Do not presume to tell me what I can or cannot say in my own home, wench. Before you start going off at the mouth about things you don’t understand, maybe think about not getting involved at all.”

“Don’t talk to her like that!” Isabella snapped.

Shutting down his emotions, Trace let his smile fall away. “I see. So it’s fine for her to talk down and belittle your hard-working husband, but not for me to defend myself. I’ll go ahead and withdraw my vacation request. I’d rather work than put up with this.”