The last bell of the day was still echoing through the hall when I caught up to Gabriel at his locker.
“Got plans after school?” I asked.
He glanced at me, one eyebrow raised. “Nothing major. Why?”
“Come over to my place tonight,” I said casually. “We’ll hang out, maybe shoot some pool, watch a movie. You can crash there and I’ll get you to school in the morning.”
His brow arched higher. “Your parents cool with that?”
“They don’t have to be,” I said with a shrug. “Besides, they’ll be home. You’ll finally get to meet them.”
“That sounds… like it’s not a selling point,” he said, suspicion in his tone.
“It’s not. But it’ll give you context.”
That earned me a crooked grin. “Alright, Conriocht. Lead the way.”
We walked down to the docks, the late afternoon air cool against the skin. The passenger ferry wasn’t busy—just a handful of commuters and a couple of tourists with cameras around their necks. Gabriel leaned on the railing as the boat pulled away from Hyannis, watching the mainland shrink into haze.
“I’ve always wondered,” he said, “what’s it like living on an island like this?”
I thought about it. “Peaceful when you want it to be. Claustrophobic when you don’t.”
“And your parents live there full-time?”
“Unfortunately,” I said dryly.
He laughed under his breath. “This is going to be good.”
By the time we pulled up to the mansion in the black town car that picked us up from the pier, Gabriel had gone quiet. The place loomed at the end of a long, manicured drive—stone façade, tall windows catching the last of the sun, the kind of house you’d see in a glossy magazine.
Inside, it was colder than the sea breeze—temperature, sure, but mostly in the way my parents’ eyes cut to me the second we walked in.
“Thane,” my father said, his voice like someone trying to make “hello” sound like “what do you want.” His suit was perfect, his tie knotted with military precision.
My mother’s smile was the kind that didn’t touch her eyes. “And who is this?” she asked, gaze sweeping over Gabriel like she was inspecting an unwanted delivery.
“Gabriel,” I said. “A friend.”
“Friend,” my father repeated, like the word tasted bad. “Does he have parents who know where he is?”
“Yeah,” Gabriel said evenly. “They do.”
The silence stretched, and I could feel my jaw tightening. “He’s staying here tonight,” I said, my tone firm enough to carry a warning.
My mother’s lips parted—probably to object—but I stepped closer, just enough that my shadow cut across her shoes. “Don’t,” I said quietly, but with enough edge to put a knife to the air. “Not one word. To him or me.”
Something in her expression flickered, and she glanced away. My father cleared his throat and muttered something about “work to do,” and just like that, they were gone—retreating deeper into the house.
Gabriel exhaled slowly. “Wow. You weren’t kidding.”
“Come on,” I said, turning toward the hall. “Let me show you the good parts.”
The tour started with the theater room—thick leather recliners, a wall-to-wall screen, and a sound system that could rattle your bones. Gabriel whistled low.
Then the indoor pool, steam curling in the warm, chlorinated air. “You could swim laps in January,” he said, eyes wide.
The game room came next, with polished wood floors and a pool table lit by a stained-glass fixture. Gabriel’s eyes lit up. “We’re playing later. No arguments.”
Finally, I led him to the garage—a cavernous space lined with gleaming vehicles: a pair of classic sports cars, a motorcycle, and in the corner, like it had just rolled off the battlefield, my real military Humvee.
Gabriel stopped dead. “Holy… You own that?”
“Yeah.”
“Why the hell don’t you drive it to school?”
I smirked. “Because keeping a low profile is easier when you’re not driving something that looks like it could roll through a war zone.”
He tore his gaze from the Humvee to look at me. “Low profile? You?”
I paused, staring at the matte green beast, its angular body catching the fluorescent light. Then I grinned. “You know what? Screw it. Tomorrow, we’re taking this. No ferry, no bus. We’ll drive straight in.”
Gabriel’s grin matched mine. “Oh, this is gonna be fun.”