Aria Graice - 11. Chapter 11

For one burning hot moment Drew almost ran after her. He managed to reign himself in because if he had gone it wouldn’t have ended well for anyone. The last thing Aria, or anyone needed was their mother taken out in an ambulance and him in a police car.

“Aria.”

Amara’s cry filled the deafening silence and Drew turned in time to see Amara throwing himself to his knees next to his brother who appeared to be gasping for air, one hand at his throat.

“Aria, please. What’s wrong? What’s happening?”

Drew hurried to kneel on Aria’s other side. The boy was breathing in desperate gasps and was so pale his lips were white, tinged with blue. His eyes were wide and panicked and Amara was rapidly heading in the same direction.

“It’s alright,” Drew said to Amara, keeping his voice low and calm. “He’s having a panic attack. No one ever died from one of those. Try to keep calm or you’ll make it worse, okay? I don’t want to have to deal with you freaking out too.”

“Okay. I-I’m sorry.”

Amara’s eyes were wide and terrified, and his hands shook as he stroked his brother’s hair but was holding together well.

“Aria,” Drew said, keeping his voice soft and movements slow. Aria turned his panicked gaze on Drew. “It’s alright. You’re having a panic attack. It’s scary but it won’t hurt you. Amara and I are with you and we’re not going anywhere. You’re completely safe with us. Nothing and no one can hurt you. I want you to listen to my voice and try to do what I tell you to do. If it’s too hard, that’s okay. I know that everything is hard at the moment, so I won’t be angry or disappointed with you if you can’t manage something.”

Aria managed to nod and gripped Drew’s arm. Drew was surprised at the strength behind the grip. Aria might only be a little thing, but he was a strong little thing.

“I want you to try to breathe in for a count of three. It will be hard at first but keep at it. Breathe in for three and out for three. Count in your head. Don’t worry if it’s hard or if you can’t do it at the start. Just keep going.”

Drew kept talking as Aria struggled to follow his calm instructions. It took a few minutes but finally, bit by bit, moment by moment, Aria managed to get his breathing under control. Colour leaked back into his lips and finally he gave a huge shuddering breath and threw himself into Drew’s arms and sobbed. Drew continued talking to him and rubbing his back, while Amara hovered at his shoulder, stroking his brother’s head.

It seemed to take a very long time for Aria to completely calm, then he simple burrowed further into Drew’s arms and curled into a ball, small sobs like hiccups shook him now and again.

“Aria?” Amara said in a small, shaky voice after a while.

At first, Aria didn’t respond, and Drew wondered if he’d fallen asleep, although his breathing still seemed a little ragged. Finally, Aria unfolded and sat up, his back against the sofa. He drew up his legs and hugged his knees. Amara sat beside him, cuddling into his side. Amara didn’t have much more colour than his brother.

“Stay put, I’ll be right back.”

As Drew moved to stand, Aria grabbed him, his eyes wide and panicked again.

“It’s alright. I’m going to the bar, that’s all. I’ll be back in a minute. You’re safe with Amara.”

“You’re coming back?”

“Before you know I’m gone.”

Aria looked doubtful, but Amara pulled him close and whispered something which calmed Aria enough to allow Drew to get to his feet and hurry to the bar. He didn’t bother with a glass, just grabbed a bottle of whiskey and hurried back.

“Here,” he said crouching in front of the boys. “Take it easy, just a swig, but it’ll help. Not too much now.”

Amara helped his brother hold the bottle in his trembling hands and raise it to his lips. Drew was surprised he didn’t choke, but he swallowed and licked his lips, surrendering the bottle to Amara, who did the same. After they’d both taken a second drink, Amara handed the bottle to Drew.

“Thank you,” Amara whispered.

“Feeling any better?”

Aria swallowed and nodded. “Thank you,” he whispered, echoing his brother, although Drew was pretty sure they’d thanked him for different things.

“All part of the job,” Drew said with a smile.

“I doubt that,” Amara said in a stronger voice.

“You’d be surprised what they teach in security school.”

“Is there really a security school?” Aria asked, his panic fading a little as his interest was piqued.

“Kind of. You have to get a license and in order to get a license you have to get a qualification and a full first aid certificate.”

“One of those day things when you’re told not to actually do any anything in case you’re sued?”

Drew chuckled. “Kind of but it’s a full certificate which takes more than a day. I also have some field medicine training from the army. You’d be surprised how many people have panic attacks in the field. Sometimes people who have been in the forces for years.”

“Have you ever had one?” Aria’s eyes were now wide for a different reason. Drew was glad he was calming down but sorry he’d put himself in the position to have to answer difficult questions.

“Yes, I have.”

“You’re not going to have any now are you?” Amara asked. “I mean not now, right now, but if something happens.”

Aria glared at his brother. “Of course, he won’t.”

“But he said…”

“Don’t worry. That was a long time ago, in very different circumstances. Remember, I told you about the counselling. That’s the kind of thing they deal with. Something bad happened and for a while after I had panic attacks. I dealt with it a long time ago.”

“That’s not why you left the army?”

“Of course, it’s not,” Aria snapped. “You read the file.”

“Files don’t always tell the truth.” Amara compressed his lips and Drew almost laughed. He didn’t, because he knew it was Amara’s way of coping with everything that was happening.

“Don’t Mara, please.”

Aria sounded exhausted, and although Amara looked mutinous, he didn’t say any more but cuddled his brother instead. Drew turned to sit next to Aria with is back against the sofa. He was surprised when Aria shifted his head from Amara’s shoulder to Drew’s. He was even more surprised when Amara crawled over to sit on Drew’s lap, one arm around Drew and the other around Aria. Drew allowed it because there was nothing remotely sexual about it.

That’s how he found himself with an arm around each twin and both of them practically trying to crawl inside his skin when Alicia came hurrying up the stairs shortly afterward. Her eyes widened.

Drew managed to raise a finger to his lips and she nodded. Slipping off her shoes, she padded across the floor and crouched beside Drew.

“What happened?” she asked softly. “I would have come straight up but Mama Bear was making quite a fuss.”

“Aria had a panic attack when she told them the baby’s a girl.”

“Ah shit. I bet she didn’t break the news gently either, did she?”

“No.”

Alicia must have caught the tightness in his voice because she met his gaze and nodded.

“Alicia?”

Aria’s voice was tiny and sleepy. Amara stirred at the sound of it.

“I’m here, sweetheart.”

“Has she gone?”

“Yes.”

“She’s having a girl. She doesn’t need us anymore. She doesn’t need me.”

“Hush, you silly boy. Of course, she needs you. She’s your mother. Maybe she’ll take the pressure off you now she has someone else to play dolls with.”

Aria blinked at her as if he’d never considered the possibility that his mother might actually start seeing her sons as they were when she had someone else to satisfy her need to bring up a girl.

“Will she let me be a boy? Will she love me like I am?”

Drew bit his lip. This shit was heart-breaking. If he could have got his hands around Julianna Graice’s neck right then….

“Don’t talk bollocks, Aria,” Amara said, his voice slurred with sleep. “She hated us before and she’ll keep on hating us after. You’re going to have to grow up at some point and realize our mother is just a terrible person.”

“She’s not,” Aria said, but he didn’t have his usual vehemence when defending his mother.

“You’ve still got your father,” Alicia said. “You still have me, and you still have Drew. Nothing’s really changed except you’ll have a little sister to love.”

Amara snorted. “As if we’ll ever see her except for family gatherings and photographs. We rarely see, Mother and it’s hardly likely we’re going to see more of her once she’s replaced us.”

Aria winced but didn’t say anything.

“I think you’re wrong about your mother,” Alicia said. “She has some…problems, but she does love you, in her own way. Just think of her like a child with her best friends. Other friends come and go and new best friends are made, but she never forgets her first besties and she always keeps coming back.”

“Besties? More like dollies. Dolls she loves to play with until she gets a new one at Christmas. At least she can’t give us away to a charity shop.”

Alicia sighed, but she didn’t press the point. Drew didn’t blame her. Frankly, he was impressed she’d got so far without choking on the words.

With a huge sigh, Amara dragged himself out of Drew’s lap. He didn’t seem embarrassed at all about Alicia finding him there. He held out his hand to Aria. “We’ve got time for a nap. Is your bed made?”

Aria shook his head as Amara dragged him to his feet. “Mine it is then. Not that it’s made, but I don’t wriggle around as much as you do.”

Amara pulled Aria to his side and supported him as they dragged their feet across the floor to the stairs. “Can you cancel everything for today?” Amara asked as they reached the bottom.

“Already done.”

“Thank you, Drew,” Aria said, before they disappeared up the stairs.

Surprisingly, Alicia didn’t immediately go back down, but sat next to Drew on the floor with a deep sigh.

“Sometimes, I would dearly love to slap that woman,” she said.

Drew snorted. “That all?”

“All I’m prepared to admit to.”

Drew snorted again, and they sat in silence for a while.

They were interrupted by an urgent buzzing. Alicia jumped and fished around in a hidden pocket somewhere, coming up with a tiny black pager. “Duty calls,” she said with a wry smile and climbed stiffly to her feet. “I’ll clear the rest of the day for both boys, but I’d be grateful if you’d hang around. I don’t think they should be on their own.”

“Is Ben coming in today?”

Drew tried to keep his enquiry casual but from the look Alicia shot him, she had no better opinion of Ben than he did.

“I’ll give him a call, too.”

Drew smiled and nodded.

When Alicia had gone, Drew investigated the kitchen and found the coffee pot was on. He poured himself a cup, wincing at the bitterness. He emerged from the kitchen and settled on the sofa to watch a film but was disturbed by the clatter of heels on the stairs. He set the coffee cup down and was glad he’d done so as soon as he caught a glimpse of Alicia’s white face.

Immediately on high alert, he found himself glancing around, but of course everything was in its place and no shadows lurked in the corners.

Without a word, Alicia sank onto the sofa, handed him a thick envelope and stole his coffee, grimacing but nevertheless draining the cup.

Puzzled, Drew carefully withdrew the contents of the envelope. His blood turned to ice in his veins.

Most of the documents were made up of photograph. Some were of the boys in places no stranger had any call to be. Most of them were either of the boys embracing each other or doing far more with other people. In some they were here in the house. Drew made an immediate note to warn the boys about keeping the blinds down at all times. The photographs were accompanied by an All-Areas backstage pass for Amara’s tour and an invitation to their birthday party. As the invitations hadn’t been finalized yet, let alone sent out it was presumably meant to be a message about the person’s skill at forgery. It was, Drew had to admit, pretty impressive. Impressive, but chilling given they knew so much about the party when none of the details had been released to anyone other than close family and friends.

With a sinking heart, Drew fingered the folded piece of paper that was likely a letter, as well as a second, sealed, packet. With a sigh, Drew unfolded the letter. It was a sheet of cheap printed paper that said simply. Not what good boys do. All actions have consequences. There was nothing about it that stood out, and Drew had a feeling the police would find nothing incriminating about it or connected to it.

Alicia drew closer to look over his shoulder as he opened the second packet. Again, it contained mostly photographs. Before he looked at them, he opened the second letter, which said, simply, Consequences.

Drew flicked through the photographs, horror souring his stomach. They seemed to have been taken in some kind of dungeon – a modern BDSM playroom rather than an old castle torture chamber, if the plush red velvet and silk were anything to go by. Some of the photographs were wide shots of the entire dungeon, others were of specific pieces of equipment. Those were the scariest because in each one was a mannequin dressed as one of the boys. One was hanging by the wrists from a hook in the ceiling, one was strapped to a St Andrew’s Cross, another was bent over a spanking bench. It was, however, the last photograph that sent Alicia running to the bathroom. Two mannequins were seated, side-by-side, their shoulders touching. Their legs were splayed and their heads tilted in opposite directions. Blood liberally covered their torsos from the knives embedded in their necks and their laps were filled with animal guts. At least he hoped they were from an animal. A card clasped in the hand of one of the mannequins read. We’re coming for you.

“Have you called the police?” Drew asked, when Alicia returned, keeping his voice low just in case one of the boys was in a position to overhear.

“It’s being taken care of. Should we tell the boys?”

“I don’t think we have much choice given their reaction to the fact you hid things from them before.” Only a few days after he started, Amara had learned from a slip by Ben that Alicia had been keeping information from them about the death threats, and all hell had broken out. To say the boys were not pleased about being kept out of the loop was like saying Philip II of Spain was slightly pissed when Drake sank the Armada in 1588.

“Do we have to do it now? Can we afford to wait a few days?”

“The police are going to want to speak to the boys, and I think it’s important that they do. As hard as this is to handle, the boys need to know they’re in real danger, so they don’t take stupid risks. We’re going to need to tighten security and they’ll have to know why. This the most direct threat we’ve had so far ,and added to all the previous letters it’s showing signs of building to a climax.” Drew fingered the invitation. What if it was more than just showing off forging skills. “Maybe….”

“What?”

“I don’t think we can discount the possibility that this invitation is a warning that they intend to do something at the party. We need to make sure security is water tight.”

Alicia paled. “Of course. It was always going to be. There was never any possibility of anyone getting close to the boys.”

“Unless it’s an inside job,” Drew said narrowing his eyes in thought. “Get a list of anyone who knows anything about the party and give it to the police. It might be nothing, or it might be the thing that gets this sicko caught.”

Alicia nodded. “Shall I…”

“No, go back down. I’ll speak to the boys. Security is my job after all.”

Alicia smiled with relief and hurried off, leaving the photographs with Drew. He shuffled them together and stowed them in the envelope.