“But you liked her enough to have two kids with her?” Caelen asked with a look of disbelief.
Vin shook his head. “They’re twins. They’re four – I think. I met their mother when I sort of ran away five or so years ago. I was fed up with, well, being me. I needed a break. So I took off and picked up one night stands in bars until one guy got me drunk enough that I passed out. He stole everything I had and tossed me into a field behind the shitty motel we’d fucked in. Hannah spotted me as she was cleaning windows and brought me to a room to clean up and sleep it off. Then she fed me and I was like a puppy, excited to have a person paying attention to me without having to. That led to a fun week before my dad got fed up with me not answering my phone or responding to texts. He sent out a couple of guys to bring me home, and when they found me, I was ready to go home.”
Caelen ran a hand through Vin’s bleached hair. “You’ve had a pretty rough life, haven’t you?”
“Well, I mean, I AM part of a criminal organization…”
Caelen gave him a faint smile. “Yeah, but you always act like a normal person. Well, normal except you have money and can afford to drop everything and spend a few thousand dollars in Vegas whenever you want.”
“Let’s just say that I’ve had my ups and downs,” Vin said with a heavy sigh. “Which brings me back to my point. There are four women living in the house I bought for them. It’s only a couple of blocks away from a really bad ghetto, but I bought it there because it’s down the street from the first woman’s parents. Also, the others all have family close by, so it’s convenient for all of them. Plus, despite being in a rundown neighborhood, it’s pretty easy to keep secure.”
“Okay…” Caelen murmured, not really knowing what to say.
Vin ran his free hand through his hair. “So, last night, apparently two of my women got into a really bad fight. No one really knows what it was about. Apparently, this is fairly common, not because they don’t get along, but because they all do various drugs, and sometimes just feel like fighting. I was told that when any of them start fighting, the others will ask their guards to come in and help them get the children out of the way. So basically, the other two women, the two guards, and all the kids left the house while my first woman was beating up my fourth woman.”
He paused to hang his head and groan. “And when they came back, they found that Ally had ended up beating Gina to death… and then promptly overdosed on something – Heroine, I think. Not sure. It could have actually been a variety of different drugs.”
Caelen couldn’t help but give him an incredulous look that was mixed with disapproval. “And you let your kids live there?!”
Vin made a large W with his arms. “What else am I supposed to do? They’re living with their mothers in a house that is as safe as I can reasonably make it!”
Caelen held out his hands in a gesture meant to soothe. “I’m sorry. That was uncalled for.”
Rather than argue, Vin braced his elbows on his knees and stared at the floor as he talked. “So anyway, when the others returned home, they apparently argued over what exactly to do. Then they called me and told me what had happened, so I rushed over there to see it for myself. I also had to pace and argue with myself over what to do, but eventually decided that as much as I didn’t like it, I had to call the cops. They came in and interrogated me and everyone else.”
He flopped his head against the back of the couch as he hissed in frustration. “I was treated like a suspect even though I was nowhere NEAR the place! And worse, since my name is on the house, I couldn’t just decline to answer any questions! Thankfully, the others all verified several times that I was not involved in any way except for fathering all the kids.”
Caelen didn’t say it, but he was tempted to point out that two women had died and Vin seemed more concerned about himself than either of them. That said, he himself was a police officer and had become one because he had an innate concern for helping people. Vin had been raised to care more about himself and his ‘family’ than others. It was a difference in personality that Caelen had already accepted and prepared for back when they were separated for two months and he had agonized over every possibility.
With another heavy sigh, Vin continued. “As I said, there are 10 kids living in that house. Four of them belong to the two women that died. Of those four, three are officially mine, and one is not. He’s the baby, and he’s only six months old, so I could probably adopt him out fairly easily. I could also leave him in the house, and maybe even hire a nanny or two to come help out, but I really feel like 10 kids being looked after by just two women is a bit much. Especially since the other two already said they didn’t want to do it, even though I said I’d give them the child support that was going to Ally and Gina. I guess money doesn’t matter to them as much anymore since I bought the house and pay all the bills.”
Caelen softened and pulled Vin into a hug so that he could simply hold him and rub his back. It took a few minutes of simply breathing before Vin was ready to get to his real point. Still it took a deep breath before he could say it.
“So… I was wondering if you would, um… take them…”
Caelen froze for a moment. “… Take them?”
“Yeah,” Vin confirmed in a soft voice. “If I hire nannies to care for them, I’m pretty sure that Grace and Violet will cause trouble until they quit – or call CPS. If I put them all up for adoption, I’d have to be damn sure that the people adopting them weren’t part of a rival organization. I’d actually probably have to send them out of state. Each to a different state would probably be safest. Or maybe I could buy a second house and have nannies live there with them, but that would require at least one person who was willing to live there permanently and oversee the nannies.”
Caelen covered Vin’s mouth with a hand when it seemed like he was going to ramble on. “So… Let me get this straight… You’re wondering if I’ll take in four kids in one go?”
“I mean… well… yeah…” Vin confirmed, knowing that this would make anyone hesitant.
“Oh… wow…” Caelen murmured, feeling a bit faint. Yeah sure, he wanted kids, but suddenly having four at once was a challenge that had NEVER occurred to him. “Uh… hmm… well… how old are they?”
“The oldest is a five year old boy. The next two are both two. Ally and Gina decided that it would be brilliant to have their kids together, and by that, I mean that when Gina turned up pregnant and was added to the house, Ally fell in love with her as a best friend and wanted to go through the pregnancy thing together. Of course, she didn’t tell me that, she just called me over for a booty call, so… They’re both girls. And I already said, the baby is six months old. He’s a boy and no one is quite sure who his father is, except that it’s not me. My name is on his birth certificate though, so I do have legal authority over him,” Vin explained.