Read Online Child of Recklessness (Trials of Strength Book 2) by Matthew R. Bell - Free Book Online Page A

maniacally, but tears came to Chris’s eyes and he smiled
brightly, making the scars on his face far less
menacing.
    ‘ Thanks, sweetheart,’ Chris whispered and took the doll from
her.
    ‘ It’ll give you sumin to do in your spare time,’ Paul
squealed.
    I laughed, and Anna frowned playfully. She handed Paul his,
and he unwrapped it. The smile fell from his face, and as we all
caught sight of his gift, we nearly fell off our chairs. In Paul’s
hands was a large mug, a head with steam billowing out from the top
plastered on its front. Words underneath dictated:
‘ Chill out. Don’t panic. The world is not
ending.’
    ‘ Couldn’t have said it better myself!’ Brian smiled.
    The
smile finally returned to Paul’s face, and he joined in on the
laughter. Chris with slurred words poked fun back at him. Brian’s
package was a toy laptop that beeped, and after pressing a few
buttons, a robotic child’s voice echoed from the
speaker.
    ‘ You’re a star!’ it screamed.
    Brian
beamed.
    I went
to lift mine, but Anna covered my hand.
    ‘ Not now, open yours later,’ she said, and the rest of the men
at the table broke into cat calls and jokes.
    Anna
laughed along with them and winked. We continued to polish off our
plates, and when we were done, we sat there blissfully. Chris sang
in a dull quiet voice, and his eyes were almost closing. A burp
erupted from his mouth.
    ‘ Go to bed, Chris,’ I said.
    ‘ Zat is a good ideal, no, ideal, no,’ Chris’s forehead crunched
in confusion, but he slouched off anyway. ‘Thanks for ze gift,
Anna.’
    ‘ No problem,’ Anna said, ‘sorry it’s not something
spectacular.’
    ‘ No, Anna,’ Brian said as Chris’s door clicked shut, ‘they’re
perfect.’
    I helped
Brian clear the table, and then moved it back to the wall on my
own. Anna was smiling from the couch, watching me with drooped
eyes. She looked tired. I grinned, my insides aglow with my
feelings for her, well alcohol was a factor as well. It was all
going brilliantly, until Paul’s voice shattered everything Anna had
worked to create.
    ‘ What the fuck are we doing!!?’ he screamed, making even me
jump.
    His head
rolled slowly around, and his speech slurred. The previous laughter
and joy he had exuded had vanished, and his face turned a horrible
shade of purple. Brian’s face fell, and he walked over and tried to
lift his father up and move to their room, but Paul slipped out of
his grasp.
    Paul
himself shook, his teeth suddenly chattered and sweat slid down his
face as if a bucket of water had been dumped over his
head.
    ‘ We brought you guys here to fucking stop all this shit,’ he
spat, ‘and we’re all sitting here, pretending we have happy little
9-5 lives.’
    ‘ Dad,’ Brian said.
    ‘ Well we don’t!’ Paul bellowed and he lifted Anna’s mug and
smashed it against the wall. ‘We don’t because of YOU! You and your
fucking father.’
    ‘ Dad!’ Brian shouted.
    Paul
looked around at his son, his face maniacal. He finally grunted,
pushed past Brian and slammed the door. Brian opened his mouth, but
the apology died on his lips. He sighed and walked out after his
father, leaving Anna and I open-mouthed and completely
rattled.
     
    *
     
    ‘ I shouldn’t have pushed it,’ Anna whispered.
    We’d
changed and gotten ready for bed, reality finally taking
over.
    ‘ No, you were right,’ I assured her, ‘we needed something like
this. Don’t be so hard on yourself over that arsehole. I honestly
think there’s something wrong with him.’
    Anna’s
face had hardened, her jaw clenched. I could see the internal
struggle she was fighting. She wanted the comforts of a normal
life, to balance them with what we had to do. She was
losing.
    ‘ No,’ Anna whispered. ‘I won’t be making this mistake again.
Tomorrow we plan something. Tomorrow, we hunt your Dad down, we
find my brother, and we put a stop to this, once and for
all.’
    She
turned and lay down, closing her eyes.
    It broke
my