Maniac (Necessary Evils, #7)

by Onley James

“We’re not his brothers. He’s our new stepdad,” Adam called.

“Let’s ask our new stepdad,” Adam crowed. “Can we call you Dad? On that note, do you still call Thomas Dad or is it Daddy now?”

“Oh-kay, I am not comfortable with this,” Noah said, looking at Aiden. “Stop flirting with my dad. It’s weird.” “That’s not what you said yesterday,” Aiden reminded him. Had Aiden talked to Noah about Thomas? That was new information. What the hell was happening? When had Thomas lost total control of this family? “Hey, he’s Aiden’s dad, too,” August reminded Noah, lips twitching. Aiden pointed a finger in his direction. “Don’t fucking start, August. I swear, I will punch you.” “Color me terrified,” August said, tone bored. “Color me terrified,” Aiden mocked in a pretentious tone that made the others chuckle. “Oh, yeah,” Seven said in a half-whisper. “I forgot he’s, like, Thomas’s…son? Awkward.” “More like awesome,” Arsen challenged, grinning as he watched the back and forth. “Careful, August,” Atticus said. “You don’t want to piss off Dad’s favorite.” “Yeah, he might ground you,” Avi crowed. “I hate all of you,” Aiden said. “Our new stepdad’s kind of abusive,” Adam said, then snickered. Aiden looked at Thomas. “Control your children.” August laced his fingers together on the conference room table. “Hey, I don’t know what you’re complaining about. You just moved up the rank from son to husband. I’m the one who’s going to have to explain to my children how Uncle Aiden went to Grandpa Aiden.”

“Nobody’s going to make him feel bad. We’ve known about you two for years now. But it’s gonna take some getting used to. We’ve had twenty plus years of thinking of you as our weird, loner brother, and now, we have to think of you as our weird, loner…stepdad?”