172 Lily (8)

When Kyro came back with Jimmy, he knew that something had happened. There was no one in the main room, while there was the sound of punching from his left.

He strode there in quick steps and saw Gale beating up a punching bag. His punches landed one after another, aimed at the most sinister points had the bag been a human. Gale's knuckles were red and bruised, but he didn't seem to care. All his attention was focused on punching as hard as he could.

Jimmy whistled, while Kyro went straight for his friend. Gale whirled to punch him for the interruption, but Kyro dodged, having expected that, and landed a blow on the other's nose. It came out bloody, but he didn't care and just shook his fist.

"The hell you did that for?" Gale hollered instantly, holding onto his nose.

"Should I have just left then?" As he said that, Kyro went to the doorway where Jimmy watched them. "Do you want help or not? I'm not gonna go out of my way to save your sister if you're gonna foil all I did the next day by going out and doing something stupid."

There was a curse from behind, and Gale pushed past them to get to the bathroom. "Give me five minutes."

A smile tugged at Kyro's lips. Although they had started boxing to let out their frustrations around the same time, Gale was ten times better than him. A lot of it was due to Gale spending five times the amount of time on practice, but it was still nice to land a hit on him. Even if it hadn't been a fair fight. Or a fight at all.

"How likely is he to run out on us?" Jimmy asked in a low voice as they sat down in the living room.

'How am I supposed to know?' Kyro didn't say anything since he had no clue either. This was way worse than anything he'd encountered before. None of their previous heists had ever been personal to Gale, even taking over his father's company. It had been just a very complicated game.

Soon, Gale came back with a sour expression. His vanity had been pricked by the hit to the face, but it had helped him regain his senses. Though he was still unable to sit, marching back and forth as they discussed what they could do first thing tomorrow morning and what contingencies they could form.

"We should inform our PR department asap. They need to be the first to learn of it," Jimmy said after they were done with the legalize regarding how Gale was going to have a hard time taking his sister away. After all, he didn't have any proof of abuse since his parents could explain his sister's frail build as just her being this way, while there were no bruises on her body to suggest anything.

Kyro thought about the suggestion for a moment. "Like right now. I have no doubt the news will be all over the place in the morning."

"Brilliant!" Gale stomped on the ground, picking up a dainty vase and throwing it against the wall. "That's what I need! More attention!"

"Now go and clean it up if you don't want Lily to step on it," Kyro told him in a deadpan voice. From what he knew, the maid only came on Mondays.

A string of curses answered him, but Gale still went and cleaned up the mess. It was almost amusing how obedient he was when it had to do something with his sister.

'I should keep it for the future, once the situation calms down and he can be mad fun about it.'

"I'll give a call then," Jimmy said, and Kyro noticed that he was the only one not doing anything.

His thoughts went to Iris, and he stood up to go and check on her. The room was not hard to find. It was dark, but the door was open, and the blinds not closed. Light from the outside fell on two sleeping figures on the bed.

One of them was very small and thin. It was enveloped by an adult figure, and Kyro recognized it in a heartbeat. Iris' skin looked pale in the moon's light, but it also gave her a shimmering gleam. She looked magical, and his lips curved up at that thought.

If anyone deserved that description, then it was definitely her. Others did not usually turn into animals at the worst timing possible.

He suddenly worried that she might change back while at Gale's, but how was he supposed to prevent it now? She was already here. If anything happened, he just had to hope that only Gale saw it and would take care of the situation by calling him immediately.

Iris shuddered slightly, hugging the girl closer, and Kyro noticed that both their skins were frigid. They weren't cold enough to wake up, but they might catch something if they spent the night like this.

With dismay at Gale's blindness, he went to the wardrobe and took out a thin quilt. It wasn't as good as a blanket, but they were already sleeping on top of it, and he didn't want to wake them up.

Carefully, he covered them up. His fingers lingered on Iris' shoulder a bit longer than necessary as he was tempted to lean a bit lower. Her face was so close and so peaceful, so open. It took a lot of effort for him to let go of the quilt and step away.

On his way out, he placed her new phone on the bedstand. It had only one number, his own.

"Can I ask who she—" Jimmy started, having only come this moment, but Kyro shut him up with a glare.

"Quiet," he ordered in a whisper and closed the door behind himself with an unspoken 'goodnight'. He then walked away so they wouldn't disturb the two sleeping beauties.