Season: Summer
Weather: Hot, smoky and intermittent thunderstorms.
Day of the week: Tuesday
Date: 28th February, 2024
The dark shadow lord was still occupying my bedroom, but I felt safe wrapped up in the scent of THE biggest boss of all. In his bed and in his arms, I felt pretty safe and happy. At least nobody would be ousting me from this bed for now.
It was a strangely quiet day. The dark shadow lord pretty much slept the entire day. He didn't even come out for meals and we didn't call him.
I cooked for THE biggest boss of all and Stony Boss, bringing huge grins to their faces.
Today, for breakfast, we had poached eggs on toast with avocado and grilled vegetables. I made some freshly squeezed oranges juice to go with it.
For lunch, it was grilled fish fillets with crispy skin on a bed of potato mash, broccoli and garlic butter long green beans. There was a fruit platter for dessert.
Dinner had a borcht soup with fresh home made bread for starters, with sizzling thin steaks with capsicum, gravy and yorkshire pudding. Just because I felt like it. There was a beetroot chocolate cake for dessert.
It was nice to do so much work again, but at the same time, very tiring. I'd only cooked some meals. It was hardly anything. And yet I'm so tired.
The dark shadow lord seemed to be woken up by the smell of food and came out to eat. I got up to serve him a portion, but Stony Boss sat me back down.
"He's a big man. He can get his own food," Stony Boss told me.
In that case, alright then. I decided to just keep my head down to continue eating.
"You're a keeper," the dark shadow lord took a few bites and then pointed at me. "Which of you fellows should I congratulate and then warn that I'll be crashing at your place every so often to borrow your woman's bed and eat her food?"
The two bosses exchanged dark looks, stood up from the table and went to pick up some bats. A cricket bat for one. A baseball bat for the other. The dark shadow lord watched with amusement and just laughed, continuing to eat without a care.
"Your security is rubbish. Let me take care of the security wherever she decides to live in the future. From now on, she and you all are all mine. Under my protection, that is. I'll arrange for a business contract with your company at some stage. Make things formal so that nobody messes with you. It'll be proper business. Clean. I promise. You won't need to worry. The little bunny's a treasure. Helping with security is the least I can do if she can help me with my insomnia. I'll also pay her. Any of you willing to give me her bank account? Or at least her mobile number? She has Pay ID, right?"
"My bank account isn't safe," I mumbled. "People keep hacking into it."
"Oh ho," said the dark shadow lord. "Have you boys dealt with that yet?"
"We're waiting for word from the police and banks, but..."
"But they probably said they can't do much about it," the dark shadow lord sniffed. "Idiots. Just open a new bank account for her with a different bank. Better yet, I'll open an account for her in one of my affiliated banks. That way I can flag her account as VIP and whatnot and make sure they take proper care of her and her money. You two have so many connections and you didn't think of this?"
"Her enemy is a policeman," said Stony Boss.
"Huh," snorted the dark shadow lord, leaning over the table to ruffle the hair on my lowered head. "Easy as pie. I'll investigate and deal with it then."
"He's based on the other side of the country," I said. "And Chef said he'd deal with him."
"Chef? You asked Chef to deal with him?" the dark shadow lord raised both his eyebrows. "You can bear to..."
"Mr Dark Shadow Lord," I looked up at the chatty guy and he fell silent. "Shut up. I don't know anything and don't want to know anything. Nobody would or was able to stand up for me before. As long as my family are safe, whatever happens is fine by me. I'm tired."
"I'm investigating," announced the dark shadow lord. "In order to protect you properly, I'll have to investigate everything."
"Do whatever you want," I pushed my food away and stood up. "I've had enough. Good night, gentlemen."
"You could have let her finish eating first," Stony Boss complained.
I walked to my room and then paused at the unfamiliar smell of the dark shadow lord in my room. Under the gaze of all the men, I scowled at the intruder and then took myself to the bed of THE biggest boss of all.
"Tell me," I heard the dark shadow lord say in a low voice to my two bosses. "Everything."
I didn't want anybody to die. I really didn't. But it was important to keep the family safe. I didn't ask anyone to protect me. I didn't ask anyone to do anything for me. I hoped whatever anybody did, they wouldn't really kill anyone. If they did, they had better never tell me, because I didn't want to know.
It would be better if I stayed banished and never made contact with my family again.