“No, we had to delay it. We were going today, but I just got a phone call from a very agitated cruise captain, blasting me for how unprofessional it was to not bother showing up.”
Dad’s announcement wakes me up more than any cup of coffee could have, and I can see it has the same effect on my brothers. My heart races in fear and my stomach rolls, all the alcohol I drank last night threatening to make a reappearance.
“What do you mean not bothering to show up?” Thomas asks, throwing the towel to the side, his red hair sticking up in all angles.
“Harlow and the twins never boarded the cruise after the gala. Something has happened. Mom and Dad are calling around to hospitals, checking their newly admitted patients, but I don't think they're going to have any luck.”
I see Oliver reach for Holden’s hand out of the corner of my eye.
“They’ve been taken, haven't they?” Kai's voice is flat as he says the one thing none of us wanted to hear.
“I think they may have been, yes,” Dad confirms, and the room bursts into sound, my already pounding head spiking in pain at the noise. Thomas hurries over to the dining table and grabs his phone, calling someone and shouting instructions. Kai, Oli, and Holden are peppering Dad with questions, but I can tell he has no answers. All I can do is sit here in shock, my complete helplessness pinning me to the spot.
No, this can't be happening to me. I can’t be losing people I loveagain. I struggled to recover after I lost my parents, and Dad, Nana, and Poppy helped me through that, but if we lose Harlow and the twins, who’s going to help all of us this time?
The next hour passes in a whirlwind of conversation, with Dad and Tom telling us about their conversation the previous evening. By the time we've all cooled down enough not to hit our brother for delaying sharing the news of Peter's identity, I'm at a complete loss. The action fades away around me as I retreat into myself, something I haven't done since I was a child. Not since the twins arrived on our doorstep and I became a big brother, charged with looking after them and protecting them. Dad knew it was just what I needed to come out of my self-imposed shell. But now I can see that his trust was misplaced. I failed to protect them. I failed to protect the one person I love more than my family.
I am not worthy of any of them.
ChapterTen
Harlow
While the three women take a break, drinking their beer and munching on their chips, my mind races with everything I know so far. I have an aunt and cousins, the twins have an uncle, and all of them are cunts. I check on my boyfriend and his sister, and both of them are staring daggers at our kidnappers. I don’t blame them. I’m just glad those daggers aren’t aimed at me… yet. My aunt killed Jaxon and Jacinta’s dad and grandfather. How can they look at me the same way now that they know that? The moments as I wait to see what I’ll find in their eyes drag on.
Jaxon must be able to feel my eyes on him because he turns, slowly so as not to draw anyone’s attention. I brace myself, but when his eyes meet mine, there’s no resentment, just worry and love. I let out a small sigh of relief. Now that I’m reassured about us, I can concentrate on what she just disclosed.
“So then what happened?” Jacinta frowns at me as if she can will me to shut up, but I need to know the rest of the story.
“I left LA and laid low for a while. Eventually, I met the girls’ dad, and we had them. Brad returned home the minute Dragos and his father were reported as missing. He and Diane never spoke again after the night I interfered. I learned that from my mom, who was happy to report things to me when I sent her money. But then Diane found out she was pregnant. She tried to stay sober, but she was too weak. Eventually, that fucking bitch fired her and reported her to child services. Diane lost custody of you. I think she was relieved, to be honest, since Mom said she didn't seem to care. It was about four years later that I saw Brad being interviewed on TV, and I discovered how badly I’d fucked up with him. The girls’ dad had died by then, and I was struggling, so I gave them to his mother to raise while I tried to sort my life out.”
Jacinta snorts with amusement. “What are we up to now? That’s your second major fuck-up. Or technically, I guess it was your first.”
Julia screams and lunges for Jacinta, backhanding her across the face. Her lip, which had stopped bleeding, drips blood again. I shout, helplessly watching as my aunt hits her again.
“Keep your fucking hands off my sister, you crazy bitch,” Jaxon shouts as well, but she’s willfully deaf to our demands.
“Aunt Julia,” I call firmly, drawing her attention away from my sister who has tears streaming down her face. “So they’re younger than I am?” I ask about her daughters, trying to distract her from Jacinta. I’m surprised to hear that, especially about Cecelia.
“Yes, Cecelia is only about a year younger and Raquel two.”
Which would put them at twenty-five and twenty-three respectively, considering my twenty-sixth birthday is only a few weeks away. With everything that’s happened, I had forgotten.
”Did you tell my mom about Brad?” is the next thing I ask, hoping to keep her attention on me.
Julia is breathing heavily, but it starts to slow down. “You were such a pretty, happy baby. You were about three when I returned. You just happened to be with Diane for her weekend when I came to see her. But your mom was so addicted to everything by then, and I couldn't get her to focus on what I was saying. She had convinced herself what I’d said was the truth and didn’t care. She wanted nothing to do with him and wasn’t going to tell him about his daughter. I left then and never returned after that. I had planned to tell Brad about his daughter, but when I returned to LA, I accidentally ran into Carmen and discovered the twins.” She looks between Jaxon and Jacinta, smirking with unrestrained glee.
“Your mother was as much of a whore as Diane by then, but she wasn’t as much of an addict. When Dragos and Count Bucataru disappeared, she was considered a suspect for a brief moment, but they let her go since she had nothing and nowhere to go. She had a few bits of jewelry and a car that Dragos had given her, but she had to sell them so she could put a roof over her head. The count’s girls all had to return to working for the escort agency they had originally come from. When Carmen was working, one of the other whores watched her children for her. I ran into her when I went to visit another friend that worked for the agency. I knew immediately that the twins were Dragos and thought my luck had finally changed.”
“You saw the kids as your ticket to getting back into the vault,” I say flatly.
“You bet your ass I did, and it didn't take much to convince Carmen. She was weak like your mom, Harlow. So every week, I would take blood from the twins, then I would spend hours in that vault trying different combinations. But then that bitch got cold feet. I was taking more and more blood each week, and I think she was worried that I was going to kill them, which would have been stupid because I needed them… or at least one of them. Blood replenishes itself fast enough that there was really no cause for worry. Anyway…” She waves a hand in the air like she’s brushing off Carmen's stupidity. “The next time I went to draw blood, they weren’t there. She had given them to Brad, then done a runner. Gone.” She starts to pace agitatedly again.
“Here, Mom, you’re starting to get stressed out. Come take a hit of this.” Raquel waves a straw at her. While we had been engrossed in the story, Cecelia and Raquel had been snorting coke. Great… not only are they crazy, they're junkies.
“I can’t believe you were Dad’s PA,” Jacinta spits at my cousin who stands up.
“God, I’m sick of looking at their faces. Can we take a break? I want to enjoy my high, not listen to them. I can’t stand the sight of the spoiled bitches,” Cecelia whines, and Raquel throws her head back, dragging the back of her hand across her nose.
