“Right, now that everyone is here, will someone tell me what the fuck is going on?” Hope demands as Cole lets us into the room.
“Hang on, Riku needs to be here too. Let’s just wait until he’s done. Poor guy will probably need a drink by the time he gets out here,” Cole mutters, sitting down at the table and opening up his laptop.
“He doesn’t drink,” Shane says as he takes a seat on the sofa, pulling Alex down next to him. He holds a hand out for me to join them, but I shake my head. I need to move. I go to the fridge in their kitchen area and open it to see what’s inside. There’s a six-pack, so I grab one for me and the other two and hold one up for Cole.
“Yeah, that would be great,” he says as his fingers fly across the keyboard.
“Hope?” I ask, and she grimaces and nods.
“Why do I get the feeling this conversation will need something stronger than a beer?”
Ash sighs. “Because you’re right.” He’d gone straight to the balcony to smoke a cigarette, but he can still hear everything we’re saying. “I’ll have one, please.”
I do the rounds, giving them to Alex, Shane, and Hope before I hand one to Cole, then Ash. Ash grabs my hand before I can go.
“Thank you. For before. You have no idea how much I appreciate it.” I flush with the attention from the sexy British man and hurry away to grab my own beer, but a chuckle has me looking toward the couch. Alex is sitting there, and I instantly feel guilty, but my mischievous boyfriend just winks at me. He obviously saw what happened outside. There’s nothing to stop them from seeing since the curtains have been pulled back.
I take a sip of my beer and join them on the couch. Hope looks like she’s about to explode at any second, but the door to Jacinta’s room finally opens, and Riku steps out. The guy looks exhausted. His normally sleek ponytail has strands hanging out of it, and he has bags under his eyes, not to mention his defeated posture. I jump up and grab a bottle of water from the fridge before bringing it back to him just as he takes a seat at the table with Cole. He gives me a grateful nod as I hand him the water.
“Great, everyone’s here. Ash, you want to come in now?” Cole calls, and within moments, Ash is back inside, bringing the strong smell of cigarettes with him.
“Okay, so what the fuck happened?” Hope asks before Ash can even take a seat.
“Jacinta has a coke problem.” Riku pulls the tie from his hair, finger combing it before tying it back again. This time, instead of the ponytail or braid he usually wears, he puts it into a man bun.
Coke? Seriously? I’m still not sure I can convince myself to believe it. I’m waiting for this to be some kind of morbid joke with a shitty punch line. When we were in Prague, she explained all about her mother and the meth-fueled rages and swore she would never touch drugs because of that. Has the kidnapping really affected her so much that she sought solace in something she swore she never would? And how did we not notice it? I feel sick with guilt that I hadn’t looked beneath the facade she’s been projecting and noticed what was going on below. Is it our fault? Have we rushed her, or should we have not given her space when it all first happened? Maybe if we had been there for her from the start, none of this would have happened.
“What? She’s drinking too much Coke? How is that a problem?” Hope sounds annoyed, and if the situation wasn’t so drastic, I’d be tempted to laugh at her question.
“No, not the drink, the white powder kind of problem,” Alex chimes in, miming snorting, and Hope pales, speechless.
We all give her a minute, letting her process what has to be heartbreaking news, but then she starts shaking her head. “No way! Not a fucking chance. Drugs fucked up her mother, so she never touches anything harder than weed.”
“She’s been using it every time she has to make a public appearance. If I think back to the first event we escorted her to, that fashion award thing, then I’d say she was using alcohol to self-medicate before she found a source for the coke. She got blitzed, and we had to help her home. The coke use had to start after that because there was a visible change. She was terrified to go to that awards show, but after that, it was like there were two Jacintas. Everyday Jacinta, then bubbly, larger-than-life Jacinta.”
“I saw her using on her birthday,” Cole admits, and Hope whirls on him.
“Was this before or after you fucked her in the closet?”
Cole grimaces. “Same time. I didn’t think anything of it. It was a party.”
Oh snap! I knew there was something more between the two of them. I watch on with amusement as Alex’s jaw drops open, and he waves a hand in Cole’s direction. “You and Jacinta?”
“Yeah, but it was a one-time thing. She didn’t even know who I was, just a stranger in a mask. It meant nothing to her.” He keeps protesting, but I’m not the only one who notices that he didn’t say it meant nothing.
“But did it mean something to you?” Shane asks what I was thinking even though Hope is still glaring at him.
“At first, no. It was a quick fuck in the closet, which we both enjoyed, but the more time I spent with her, the more I realized I misjudged her, and… I can’t deny that I have feelings. More than I ever thought I would.”
“Okay, this is good!” Alex claps his hands. “Let’s lay it all out on the table. I think we’ve been pussyfooting around admitting to each other what’s going on. Let the first official family meeting of Jacinta Summers’ brother-boyfriends come to order.”
The room is silent as we all stare at my boyfriend and the smug grin plastered on his face. Hope sputters a couple of times before clearing her throat. “Yes, well, okay, I’m happy you are all on the same page… sort of, but what about Jazzy? I just don’t understand how it has come to this. Why has she been using coke?”
“She told me that since the kidnapping, she hasn’t been able to escape the feeling of continuously being watched.” Riku nods, confirming what Ash just shared.
“But that’s nothing new. She’s always been watched,” Hope argues. “Why would that push her over the edge?”
Ash continues as I pace back and forth across the carpet. “But now she has all these doubts about everyone and everything. She second-guesses who wants things from her or is using her to social climb or get ahead in life. She’s also worried about being kidnapped again. She feels worthless, like she did nothing to stop Peter and what Jaxon and Harlow both went through. It’s kind of survivor’s guilt, I think? Then all the ugly shit her mother said to her as a child is also playing a pretty big part of it.”
