“That’s one of my favorite pictures of us,” Knox says from the open French doors that lead out to the balcony.
I wipe my eyes before facing him. “Sorry, man. I didn’t know you were in here.”
“Probably for the same reason you are,” he says.
We both are mirror images of each other with our hands shoved into our front pockets, our faces carrying matching haunted expressions.
“Heard she was with you last night.”
“We’re not doing this now. If you want to have it out, it’ll have to wait. Finding Aurora comes first,” I tell him.
Knox walks fully into the room and sits down on her bed. “She loves you, JD. There hasn’t been a day gone by that she hasn’t. Lord knows I tried to get her to love me, but her heart has always belonged to you. Don’t break it again.”
Knox’s declaration has me lashing out with my guilt. “It’s my fucking fault that she was taken! I’m the reason she was targeted!” If only they knew. It’s my fault. Dad warned me what would happen if I came back. I thought it was over. My father was dead. I was so fucking wrong.
“She’s a Montgomery. Even though she’s kept a low profile, it’s probably some greedy son of a bitch who kidnapped her expecting a big ransom. I have to have faith that she’ll come back to us safe and unharmed. Aurora is one of the strongest women I know, my mother included.”
“You didn’t hear her screams,” I tell him, dropping down to sit on the bed across from him, and his face blanches.
“Don’t you dare say shit like that to me. I was trying to be the better man here. What Aurora sees in you is a goddamn mystery to me. I could have made her happy. I could have given her the life she deserves.”
I just nod my head, scrubbing my hands over my face. If only I never allowed my father to manipulate me. If only I said no and stood up to him sooner. Maybe this nightmare wouldn’t be happening right now.Or maybe she would already be dead, just like Dad said would happen if I didn’t fall in line and do what he said.
“I walked away from her once, I’m not ever leaving her again. If it’s me she still wants, she has me. If it’s you, she’ll still have me regardless. I just won’t stand in the way anymore. I love her so fucking much, Knox.”
I can see when his anger ebbs and there’s nothing left but the defeat of helplessness remaining. I know he wants to be doing more to find her just like me.
“Will you tell me about her life the past five years?” I ask him, wanting to learn more about her life without me. There is so much I missed out on. So much I still want to know. So much that has changed in the girl I fell in love with to the woman I love now.
Leaning back against her headboard, Knox picks up a pillow and brings it to his nose then hugs it to his chest. “Where do you want me to begin?”
Knox is telling me about the week he and Aurora went riding along the Blue Ridge Parkway a few years ago when we hear commotion coming from downstairs. Trevor’s loud, booming voice yells out, “Sebastian found her! JD! We got her!”
Chapter 63
Aurora was rushed to Highland General yesterday and has been unconscious ever since under heavy sedation. Her brother, Sebastian, was the one who found and rescued her. I was told not to ask any questions. The authorities and press have been kept out of it, and we’ve been warned that if anyone comes sniffing around asking about Aurora, we are to tell them that she was in a motorcycle accident. Technically, she had been.
The family lawyer, Charles Worthington, dropped by earlier and had us all sign NDAs to make sure no one made the mistake of slipping up and talking. Yeah, that pissed me off, but Fallon put his foot down and said no exceptions. Since only a select few nurses and doctors have been allowed to treat Aurora, I’m pretty sure that Fallon paid them off or they work for him in some capacity. Hell, at this point it wouldn’t surprise me if he owned the entire hospital. Again, I was advised not to ask questions.
Speaking of Fallon, he somehow arrived this morning. I guess I never took into account that time goes backward as you fly west across the Atlantic Ocean.
Everyone kept vigil at the hospital overnight, which is where I was until about a half-hour ago. Fallon had to drag me out of there kicking and screaming like a five-year-old because I didn’t want to leave Aurora’s bedside. If she wakes up and I’m not there, I’ll never forgive myself.
But here I am, Fallon and Sebastian standing shoulder to shoulder on either side of me, staring at my mother who’s currently tied to the same chair I was told she had Aurora strapped to. My mother’s mouth is duct-taped but that didn’t stop her from trying to talk as soon as she saw me walk down the basement stairs. The basement that is under my family’s house. The house I grew up in. The place where she helped torture the woman I love. To say I’m in a murderous rage at the moment is too kind a sentiment.
“Tell me what you know,” I say to the two men beside me, not taking my eyes of the stranger who is my mother.
Sebastian pokes the toe of one of his shit-kicker boots at the bound and gagged body on the floor. The man writhes and curses, knocking into the chair and sliding my mother sideways. Sebastian’s toe makes hard contact with the man’s gut which seems to cause him to settle down or perhaps pass out. I hope it’s the latter.
“Your mother hired this asshole to run Aurora off the road and kidnap her. He brought her here. They never considered that her phone wasn’t the only way we could track her. They should have checked her watch and her necklace.”
This is the first time I’m meeting Sebastian. Aurora and Trevor found him and the rest of their siblings about four or so years ago. During Christmas break of our senior year, Aurora and I were supposed to go with Trevor to England where Sebastian was living at the time with his mother. All of the Montgomery siblings are scattered around the country now, but Aurora mentioned they still talk to each other every month without fail. I don’t know much about her new half-siblings other than what Aurora has told me. I know Sebastian attended Oxford and can fluently speak seven different languages including Russian, Farsi, and Mandarin. She said he was living in California now. Harper and Jordan are flying in from Texas this evening, and Holden will be arriving the day after tomorrow. Their other sister, who lives in Spain, has been told to stay put and not make the long journey over. Trevor said he had never been cursed out in Spanish before but got an earful from a very unhappy Tatiána.
Fallon looks down at the unmoving man on the floor. “JD, meet Ricky Montana. Stupid-ass name, I know. He was Angelica’s boyfriend. The one who attacked Aurora.”
Memories from that night accost me, tearing me open like knife wounds. I didn’t think this situation could get any worse, but I was so very wrong.
“Why isn’t he dead and buried six feet under?” I state more than ask.
