His sister’s been abducted and he wants the love story? Really?
“We’ve been in a relationship with her. It was rocky at first. It’s a unique situation but it works,” Jace answers.
Thank fuck he decided to talk because I find thermal signature in the image. Could be passengers. Could be cargo. I need better resolution.
“A quad. Polyamory. Whatever the term is for four people building something that shouldn’t work but does,” he says.
I’m cross-referencing now, checking cell tower data near the rental property. Parker’s phone went offline but maybe there are other signals, other devices that could give us confirmation.
“That’s why he’d use us as bait,” Silas the fucking silent finally says while I finally pull up the data I need. Cell tower activity near the rental spiked thirty minutes ago. Multiple devices connecting, then going dark. “Because Parker loves us. She’d drop everything if she thought we needed her. Ryan knew that, aside from Liam and Noah, we’re a weakness of hers.”
“How long?” Charles asks.
“I just told you. Six years since?—”
“No. How long have you three been in love with her?”
My fingers pause again. Longer this time. Then resume.
“Since I was twelve.” I’m pulling satellite imagery now, trying to get current photos of the rental property. “You two were ten. Some kid at school was giving me shit about my parents, about my dad’s drinking, about how we didn’t have money. Parker heard him and punched him in the face. Broke his nose.”
“She was suspended for three days for that,” Charles sighs, “Dominic was pissed.”
I snort a laugh as the satellite image loads. I zoom in, analyzing the structures, the vehicles, the heat signatures if the imaging is recent enough.
“And I remember standing there,” I continue, “watching her get dragged to the principal’s office, blood on her knuckles, fierce and completely unrepentant. And thinking,‘That’s the girl I’m going to love for the rest of my life.’”
“And you never said anything,” Charles says, “None of you said anything to me.”
“She was your sister. My best friend’s little sister. Our best friend’s little sister.” I enhance the satellite image, looking for any signs of recent activity. “And then there was Dominic. You know what he was like. What he would have done if he’d known. He would have used it. Used her. Used us. We were protecting her by staying away.”
A vehicle in the satellite image. Matches the description of the grey Suburban. Parked behind the rental property. The timestamp on the image is from forty minutes ago.
“That’s it,” I say, highlighting the image. “That’s where she is.”
Everyone crowds around to see the screen.
“You’re sure?” Charles asks.
“The Suburban from the airport is there. Utility usage is consistent with multiple occupants. Cell tower data shows activity spike right when Parker would have arrived.” I pull up everything I have on the property. “This is where Ryan took her.”
The look he’s giving me. He either wants to kill us for being Parker’s Achilles heel or…
“All this time,” Charles says, still processing the earlier revelation. “The boys. Noah and Liam.”
Jesus fuck, Charles! Focus on the issue at hand.
“We don’t know yet.” I give up on his inability to focus. I’m running final searches, pulling together every piece of tactical information we’ll need. “Parker wanted us to find out together. She took DNA samples a few days ago, sent them to her friend who works at a lab. Results came back but she hasn’t opened them. She was waiting for us.”
“She said the doctors told her that they’re Heteropaternal Superfecundation Twins,” Jace says quietly from beside me. “Different fathers, same pregnancy. Two of us are the biological fathers.”
“And you were all okay with that?” Charles asks, his voice carefully neutral. “Not knowing which of you is which boy’s father but still being in a relationship with my sister?”
“We’re all their fathers,” Silas says from the window, his voice flat and certain. “Biology is just details.”
I pull up the email notification on my phone. The one that came through during the firefight at the textile mill. The one we haven’t opened.
“The results are here,” I say quietly, showing Charles the notification on my screen. “But we’re not opening it without Parker. We do this together or not at all.”
