Saint scoffs. “Don’t talk out your ass. Every person in this room is hiding something.”
“It’s not as if it matters much,” I say, crossing one leg over the other. Four pairs of eyes greedily follow my movement. “It’s in the past.”
“Of course, it matters!” Galen yells. “It fucking matters a lot.”
Why?He fucking hates me. I frown, wondering what else I don’t know.
Galen scratches the back of his head as he shares a pointed look with his cousin. “How long have you known?”
Saint flexes his arms, glancing at me as he says, “I’ve always known.”
“Explain that,” Theo grits out, and I’ve never heard him use that tone with Saint before.
Saint ignores Theo, holding me prisoner with his intense gaze. “Am I the reason you figured it out?”
I stare into his hypnotic blue eyes. “It wasn’t really one thing. It was a bunch of pieces slotting into the puzzle all at once.”
“When?” he asks.
“About two years ago.” After me and Theo were over.
“Can you stop talking in code and fucking tell us what the hell is going on?” Caz asks with a pout.
“I was kidnapped on my way home from school,” I say, beginning to explain. “I was only three blocks from my house when a van drove up onto the sidewalk and a strange woman yanked me inside. She put tape over my mouth and a cloth bag over my head.”
I take a sip of my beer as I relive one of the worst days of my life. “We drove for what seemed like ages. I couldn’t breathe properly, and I was gagging, almost choking, before she removed the bag and the tape. She threatened if I made a sound she’d cut my tongue out. I was too frightened to disobey. When I was taken out, we were at an abandoned warehouse in the middle of nowhere. A few cars and trucks were parked out front. The woman walked me up to the entrance and forced me to face the other way while she argued with some man.”
“Dad didn’t know I’d snuck into the back of his truck,” Saint interjects, picking up the story from his side.
I’ve always wondered how he came to be there.
“I was thirteen, and we’d just started getting more involved with the business, but this night, he said I couldn’t come with. I was pissed and stubborn, and I went along for the ride anyway.”
Caz rolls his eyes. “Not one bit surprised.”
Saint flips him off. “Sinner had only been inside the warehouse a few minutes, and I was about to get out and spy through the window when a van pulled up. I watched Dad’s latest piece of ass drag a girl out of the van.”
He peers deep into my eyes as he speaks. “I could tell she was scared. She was trembling all over, but she never said a word. Didn’t scream or protest. Just looked around, taking in her surroundings, knowing it would be futile to call out for help.”
He brushes a stray strand of hair off my face, and his touch ignites a host of fiery shivers across my skin. “I wanted to rescue you,” he says, lowering his voice. “I didn’t know you or why you were there, but I just knew I needed to get you away. I was trying to work it out in my head when you spotted me.”
“I never forgot your face,” I whisper, my mind lost in the moment, trapped in the past, reliving those few seconds that bonded us instantly. “I saw the fear and determination in your eyes, and I silently begged you to help me.”
“I know.” He cups one side of my face, lost to the past in the same way I am. “And I wanted to, but he saw me. Just before the door closed after you went inside.”
“What did he do?” Galen asks, his tone somber.
“He beat me bloody. Told me to forget I’d seen her. Said she would be released once her dad paid the ransom. He threatened if I told a soul, he’d kill her and then me.”
“I fucking knew there was more to it!” Galen jumps up. “I remember that time. You could barely fucking walk for days. When I asked you why he’d been so savage, you told me you’d thrown shade at him while he was drunk.” He looks at me, and for a brief second, there’s no anger or hostility in his gaze. “I remember him throwing up when the news reports came out after the fact. He was distant and troubled for months.”
“Galen.” Saint silences him on the spot.
Galen swings his gaze to his cousin. “You should’ve told us.”
“I wouldn’t risk her life like that,” Saint says, and my stupid heart swoons at his words.
For so long, I’ve been confused over that moment. Wondering if it was all in my head. If it was one-sided. If I’d imagined the troubled boy with the piercing blue eyes and messy blond hair. And when I figured it out, and I realized who he was, I wondered if he’d been a part of it.
