11. Jax #2
Would it freak him out to know that I was listening to him through the camera feed while he was showing me what’s mine?
One of the hottest things about that night in the woods, and just now in his window, is how Myles doesn’t hide himself. He’s loud and unrestrained, and the only time I’ve seen him even attempt to stifle his cries was the night he fucked himself with his toy.
My body tightens, and my dick goes half hard as I remember how unapologetic he was after that night in the woods.
How his biggest concern was me leaving him to find his own way back home, and the way he giggled and thanked me with that bewildered expression.
He owned what we did, and I doubt he spent the break torturing himself and freaking out if his first instinct when he knew I was not only watching him but had been in his room was to jerk off for me.
I don’t know why he started this. Maybe it was just to take a walk on the wild side and get his freak on, but then again, it doesn’t really matter. Now that he’s imprinted on me, he’s mine until I decide he isn’t.
The massive silhouette of Hamilton House looms over me as I approach the gate and tap my card on the sensor next to it.
The courtyard is empty as I cut across it, and there are only two windows lit up: my and Jace’s room and another room on the second floor on the other side of the building.
As far as we know, there’s only one other student staying in the house right now.
I don’t really give a fuck if this guy is around, but he and Jace have a history, and my brother has been bent out of shape about it since he found out and hasn’t shut up about it.
At least he’s on the other side of the building, so we don’t have to worry about him being in our faces for the next week.
Our room is quiet when I step inside. Jace is at his computer, his attention on his screens and his headphones on.
I’m just closing the door behind me when I feel the slightest shift in the air, like a whisper of a breeze moving over the back of my neck.
I react out of instinct and whirl around, kicking the door closed with a sweep of my foot. A dark figure rushes at me, closing in so fast I only have half a second to drop my shoulder and brace for the hit I don’t have time to avoid.
The figure smashes into me, and the impact is hard enough to knock me back a few paces. I manage to stay on my feet and grab the asshole around the waist as he tries to take me to the floor. He’s bigger than me, but I’m able to get under him and knock him off balance.
He stumbles and pitches toward the floor. I clamp my arms around his waist and haul him back to his feet and steady him.
“Asshole,” I say to my cousin Xavier, or Xave, as he’s always been called, and let go of him.
He grins and flips his hair back off his forehead. “Almost got you that time.”
“It’s cute you think that.” I shoot him a smirk and pat his shoulder in the most condescending way I can.
He slaps my hand away as Jace slow claps, a big grin on his face. “Now that’s quality entertainment.”
“Fuck off,” I tell my brother and give Xave a little shove as I pass him to get to my side of the room.
“So, what were you up to?” Jace asks, his tone dripping with fake innocence. “Enjoying an evening stroll? Perhaps doing some sightseeing in the Boondocks?”
“Fuck off,” I repeat and strip off my jacket. “Why are you here?” I ask Xave, ignoring my brother and his stupid, knowing grin.
He flops down on the couch in the center of the room and kicks his feet up on the coffee table. “That’s the greeting I get after traveling all day to spend time with my favorite cousin?”
“Ahem,” Jace fake coughs.
“Second favorite cousin,” Xave corrects. “And quickly dropping,” he adds pointedly.
“I’m devastated.” I toss my jacket over my desk chair. “But that doesn’t answer why the fuck you’re here and not spending the week with Layan like you were planning.”
He waves one hand dismissively and slides down against the back of the couch. “She got back together with her boyfriend.”
“That’s never stopped you before,” Jace says with a smirk.
“Nope.” He shoots Jace a grin. “And it won’t stop me in the future. But there’s no challenge when I don’t have to work for it. No challenge, no fun.”
“Hear, hear,” Jace agrees.
“So were you off watching your favorite show?” Xave asks me.
“What?” I shoot him a confused look.
“The hacker kid show. I heard you never miss an episode.”
“If you’re asking if I went to check on my mark, yes, I did,” I tell him.
“Mark,” Jace says with a snicker. “Is that what we’re calling him?”
“What else would we call him?” I try to sound casual, but even I can hear the tension in my voice.
Jace knows I’ve spent an ungodly amount of time watching Myles both in person and over the cameras, but I didn’t think Xave picked up on things too.
“I don’t know,” Jace says, his eyes wide with fake innocence. “But it seems you’re getting a bit, I don’t know, emotional , right now. Hmmmmm?”
I shoot him an unamused look.
“Am I wrong?”
I don’t answer, which is answer enough.
“Wanna know what I found out about your new favorite person?” Xave asks, that shit-eating grin back on his face. “Because I found something I know neither of you did.”
“What?” Jace and I both ask together.
“Did you know your boy was kidnapped a few years ago?”
“What?” I did a thorough deep dive on Myles; I should have known about that.
“When?” Jace asks.
“Three years ago now.”
“What happened?” I ask him at the same time Jace asks, “How did you find this out?”
“I found an article in his student file.”
“There are no articles in his file,” Jace says quickly. “I have his student file, and there’s no article about a kidnapping in it.”
“Not his admin file, his medical file.”
“I have that too,” Jace argues. “No article.”
“Not in the e-copy,” Xave says casually.
“You broke into the school hospital and looked through his physical file?” I ask.
Xave nods.
“When?” I ask.
“When I got back on campus, before I came over.”
“Damn,” Jace looks impressed. “I guess old-school tactics are still useful after all. Good job, Gramps.”
“Bite me,” Xave grumbles.
Xave is two years older than us, but because he took a year off before starting at Silvercrest, he’s only a year ahead of us in school, and he’s a tad sensitive about his age. So of course that’s something we exploit every chance we get.
Jace smiles angelically at him. “Did I strike a nerve there, old timer?”
“Someone just dropped to my sixth favorite cousin. And I only have five cousins.” He looks between us. “Do you want to know the story or not?”
“Yeah,” I say impatiently.
“Hit us with it,” Jace says.
“The article didn’t go into too much detail,” Xave says, his teasing demeanor gone and his tone serious. “But it happened right after his dad sold his company and the IP for that software he developed.”
“So he was fifteen when it happened?” Jace interjects.
Xave nods. “Like I said, the article doesn’t go into much detail, but it seems like he was snatched on his way home from school. There was a ransom demand, the whole shebang, but before they could pay it, Myles escaped and was found uninjured.”
“Where was he found?” Jace asks.
“How did he escape?” I ask at the same time.
“No idea, and no clue. The article just said that he told police he escaped, and that’s it.”
“What’s the name of the article, or the publication?” Jace asks as he spins around and starts clicking keys on his keyboard.
“I did you one better.” Xave pulls out his phone and taps on the screen a few times. My phone vibrates in my pocket, and Jace’s pings where it sits on his desk.
I pull my phone out and check the text. It’s a picture of the article. Using my fingers, I enlarge the photo and start reading.
“What the fuck,” Jace mutters.
“Can’t find it, can you?” Xave asks with a knowing look.
“No, and it’s not in the Wayback Machine or any other records.” He spins back around. “Did you see anything about this in your deep dives?”
I shake my head and look up from the article.
Xave was right. There’s almost no information in it, and the only way I know it’s about Myles is because the dates match up to when his dad sold the business, and it’s from a paper in his hometown.
Other than that, there’s nothing connecting him to the article.
“Are you checking for the police file?” I ask Jace as he starts typing again.
“Yup,” he says grimly.
“I looked for follow-up articles or even articles from other papers and sources, but there’s nothing,” Xave tells me. “There might be some hard copies out there, but nothing online.”
“Well fuck me sideways,” Jace says distractedly.
“What?” Xave and I ask together.
“I found the file, but it’s sealed, and all the identifying information has been redacted.” He clicks a bunch of keys, his fingers flying over the keyboard as he stares intently at his screens.
“Can you unseal it?” Xave asks.
“Wait,” I tell my brother.
He stops typing and looks over his shoulder at me.
“Check it for traps and trackers before you do anything.”
“You really think the local PD put traps around a file for a kidnapping that happened three years ago and solved itself in twenty-four hours?” Xave asks.
“No, because I don’t think the PD are the ones who sealed it.”
Jace slowly turns around in his chair, a shrewd look on his face. “You think Myles wiped the records and sealed them?”
I nod.
“But why would he?” Xave asks. “What would be the point of scrubbing that information?”
“What’s the point of scrubbing all the information out there about him?” I ask. “Do you think it’s a coincidence that his entire online footprint has been locked down?”
“Maybe his family did it,” Xave suggests. “They’re in IT, and they used to live off-grid, didn’t they?”