Chapter 14 #2
“Hey.” Phoenix stared at me from the doorway. “I’m sorry. I know you were sleeping. It’s important. But, yeah, I needed to see you. They came at you with a van and tried to kidnap you while I was in session.”
Jeremy patted him on the back. “Not going to lie, it took years off my life. But she’s okay, and we got to her. That’s why it’s good we’re a team. You rescued her in the City from the PI. We take turns.”
I groaned. “I would love not to need rescuing.”
“For real.” Phoenix walked in and kissed me, gently. “You should probably come see Granny soon.”
We really did need to. I sat up. Getting nearly kidnapped and then what Jeremy and I had done had distracted me. I had needed the nap, but it was time to go see her.
“Thanks for getting us up.” Jeremy headed toward the bathroom. “I might have been playing denial. Needed a little time. But, yeah, we should get moving.”
He was absolutely right.
It was quiet in the house. Their granny was asleep.
Everyone sat around quietly. Rosalind was knitting.
She looked up when we came in and smiled but didn’t comment.
Eric walked over and hugged Phoenix. I didn’t know who was more surprised by it, Eric or Phoenix himself.
He stood stunned for a second before he gently hugged his bio-dad back.
“You okay?” he asked in a low voice. “I wasn’t gone very long.”
Eric shook his head. “No. I’m not. Neither are you. But I’m so proud of you, and I just wanted to say that.”
Barrett patted the seat next to him, and I sat down in it.
He and Julian seemed to be playing a game on their phones.
It was some kind of card game, and they were doing it silently.
I’d never thought a second about what went on in the room when people were passing.
But if they were sitting there all day, then it wasn’t surprising that they were actually doing quiet activities while they sat with their loved ones.
I rubbed my arms; goosebumps had broken out on them. This was their granny and their mother and mother-in-law. I loved her, but I had known her so brief a time. It was a little bit like I was an intruder, even though I knew they wouldn’t say that.
I let myself look at them for a second each.
Obviously, their parents had known of her illness way before the boys had known.
I could see the strain on their faces. Kit stared out the window, not looking at her right now.
He had a lot on his plate all the time, which now included me.
It really would have been easier on them if the guys had fallen for someone easier than me.
I chewed on my bottom lip. Of course I would want to kill her because they were mine. Even if that made no sense. It didn’t have to.
Eric stood by his mom’s bed, his gaze alternating between staring at her and then back at the monitors in the corner that showed her vitals. I didn’t know what any of it meant, but Eric did. He frowned and I looked away. I wasn’t staring, just trying to take them all in.
Stephen was staring at his phone. I didn’t know what he was reading or if he was just blankly staring while Daniel had his head down on the table in front of him, resting his head on his arms.
Jeremy plopped down next to me. He had a coffee cup in his hand, which he sipped. Phoenix walked past us to stand next to Kit by the window. They stared out together.
“She hates it here,” Kit said, which made Daniel lift his head. He had clearly not been sleeping.
He nodded. “Hates it. With a passion. Like she loved our fathers and wanted them and their life, but not this part of their life.” He looked over at me. “You’ve been reading her journals. Any sense of why?”
“I… I’ve only read her first impressions and now she is visiting here again on vacation. Your grandmother didn’t like her. And a lot of the locals treated her badly because she took your grandfathers. There was a presumption that they would marry another woman. I think it was devastating.”
Rosalind shook her head. “There is always that presumption here. Everyone thinks they know. They count on things that are none of their business. Or, I should say they behave that way on the other side of the lake. Our neighbors aren’t doing that.
” She sighed. “They might have kidnapped our son and killed two other kids. But sure they don’t assume where their kids will get married. ”
Kit rocked back on his feet. “And she is here, where she hated it.” He shook his head. “I’m sorry, Mom. We have to be here right now. We all have to be. But I hate it for you, and I am sorry.”
I didn’t see any sign that Dina heard him. But Rosalind did. She rose and crossed to him, putting her arms around him. “She just wanted to be where we all were. No way is Dina upset about being here right now.”
Phoenix walked over to me. “I think… I think you need to come outside right now, Red. Guys, come on. We have something to do outside.”
I blinked. “We do?”
Kit looked over his shoulder. “Something we need to be concerned with?”
“Not this. No.” He shook his head. “Stay here.”
I really had absolutely no idea where we were going. None whatsoever. What could require us to go outside?
Without a word, I followed him outside. My guys were with me, and it wasn’t until we got outside that I realized what had happened.
Although it took me a second too long because the gust of cold that slammed into my face and naked head, stealing my breath for a second.
But then I saw it. Sam stood in the driveway with his two brothers, and in the center of them was Sally.
I caught my breath. “Sally?” I practically shouted. She rushed to me, putting her arms around me.
“I saw the picture you sent me, and I put it in the search engine. It said you were here. So I dumped the phone, I bought a ticket, and I walked.” We were twins with our shaved heads.
She held onto me like I was a lifeline. “And I was walking. I really had no idea how to find you. This place is huge but they saw me and stopped. Maybe I was stupid, but I got in their car.”
It was kind of stupid to do that, but that was okay… they were nice. “They’re safe.”
“Right. They stopped to see if I was okay. They were the second car to do that. The first one kind of creeped me out. They stared at me like I was a sandwich, and I told them to fuck off. But these guys were polite. They said they knew you, that you lived next door to them, and I took a chance.” Her voice hitched.
“I am so fucked Alatheia. I have nowhere and no one.”
That was not true. She had me. But damn the timing for this really, really sucked. “I’m here. You’re safe.”
“Thank you.” She closed her eyes. “I’d give him the money to leave me alone.”
I knew she would. I had the same thoughts myself. More than once.
“Alatheia,” Jeremy spoke my name. “It’s cold. Let’s go inside the house.”
He was right. I took her arm and led her into the smaller house.
What was I going to do with Sally right now?
Granny might die any moment—which made my chest tight to even think about—and I had almost been kidnapped earlier in the day.
We were living in a private place that I had exposed by sending one picture, and yet I couldn’t regret that if it made her safe. I really had no idea what to do. None.
We stepped inside and she looked around. “This is beautiful.”
Sam, Carl and Jadon all followed us inside. Sam and Phoenix spoke by the door, the former nodding his head a lot.
“Can I stay? I mean, will your boyfriend mind?” She looked at Barrett. Interesting. Why did she think it was him? “I saw you carry her out. You’re her boyfriend, right? ”
He cleared his throat. “Yes. I am.”
“It’s not a good time here, ” Jadon said to her. “I didn’t realize, but their grandmother is dying next door in the big house. Sally is welcome to stay with us. We have a guest house.” Their smaller house that appeared vacant. “She would be welcome. Right next door. Can see you anytime.”
Her face fell. “I didn’t realize that someone was dying. I am so sorry. My timing always sucks.”
“It doesn’t. You’re a ballerina. Your timing is near perfection.”
She laughed, and that made me smile. I had never seen Sally so low. Once again I was reminded she had gone through everything I had but had no one to help her except the person who had done this to her in the first place.
I turned to Jadon. “She’s very important to me.” I said that to him for her benefit as much as anything else.
He nodded. “We’ll take good care of her. Won’t let anything happen to her.”
The kidnapping attempt. Phoenix must have told them. Or maybe it was just public knowledge in the way that things seemed to be in small communities. I looked back at my sad looking friend. “Would you be okay with that?”
I didn’t know how Sam’s family was going to keep their secret, but Jadon had offered. He must think it possible.
She nodded. “I’d be grateful. I could work somewhere or whatever.”
“Don’t worry about that.” Carl took a step toward us.
“You’d be our guest. Our mother loves guests.
She’ll fuss over you, and we have three little sisters.
They’re going to decide you are their personal friend, there specifically for them to love on you.
Please. Come stay with us. If you don’t like it, we can figure something out for you.
The point is you’re safe and whatever is happening to you—that I think is similar to what is happening to Alatheia? —we can help. I promise.”
After a second, she nodded and cleared her throat. “If you’re sure I won’t be trouble.”
“No trouble at all.” Sam nodded. “Come on. Let’s go. I think it’s not going well here right now. We can let them get back to their family.”
She stepped toward him. “Lots of big families here.”
“Yes, we’re very… family oriented around this lake.” Sam patted Phoenix on the shoulder.
It wasn’t until I heard the door click behind them that I let out a breath. “I didn’t mean to get her here. I didn’t mean to potentially expose everyone.”
Jeremy hugged me. His familiar smell, particularly after what we had done earlier, surrounded me like a blanket.
“Of course you didn’t. This will be fine.
It’s not like people from the outside don’t come here.
I mean, we didn’t grow up here and haven’t been here in years, but yeah, I know they do.
They’ll take care of this. Maybe she can be trusted with it.
I don’t know. You’re fine. No one is upset with you though. ”
“I’m glad she’s safe.” Phoenix ran a hand through my hair. “That was weighing on you. I know they’re all weighing on you.”
Clean and sober Phoenix was maybe the most empathetic person that I’d ever known.
He told me once he worried about everything all the time.
I could see it now. He really felt things in a big way and did worry.
His granny was going to leave us soon and he was thinking about how I felt about Sally and the others.
Julian patted Barrett on the arm. “Looks like you won the role of public boyfriend.”
“One of us was always going to have to. How do you think it ended up Kit?” He shrugged. “Tends to be the oldest.”
Jeremy shook his head, letting me go. “I’m not accepting it’s automatically you. Just so you know. For this, fine. We’ll see how it goes going forward.”
Phoenix sighed. “I think we can shelve this for today. We have a million big problems. This can wait.”
He was right. But Sally’s arrival was both a gift and a curse at the moment. Only time would tell how it ended up.