Chapter 30
Chapter Thirty
GIDEON
By the time ten minutes are up, I’m on my third lap, pacing the length of the loft.
Silas sits on the couch, elbows on his knees, hands clasped so tight his knuckles have gone white. He looks calm, but I know better. His version of panic is quiet and focused. Mine is wearing a groove in the floor.
Talon is a knot of energy near the window—back and forth, back and forth, fingers in his hair, hoodie half-zipped like he forgot how clothes work. Every few seconds he glances at the door, then at his phone, then at me.
“Stop glaring at me,” he mutters finally.
“I’m not glaring at you,” I say.
“You are,” he fires back. “You’ve got that ‘I’m going to throttle someone’ face on.”
“That’s my normal face,” I tell him.
Silas snorts. “He’s not wrong.”
I check the time again.
Eight minutes since she called. The sir did not help my blood pressure.
Headlights sweep across the living room wall.
I stop pacing, Silas stands, and Talon freezes like a deer in headlights. Keys jingle on the other side of the door, then the lock turns. I’m at the door before she can even open it.
Penelope stands there clutching her bag as though it is the only thing holding her together. Her dress is pristine, hair curled, makeup still intact. On the surface, she looks like she walked off a brochure for “modern, put together woman.”
Her eyes give it away.
Too bright. Too wide. Too jumpy.
“Inside,” I say.
She steps in immediately.
I close the door behind her, flip the deadbolt, and lean back against it for half a second so I don’t say something I’ll regret.
Talon hovers a few feet back. Silas is to my right, arms folded, gaze locked on her like he is scanning for visible wounds.
No one talks.
She licks her lips once, that nervous little swipe of tongue I’ve already learned means she’s about to say something either very brave or very stupid.
“Hi,” she says weakly.
Not a great start.
“Where.” My voice comes out low, almost calm, which is worse, even to my own ears. “Were you?” I ask even though I know the answer.
Her spine stiffens instinctively. “At my dress fitting.”
“You turned your phone off,” I say.
“I turned it on silent,” she corrects. “They didn’t want notifications going off while I was pinned with straight pins.”
“Semantics,” I snap. “You didn’t check it once.”
She flinches.
Good.
I push off the door and step closer. “Our group chat has been blowing up for forty minutes, Penelope.”
Her gaze drops to the floor. “I know.”
Talon’s voice cracks in. “You scared the shit out of me. And you lied to me. You said you had a study group.”
She winces. “Yeah. I knew you guys wouldn’t want me going. Sorry, Talon.”
Silas hasn’t said a word yet. He just watches her, unreadable, which I know from experience is its own kind of danger.
I drag in a slow breath. “Tell us what happened. All of it. From the minute you walked in.”
She nods, swallows, nods again, like she’s resetting herself, then starts.
“Gilbert’s was…” She lets out a humorless laugh. “Too much satin, too much perfume, too many mirrors, not enough oxygen.”
“Abi,” Silas prompts.
Her jaw tightens. “Fake as hell. Happy to see me. Very ‘we’re going to be a perfect family’ energy.”
Talon swears under his breath.
Penelope keeps going. “I pushed a little and brought up Minxy again.”
“What did she say?” I ask.
Penelope’s voice drops lower. “At first? That Minxy’s ‘making progress.’ She said Minxy’s almost done. And that once the school decides she’s made ‘enough progress,’ they’ll ‘discuss next steps.’”
“Progress,” Silas repeats, voice flat.
Penelope nods. “Then she said kids who ‘act out’ need guidance. That they don’t want Minxy… ‘stuck in the past.’”
I feel my teeth grind. “Go on.”
“I joked,” she continues. “I said it sounded like she’d tucked Minxy into witness protection or something.
” Penelope looks up at me. “She didn’t just bristle, Gideon.
She went white. Like corpse white. And then she got tight and sharp, and snapped that Minxy is at school, and she will stay at school until she’s ready to be home. That’s all I needed to know.”
“What is she so afraid of?” Talon asks, voice thin.
Penelope’s hands curl into fists. “I have an idea. After our tiff, she said she needed the bathroom, grabbed her phone, and ducked into the fitting room next to mine. I was supposed to be changing into another dress.”
“You weren’t,” I guess.
“Of course not,” she says. “I climbed onto the bench and pulled myself up so I could see over the divider.”
Talon blinks once. “You what?”
“I wanted to see what she was doing,” she snaps. “I did some ninja warrior shit and looked over the top.”
Silas’ mouth quirks for half a second like he’d pay to see that.
I jerk my chin. “And?”
“She was on the phone briefly but then hung up,” Penelope says quietly. “She started texting someone. I saw what she was typing.”
She closes her eyes.
“Say it,” I tell her.
She opens them again. They’re glossy now.
“She wrote, stepdaughter is getting pushy.” Penelope’s voice goes thinner. “No one can know what Minxy saw the night with Todd. Todd will lead to Dominic, and that CANNOT happen.”
The room tilts.
Talon’s breath leaves his lungs in a punched sound.
Silas goes perfectly, utterly still.
My heart starts pounding so hard it hurts.
“Again,” I say, because my brain doesn’t want to accept it.
She repeats it, word for word.
Todd.
Dominic.
Minxy saw.
No one can know.
The world tunnels around the three of us.
Dominic.
Silas’ brother, my best friend.
Talon’s dad.
The one who “couldn’t handle the pressure” and “took his own life.”
I’ve never wanted to break a phone over my knee more.
Talon staggers back half a step, like the air just got knocked out of him. “Dominic,” he whispers. “She said my dad’s name.”
Penelope nods helplessly. “Talon…”
He looks like he might vomit. Or punch the wall. Or both.
“She killed him.” The words crack out of him, wild and raw. “She fucking killed him and called it a breakdown—”
“We don’t know that yet,” Silas cuts in sharply.
“We do,” Talon snarls. “You heard her. ‘Lead to Dominic.’ Like he’s a goddamn breadcrumb on her crime trail. Minx saw something. Something with Todd. Something with my dad. And now she’s locked up in that school because Abi doesn’t want—”
His voice breaks.
He throws a hand over his mouth and turns away, shoulders shaking.
It guts me.
I move without thinking, crossing the space between us. I don’t grab him—we’re not those kind of men with each other—but I stand close. Within reach. Solid.
Silas goes to Penelope. She folds into his side like it’s the only stable thing in the room.
My brain is sprinting.
Todd.
Dominic.
Witness.
Almost done with the program.
Abi isn’t just manipulative.
She’s dangerous.
Penelope lifts her head from Silas’ shoulder.
“She’s going to hurt her,” she says hoarsely.
“If she thinks Minx might talk? If she thinks the evaluation is a chance to ‘fix’ it?” Her eyes jump to mine.
“We can’t wait, Gideon. We can’t sit here and play it safe.
She as good as admitted there’s something to hide. ”
“I know,” I say.
“Then—”
“But we still stick to the plan.” My tone leaves no room for argument.
She stares at me as if I slapped her. “How can you say that?”
“Because charging in headfirst without backup or a plan is dangerous. We know when she’ll be moved. And as of now, my sister has no idea we know what we do. We can’t just break into the school and take Minxy tonight. The plan is solid. We need to stick to it.”
Penelope’s face crumples. “But—”
“We have the USB,” I force out, keeping my tone level.
“We have the printed files. We have the intake notes. We have enough to prove the school isn’t what it claims to be.
We have Minxy’s name on a list that might as well be a fucking hit list. And now we have your eyewitness account of Abi panicking about two men whose names are already connected to her life. ”
Dominic and Todd.
“We’re not walking in blind,” I finish. “We’re walking in prepared.
One day. We follow the schedule. We get her at the clinic, away from the school, away from Abi’s direct reach.
Then we hide her somewhere safe. After that, we take our evidence and strangle this quietly with lawyers and cops who owe me favors. Not before.”
The room hums with tension.
Silas watches me with that steady, assessing gaze. He’s pissed, but he agrees. I can feel it.
Penelope looks like she wants to throw something at my head and also collapse at my feet. “So we… wait.”
“We prepare,” I correct. “There’s a difference.”
Talon finally turns back toward us. His eyes are red, jaw tight, fingers clawed into his own hoodie. “What if she… What if they do something early? Move up the eval? Pull some shit before then?”
“Then we adjust,” I say. “But unless we get notification otherwise, we’re acting on the schedule in the file. Anything else is us panicking and giving Abi room to play victim again.”
He swallows hard. “I hate this.”
“You’re allowed to.” The reassurance comes instinctively. “You’re also allowed to break down. But you don’t do it alone. Not anymore.”
Silas strokes Penelope’s arm. “He’s right. We do this the smart way, or not at all.”
Silence stretches.
Finally, Penelope sags, energy leaking out of her like someone cut a wire. “She looked so… normal,” she whispers. “Talking about color palettes and centerpieces one minute, plotting around witnesses the next. My dad is going to marry her.”
Her voice cracks on that.
I cross to her and take her free hand, the one not clinging to Silas’ shirt. Her fingers curl around mine instantly, desperately and warm.
“He doesn’t have to.” The words leave my mouth like a promise I intend to keep. “Not if this goes the way I intend it to.”
She looks up, eyes wet. “You can’t promise that.”
“I can promise I’ll do everything in my power to make sure he doesn’t die for it,” I say bluntly. “We start there.”
A broken laugh slips out of her. “Romantic.”
“Terrifyingly so.” I brush my thumb over her knuckles. “Don’t walk into danger alone again.”
Her mouth trembles. “I knew I could handle her.”
“You can,” I say. “With backup. You’re not a one-woman army, Penelope. Stop trying to be.”
She sniffles, swipes at her eyes. “I hate it when you’re right.”
“You love it,” I say.
She almost smiles.
Talon shifts, rubbing his forehead with the heel of his hand. “So what now? I go to sleep? Pretend to study? Try not to picture my mom pushing my dad off a balcony?”
His voice cracks on that last part. It hurts to hear.
“You go shower,” Silas replies gently. “Eat something. I’ll keep digging into the clinic. Gideon will line up legal support. Penelope will… attempt not to throw herself at any more red flags wearing heels.”
Her eyes narrow. “Rude.”
“Accurate.” He doesn’t even try to defend himself.
Penelope lets go of my hand long enough to step toward Talon. She reaches up and cups his jaw, thumb brushing the stubble there. His eyes close like that one touch is too much.
“You’re the reason we’re doing this,” she says softly. “You keep breathing, Talon. You keep your head down. You make sure Abi doesn’t sniff out that you’re onto her. And when the time comes? You’re the first person Minxy sees. You’re home, for her.”
His throat works. “What about… you?”
Her smile is small and tired and stupidly tender. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Something in his shoulders drops. He leans into her palm just once, then steps back like he’s afraid he’ll cling too hard.
I clear my throat. “This conversation isn’t over. Any of it. But we’re not going to solve the whole world tonight.”
Penelope shoots me a look that makes it very clear she knows exactly what I’m avoiding.
Silas does too.
Punishment.
She walked into danger alone, disappeared for nearly an hour without contact, and came home with fresh trauma and valuable intel. I’m not interested in punishing her for bringing us information.
I am interested in reminding her that she doesn’t have to carry it alone.
“On second thought, the digging and legal can wait. Penelope, bedroom,” I murmur, tipping my head toward the hall.
Her eyes flash, a quick spark of heat through the exhaustion. “Now?”
“Yes,” I say. “We’re going to ground you. You’ve been in flight mode for hours.”
Her cheeks flush.
Talon shifts, suddenly uncertain. “Do you want me to… go?”
“Yes.” The answer slips out before I can stop it.
“No,” Penelope blurts at the same time.
We all freeze.
She looks between us, cheeks burning. “I want him here. In the room,” she adds quickly, looking at Talon, then at me and Silas.
Talon’s eyes go wide. “I don’t… I don’t need…”
“You do,” Silas cuts in.
“You stay,” I tell Talon. “Sit in the corner and watch. If you can't handle the woman you want being touched by other men, by your uncles, then you leave. Understand?”
His ears flush red. “Are you… ? Seriously…?”
“Yes.” My voice doesn’t waver. “This is what sharing looks like. Trust and boundaries. If you can’t handle knowing she’s with us sometimes while still being yours? This won’t work.”
He swallows hard. “I can handle it.”
“We’ll see,” I tip my head, watching him. “Your only job right now is to stay put and remember we’re all walking into something dangerous together. That means we take care of each other. In all the ways.”
Penelope looks dizzy and a little wrecked by all of it.
“Come on,” Silas murmurs to her, offering his hand.
I follow her and Silas, pausing long enough to look back at my nephew. “You’re not losing her,” I tell him quietly. “You’re gaining all of us.”
He huffs a disbelieving laugh. “That’s the problem.”
“Give it time,” I say.