Chapter 3
Chapter Three
ANDIE
Wiping puke from my mouth with the back of my hand, I glare up at the man who just dropped a nuclear bomb on me. Tessa crouches down next to me, concerned.
“Alex, come on. Let’s get you cleaned up.”
I shove her away. I don’t give a shit that I’m covered in vomit.
Getting to my feet, I demand, “I want to talk to Rafe.”
Liam takes a step toward me, and I stop him with a slice of my eyes. I feel cornered by the three of them. My entire world is unraveling. I can’t trust anyone. Everyone lies.
“I want to talk to Rafe!” I scream, my body vibrating so badly, it feels like my bones will rattle out of my skin.
Declan stares at me, and I meet his stare with one of my own. I wish I hadn’t because it’s like looking into a mirror. From his hair color to the shape of his ears, to the cupid’s bow upper lip. All of them, so very similar. I touch my hair, part of me thankful that I dyed it and it’s no longer blonde.
“How?” I whisper, but that’s not the question I want to ask.
I want to know why. Did he not want me? Did he not love me? Was I a mistake he traded to my father when I was an infant, much like my father was selling me to Alejandro Ortiz? But Max Rossi isn’t my real father, is he?
“Do you know what he did to me?” My voice comes out harsh, desolate, guttural.
All the years of abuse, the pain, the cage, the whippings, the miscarriage. I yank on my hair and spin around, needing to escape from my memories and desperate to flee from this new reality.
Declan’s face hardens, and his expression is so deadly that it stops my frantic movements and I back away from him, creating distance between us.
I don’t know this man. I don’t know what he wants with me or what he plans to do with me. He blew up the cabin I was in. He has tried to kidnap me twice—no, three times now. I’m being held here against my will. His family and the Rossis have been enemies fighting the same turf war for decades.
“If I’d known,” he begins but doesn’t continue.
I hold my hand up in front of me when Tessa tries to reach for my arm. Was she ever my friend? Or was she using me like everyone else in my life?
“I promise to answer all of your questions,” Declan tells me, and I scoff.
“At least answer one for me, right now. Is he my brother?” I ask, looking at Liam. I had a brother: Kellan. At least, I thought I did.
Did Kellan know? Is that the secret he wanted to confess to me to unburden his guilty conscience before he died? Is that what Matteo was referring to about Kellan telling them to be ready for my return?
Liam’s brows furrow in outrage, but it’s what Declan says that I cling to.
“No. Liam works for me. I don’t have any children.”
Why does hearing that hurt so much? I’m being rejected again by a father I never knew about.
“Except for me.”
Declan shakes his head. “I apologize. That was rude and not at all what I meant. Your mother?—”
Fuck, I didn’t even consider her. Was Cecelia McCarthy even my real mother, or was that a complete lie as well?
“She was.”
“What?” I ask, confused, then realize that I said my thoughts out loud. I really need to stop doing that.
“Cecelia was your mother. She and I had a brief affair a long time ago.”
And I was the unwanted result.
“Where is she?”
I want to hear her say it. I want her to tell me to my face that Declan is my real father. That she knew it and kept it from me. That she allowed another man, a man who was her husband, rape her only daughter.
Declan inhales deeply, but his gaze never wavers from mine. “She’s dead.”
Is it bad that I feel nothing when he tells me that? It explains why I haven’t heard from her or seen her in over a year. Then again, she dropped me in Switzerland and left me there.
“What happened to her?”
His violet eyes watch me closely. I know he’s about to confirm my suspicions that Max murdered her. But I was not at all prepared for him to simply state, “I killed her.”
All the oxygen whooshes out of my lungs like bellows. Well, fuck me.
“I think I’ll take that shower now.”
Declan nods at Tessa. “Of course. Tessa will help you.”
She knows not to get near me right now. I’m a hair-trigger away from a berserker rage. I’m also covered in my own vomit, and I stink.
Tessa waits for me to follow her, but it’s hard to get my feet moving. With one last lingering glance at Declan, I walk back into the room I woke up in.
She flicks the lights on and disappears inside a small bathroom. I survey my surroundings. Tessa’s bright pink carry bag is slumped on a chair in the corner, along with her favorite jeans jacket covered in colorful anime patches. A pair of sneakers sits on the floor at the end of the bed. This must be her room, or where she sleeps. For kidnappers, Declan and Liam sure do know how to make their prisoner feel welcome and at home.
I go over to the window and pull back the curtains. It’s too dark outside to see anything. Pitch black with no streetlights or neighboring lights to help me figure out where the hell I am. From the wood walls, I would hazard to guess that we’re in a cabin out in the middle of nowhere. My fingers touch the latch for the window, and a flicker of hope swells.
“I put a towel and washcloth out for you, and some clothes,” Tessa says behind me. “I’ll sleep in the other room tonight so you can have this one.”
I turn around and look at the person who I thought was my friend. Things are so messed up and it’s fucking with my train of thought.
She shoves her hands in the backs of her blue jeans. “I know what you must be thinking.”
A humorless laugh escapes. “That’s highly unlikely.”
“Alex, look—” She brushes a hand through her hair, the strands gliding through her fingers with ease.
“When Rafe showed me his phone with the text message I sent to you, I was scared out of my mind. I thought you were in trouble. That he had taken you. Were you even kidnapped? Because from where I’m standing, it doesn’t look like it.”
Her face falls with regret. Coming over to the bed, she sits down and locks her hands together in her lap.
“It’s a little more complicated.”
Wanting to roll my eyes, I tell her, “Then uncomplicate it.”
“I work for Declan.”
Unbelievable. “In what way?”
“I’m his Jaxson West—without the murdering and bloody parts.”
My heart stutters. “You know Jax?”
She grins. “I wish. That man is hotter than sin.”
I scowl at her, insanely jealous that she finds him attractive.
She stops smiling. “Sorry. I, um, know of him. From the…” She gestures to her laptop, screen blank and turned off, that is sitting open on the dresser.
That makes sense. Don’t “hackers” know one another online? Or at least, their monikers. I have no clue what I’m talking about.
Looping back around, I ask, “So, you work for Declan?”
“In a way, yes.”
“Jesus Christ, Tessa! Would you just give me a straight fucking answer?”
My angry outburst makes her jump. She hops off the bed and moves to the other side of the room away from me. Smart girl.
“Mr. Levine approached me about a job. That’s what I do, Alex. You know that.”
I nod to let her know that I remember. In order to make money, Tessa would sell her unique services. Want your grades changed? She’s your girl. Want to infiltrate a government database and steal national secrets? She’s your girl for that, too.
“When I found out you were the assignment, I was all in. I wasn’t going to let anyone hurt you.”
I snort with laughter again. What she said was utter bullshit. If she works for Declan, she has to know about everything that has happened.
“So I asked Mr. Levine if I could come on board permanently,” she finishes.
Ride-or-die friend to the end .
“How long have you known?”
Has she known that Declan was my real father this entire time?
Looking down at her feet, Tessa wiggles her toes. It’s one of her tells showing her guilt like a big, bright neon sign.
“A year, give or take.”
The time of Kellan’s funeral and when Liam accidentally ran into me at the dance club in Geneva.
“And you never thought to tell me?” My voice rises with incredulity.
“I was protecting you.”
Teeth clenched, I hiss out at her, “No. You were lying to me. Just like every other person in my life.”
I storm over to the bathroom, wanting to get this shit off me. The smell has gotten worse to the point I want to gag.
“He’s not lying to you,” she softly inflects.
He, meaning Declan. He really is my biological father. She would know.
I slam the bathroom door shut and lock it. I need a moment to think. Turning on the water, I strip out of my soiled clothes and chuck them in the trash bin. When I step under the spray, I let the scalding water sluice my skin until it turns an angry red.
If it’s the last thing I do, every fucking person who has ever betrayed me is going to pay.