Chapter 34 #2
His voice does things to me it shouldn’t.
Takes me back years, to a time when I thought these boys were my everything.
I shake my head. He can’t call me that. That’s what my friend called me, not this man standing in front of me I hardly recognize.
I can’t do this, not tonight. I was closer to him than any of them.
But I already know whatever trust we once had is long gone.
I subtly move around him, making my way toward the back of the establishment, shoving my way through what I think is the emergency exit door.
To my surprise, he just lets me pass him. Well, good.
But when I’m inside the room, I find it’s another interior room, one that stops me in my tracks.
The space in front of me is like a warehouse, it’s so enormous.
Dark with just the lights from the screens.
A creepy shiver slithers down my spine as I glance around.
What is this place? Computer monitors cover the walls from top to bottom with what appears to be surveillance of different parts of the town.
I recognize River’s bar, the hair salon, even the beach on Main Street.
The door behind me closes with a click, and I spin to find Jayden staring back at me, quiet control as he secures the lock, trapping us both inside.
“What is this place?” I murmur. I’m not sure if it’s the voicemail from my mum or knowing what they did to the poor reporter, or the look in his eyes, but my heart goes into overdrive, like my body knows I’m in deep shit and this room is the last place I want to be trapped with this man.
He moves into the room slowly. He’s relaxed, too relaxed if you ask me, and that sends alarm bells screaming in my ears.
I hold up my hand. “Don’t come any closer.”
His hands slip into his pockets casually. “You don’t need to be scared of me, Dove. You know me, and I would never hurt you.”
I back up till I hit a monitor and can’t go any further.
“Do the others know you’re here?” I’m not sure why that would help, they are the ones I want to run from.
But the way he’s assessing me is freaking me out.
He’s like Kasen but more disciplined. Like I can’t tell what the hell he’s thinking at all.
He moves to a computer and types something in. “I assume so. My brother knows everything that happens in this town.”
My heart thumps so loudly I hear it beating through my body. He’s my oldest friend, but every subtle move he makes, every word he speaks, causes more red flags to flash in front of me. “What do you mean by that?”
His lips twist, his smile cheeky and gorgeous as all hell. “I think you already know, Dove.”
“I don’t know anything. They have all been lying to me for weeks.”
His head tilts to one side. “Did they lie, though?”
I blink back at him. What? “River lied to my face and said he had no idea where you were. He said he got back from one of his trips and you were just gone.”
“I was. And I didn’t want to be found. River did what I told him to, he’s good like that.”
My eyes narrow to slits. “He still lied to me.”
“Have you enjoyed your time back in Deadwater Bay, Dove?” he asks.
“What?” I snap back. Is he kidding me? Enjoyed being manipulated by people who are supposed to be my friends? As if.
He watches one of the screens behind me. “You have been busy reconnecting with my brothers and River, haven’t you?”
I don’t know why but I turn around and glance back at the monitors, fixing in on the one he was so interested in.
Oh, dear God. These aren’t just surveillance from this town, they are surveillance of me.
That screen he’s watching like a hawk is me and his brother together at The Beach Bar.
I go all hot and clammy, my body screaming at me to run the fuck away from whatever this fucked-up room is.
My eyes dart around the room. The main screen in the middle has the same information on it that the boys had back at the mansion with Throne Axis across the top. What the fuck is this?
I feel him right behind me, his warm breath on my neck. “I bet you’re curious.”
He takes my hand in his and presses my thumb to the pad. “ACCESS GRANTED” flashes up on the screen, making me jump back in shock.
“WELCOME, DOVE DAWSON. READY TO PLAY,” comes a loud computerized voice.
“What the actual fuck,” I whisper, flashes of information from the last few weeks coming back to me.
“The boys tried to prepare you, but you have made it quite the challenge for them. Running, keeping secrets, playing with their attraction to you like it’s all some game for you.
” He thinks I have been toying with them!
My mind swims, thinking back over the last few weeks.
There was no playing on my behalf, it was all them, wasn’t it?
They kidnapped me, locked me up with them, invaded my privacy, and lied to me repeatedly.
“Prepare me for what?” I snap back, not letting his words get to me like I know he wants them to. I’m not losing my mind, I know they played with me, not the other way round.
“Your legacy.”
Goosebumps scatter over my arms. My angry eyes flick back to the screen, seeing it’s downloading a shit ton of files, images, information, data all scrambling through the page.
Images I recognize from my childhood, not just from the last few weeks.
They have my entire life on this thing. It’s like a storage system, a big-brother type arrangement where they have been spying on me for decades.
I suck in a shaky breath, sickness swimming through me at the thought of what it really means.
His hand laces into mine, and he spins me back to face him, my ass forced back into the desk behind me. “There is nothing to be scared of. We have all the control of the system and every file stored in it, and that means you now have full control, as well.”
Why the fuck is my heart racing out of my chest then, fucker?
That’s what I want to yell back at him, but I can’t force the words out of my mouth.
I don’t understand what this system is and why it’s got my entire life on it.
But I know with every damn inch of my soul, I don’t want to either.
River was right, some truths you don’t want.
I never should have come back here. I never should have tried to search for answers. This is scary shit.
The door bursts open. “Fuck, Jay, she’s not ready for this,” Kasen’s voice booms through the room.
“You ran out of time, Brother; you want her to hear this shit show from Keller’s lawyers? That’s just cruel.” He presses a button. “She needs to hear it in a safe space with friends.”
Hear what? I look between them, feeling so lost I don’t know what to do. Kasen is furious, but he doesn’t move to stop his brother when he presses play on some other part of the system.
“Miss Dove Dawson. I need you to know Juliet was… the great love of my life,” comes Keller Throne’s voice, and I know I’m about to be sick.
“My family will take care of you in your mother’s absence.
Throne was always more than just a business, it was a family started by the two of us.
And now you can share in the spoils of your mother’s dedication and hard work to our cause.
A ten percent share of Throne Enterprises is now yours; you will also sit on the board alongside Kasen, Jayden, River, and Bodhi.
I know you have suffered in your mother’s absence, and now you will be rewarded with the pleasures life has to offer the wealthy. ”
Kasen shoves his brother out of the way, stopping the recording. “Fuck, Jay, now is not the time,” he growls out, shoving a shaky hand through his hair.
“A small snippet I grabbed from his will reading.” Jayden grins at me. This man knows what he’s doing, causing chaos, and he doesn’t give a shit what his brother thinks about it. “Creepy, I know, when it was supposed to be a surprise heart attack that killed him.”
Kasen flinches. He knows what his brother is implying, that either his father planned his death or there is way more going on here and the man might not be dead at all.
Either way, I’m not sticking round for what comes next.
This is all creepy as hell. And for the first time since my mother died, I get why someone would want to kill her.
If she and Keller created this personal file system that’s storing all sorts of shit about people it shouldn’t, she really is as terrible as she said in her voicemail.
This is how they know every fucking detail about me.
I’m sure this is the worst thing they could ever do to me.
To anyone. And I finally get it, this is how they control this town.
They know everything and use it to play with the people of Deadwater Bay like some fucking video game.
My whole body trembles, adrenaline taking over.
Without another thought, I bring my knee up and get Jayden in the junk. He doesn’t even flinch or act surprised, he simply releases me. And I run like the fucking wind.
I can’t go through the door we came in because Kasen is too close to it, and he probably secured it again when he came in, so I go in the opposite direction.
“Dove, get back here,” Kasen calls, his voice angry and desperate.
I don’t look back at Kasen to see how close he is to me; instead, I sway through the aisle of monitors and run around a corner, hoping I’m out of his sight.