18. Ryan
Ally: All three, Ryan.
Istare at the message. All three. Ally. Tobias. Jane. Something happened. Something fucking happened.
Coming.
I send it and move. “Dad!”
My bedroom door slams against the wall behind me. I take the stairs too fast, one hand catching the railing when I nearly miss the last step.
Dad is already coming out of his office. Mom turns from the kitchen. They both take one look at me.
“She used it?” Dad asks.
“Yeah.”
Mom puts down the glass in her hand. “Both?”
“All three.”
Dad’s expression changes. Mom’s does too.
“Jane?” she asks.
“Yeah.”
I don’t know why. I don’t know what changed between the last time I heard from Ally and right fucking now — don’t know why the woman who’s spent years surviving inside that house suddenly needs out of it tonight. I only know Ally used the code. And she changed the plan.
I pull up the big group text.
Ally needs all three of her green sweaters.
Send. Dad’s phone buzzes in his hand. Mom’s lights up on the counter. Mine starts going fucking insane before I can put it away. I ignore it and look through the windows instead.
Their house is right there. It’s always been right there — same lights, same windows, same strip of grass between our properties I’ve crossed so many times I don’t even think about it. Tonight it looks a fucking mile away.
“Call her,” Dad says.
“Already am.” I hit her name. It rings. Once. Twice. Three times. Nothing. “Come on, Ally.” Four. Voicemail. “Fuck.” I call again.
The front door opens behind me. Dad and I both spin. X comes through breathing hard, shirt dark with sweat down the middle of his chest, running shorts on, one earbud still in.
“What happened?”
I stare at him. “How the fuck are you already here?”
“I was on Lakeview.” He yanks the earbud out. “Where is she?”
“Home.”
His eyes go straight to the windows. “All three?”
“Yeah.”
“Her mom too?”
“Apparently.”
“What changed?”
“I don’t fucking know.”
He looks at my phone. “She answering?”
“No.”
“Fuck.” He drags a hand through his hair. “Penny’s getting G and Alice.”
Headlights sweep across the windows. Then another set. Then another. Nobody’s far. Nobody wastes time.
The front door barely closes behind X before it opens again. Kaid comes through first, Cat right behind him with Callum, Saoirse, and Thomas.
“Anything?” Kaid asks.
“No.”
Cat comes straight to me. “All three?” I nod. “Jane too?”
“Yeah.”
Her eyes widen slightly. “What happened?”
“I don’t know.”
She looks toward the house next door, then back at me. “Okay.”
That’s all. No questions I can’t answer. No wasting time.
Penny comes through next with Gideon and Alice. She spots X, still standing there sweaty as hell. “You ran here?”
“I was already running.”
“You didn’t go home first?”
He looks at her like it’s the stupidest question he’s ever heard. “Why would I?”
Penny doesn’t answer. She just goes to him.
More headlights. More doors. Danny comes in with Clifford, Louise, and Delilah. Becca’s right there with Katya and Theodore.
Danny finds me immediately. “She answer?”
“No.”
His jaw clenches. “Did she say anything besides the code?”
“Nothing.”
Becca takes his hand. Then another car turns into the drive. Iz is out before it fully stops. Arthur comes around the other side with Darla. Finally.
I meet him halfway across the foyer. “What do you know?”
Arthur’s expression tells me enough to make my stomach drop. “More than I knew ten minutes ago.”
“What the fuck does that mean?”
“Alison contacted me before she contacted you.”
I stop. “What?”
The conversations behind us die.
“What did she say?”
“Nothing.”
“What do you mean, nothing?”
“I mean nothing, Ryan. No hello. No explanation. My phone started filling with pictures.”
My stomach turns. “Pictures of what?”
“Documents. Financial records. Correspondence. Travel records. Payments. Names. Some were crooked. Some barely had the whole page in frame. She was moving fast.”
“How fast?”
“Fast enough that I was getting another before I’d finished opening the last.”
Fuck. I can see her doing it — rushing through pages, phone in her hand, listening for footsteps, trying to get everything she could out of that house before somebody stopped her.
“What did she tell you?”
“Almost nothing. I asked where she got it. She said Mom. I asked how much there was. She said a lot. Then she kept sending.”
Dad turns toward Arthur. “Jane had it?”
“Apparently.”
“For how long?”
“I don’t know yet. Some of what Alison sent goes back years.”
Dad looks through the windows toward the O’Toole house. “Jesus Christ.”
“What was in it?” Callum asks.
Arthur looks around the room. “I’ve had minutes. I haven’t reviewed all of it, and I won’t guess at what I haven’t confirmed. But I’ve seen enough.” Nobody moves. “Pennington. Lucien. Hartley. Reece. Valentina. Veronica. Roman. Tremblay.”
X goes completely still beside Penny. Danny swears. Thomas’s face hardens.
Arthur keeps going. “Money. Drugs. Girls. Travel. Payments. Favors. Protection. Names we’ve seen crossing through the same records. People and events we’ve treated as separate aren’t looking very separate anymore.”
Nobody needs him to explain the names. We all fucking know them.
“What about the girls?” Thomas asks.
“I don’t know enough yet.”
“Arthur.”
“I won’t guess, Thomas.” Thomas’s jaw works, but he nods. Arthur looks back at me. “Celeste’s name appears repeatedly too.”
I frown. “The wedding planner?”
“Yes.”
“What the fuck is she doing in any of this?”
“Travel. Private events. Accommodations. Arrangements. Her name is on records that predate Alison’s engagement by years.”
“Facilitator?” Iz asks.
Arthur glances at him. “Possibly. We prove that before we call her one.”
Dad hasn’t moved from the window. “Does Roman know Jane had it?”
“I don’t know.”
“But Ally sent all that shit to you like the house was on fucking fire, then told Ryan she needed all three sweaters.”
“Yes.”
Dad turns around. “Then why the fuck are we still standing here?”
Arthur doesn’t argue. “We’re going.”
Everything moves. Mom takes over before anyone can start talking again. “Saoirse. Alice. Louise. Katya.” They’re already moving toward her. “Girls, stay here.”
Cat catches my hand as she passes. Just for a second. Her fingers squeeze mine. Then she’s gone with Penny, Becca, and Delilah.
Darla sets her bag on the counter. “If Ally has any bleeding, abdominal pain, dizziness, cramping — anything — you get me immediately.”
“Guest room is ready,” Mom says.
“Toby’s room too,” Dad says.
Mom looks at him. “I know.” His face tightens. She catches his arm before he can turn away. “Walter.” He looks at her. “Bring them home.”
“I will.”
“All three.”
Dad covers her hand with his. “All three.”
She lets him go. We’re out the door.
Arthur starts talking before we reach the bottom of the steps. “Alison is eighteen. Jane is an adult. If they walk out of that house, Roman cannot legally force either of them back inside.”
“Toby,” Dad says immediately.
“Tobias is different.”
Dad keeps walking. “Don’t like that sentence.”
“You don’t have to like it.”
“He’s coming with us.”
“Walter.”
“He’s coming with us.”
“We do not remove a minor child from his legal father’s custody, against that parent’s objection, unless the child is in immediate danger.”
Dad finally looks at him. “He put his fucking hands on him.”
“I know.”
“You saw the pictures.”
“I did.”
“He left marks on my little buddy.”
“I know.”
“So don’t tell me to leave him there.”
“I’m telling you not to hand Roman a kidnapping allegation while I’m trying to get legal protection around Tobias.”
Dad’s jaw clenches. “And if Roman touches him?”
“If Tobias is in immediate danger, you protect the child.”
Dad nods. “Good.”
“And you stop when he’s safe.” Dad doesn’t answer. “Walter.”
“I heard you.”
Arthur looks at me. “And neither of you touches Roman.”
I stare at him. “Why are you looking at us?”
Arthur gives me a look. “Seriously?”
Dad looks at me. I look at Dad. Arthur points between us as we keep walking.
“That. Whatever the hell that was, stop doing it.”
“We didn’t do anything,” Dad says.
“You somehow just did.”
“If Roman touches Ally—“
“You get her away from him,” Arthur cuts in. “And that’s where it ends.”
“Obviously.”
“Ryan.”
“I heard you.”
“That wasn’t agreement.”
“It’s what you’ve got.”
Arthur mutters something under his breath. We keep moving.
I’ve made this walk thousands of times. To get Tobias. To go down to the lake. To find Ally. To sneak home. To sneak her out. Barefoot in the summer, half asleep, laughing, pissed off, drunk. I’ve never once thought about the distance. Tonight every fucking step is too long.
My phone buzzes. I rip it out.
Ally: hurry
One word. No punctuation. It does something to my chest that a full paragraph couldn’t.
I turn the screen toward Arthur. He reads it. His face changes. “Go.”
We’re barely onto the O’Toole property when the front door opens. Roman steps outside.
He sees us coming and his entire body goes rigid. “What the fuck is this?”
Arthur doesn’t slow. “We need to talk.”
“No, you need to get the fuck off my property.”
“We’re here for Alison, Jane, and Tobias.”
Roman looks over all of us — the dads, the boys, Arthur out front. Counting. I watch him count.
“Nobody is going anywhere.”
“Alison is eighteen,” Arthur says. “Jane is an adult.”
“This is a family matter.”
“You lost the privilege of calling it that.”
Roman’s face twists.
Dad steps up beside Arthur. “Where’s Toby?”
Roman looks at him. “My son is none of your fucking concern.”
Dad’s voice changes. Drops. Goes quiet in the way that’s worse than loud. “You put your hands on my little buddy?”
Roman stares at him. “What?”
“On my Toby?”
“Don’t call my son that.”
“He calls me my Walter.” Dad takes a step. “I’ll call him whatever the fuck I want.”
“You stay away from my son.”
“Then stop giving him reasons to run to me.”
Roman comes down one step. Dad moves forward.
Arthur gets an arm between them. “Walter.”
Dad doesn’t look at him. “I remember.” Barely. I can hear how thin the leash is in those two words. So can Arthur.
Roman’s attention lands on me. “This is you.”
“Where’s Ally?”