Chapter Thirty-Five Hollis
Chapter Thirty-Five
Hollis
“As much as I’m sure you two would love to chat about your computer foreplay, that’s not why we’re here.” Gideon’s voice carried a rough edge, and it earned him a sharp look from Julian and a death stare from Easton.
Well, okay then.
“We need to talk, yes?” Gideon’s dark, shadowed eyes flicked upward, lingering on the ceiling before methodically sweeping the room.
“The cameras are off,” Sebastian said calmly, waving us back toward the table. “Safe to speak. You know who I am, I know who you are. We either trust each other, or—”
“Fine.” Gideon crossed the room, and while his back was to me, something in the hard line of Jason’s jaw told me they were locked in a silent glare.
I elbowed Julian, snapping him out of his staring contest with the genius Brit.
Gwen rolled her lips inward, color high in her cheeks, her eyes still carrying a stunned kind of recognition.
Jason pulled out my chair, and I mouthed a quiet thanks as I slid into the seat before he scooted me in. He held my hand under the table as Gideon settled across from Alex.
Julian took the only spot left, which was next to Carter and right beside Gwen—leaving her wedged between my brother and Easton. Not a triangle I wanted to be solving tonight. I shoved the math away. We had bigger variables, like whether Kylo was alive.
I braced myself, waiting for Gideon to open up. Instead, he poured a bottle of water into a glass with steady precision, then took a measured sip. As he set it down, his gaze locked on the black dome camera overhead. No visible light, indicating it was inactive, just as Sebastian had claimed.
Gideon leaned forward, elbows on the table as he set his attention on me.
“I don’t know how Kylo found out you were in Rome, but you must have left a clue or a trail for him to follow.
But when I showed a witness his photo, he confirmed he was the one there with you.
He said four or five men attacked you and Kylo.
Kylo must’ve covered you so you could escape. ”
What kind of warrior was I that I couldn’t even handle hearing about a situation I’d been in myself?
“Any chance Putcheski’s father was involved in what happened that night and he’s covering his ass?” Ryder asked. “His boat was docked in Naples. Constantine couldn’t confirm if he was in Rome, though.”
“We found evidence to prove Benjamin was at the rave. We also have visual confirmation from inside the rave that my sister and Kylo were there as well,” Gideon said in a low voice, fingers lightly drumming the table.
“We tried to get ahold of phones, but we didn’t have any luck.
I’m guessing you did?” Gwen locked on to Julian, and he shifted uncomfortably in his seat, like he was trying to lean away from her, preferring to take his chances with the growly-looking Carter guy instead.
“I could only scour through social media for posts and videos, and came up empty.”
Julian lifted a shoulder, giving off a casual Don’t blame yourself look.
He produced his phone and slid it over to Ryder.
“Putcheski’s dad knew what went down that night.
He lied to us—probably to your people, too.
Not a surprise. Benjamin tried to confiscate all phones from the ravers.
But he missed a few guests, and we got lucky.
We have a video that proves the men who attacked you were with Benjamin. You had to have been there for him.”
“We’ve had our ups and downs with the Putcheskis for years,” Gideon picked up, tone bitter. “They walk a fine line between good and evil, making it hard to legally take them out.” He opened something on his phone, then passed it to me.
I zoomed in on a video and let it play. I was there, like he said. I had on a red wig, and there was a guy with me. He had his arm banded around my midsection for a brief moment, eyes scanning the crowd. Watchful and protective. “That’s Kylo?”
“It is,” Julian said as I watched the video again, a harsh pain building in my chest seeing myself go for a weapon just before the video cut out.
“My guess is, Benjamin spotted you, and then that’s when all hell broke loose,” Gideon noted, his tone remaining calm and resolute.
“Did I think Benjamin had the book? I don’t understand.”
“We still don’t know if that book is tied to this.” Julian shook his head—and why was he so adamantly against that being a possibility?
I passed the phone back. “If Putcheski’s men caught up with me even though Kylo tried holding them off, how would they know about my tracker?” With my free hand, I thumbed the chain. “And know to put this on me?”
“Unless someone from your family or team sold you out?” Alex suggested the only thing that, I supposed, made sense.
“What do we need to know about Tristan and the book that our mother doesn’t want me to know?
There has to be something I’m missing here.
The pieces aren’t adding up.” My gaze volleyed between my two brothers as I waited for the truth.
“Wait,” I blurted out before they could speak as a recent memory slammed into me.
“I was in France this month.” I glanced at Jason.
“I told you over text I was with my brother, working on something there.”
Jason squinted, like he was doing a mental scroll through our text conversations to play catch-up.
“I wasn’t with you in France,” Gideon let me know.
“Neither was I,” Julian quickly added.
“Tristan, then. I was working with him privately. Did he double-cross me?”
Gideon checked the security camera on the ceiling again. “What I say here never leaves this room, am I clear?” I could hear the Or I’ll kill ya embedded in his icy tone.
Agreeable but hesitant nods from everyone happened one by one.
“After you left Surrey, I demanded Mum talk and tell me what she was keeping back about the book,” Gideon shared, eyes on me.
And? I asked in my head.
“We’re required by our oaths to keep records of whatever we do, right down to who we kill and why.
It’s meant to keep us honest and servants to the truth.
All those records were housed in vault seven before the fire,” Gideon explained, and I remembered Julian telling me something similar in Surrey.
“Mum is the arsonist. She burnt the place down in ’92, which is why she always refused to talk about it.
She couldn’t destroy the one archive she was after without drawing attention to herself, so she took down the whole place to bury the truth. ”
Shock sent me back from the table yet again, but I remained seated as I waited for the rest of the story.
But then it came to me on my own.
Not a memory.
Just an oh shit moment.
“The mission where she got pregnant with Tristan,” I whispered. “She didn’t want any evidence to exist about him. That’s why she burnt the place down, right?”
Gideon nodded. “Aside from Tristan himself, that was the only proof that he existed, and who his father was. He doesn’t even know who his dad is, and believe me, he’s asked. His dad could be alive or dead, for all I know. Mum won’t tell us anything about that.”
“So she was willing to destroy the entire library to protect her son.” Part of me understood that. She truly loved him, even though it was too risky to raise him herself.
“There was an investigation into the fire. No blame was assigned to anyone, and the case was closed,” Gideon continued. “Did our grandfather remove the book from the library before the fire . . . ?” He shook his head. “Maybe?”
I’m living proof he saved it.
“Why’d she wait until ’92 to burn it down?” Jason asked, and there was a subtle something poised in his expression I couldn’t quite decipher.
“Something had to have set her off to do it then and not when he was born, but she wouldn’t tell us.
” Julian gestured toward the window. “Pops lived in Meiringen, a Swiss town at the base of the Reichenbach Falls. To outsiders, he was an eccentric aristocrat with a retreat in the Bernese Alps. In truth, he was a recluse to keep Tristan hidden, and the vault was housed on the property. It was on the back end of the—”
“Mountainside,” I remembered, drawing up an image of the before-and-after paintings Julian had shown me in Surrey. “The manor survived, just the library was burned.”
Jason took hold of my hand and asked, “Another reason why you chose to meet us here?”
Gideon nodded. “It’s a thirty-minute helicopter ride away.
Also, Benjamin Putcheski is currently at his home in Austria.
We may need to pay him a visit together.
Get the truth of what happened directly from him; he’s the only one who can currently provide us answers.
But he’ll have an army of guards, so we’ll need to be a united front to approach his property. ”
“I figured a few of us could go look around Pop’s place with a fresh set of eyes first. We still own the property, but no one has lived there since he passed,” Julian added before I could digest everything.
“We can divide and conquer. If the Putcheskis are holding Kylo, and he’s still alive, I doubt he has much time left. ”
“Would Tristan really hurt him?” My stomach somersaulted from his betrayal. “Does he have a protector, too?”
“Tristan does, but he ditches him quite often,” Gideon confirmed. “He’s always been a lone wolf.”
“Because we did that to him by separating him from us,” I said somberly. “At least, our parents did, since we didn’t even know he was our brother until we were all eighteen.”
“I still refuse to believe Tristan is tied to this.” Julian stood. “It has to be someone else. Dad vouched for his brothers and sister. Our cousins and protectors have alibis. But I suppose if any of them have my source code, it’s possible their alibis are bullshit.”
“Another reason you need to work with us now. You can’t trust your own family,” Carter said while rising, focusing on Easton. “Can you pilot the bird to Meiringen?”
Easton glanced at Gwen as if uncomfortable with the idea of leaving her here with Julian, but he nodded. “I’ll go prepare. Looks like a storm is on the horizon. We’ll need to leave soon.” He stood, shot Gwen one last look, then took off.
The air in the room barely had a chance to settle before Jason took me by surprise by asking, “Any chance you happen to know why whoever did this to Hollis would plant a false, dreamlike memory into her brain like a reset point?”
Julian’s eyes snapped to mine. “Wait, what?”
“I’ve had the same recurring dream ever since I woke up in that coffin. Even when I try to remember something while I’m awake, my brain always pushes the same fake memory to the surface to block me from doing so. It’s always Jason in the dream.”
Gideon joined Julian in his somber look before hanging his head. Eyes closed, a gruff breath filled the quiet.
“What is it?” Jason asked before I could get it out.
Julian tore his hands through his hair, disheveling it even more. “You just confirmed it was great-grandfather’s drug that was used. You didn’t mention this to us before. Now we know for sure the book wasn’t destroyed in that fire, and I was really hoping it was.”
Gideon slowly lifted his head. “There’s a fail-safe with the formula, a way to prevent anyone from trying to use any mind control substances or hypnosis to undo the effects of the drug.
Once the substance is injected, and while it’s flowing through you, you’re supposed to picture a safe place.
” He zeroed in on Jason, jaw tight. “You’re supposed to think of something that gives you peace and someone you love. ”