Chapter 49 Cal #2
“That’s not what I asked.” Charles’s voice is calm but there’s steel underneath. “I asked why you three specifically. Why not me? I’m her brother. I run this organization. If someone wanted to lure Parker somewhere, pretending to be me would be more believable.”
I’m pulling utility records now, checking internet bandwidth usage at the rental property. High data usage yesterday. Someone uploading or downloading large files. Video files, maybe. Like the deepfake they used to impersonate me.
“Charles, can we table this until we find her?” I ask, not looking up. “Every minute we spend talking is another minute she’s with Ryan.”
“No.” His voice is flat, absolute. “We’re not tabling this. I want to know why my sister would trust a call from you three over a call from her own brother.”
Of all times for him to finally pay attention…
I don’t stop working. My eyes track data across three screens, my hands continue typing, algorithms running, searches executing. But I allocate mental processing to this conversation because Charles isn’t going to drop it. Because he deserves the truth. Because we’re past the point of hiding.
“Because we’ve been in love with Parker since we were kids,” I say, not looking up from the screens. My left hand pulls up traffic camera footage while my right hand runs facial recognition protocols. “Well, I have. Jace and Silas will have to give you their own time lines.”
The cabin goes quiet except for the hum of the engines and my keyboards clicking.
“I told her already. We all told her,” I continue, my eyes tracking data streams, my brain processing multiple information channels simultaneously.
“We told her when she came for your wedding,” Jace finally takes over.
Were they expecting me to do all the damn talking?
“Nothing happened until you and Sienna left after your reception. We spent that night together and then she disappeared the next day back to California. We didn’t know she was pregnant and didn’t see her again until she came back home with Noah, and Liam. ”
I find another camera angle. Better view of the Suburban. I enhance the image, run it through filters, and try to see through the tinted windows.
“And since she came home?” Charles asks, his voice dangerously calm.
His sister’s been abducted and he wants the love story? Really?
“We’ve been in a relationship with her. It was rocky at first. It’s a unique situation but it works,” Jace answers.
Thank fuck he decided to talk because I find thermal signature in the image. Could be passengers. Could be cargo. I need better resolution.
“A quad. Polyamory. Whatever the term is for four people building something that shouldn’t work but does,” he says.
I’m cross-referencing now, checking cell tower data near the rental property. Parker’s phone went offline but maybe there are other signals, other devices that could give us confirmation.
“That’s why he’d use us as bait,” Silas the fucking silent finally says while I finally pull up the data I need.
Cell tower activity near the rental spiked thirty minutes ago.
Multiple devices connecting, then going dark.
“Because Parker loves us. She’d drop everything if she thought we needed her.
Ryan knew that, aside from Liam and Noah, we’re a weakness of hers. ”
“How long?” Charles asks.
“I just told you. Six years since—”
“No. How long have you three been in love with her?”
My fingers pause again. Longer this time. Then resume.
“Since I was twelve.” I’m pulling satellite imagery now, trying to get current photos of the rental property.
“You two were ten. Some kid at school was giving me shit about my parents, about my dad’s drinking, about how we didn’t have money.
Parker heard him and punched him in the face. Broke his nose.”
“She was suspended for three days for that,” Charles sighs, “Dominic was pissed.”
I snort a laugh as the satellite image loads. I zoom in, analyzing the structures, the vehicles, the heat signatures if the imaging is recent enough.
“And I remember standing there,” I continue, “watching her get dragged to the principal’s office, blood on her knuckles, fierce and completely unrepentant. And thinking, ‘That’s the girl I’m going to love for the rest of my life.’”
“And you never said anything,” Charles says, “None of you said anything to me.”
“She was your sister. My best friend’s little sister.
Our best friend’s little sister.” I enhance the satellite image, looking for any signs of recent activity.
“And then there was Dominic. You know what he was like. What he would have done if he’d known.
He would have used it. Used her. Used us.
We were protecting her by staying away.”
A vehicle in the satellite image. Matches the description of the grey Suburban. Parked behind the rental property. The timestamp on the image is from forty minutes ago.
“That’s it,” I say, highlighting the image. “That’s where she is.”
Everyone crowds around to see the screen.
“You’re sure?” Charles asks.
“The Suburban from the airport is there. Utility usage is consistent with multiple occupants. Cell tower data shows activity spike right when Parker would have arrived.” I pull up everything I have on the property. “This is where Ryan took her.”
The look he’s giving me. He either wants to kill us for being Parker’s Achilles heel or…
“All this time,” Charles says, still processing the earlier revelation. “The boys. Noah and Liam.”
Jesus fuck, Charles! Focus on the issue at hand.
“We don’t know yet.” I give up on his inability to focus.
I’m running final searches, pulling together every piece of tactical information we’ll need.
“Parker wanted us to find out together. She took DNA samples a few days ago, sent them to her friend who works at a lab. Results came back but she hasn’t opened them. She was waiting for us.”
“She said the doctors told her that they’re Heteropaternal Superfecundation Twins,” Jace says quietly from beside me. “Different fathers, same pregnancy. Two of us are the biological fathers.”
“And you were all okay with that?” Charles asks, his voice carefully neutral. “Not knowing which of you is which boy’s father but still being in a relationship with my sister?”
“We’re all their fathers,” Silas says from the window, his voice flat and certain. “Biology is just details.”
I pull up the email notification on my phone. The one that came through during the firefight at the textile mill. The one we haven’t opened.
“The results are here,” I say quietly, showing Charles the notification on my screen. “But we’re not opening it without Parker. We do this together or not at all.”
Charles stares at the notification for a long moment. Then he pours himself scotch from the cabin bar, drinks half in one swallow.
“I should be angry,” he says finally. “I should be furious that my three best friends have been in love with my sister for years and nobody told me. That two of you are the fathers of my nephews and I’m finding out like this.”
“Are you?” I ask, pulling my eyes away from the screens to look at him directly. “Angry?”
“I’m angry you didn’t trust me enough to tell me,” Charles says.
“But Parker’s an adult. She makes her own choices.
And honestly?” He finishes the scotch. “I’ve already said I’d rather her be with you three—people I know will die protecting her and those boys—than with someone like Ryan who sees her as a strategic alliance and a way to climb the power structure. ”
Something in my chest loosens slightly. Not complete acceptance, but acknowledgment. Permission, maybe. Or at least the absence of active opposition.
“But we’re talking about this later,” Charles adds, his voice going hard. “About how this affects the organization and what happens when—if—this becomes public knowledge.”
“Why?” Silas asks, “It’s not like we can’t do our jobs and be with Parker.”
“No, it is like that,” Charles leans back and looks at each of us. “How can I ask you three to put your lives on the line knowing it’s Parker, Liam, and Noah who are waiting for you to come home?”
Well, fuck.
He takes a breath, shaking his head. “I’m not saying everything has to change, but I’m saying we need to have a longer discussion. One that includes Parker so we can operate effectively. Understood?”
“Understood,” all three of us say.