Chapter 8
CADE
Home
“Jack,” I repeat, pocketing my phone, “is Bella’s uncle.”
“The hell he is,” Roman snaps, shaking his head. “Izzy and I never had siblings.”
“Not her uncle by blood,” I correct, tracing the mangled family tree in the air. “Jack was married to Bella’s first foster mother’s sister, Claire. He’s the one who took Bella from the hospital the day her biological mother passed. Jack was how she ended up in Arkansas.”
The words taste wrong in my mouth. A sick, burning poison I’ve been carrying without knowing it.
Jack. Luca.
All the nasty things he said about Bella. The way he touched her life. The poems born from his twisted obsession. All about his damn niece.
“Fuck. It all makes sense,” Tex cuts in quickly. “Every single time you came around, Jack suddenly had somewhere else he needed to be.”
“To keep the two of you from ever being in the same room,” I add, the migraine growing at a rapid speed.
Lex lets out a harsh scoff. “Bet the fucker didn’t even go fishing with Hen—”
“So, he’s the one who took her from me?” Roman cuts him off, his voice rising as both fists bang into the table.
Red blooms through his white button down. I watch, frozen in place as his chin starts to fall to his chest. He’s pushing too far.
Sabine must sense the change in him as well because she’s already up. Her heels click on the hardwood as she hurries off into the kitchen.
“Roman?” I whisper, gently shaking his arm.
He coughs and lifts his head. “He l-lied to me,” he stutters. “For years he had me believing he was out looking all while he was hiding her away from me.”
I just nod because there’s nothing any of us can do right now to soften this blow.
Nate grabs a pen and a notepad out of his bag. “How did you and Luca meet?”
“The Obsidian,” Roman replies, a sharp wince twisting his face when he tries to rotate in his chair. “Well technically we met at Northvale.” He cuts a quick, heavy glance in Lex’s parents’ direction. “At the Red Hour.”
“Luca was a Hollow King?” Lex asks, turning toward his dad who is now tense as he leans against the wall of glass overlooking the city.
Roman shakes his head. “He never made it past round one.”
Daniel shoves off the window, striding toward the table until his body shadows Roman’s. “How the hell do I not remember him then?”
“You wouldn’t,” Roman answers, glancing up. “You were getting ready for your fight. By the time you headed to the ring, Luca had fought, suffered an embarrassing loss to Miro, and fled. Our paths didn’t cross again until he began working for me at The Obsidian.”
“Yeah but I’ve been there. Multiple times,” Daniel says, arms crossed and looking down at Roman. “Hell, you and I started the casino nights underneath it at Atrum. If he was working there, I would’ve seen him.”
Roman shakes his head again. “It was a few weeks after our falling out.”
They stare at each other for a beat in silence before Daniel exhales through his nose, his shoulders dropping. He nods once and takes a step back.
“So,” Nate says. His pen flies across the paper, the scratch-scratch-scratch the only sound in the room. “When did he actually start working for you?”
“Not long after my wedding in Rome. Said he needed some extra cash. Cop salary sucked, you know how it goes.”
“Right,” Nate huffs.
“Here, Roman,” Sabine says, reappearing like a ghost at his side. She’s holding a towel in one hand and a glass of water in the other. “Drink this.”
“I’m fine,” he grunts. His hand comes up to swat her away, but his fingers are shaking.
“I ain’t about to have you bleed out before you get your daughter back,” Sabine says, her voice a soft, lethal caress. She doesn’t wait for his permission as she unbuttons his shirt. “Not on my watch, chéri.”
“Let her do it,” Daniel grits. “Now’s not the time to be a stubborn asshole, Rome.”
“Fine.” Roman’s jaw locks. His gaze snaps to the ceiling as he yields to Sabine’s hands, now exposing the heavily stained gauze beneath. She takes a clean, white towel and presses it against the seepage.
“Hold this tight, now,” she instructs as she guides his trembling hand to the cloth. “And press hard.”
He nods and wraps his fingers around the towel, holding it firmly against his chest.
“Long story short,” Roman continues. The bleeding contained for now and muffled by the terrycloth.
“Luca became my top security officer at The Obsidian. I quickly turned him into my inside man in the NYPD, sending me tips on raids and keeping eyes looking elsewhere. He was exceptionally good at the job. Fit right in around there. Hell, nearly all my dancers loved—”
Roman stops. He turns slowly and locks eyes with Lex’s mom like a missile. “Irina,” he says tightly. “Did Izzy and Luca ever?”
Irina lifts her chin, ice in her posture as she rises from one of the barstools. “Did Izzy and Luca ever what?” she asks with a sharp snap of the t.
“Were they ever,” he pauses, mouth twitching.
“Spit it out,” she mocks as she places her hands on her hips.
“Were they ever together?” Roman asks.
Irina scoffs. “How should I know? I never stepped foot inside your sick little club.”
“Because she was your best friend,” Roman snaps, pushing back from the table one-handed while keeping the other pressed to his chest. “Did she ever mention him?”
“Mention him? Roman, Izzy only ever talked about you. How much she loved you.” Irina lets out a bitter and broken laugh. “How much she needed you.”
Roman stiffens.
“She needed you there with her during the birth of your—” Irina cuts herself off, her voice shattering. She lets out a deep sigh before continuing. “But instead, my best friend was forced to die in a cold, lonely hospital bed. All alone.”
“She ran!” Roman roars, taking a few hurried strides until he’s right in front of Irina.
“Rome,” Daniel warns, stepping up behind his wife.
Roman ignores him. “How was I supposed to—”
“You should have been there!” she shrieks, not backing down from Roman’s irate gaze.
“Honey.” Daniel steps in and reaches for Irina’s arm to pull her back, but she smacks it away. She takes a step closer until she’s toe to toe with Roman.
“This?” Irina bites, sweeping her hand around vaguely. “Everything that has happened to your daughter?” She looks up at him dead in the eye. Her ice-blue eyes blazing into steel. “Is all on you.”
Roman’s jaw ticks as he looms over Irina. “What about Raina?”
She huffs an unimpressed laugh. “Raina would never talk to me,” she hisses, jabbing a finger at him. “You of all people know that.”
“Raina got good at playing Izzy. She could have fooled—”
“For Christ’s sake, stop it!” Daniel interrupts, stepping around his wife and getting in between them. “We can dissect both of your regrets about Izzy and Raina later.”
Roman glares at them for a few quick moments, his nostrils flaring. The towel at his chest growing redder by the second.
“Look,” Daniel continues. “Bella is alive. And for all we know, she’s hurting. You two bitching about a past that none of us can change isn’t going to bring her home any sooner.”
Roman exhales and relaxes his shoulders. “You’re right,” he says, turning toward Lex. “So. What’s the plan?”
Lex straightens.
“Okay, well… Costa Rica,” he says, fumbling for the words. “That’s the first trial. Luca said he’ll send the coordinates before it starts. No clue what he’s going to make Cade do once we get there.”
The sick feeling returns to my stomach.
“So I want backup. Real backup.” He shoots a look toward Tex.
Tex nods. “Kenji and I will be in the sky. Our eyes scanning everything. We’ll keep you safe, Barinov.”
“Confirmed,” Kenji adds.
“Briggs and Khoza, I need you on the ground with us. Close enough to intervene if shit goes south.”
Khoza gives a quick nod. “You’ve got it.”
Briggs glances at Ellie, just a flicker, then back to Lex. “Just say when.”
Laing snorts. “And what about me?”
“Yeah,” Lex grits, rolling his eyes. “You’re coming too, jackass.”
Knox pushes his chair back slightly. “Nate’s going to run comms. He’ll be your lifeline out there. I’ve got to sit this one out.”
Lex’s brow creases. “Knox, I’d feel—”
“Look, now that we know it’s Jack,” Knox cuts in, rubbing his neck to ease the tension. “I have other angles I need to run. I gotta do a full sweep of the NYPD’s mainframe now. That shit’s gonna take some time.”
Nate nods. “He’s right, Lex.”
“Alright.” Lex shifts his focus over to O’Malley and Rez. “I need the two of you to stay here and keep an eye on the girls.”
Rez’s jaw tightens. “You’re benching me? To fucking babysit?”
“Not babysit,” Lex corrects. “I need someone who can keep them safe. Someone I won’t have to worry about while we’re out there doing God knows what in Costa Rica, Rez.”
Lex’s eyes trail to Ellie and Haley, curled up on the couch. “They both need to get back to school. Back to practice. Worlds is right around the corner and El—”
“I’m not going,” Ellie interjects, her blonde curls tossing as she shakes her head. “I can’t. N-n-not without her.”
I cross the room.
“Move,” I say, nudging August off the couch before sinking down between the girls, pulling my little sister snug against my side.
“Hey,” I murmur into her hair. “Sis, look at me.”
She shakes her head harder, tears spilling out in waves. “I can’t dance without her, Cade.”
“Me neither,” Haley whispers, curling the blanket tighter around herself.
“You’re not dancing without her, girls.” I swallow hard and pull Haley into my other side. “You’re gonna go dance for her.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I catch a flash of movement as Briggs rises. He takes a few strides toward the couch, but Mom reaches out and rests a gentle hand on his arm. She smiles at him, shaking her head silently.
He dips his chin and turns to sit back down.
“She would lose her mind,” I add, softening my voice. “If she found out you gave up Worlds because of her.”
Haley lets out a broken laugh. “She’d murder us.”
Ellie sniffs, wiping her nose on her sleeve. “She really would.”
I nod. “So you go. You practice. You kick ass at Worlds. And when Bella comes home, because she will, you can tell her you’re a world champion.”
Ellie’s shoulders shake as she nods against my chest.
Lex watches us for a moment, something unreadable in his eyes. “Good,” he says. “Then it’s settled.”
“I’m coming too,” Roman says, swaying just a tad.
“You were just shot. You need rest.”
“Try and stop me,” he bites back, his voice thinning. “He took my daughter, Lex. If you think I’m sitting this out then you’ve got—”
“And when you face-plant in the jungle somewhere because your fucking chest opens up again, then what?”
“I’ll be fine.”
“The hell you will. You’ll just get in the—”
“L’ombre, that’s enough.” Sabine’s smooth voice cuts through the heat. She steps closer and lies a steady hand on Lex’s tensed arm. “I’ll tend to him and make sure he’s whole. You let him go.”
Lex’s jaw works, muscles bunching under her palm. But he doesn’t shake her off.
Before he can argue, Knox clears his throat. “There’s one more thing.”
Everyone looks at him.
Knox gestures around at the laptops, the weapons, and all of the blankets on the floor. Then to the girls curled in my arms on the couch. “If we’re doing this for days, weeks… hell even months, this isn’t going to work.”
“What are you saying?” Lex asks.
“I’m saying we need a command center,” Knox replies. “A real one. Somewhere secure that’s built for this kind of shit.”
“The Obsidian.” Roman coughs, bracing himself on the table. He glances around the room. Taking in the chaos and exhaustion. The way none of us have slept properly in days.
“You can have it. It’s secure and reinforced.” He winces, shoving the towel harder against his seeping wound. “Enough server room for whatever you could possibly need. And it’s right under NOX, so everyone can have a room. No more sleeping on the floors.”