Seraphina’s face got red, and real quick. “No.” Her head ducked down again.
Peter cast a questioning look at Chrissy, who made a show of pressing her lips closed.
“I know!”
“Cy!” That was Seraphina.
“I won’t say anything. I mean, I won’t tell them to look in your drawing pad, because then, you know, they’d know.”
Matt suppressed a snort.
Marie and Theresa were both fighting back grins.
Kash buried his face into the back of my neck, his shoulders moving up and down.
“Smooth, Cyclone.” I gave him a thumbs-up.
His grin stretched. The little shit knew exactly what he just did.
Seraphina was now beet red. “Cyclone!”
“What? I didn’t say a word.”
“Well…” Peter hugged his daughter once more before moving to rest his back against the couch, next to Chrissy’s legs. “Whatever is in your drawing pads, I’ll be eager to see when you choose to share with the family.”
Seraphina and Cyclone had more questions about Chase, about when they would meet him. Kash was firm, that it wouldn’tbe until much later—much, much later. The questions weren’t as quick with Chrissy, about what she went through. It seemed as if they knew to tread gently, as if they were scared of what question would unearth a new minefield.
“Why didn’t you say anything?” Cyclone asked.
It took a second before someone clued in.
He was staring at Chrissy. Then I caught a backward glance over his shoulder to Payton, and I figured it out first.
“You know what happened at the court yesterday?”
He looked at me. “Yeah.” He flattened his mouth. He wasn’t going to sharehowhe knew. That meant he had known who Payton was before Peter told him this morning, too. Or I was guessing. There was a look in his eyes, a deeper understanding than my little ten-and-three-quarters-year-old brother should have, but it was there nonetheless.
He had known.
“You want to know why Chrissy never said anything about being held captive?” I asked.
He gave me a quick nod. “She said she didn’t know, but she did. She just told us she did.”
Chrissy’s mouth had been open, but it shut with an audible snap. “Oh.” Her face tightened, stretched. Her mouth pressed down before it returned to a flat line. She angled her head to the side, speaking in Payton’s direction. “I couldn’t tell what side you were on.”
Payton sat up in her seat. “I didn’t know, either. I knew they had you, and I knew what they were capable of.”
Cyclone was looking between the two mothers, leaning against one of Payton’s legs. “So you both didn’t know and you couldn’t tell, so both of you didn’t say a word? That makes no sense.”
Seraphina started giggling.
“Where’s your brother now?”
Kash glanced to Cyclone. “He’s at the apartment Bailey and I lived in.”
“What’s he going to do there?”
“He’s going to stay there, and he and I will work with the FBI to help find our grandfather. You know when they took your dad into custody?”