Our family lived in the shadows, that’s where it belonged. We didn’t have the right to walk in the sun or to live the same lives as Crew’s parents. But by falling in love with him, Seraphina had chipped at the crack in the wall between our two worlds. I had no idea how I was going to seal it back up if I didn’t find him before daylight.
The underbelly of our world had never been so exposed. Family business good bad or ugly was family business. Things were settled between families. Justice. Punishment. Revenge. Our laws and codes had been handed down for generations. Bringing in Crew’s parents changed the game. And I wondered if his kidnappers knew what could happen to all of us if the game was exposed.
“I can’t promise that,” I told my sister. “But I’m trying.”
“I know you are, I just…how do I sleep next to Brandon tonight?”
I couldn’t answer that question for her. “You better go. I’m almost out of cell reception.” I was closing in on the farm.
“Where are you?” she asked.
“I’ll tell you later. I’ll check on you in the morning.” I couldn’t risk anyone knowing where I had hidden Kennedy, not even the person I trusted the most. There was too much at risk.
“But call me. As soon as you hear something.” The words were rushing together again.
“I will. I will. Goodnight.” I pressed the button to disconnect our call.
* * *
I parked behind the stables.My car was recognizable, but I had to hope that no one on Seraphina’s payroll would care enough to comment on it. I had every intention of leaving before the first guy came to clean out the stalls in the morning.
I used to know the woods here well. There was a small window of time in my memory bank of being a child. A sliver, really. I ran through the trees, jumped over the creek, and caught crayfish with Seraphina. She was tiny then. She’d yell for me to let her catch up. It was more fun to let her chase me. To splash her. To hide in the woods from her. We did the things that kids do when no one is watching. We played like we didn’t carry burdens. We laughed like we were free. It was hard to believe we were kids once.
As I walked off the path near the equipment barn, a branch broke beneath my shoe. I stopped, waiting for the sound of another footstep. A sound that indicated someone was watching or following me, but it was quiet. I continued toward the cabin, carrying Kennedy’s dinner.
I stepped onto the porch, paused, and turned the key in the lock. Kennedy barreled into my arms and I almost dropped the bags of takeout I had brought her when I walked inside. She was warm and still smelled like the lotion she used after her shower. She wrapped herself around me.
“Hey.”
She squeezed me harder. “You came back.”
“Of course.” I leaned over to deposit dinner on the small table so I could wrap her in a full hug. “I wanted to be here sooner, but I had to pick up dinner at a restaurant not owned by the Castilles.”
She nodded against my chest. “We need to find him. He’s not like us. He’s barely a business grad student.”
I held her at a short distance. “Where is this coming from?” There was a noticeable shift in her. I wondered what had happened in the two hours I was gone.
Her lashes fell over her eyes. “A stupid dream. But it felt real. And I don’t know that Crew can survive long. He doesn’t have survival skills. He’s not that part of my team. He doesn’t even carry a weapon. He’s not Kimble.”
“He has a reason to survive and that’s what will get him through it.” I tried to assure her.
“Seraphina?” she whispered.
“Yes. He wants to get back to her.” It was the crumb of hope I was clinging to, to buy us time.
“God, he has to. How was she at dinner? How did it go?” Kennedy was frantic with questions. I couldn’t blame her as long as she had been here with no way to use her phone.
“I’ll tell you all about it. How is your hand?” I asked, leading her to a chair in the kitchenette.
She shrugged. “The same.” I saw how she cradled it to her chest.
I started to unpack dinner from the paper bags. “I got nothing at the dinner.”
“Really?” She frowned. “Nothing at all? I don’t understand. They have to know something,” she insisted.
“The Castilles never flinched. There was nothing to play there.”
“How can you be so sure?”