Page 58 of Keys

“How is this possible?” When the siblings glanced at one another and back at their uncle with confusion in their eyes, he broke down and told them all about how he had attempted to find them and had been unsuccessful.

That was when Keys stepped in to explain a few things. “Did you hire a private investigator?”

“Of course, I did.”

“The usual one you’d use for cases?”

Grady shook his head then. “No, your father recommended someone far better.” It dawned on him then that Key’s father was behind the disappearance of his niece and the eventual disappearance of his nephew as well. “No!” he shook his head and sank down in the chair behind his desk. “No. No. No.” Hopeless eyes looked up, pleading with his family. “Please, forgive me.”

“We’re here. We’re okay.” MiMi crooned to him as Paul left them to it and made his way back over to the rest of us.

“We’ll catch up later, but now I think there are more important things going on that need to be handled.”

“I’m going to stay with Grady,” MiMi informed us. “I’ll run coms from here, but I’d like to stay with my uncle and fill him in on a few things.”

Dane looked pleased by the turn of events and readily agreed as the rest of us started going over the plans Keys and I had drawn up. Anything to keep his woman out of the line of fire – I got it. Even though my woman was badass and the centerpiece of this whole shitstorm, I wished that I could leave her behind too. The thought of her getting hurt or worse before we could work things out left an empty feeling inside of me that I refused to acknowledge any further.

Chapter 21

It didn’t escape my notice that my sister had slowly been making her way over to Grady as soon as MiMi walked away to go get some drinks for everyone.

“You have to help me, I’ve been kidnapped by these people,” Aubrey whispered to Grady.

“They brought you here for your own good,” he told her. Then he proceeded to explain everything in great detail to my sister, who apparently hadn’t believed what I’d divulged to her when she arrived.

I stepped in then because I didn’t have the time to coddle her any further. “If that man was any kind of father to you when you were growing up, be glad you had that. Hang on to the memories of him tucking you into bed, telling you he loved you, showing up to whatever bullshit you were into as a kid. All I ever got from him was a pat on the head, a doll to buy my silence so I’d have something to occupy me while he fucked my mother in the next room, and a payoff in the end to get me out of the way completely.”

“He bought you dolls?” She whispered the question.

“Right up until I blackmailed him when I was fifteen years old. That’s how much of a father I never had. He didn’t even realize I was fifteen and didn’t play with dolls anymore.”

“He would bring me dolls too, every time he came home, and my mom would start fighting with him over where he’d been.”

I shrugged my shoulders. “The point you’re missing is that our father is a piece of shit human being and if you are giving him any thought whatsoever, then that’s a prison of your own making. If you think he was ever more of a father to me than he was to you, you couldn’t be more wrong. He never once acknowledged me, except where it appeased my mother and got her to remove her clothes faster.”

Grady stepped back and blanched at the sincerity of my words, or maybe the blunt detachment I spoke with.

“We have to go attempt to get my mom away from the monster who ruined her life. Aubrey, stay here with MiMi and Grady. Be helpful if you can, quiet if you can’t. Stay put. You might also want to give your brother a head’s up about what’s about to go down, if you don’t think he’s involved in Brian’s bullshit.”

“He’s your brother too,” she told me. I just shook my head.

“I was never allowed to have siblings. You may have grown up with him, but I didn’t. I don’t know either of you. I just need for you to both stay out of the way while I handle this.” I turned away from her then, knowing that a relationship between us would be difficult now that she had purposely infiltrated my life, to some extent, and attempted to seduce my man. My ex. I still wasn’t sure what her gameplan was but finding out would have to wait until my mom was safe and back with her husband where she belonged.

That reminded me. I turned to MiMi and tossed her my phone. “Jack Mayfield called me on that phone. Find his number and get the information for whoever my mom has been seeing. Her psychiatrist will probably be needed on hand when we pull her from the fire. I’m fairly certain any headway she made after all these years is being destroyed the longer she’s with my father.” MiMi nodded, knowing exactly how necessary a therapist on standby was going to be. It was her failure to see someone regularly after what happened to her the first time that made what happened the second time possible.

While prepping everyone, I missed the fact that Grady had been showing Aubrey proof of everything I said to her. My sister glanced over my way before turning her guilty eyes on Quickshot too. I could see the remorse there and wondered, once again, what her game plan had been. Had she just been trying to steal my man the way she thought I stole our father? Was that how she planned to hurt me? Obviously, my sister didn’t realize that the damage our father had done to me over the years was what stole Quickshot away from me to begin with. She never had a chance to break my heart in the way she had hoped.

Aubrey headed my way as we were about to leave, but Quickshot stood between her and me, as if I needed someone to stand sentinel and protect me from the rest of my family.

“I’m so sorry,” my sister whispered. “I didn’t know. I always blamed you. When he disappeared, I blamed you, because I just knew that he was making my mom crazy so that he could spend time with the daughter no one was supposed to know about.”

“How did you know?” I asked, wondering how long my father’s family knew about the secret one he hid away.

“I was ten when my mom found about your mother. Blaine was eight. We heard her yelling into the phone. I think she was talking to a friend of hers who we called Auntie Vicky.” Aubrey shrugged. “That’s how I knew he had given me your name. My mom was ready to murder him over that. It shouldn’t have mattered, you being alive, because it was before my parents got together, but she told my aunt about how he was always sneaking off to spend time with his other family and how the bastard had probably named me after you so he wouldn’t accidently get confused and call me by the wrong name.”

Quickshot hissed in a sharp breath, mirroring my own disgust at my father. That might have been why he’d done it initially, but I had a hard time believing it. “I don’t think that was the reason.”

“Why not? It’s the only thing that makes sense.”

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