Page 18 of Savage Truth

“They run cons?” The first day of school popped into my mind, when Riley lifted my wallet with such ease.

“Yeah, they’re grifters. And damn good at it. They change their appearances and stay off the radar as much as possible. I barely recognized them.”

“Including social media?” I’d overheard Raelyn ranting to Dad about the picture I’d taken and posted.

“They have no digital footprint whatsoever. The only reason why I was able to see what they looked like was because I got a copy of the fake driver’s licenses they used. Someone wiped the electronic file in human resources. They either have someone helping them cover their tracks, or they’re that good.”

“Thanks, Wes. Keep me updated if you find anything else.”

After he hung up, I sat straighter, plotting the best time to drop their little bomb and run them out of town for good.

CHAPTER NINE

RILEY

Chaos followed Mom and me everywhere. We were basically on a perpetual roller coaster, and this was no different… but itfeltdifferent.

Everything happened at once. Cole and Damon left to stay with their cousins. Lucas stormed off to his study. And Mom and I were left to figure out what had happened.

Mom was a wreck. Tears streamed down her face, smudging her mascara under her eyes, and she visibly shook. Shoving my pain and confusion to the side, I gently grasped her arm and led her to the patio furniture. We sank onto the tan cushions on the love seat, and I tossed one of the pillows to a nearby chair for extra room.

I got comfortable and shifted so that I used the armrest and a pillow for back support to face her. “I need the whole story.”

Because there was one. She’d only given me bits and pieces, and I needed to know everything. Things had escalated to the point where we should run. I couldn’t see anything to salvage, and I worried we’d somehow destroyed Cole’s family.

With shaky fingers, Mom swiped the wetness away, managing to wipe the tears but only smearing her mascara more. Bloodshot, swollen eyes met mine, and I braced myself.This is it—no more lies.Sincerity and determination blazed like a beacon in her gaze.

“I’ve told you there’s history between Lucas and me.”

“Right.” I remembered the conversation clearly. They’d met when I was a few months old and had a brief affair before we had to disappear. Dad had found us, and it got bad. We’d barely escaped.

“Your father…” She shuddered. “If Ronan hadn’t found me, I wouldn’t have survived that encounter. He helped us change our names again. And we disappeared. It broke my heart to leave Lucas the way I did. No note. No explanation.” She closed a hand around mine, and I felt the connection in my bones. “But you were more important. And your father wasn’t sure you were alive. I told him I had miscarried. I needed to keep you hidden.”

I knew the story well. A nurse tied to the syndicate my uncle worked for owed him. She delivered me in the apartment where Mom had gone into labor. There was no hospital, no record of my birth, no paper trail to connect me to him. My identity was fake. The only way he ever would have known was through Mom, and she’d agonized over us having the same last name. We hadn’t for years—not until I went to school for the first time. At each subsequent school, Uncle Ronan had worked his magic with fake paperwork, a new name, and fabricated transcripts.

In a sense, I was a ghost.

But there was a note, the one I kept hidden behind the picture of Mom and me in the frame on my dresser. A vile promise. A reminder of our future if he captured us.

The life we led wasn’t a game. It was survival. And Mom needed a push to remember that because Lucas was her kryptonite.

A tiny voice in my head whispered that Cole was mine.

“Lucas searched for me all those years.”

I remembered that part too. “He found you last summer. It’s why we moved here.” And my first kiss with Cole, the son of the love of Mom’s life. If I’d known then what I was getting myself into, would I have stayed away from the party?Probably not.

“Yes. We moved here because Lucas asked me to.” She shifted to mirror how I sat. “He was married.”

“I remember.” She’d carried a rose into the dump we’d rented one day, wearing a dreamy look in her eyes I’d never seen before. I’d overheard sex.Gross.“We didn’t stay long.”

“Lucas wasn’t happy in his marriage.”

I rolled my eyes. “We ran a lot of cons, Mom. But married men? They were off-limits.”

She nodded very slightly. “I know.” Her voice quieted. The tears had almost dried up. “He got married months before our affair and told me it was a mistake. But that’s not my story. It’s his. Last summer, I was at that legal convention with him. His boys arrived to deliver a note to Lucas from their mom. I didn’t think they saw me because Lucas stopped me from turning to look at them. He asked me to wait for him in another room, but I stopped and turned as he read the note.” She sucked in a shaky breath. “His face… I knew something terrible had happened. He ran out and left me at the damned conference.”

“We didn’t leave because Dad found us that night, did we?”

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