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A buzzing rang behind my ears. “What?”
“Answer your mom, bro. She’ll explain everything because if I do…” He paused, growling again. “It’s best she tell you, and I need to call my parents. Let them know you both got up there okay.”
I didn’t know what to say, but it sounded like he wasn’t going to be telling me anything anyway. I said bye, then clicked over to my mom. “Mom?”
There was silence for a second, but then a sigh. “Baby, are you okay? Did you make it to the cabin?”
I held onto the wall. “Why do you know I left?” And most importantly, why wasn’t she pissed I left? She sounded just as calm as my buddy, and I didn’t get that.
“Because Sloane let us know once we all realized she was gone this morning.” There was some chatter in the background. I didn’t know who she was with, but I made out the voices of some of my buddies’ moms. I didn’t hear Brielle or any of my god dads, though. “Your dad and I were over at her house this morning with Ramses and Brielle. Once we realized she left, we tried to call her. She didn’t answer, but not long after that she texted where she was going. That she was with you, and we let you both because we thought it was best. You’re safer away from this situation until we have it contained.”
My throat worked. “Safer?”
“Yes, now, honey, I need you to listen to me very carefully. First, make sure the doors are locked and the security system is on. We’re sending people out to you, but with the storm coming in, they might not be able to meet you until morning. LJ and Billie will be with them. LJ was already working in the area when this all happened.”
“When what happened?”
I got my mother’s silence then, too much silence. She swallowed into the line. “Your grandfather threatened Sloane late yesterday afternoon. She told her parents this morning, which is why your dad and I were over there. We were all talking about it.”
I scanned the room, the floor. “Threatened her how?”
“I won’t go over the particulars with you. They’re both deranged and disturbing, and I need you completely with me right now as I go over the next steps with you.”
Socked in the gut, fucking ill when I craned forward.
“You are to make sure you two stay there, all right?” she continued, the words swirling in my brain. “It’s better for you both that you’re there, and that you and the other kids stay out of this. We pulled everyone out of school earlier today, including Sloane’s brother Bruno. She mentioned your grandfather threatened him too.”
“How did he—” I closed my eyes. “Mom, what did he do?”
“Unspeakable things,” she stated, the words sharp, cracked. “But you don’t need to worry about any of it because the adults are. I want you to let Sloane know that Bru is safe. Him, Ares, and everyone are fine. We have the boys and Bow barred down with a security team outside of the city. The location is remote, and as far as we know, unknown to your grandfather. Myself and the other mothers are meeting with them now. We’ve been with your dad and the rest of the fathers. They’re working on trying to find your grandpa. We believe he’s still in the city, but he’s making it difficult to find him at the present.”
My hand caged my mouth, my heart fucking slamming against my chest. “Mom, I know you don’t want me in whatever this is, but I need to know what’s going on. I’ll stay here. Just please fucking tell me.”
I was… shaking, my teeth biting down on my knuckles. If my grandfather threatened Sloane, I need to know how.
“He tried to blackmail her,” she said, finally, and I waited for the details.
They came slowly.
Careful, my mom told me things I couldn’t even envision, a nightmare and with Sloane in the middle of it. Parts got quiet too, real quiet when I assumed my mom really didn’t want to talk about those particular things. Things like how it sounded like my grandpa had killed Wolf’s and how he’d orchestrated a kidnapping over revenge…
And what he tried to do to my girl after.
Mom’s voice lowered real soft then, and mine did do. I said not one fucking word while she spoke, and I didn’t breathe during any of it. I merely bit my hand.
I drew blood.
It dripped down my knuckles before I realized I was doing it, but the pain headed into the far off reaches of my mind.
“Now, I know you’re going to want to do something,” she said, finished, but my ears were ringing, my chest tight. “I do because I know you, but you can’t. You won’t.”
I won’t…
“You have one job right now, and that is to be there with Sloane,” she said. “She needs you right now, and you both need all of us—your parents—to do our jobs too. The adults will take care of this, and we will protect you.”
She didn’t say how, and probably wouldn’t even if I asked her. Instead, she told me she loved me and sent my father’s love too. LJ and Billie would be there in their absence, and I was to do my job.
She came from the shadows.
