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She let me turn her into the devil when she was the saint, and all so I could have whatever it was I was chasing after.
A fool’s dream.
A naïve man’s thoughts.
I was wrong.
My eyes fall on the remote again, so I pick it up and press play, fast-forwarding through a few clips I will be watching on repeat later, until I find a place to pause.
Victoria sits on a brown suede couch, Zoey tucked into her side, a little blanket draped around her, as they sleep.
There they are.
My baby.
My girls.
My sleeping beauties.
Fire builds in my gut, and I toss the remote to the ground, charging for my door and tear it open.
I freeze in the doorway when Maddoc, Raven, and Royce are still standing right there, waiting for me.
Royce nods his chin. “Now we find her?”
“Now we find her.”Chapter 33Captain“How the fuck can we not find her?” Maddoc glares.
“It’s been three days, how far could she get?”
“China,” Royce scoffs. “Antarctica. Fuckin’ Transylvania.”
I swing my scowl to him.
“Just sayin’.” He shrugs.
Raven sits forward. “You think she’d go out to Maria’s, sleep on the property or whatever?”
“Doubt it,” he says, pushing to his feet. “Nothin’ there but ash and flowers.”
“Flowers?” Maddoc frowns.
He nods, looking between us. “Them and that wall’s the only thing that didn’t go down in flames.”
“What wall?”
“You know.” He lifts his hands, looking up as he draws it in the air. “Big ugly thing, leaves and shit all over it.”
I yank my phone from my pocket, scrolling through old photos until I get to the ones my PI sent me of Maria’s property, before I had ever seen it. I pull up the one that shows the garden, shoving it toward him.
“Yeah, those flow—” he cuts himself off, his hand wrapping around my wrist and bringing it closer. “Where’s the wall?”
“There was no wall.” I shake him off, my frown moving from Maddoc to him. “When she was little, Donley Graven kept her locked in a studio, a garden outside the doors, and stone wall surrounding it, covered in thorns and ivy.”
Maddoc frowns. “Donley Graven got a bullet to the back of the head months ago, he’s six feet under and Collins Graven took off to Europe. His every move is tracked, hasn’t looked back since.”
Raven’s hands slide along her belly, tension in her eyes. “Yeah, but knowing about the wall and considering everything else, how I had their shit burnt, the fire screams Graven to me.”
“She might have different enemies, Raven. She ended up here, she didn’t start here.”
“Didn’t she?” she challenges. “You said she was born here and kept locked away.”
“Yeah, but she had no human contact then, not until Mero—” I cut myself off. “Wait. She did talk to one person there.”
“Who?” she asks.
Royce flies from his seat right then. “Incoming.”
We jerk around to spot a black car rolling up the driveway.
Nobody comes down this road.
Maddoc pushes Raven behind him, but she shoves him, gripping his arm to see best she can.
The door opens and none other than Connor fucking Perkins, our old principal, our father’s once friend, and my biological father, steps out.
What the fuck?
I’m down the porch steps, freezing him in his before he has a chance to close the door behind him.
“The fuck are you doing here? You were told to leave this place.”
“Where is she?” he rushes out, ignoring me completely.
Anger builds in my gut and I move closer. “You are not seeing my daughter.”
“Not her, Captain. Victoria.” He shocks me.
My muscles grow stiff.
Royce pushes forward, eerily slow. “Why you care?”
Perkins’ shoulders fall, his eyes moving across us. “You sent her away like you sent me away, didn’t you?”
Maddoc pushes forward. “Why wouldn’t we?”
Perkins’ head tugs back, his eyes flying between ours. “Maybe I made a mistake. I guess I thought...” He closes his mouth, nodding. “Never mind.”
“No, no, no.” Royce slips by him, yanking the keys from his hand, putting them in his pocket. “Say what you came to say. Why do you care about a poor little group home girl?”
“I think she’s in danger,” he says.
My gut twists. “Why?”
“I went to Maria’s. It’s gone.”
“We know,” I snap. “If that’s all, you can go now.”
His mouth falls open the slightest bit, and he shakes his head, eyeing me. “Was I wrong to believe Victoria means more to you than she does?”
My jaw tics, but I give him nothing.
“Did she explain anything to you?” he asks. “Why she came?”
“Let’s pretend she didn’t,” Royce snaps. “Fill us in, Perkins. Now.”
“All right.” He swallows with a nod. “I guess I’ll start at the beginning,” he says.
“Victoria was born but never held, stolen from her mother, and taken back to the Graven Estate,” he begins. “She was raised but never spoken to, fed and clothed, but left alone.”
All shit I already know but is news to my family, so I let him continue.
