Page 31 of Barinov

Chapter 8

CADE

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5 days since Bella’s kidnapping.

“Jack,” I repeat, pocketing my phone, “is Bella’s uncle.”

“The hell he is,” Roman snaps, shaking his head. “Izzy and I never had siblings.”

“Not her uncle by blood,” I correct, tracing the mangled family tree in the air. “Jack was married to Bella’s first foster mother’s sister, Claire. He’s the one who took Bella from the hospital the day her biological mother passed. Jack was how she ended up in Arkansas.”

The words taste wrong in my mouth. A sick, burning poison I’ve been carrying without knowing it.

Jack. Luca.

All the nasty things he said about Bella. The way he touched her life. The poems born from his twisted obsession. All about his damn niece.

“Fuck. It all makes sense,” Tex cuts in quickly. “Every single time you came around, Jack suddenly had somewhere else he needed to be.”

“To keep the two of you from ever being in the same room,” I add, the migraine growing at a rapid speed.

Lex lets out a harsh scoff. “Bet the fucker didn’t even go fishing with Hen—”

“So, he’s the one who took her from me?” Roman cuts him off, his voice rising as both fists bang into the table.

Red blooms through his white button down. I watch, frozen in place as his chin starts to fall to his chest. He’s pushing too far.

Sabine must sense the change in him as well because she’s already up. Her heels click on the hardwood as she hurries off into the kitchen.

“Roman?” I whisper, gently shaking his arm.

He coughs and lifts his head. “He l-lied to me,” he stutters. “For years he had me believing he was out looking all while he was hiding her away from me.”

I just nod because there’s nothing any of us can do right now to soften this blow.

Nate grabs a pen and a notepad out of his bag. “How did you and Luca meet?”

“The Obsidian,” Roman replies, a sharp wince twisting his face when he tries to rotate in his chair. “Well technically we met at Northvale.” He cuts a quick, heavy glance in Lex’s parents’ direction. “At the Red Hour.”

“Luca was a Hollow King?” Lex asks, turning toward his dad who is now tense as he leans against the wall of glass overlooking the city.

Roman shakes his head. “He never made it past round one.”

Daniel shoves off the window, striding toward the table until his body shadows Roman’s. “How the hell do I not remember him then?”

“You wouldn’t,” Roman answers, glancing up. “You were getting ready for your fight. By the time you headed to the ring, Luca had fought, suffered an embarrassing loss to Miro, and fled. Our paths didn’t cross again until he began working for me at The Obsidian.”

“Yeah but I’ve been there. Multiple times,” Daniel says, arms crossed and looking down at Roman. “Hell, you and I started the casino nights underneath it at Atrum. If he was working there, I would’ve seen him.”

Roman shakes his head again. “It was a few weeks after our falling out.”

They stare at each other for a beat in silence before Daniel exhales through his nose, his shoulders dropping. He nods once and takes a step back.

“So,” Nate says. His pen flies across the paper, the scratch-scratch-scratch the only sound in the room. “When did he actually start working for you?”

“Not long after my wedding in Rome. Said he needed some extra cash. Cop salary sucked, you know how it goes.”