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“And if he finds out before that happens? Before we get enough information to turn the other players against him?”
Theo snorts a humorless laugh. “Then we’re fucked.”
Chapter 3
“Caleb!”
I scream the name, the word tearing from my throat like it’s made of glass.
I don’t know where he is. I can’t see him. The shapeless forms of people move through the space around me, but none of them seem to notice me.
Of course they don’t.
I’m so little. So insignificant.
So fucking helpless.
“LaLa!” A small voice cries out from somewhere in the distance, panicked and tearful. “LaLa!”
“Caleb!”
My mouth forms the word again, but this time, the sound seems to get sucked from my lips as if I’m screaming into a vacuum.
He can’t hear me. And if he can’t hear me, how will he find me? How will I find him?
The raggedy little stuffed elephant in my hands is being crushed into an almost unrecognizable shape as I grip it tighter and tighter. It doesn’t matter, not really. It’s just a thing. An old toy.
But it’s all I have left of my brother.
I jerk awake, my limbs flailing automatically as if I’m trying to stop myself from falling.
“Hey, Rose. It’s okay. It’s okay. I’m right here.”
The soothing voice penetrates the fog in my mind, cutting through the remnants of the dream that cling to my memories. As my eyes adjust to the darkness and I suck in a deep breath, I feel Theo’s arms come around me, drawing me against the warmth of his body.
I realize with a flash of chagrin that there’s a good chance I woke him up with an elbow to the ribs or something—yet still, he’s pulling me closer, not pushing me away.
Forcing a slow exhale through my nose, I drag in another lungful of air, letting the slow in-out rhythm soothe me as my pulse slowly drops back to normal.
“Bad dream?” Theo murmurs, his face buried in my hair and his breath brushing over my ear.
I swallow, trying to sort through the fragmented pieces in my mind. “Yeah. About… about my brother. Caleb, I think his name is. I don’t know if Marcus told you, but he found that out yesterday.”
“Yeah, he did.” I can feel him nod. “Ryland and I have been helping with that search in between digging around for something on Luca. What was your dream about?”
I burrow deeper into his embrace before I answer, letting the warmth of his body seep into my own.
“I don’t know, exactly. I had a dream like this once before, except this time I kept saying his name. It’s all really vague and confusing, but I think it’s some pieced together scrap of memory from when I was a kid. I’m holding an elephant—a toy one—and I’m looking for Caleb. Trying to find him.” Craning my neck a little, I look up at Theo’s face in the dark. “Do you have a lot of memories from when you were little? Like before you turned five?”
His shadowy features shift as he frowns in thought. “Yeah, some. I remember my mom’s birthday, the year my dad decided to surprise her with a trip to Kauai. And I remember a girl I had a crush on in my kindergarten class.” He grins down at me, his eyes glinting softly in the low light coming through the window. “Don’t worry. I didn’t like her nearly as much as I like you.”
I roll my eyes, elbowing him on purpose this time and drawing a chuckle from him. As ridiculous as it is, a small flare of jealousy rises up inside me, although there’s no way I’ll admit that to Theo. It’s insane to be jealous of a kindergartner, but sanity has never really played a large part in how I feel about these men.
“Why do you ask?” Theo adds, rolling me over onto my back and propping himself up on one elbow so he can look down at me. He keeps our bodies pressed tightly together, one of his legs tangled with mine, and I’m glad he didn’t let too much space open up between us.
“I dunno.” I shrug, tugging my bottom lip between my teeth. “I guess I just feel like I should remember more of that time in my life, you know? Especially since it seems like such an important time. If I really do have a brother, and we somehow got separated, you’d think that would be the kind of thing I’d remember forever.”
“Yeah, I see what you mean. You don’t remember any of it?”
