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I gasped at the news. Isaac reached over and pulled out another barstool and then sat down, stunned.
“Times were very different back then,” Father explained. “Niccolò Sr was involved in some nasty shit. Think Damien, only older, wiser, and triple the screws loose. Nicco—well, I’ll just call him Nicholas to make it less confusing—was his only heir. He met this girl… Lily.”
“Samara’s mother,” I whispered.
“Yes. Lily knew who Nicholas was. What he was. No matter how hard they fought to stay away from each other it was impossible. They were inseparable. Long story short, they ran off and got married, and then Lily ended up pregnant.”
“What happened?” asked Isaac.
“Niccolò refused his grandchild. Demanded the baby be aborted. Nicholas and Lily refused.” Father paused long enough to take an even bigger swallow of booze. “They ran. Escaped the Valley and changed their identities, the whole shebang. They survived five long years under the radar before Niccolò’s men tracked them down. To protect them, Nicholas left and told Lily to take Samara and run, that it was too dangerous for them to stay together. He came back and faced his father, just to die in the end.”
“That doesn’t make sense though,” spouted Isaac. “If Samara’s father was the only heir, then how did you come into power? Are you saying you’re related to them, that your Samara’s long lost fucking uncle or something?”
My stomach dropped at the prospect.Oh, fuck. I hadn’t considered that until now.
Jesus Christ. Did I fall in love and lose my virginity to my fucking cousin?
And my brothers…Fuck.
Suddenly I felt sick.
“No,” Father replied sternly, which made me blow out a choked, relieved breath. “I amnotSamara’s uncle. Before Nicholas died, he told me it was his intention to kill his father, even if it meant him dying too. He asked that in the result of his death, for the torch to get passed over to me. He asked me to check in on Lily and Samara and make sure they were okay. That Samara was living a happy, healthy life outside of the Valley, away from this life. I did for a while. I made sure they were safe.”
Father paused for a long moment and released a shaky breath before scrubbing a hand down his battered face.
“The issue is that I stopped doing it years ago.” His body shook as he breathed in deeply. “I promised to keep them safe, and I broke it. Karma is running its course, boys. Now she’s here and everything has fallen to shit ever since.”
“Dad…” I started, my heart squeezing, breaking for him as I surveyed the tears forming in his eyes. It made sense now, the reason why he’d been so flustered and unstable. His guilt was practically eating him alive. “You could’ve just told us that from the start. The shit at the club. Going against your wishes and kidnapping Jace. All of that could’ve been avoided if you’d just told us the truth.”
“Maybe you’re right,” he said, nodding as he thought it over. “But the past is something I’m not particularly fond of reliving. In my personal opinion, there are some skeletons that are just better off left buried in the closet.”
“None of that matters now,” spouted Isaac, who scoffed and rolled his eyes. “We get it—you fucked up. Own that fucking shit. Pick yourself up and redeem yourself. You’re not fighting this battle alone, so from this point forward and for the sake of our trust, you need to stop acting like you are. Is that too damn much to ask for? Can you juststopfucking lying to us?”
“Isaac’s right, Dad. Shit’s gotten too far out of control and the only way we’re gonna get through this is for us to start working together as a team again.”
“We can start with Ginger,” Isaac firmly demanded. “She needs to go. She can’t stay here anymore.”
“I know she can’t,” Father agreed, bobbing his head. “I just don’t know where to send her. She can’t go to Finn’s nor back to her place, and it’s too dangerous to send her back to the airport. I thought about temporarily housing her with Samara, but we can’t exactly smuggle Ginger inside the academy without the guards noticing. Other than us, Finn, your brother, and now Samara, nobody knows I’ve been guarding her, not even the crew.”
“Fuck.” Isaac blew out an exasperated breath and irritably threw up his hands. “There has to besomewhereshe can go.”
“We’ll figure it out. But first, we need an update on what’s going down with Damien and the Bling Brothers. Have you heard anything from Griffin?” I asked, turning to my father.
He sighed and shook his head. “No, I haven’t talked to him since he called to tell me Cindy was gone. I’ve already reached out to him, but you have to understand how hazardous his situation is. Contact is limited. I’ve gone days, sometimes weeks where I haven’t seen or heard a word from him.”
“So, in other words,” Isaac voiced with a petulant smirk. “He’s unreliable.”
“What about Jace?” I asked. Father’s brows lifted then, as did Isaac’s.
“Jace attacked his father and has just recently been released after being imprisoned for over a week with hardly any food. I doubt he’ll have much info to give us.”
“He called Samara tonight,” Isaac said suddenly, before I had time to process the whole Jace attacking his father thing. “He told her about Cindy. If he knows about that then he might know something about the triplets. Maybe Griffin said something to him.”
“It wouldn’t hurt to try,” I said as I took in the skeptical look on Father’s face.
Then his eyes went distant, like he’d become lost in some intensely deep thought.
“Do it,” he said a moment later, his eyes darting up to meet with mine. “See what info he has and then send him to track down Phantom and Samara. We need to know they’re okay. Finn’s indisposed and thanks to your brother’s reckless handiwork,” he said with a deep, furious growl, “we’re all stuck here until they come back.”
