I was starting to stand.

  Payton’s eyes found me. “I’m not letting my sister anywhere near him because Cyclone is mine. He’s my son.”

  The court was pandemonium after that.

  Reporters were rushing from the room. I wasn’t sure, but I could swear we could still hear Quinn screaming. Fitz appeared at our side and cleared his throat. “You need to go.”

  “Right.” Matt stood up. “It’s probably not safe, huh?” But as he said it, he was dazed.

  I was dazed.

  Chrissy—I didn’t know what she was, but she seemed in a daze, too. I slipped my hand in hers and squeezed once. “Did you know?”

  “What?”

  Those dazed eyes blinked, looked at me, and I had a feeling she wasn’t seeing me.

  I nodded toward the stand, where Payton still was sitting, but the prosecution lawyers had surrounded her. “Cyclone. Her revelation. Did you know?”

  “I—” Her mouth opened. Her lips did a goldfish impersonation, and she closed them. “I didn’t know. I had no idea. I—she was never going to turn on us. I could see it now. I’d been worried. I had…”

  I frowned. What was my mom talking about?

  “Mom?” I edged closer to her.

  I cocked an eyebrow. She was saying that like it was a revelation to her.

  “I thought…” She didn’t finish.

  Fitz came up behind her, herding her forcibly, and me with them, to the side door and out. Some of the court guards had fallen in line to help, since we’d only been allowed a certain number of men in the court. We were led out, down a hallway, and we swept through a side exit. There was a handicap ramp, which we hurried down, and then we climbed into the waiting vehicles. Two SUVs today. Once inside, Fitz got into the front seat but turned around to us.

  “I got the call moments ago.”

  I nodded. “About Payton?”

  He frowned. “From Kash.”

  Matt jerked forward. “What?”

  I was experiencing déjà vu from all the bombs being dropped, but my whole body grew warm. It was also riddled with tension because there were too many factors happening right now. I couldn’t keep up.

  Chrissy, though, had jerked out of her glazed-over state. “Chase is with his brother?” she asked calmly.

  Fitz paused, growing eerily still, as he took in my mom and what she had just said. His eyelids dipped low, matching his tone. “Yeah. They’re talking to the FBI.”

  “Good.” Chrissy nodded, sitting back. She turned to the window, folded her arms over herself, and nodded again. “Good. It’s done then.” Her words were soft, as if something monumental had happened and we all escaped unscathed. A smattering of tears fell to her chest, but she didn’t wipe them away. She let them fall, and I was experiencing, yet again, one more weird, alternate-reality feeling.

  It’s done? What was done?

  “What are you talking about?” My voice broke. What was going on here?

  “Kash brought his brother back to the FBI, where he’s agreed to actively cooperate and assist in their search for Calhoun now. In exchange, no charges will be brought against Kash, and your father has also been released from custody,” Fitz explained.

  “I was supposed to turn on my child.”

  I reeled. What?

  Chrissy’s head was turned toward the window, and she sounded like she was speaking from far away. “They underestimated a mother’s love. Payton. Me.” She looked at me, her eyes flashing, and they were hard. She grasped my hand and squeezed. “You think I don’t remember what they did to me. I do. I did. I remembered every second of that hell, until Chase got to me.”

  She stopped, her bottom lip trembling before she smoothed it out.

  “They were trying to brainwash me. I was supposed to come back, testify to back up everything Payton was supposed to say. Her word. My word. Quinn would’ve gotten off, and I have no idea what they would’ve tried to do to you, but it’s all over. Chase got to me, he helped me.

  “After we were found, I had to get to Payton. Every time I cornered her, someone would come into the room or she’d leave. The few times I did get a word with her, she never gave me any indication what she was planning on doing. I was so worried today, but if she had said what she was supposed to say, I would’ve had the district attorney call me as a witness. I would’ve testified that everything she said was a lie, that I was kidnapped, that they tried to brainwash me. I would’ve testified that they should’ve never fucked with a mother.”

  She stopped, turning back to the window, and her next words were so soft. “And if anyone had come for my baby, I would’ve killed them.”

  Chills went down my spine.

  She meant every word.

  FIFTY-SIX

  Kash

  It was four thirty in the morning when the feds finally let me go.

  I was now walking inside the Chesapeake, feeling as if it’d been a full month since I was here last, when it had only been a day. I’d gone a few steps before Peter came from the kitchen, his morning coffee already in one hand and the morning paper in the other.

  He wasn’t dressed for the office, but he wasn’t dressed for bed.

  Peter sipped his coffee. “Want some?”

  I shook my head. “I want to try and crash with Bailey for a bit.”

  “Then let’s get to it.”

  “No.”

  He frowned. “No?”

  “No. I know what happened in court yesterday and I’m done. Family meeting. Everyone can know then, except Cyclone and Seraphina, but they should know some of it. No more secrets, Peter.”

  His lips thinned.

  I doubled down. “No more secrets, not about this.”

  He sighed. “Fine.”

  I did grin. “I hear congratulations are in order. You have a new baby mama.”

  He snorted, but I could see a small flush appearing.

  He rolled his eyes. “I have my faults, and one of those was women. I am making amends this year, but I won’t apologize for keeping Cyclone’s mother a secret. She was in and out of hospitals almost every other month, and she was bad. She got so bad, Kash. So low. She tried to kill herself eight times. Eight. Times.” He let out a long sigh. “We didn’t keep it a secret to be malicious. We thought we were doing the right thing.”

  “You thought,” I corrected him.

  “What?”

  “Quinn didn’t think. She was setting you up. But you thought you were doing the right thing. It’s a difference that needs to be acknowledged. You were trying to be a good father at that moment,” I said, before another thought hit me. “When are you going to tell Cyclone?”

  “As soon as he wakes up. Figured that’s best, so he doesn’t hear it from someone else.” His response was swift. He’d already thought long and hard about it. “Like you said, no more secrets. I do worry what this will do for Seraphina, finding out she’s the only child from Quinn now.”

  “I’m worried what Bailey’s feeling, knowing that you chose to keep her out when you brought Cyclone in.”

  “That’s not…” But he stopped, his mouth gaping. A groan came from him. “I didn’t even think about that.” A pause. He shook his head. “But it’s different. The circumstances were different.”

  “Yeah, and a part of that genius brain of hers will know that. She’ll understand it. But the daughter in her might not feel the same.”

  “What do you suggest I do?”

  I shrugged, a full yawn working its way out of me. “Just be honest. Truth might hurt, but in the long run it’s always what heals, too.”

  He nodded, sipping more of his coffee before nodding at me. “Go, Kash. We can talk about the rest with the family later. Be with your woman, because I know you’re one of those on that same list, too. She’ll be a lot happier once you walk into that room.”

  “’Night, old man.” I threw him a quick grin.

  He smiled. “’Morning, son.”

  FIFTY-SEVEN

  Bailey

  The next morning, Chrissy took center stage first, sitting on the couch in Peter’s study, surrounded by all of us.

  For some reason it felt more intimate, more private. Peter was sitting next to her, holding her hand, and Seraphina was to her left, nestled between her and Marie.

  Everyone was silent as Chrissy spoke, focusing her attention on me. “When they took me, I didn’t know what was happening. They told me later what they made you see, but I didn’t really understand it. Not until they showed me a videotape.”

  Jesus.

  I had to stand. I couldn’t do this while I was sitting.

  Kash caught me, but he only brought my back to his chest and wrapped an arm around my front. I leaned back on him.

  “I saw what you saw and I was horrified. Bailey.” Her voice broke, a hand going to her chest. Seraphina scooted closer, wrapping both her arms around Chrissy’s free one. Peter closed his eyes, his head hanging down. He had an arm resting on the couch behind Chrissy.

  “When I think about what you must’ve thought, what you went through…” Her voice trembled before she paused and came back clearer. The emotion was tucked back. “Never again, Bailey. Never again. I won’t let it.”

  “And when Chase got you?” The question came from the side, from where Matt was leaning back against one of the bookshelves.

  “Who’s Chase?” Cyclone asked, perched on Payton’s lap on one of the other chairs. Peter had told him and Seraphina about the final family secret that was revealed in court yesterday. It wasn’t done in a family meeting setting, but more privately. I wasn’t there, but I heard about it. Seraphina had gasped, then started crying. Cyclone hadn’t reacted.

  Chrissy had been in the hallway, and she’s the one who told me about it. “He didn’t say anything. What do you think that means?”

  “I think he just needs to process it. A quick reaction wouldn’t be normal. I think this is normal.” And seeing him firmly huddling on his real mother’s lap, it seemed maybe I was right.

  Payton had stress lines all over her face. Her eyes were panicky, like if she made the wrong move, Cyclone would leap from her lap and declare her a horrible mother or something. She had the whole deer-in-headlights look, and it wasn’t going away. I was half expecting to see her sweating buckets within an hour.

  Peter turned to Kash, who tensed behind me, a slight curse under his breath.

  Peter grinned. “You said no more secrets.”

  “He’s not a part of this.”

  Matt gestured to the couch. “Thinking he is, since he’s the one who saved my next stepmother.”

  Peter’s head whipped over. “Matthew.”

  Matt shrugged. “What?” He grinned. “No more secrets, Dad.”

  Seraphina sat even further upright. Her arms dropped from around Chrissy’s arm, but they were still linked around her hands. “Wait. What?” She looked between Chrissy and Peter. “You two?”

  Cyclone snorted. “Even I knew that much, and I’m ten and three-quarters.” He looked at Kash. “Who’s Chase?”

  I drew in a deep breath.

  Kash said, “He’s my brother.”

  Marie sucked in another breath.

  Theresa, who was also in our meeting but had been quiet and in the background, muttered.

  “You have a brother?”

  All eyes went to Seraphina, who was no longer holding on to Chrissy at all. Her hands were resting on her own legs. She had scooted to the edge of the couch. Her gaze was firmly latched onto Kash. “Like a real brother?”

  “What’s that mean for me and Matt?”

  Kash’s eyes swung to Cyclone, then back to Seraphina. “I have a brother. A twin, actually.”

  Seraphina’s mouth fell open.

  “You do?”

  “Madre de Dios.” That was Marie.

  Chrissy coughed, clearing her voice. “Kash’s brother is the one who rescued me from the men that had taken me. He, uh, he helped me remember things.” She looked at me again, her eyes piercing. “He showed me a video of you.”

  My heart skipped a beat. I’d been holding on to Kash’s arm in front of me, but now my fingers sank tight into him. “What videos?”

  “You at my funeral.”

  Another skip.

  “You at some ceremony at your school. You had a dress on that I knew you hated wearing.” She smiled, but her eyes were so sad.

  Skip.

  “You at a bar with a couple of people.”

  I was clinging to Kash’s arm, and my knees were starting to knock against each other.

  “At your school. In your library. At other times you were with Kash, with your guards. There were more pictures. With Matt. None here. I don’t think he could get close enough for a long-distance lens.” Her head folded down.

  That’s when I saw she was clinging to Peter’s other hand in her lap.

  “I saw in the pictures as you were coming back to life. I was glad, Bailey. I was thankful.” Unshed tears lined the bottom of her eyelids. She swallowed. “You didn’t let him win. I was proud of you. Damn proud.”

  I couldn’t stand.

  My knees gave away.

  Kash caught me, an arm sliding around my waist, and no one could see, but he was holding me up.

  “Those videos and those pictures helped me, too. He didn’t win with me, either.”

  But it was costing her to say these words.

  For a moment, no one said a word.

  “So you’re saying there’s two of you?” Cyclone was back on the Chase thing. He had scooted further up on Payton’s lap so he was standing, and more leaning back against where she was sitting. “Are you him right now? Are you guys that identical?”

  Kash chuckled.

  The tension broke in the room.

  A few laughed.

  “No, I’m not him.” He squeezed me, rocking me gently from side to side. “Bailey would know. She did know.”

  “Hold up again.” Seraphina had a hand in the air, and she was standing in front of the couch. “You’ve met him?”

  Her question was directed toward me.

  I nodded. “I did.” I did not tell her the circumstances.

  “Wha—Huh?” She gaped again, rotating to Cyclone and back to me, and then to Peter. “Not fair! We don’t know anything that’s going on. Chrissy’s dead, then she’s alive. Payton is actually Cyclone’s mother. Kash has a twin brother. What about me? Do I have a secret mother, too?”

  Oh.

  Oh, no.

  The hope in that last sentence broke me.

  I started to pull away from Kash, but he held me back. “They need to do this. Not us,” he murmured in my ear.

  Peter edged from his couch, and he knelt in front of Sera- phina. He took her hands in his. “Quinn is your mother, Ser,” he whispered, though all of us could hear.

  “But…” Her head folded even farther down, her chin resting against her chest.

  Peter scooted all the way up to her, taking her gently into his arms. She went with him, her hands still in fists as her arms wrapped around his neck. “What’s wrong with me? Why is it always me?”

  I strained to get free.

  Kash kept me back.

  I knew he was right, but I just wanted to grab my sister, hold her, say anything I needed to say to take away what she was feeling, and I had no idea what she was feeling. I just knew she was hurting, and it was a hurt that could change a person.

  “Honey.” Peter eased back, smoothing the hair down the sides of Seraphina’s face. He framed her face in his hands. “Nothing is wrong with you. Nothing. You know why your mother was how she was with you?”

  “Why?” A hiccup-sob.

  “Because you were what Quinn knew she needed to be. You’re kind. You’re loving. You got all the goodness from her and from me. They mixed together and made you.”

  “Dad.” But she grinned.

  He grinned, too. “It’s true.”

  “You didn’t get a crazy brain, Ser. We might be smart, but sometimes it sucks. Do you realize how hard it is to shut down this thing?” Cyclone pointed to his own brain, looking and sounding frustrated.

  It worked. Seraphina’s grin got a little bigger. “I’m not smart like you guys.” She looked to Cyclone, me, and finally back to Peter.

  “Honey. Sweetheart.” Chrissy leaned forward, touching Seraphina’s arm. “Take it from someone who lived with one of those ‘crazy smart’ brains, you have something they don’t have.” Chrissy’s gaze swept up, spotting me before she looked back to my sister. “I’ve seen what you can do. You have a genius that you’ve not even shared with the world. Do they know?”

  Seraphina’s face got red, and real quick. “No.” Her head ducked down again.

  Peter cast a questioning look at Chrissy, who made a show of pressing her lips closed.

  “I know!”

  “Cy!” That was Seraphina.

  “I won’t say anything. I mean, I won’t tell them to look in your drawing pad, because then, you know, they’d know.”

  Matt suppressed a snort.

  Marie and Theresa were both fighting back grins.

  Kash buried his face into the back of my neck, his shoulders moving up and down.

  “Smooth, Cyclone.” I gave him a thumbs-up.

  His grin stretched. The little shit knew exactly what he just did.

  Seraphina was now beet red. “Cyclone!”

  “What? I didn’t say a word.”

  “Well…” Peter hugged his daughter once more before moving to rest his back against the couch, next to Chrissy’s legs. “Whatever is in your drawing pads, I’ll be eager to see when you choose to share with the family.”

  Seraphina and Cyclone had more questions about Chase, about when they would meet him. Kash was firm, that it wouldn’t be until much later—much, much later. The questions weren’t as quick with Chrissy, about what she went through. It seemed as if they knew to tread gently, as if they were scared of what question would unearth a new minefield.

  “Why didn’t you say anything?” Cyclone asked.

  It took a second before someone clued in.

  He was staring at Chrissy. Then I caught a backward glance over his shoulder to Payton, and I figured it out first.

  “You know what happened at the court yesterday?”