He tried to call Corinne’s cell again, his foot on the gas as he raced back to his house a few blocks away, but it went straight to voicemail once more.
 It was off.
 Shit, Sage’s going to think I just cut out on her after that. Could Audrey’s timing be any worse?
 Aiden had been buttoning his shirt as Sage ventured upstairs, his blood still sizzling from their encounter. The experience had left him wondering if he had dreamed the entire thing. After all, he had not been with anyone since Jamie had died.
  He had lost his wife, the only woman he had ever loved, to a prolonged bout with cancer.
 He and Jamie had met in college, a slow-moving romance between a boy and girl who happened upon each other in calculus.
 She had been studying to be a pharmacist, minoring in mathematics, a fact which became a joke between them for years to come.
 “What does one do with a minor in math?” he often teased her.
 “Who do you think balances our check books?” she would always shoot back.
 He loved her sunny smile and warmth but not long after Audrey was born, there was a change in her. She lost those loving beams and grew depressed, hiding away in their room as Aiden was left to care for the baby and his growing business.
 She refused to get medical care and it wasn’t until it was too late that Aiden learned why.
 “It’s breast cancer,” she told him flatly. “All the women in my family get it.”
 “You can’t possibly know that!” Aiden had exploded. “And whatever the hell it is, we need to treat it!”
 But she had adamantly refused, showing him the lumps in her breasts with his fingers and slowly, Aiden had been forced to accept the reality of what she was telling him.
 “I am not going to cut off my breasts, go on hormone replacements and become a non-woman,” she told him dully. “I saw my mother; my aunt and my grandmother go through it. It is not happening to me. I am going to live out my remaining days with my daughter and you, not tied to a hospital bed with radiation flowing through my veins.”
 “God dammit, Jamie, there are other options! We need to discuss them with a professional. Medicine has come a long way. You need to fight this for me and for Audrey!”
 “Medicine is not going to save me this time,” she whispered. “All it will do it prolong my life, making it worse and burden both you and Audrey. If I had it in me to do it, I would kill myself and spare you both the pain you are about to go through, but I can’t. You can’t ask me to live longer like this.”
 No amount of cajoling or tears could convince her, and she lived that way for five long, pain-filled years as both Aiden and Audrey were made to suffer in silence.
 Her passing had been a relief and while Aiden would never tell that to anyone, he knew that Audrey felt the same.
 No child should have to see her mother in such a state for so long.
 With Jamie sick and his siblings in the throes of a double murder, Audrey had almost gotten lost in the cracks.
 Until Jamie had died.
 Suddenly, father and daughter were alone and getting to know one another like they had never done before.
 And Aiden had been in for the shock of his life.
 The first telepathic message had startled him and initially, Aiden had been certain it was Xander playing games.
 But it had been his own daughter, reaching out to him within a nightmare.
 Daddy! Daddy help me!
 He sprinted up the stairs into her bedroom, throwing open the door with a crash, his heart hammering almost through his ribcage.
 He scooped up the thrashing but still sleeping child and pulled her out of the frantic slumber, kissing her head soothingly.
 “It’s all right, pumpkin, daddy’s here.”
 Her eyes fluttered awake and she stared at him with shocked grey eyes.
 “You heard me!” she gasped. “I called you and you heard me!”
 She had been six and at first, she used her telepathy to communicate often but as time passed, her attitude grew and her desire to speak with him so freely dissolved.
 Suddenly she only spoke silently when absolutely necessary.
 Which is why Aiden knowing he had to leave Sage’s immediately when Audrey’s message came through so clearly.
 Daddy! You need to come home! There’s a scary man looking for you here!
 “Shit, come on, Corinne, answer the fucking phone!” he roared as his car squealed onto Ogden Court.
 He barely managed to pull his keys from the ignition as he jumped from the car, his eyes looking around the front lawn wildly for signs of an intruder.
 Busting into the house, he startled Corinne who gaped at him.
 “Aiden!” she gasped. “What’s wrong?”
 “Where is Audrey?” he roared and her face paled.
 “Sh -she’s upstairs doing her homework – “
   He was already on the second-floor landing, throwing open the door where Audrey sat, her slate eyes huge with worry as she rocked back and forth on her bed.
 “What the hell is going on?” he demanded, rushing toward her, relief to find her unharmed. “What happened?”
 “What in God’s name is going on?” Corinne cried, appearing in the doorway. “Are you all right, Audrey?”
 She inhaled shakily and nodded.
 “Was someone here looking for me?” Aiden asked, turning to speak with Corinne. “And why is your cell phone off? I’ve been calling you!”
 “Why didn’t you just call the house?” she demanded, her eyebrows rising in confusion. “Yes, a man came here but he said he’d be back on Sunday.”
 “Who?” Aiden demanded again. “Who was it?”
 “He said his name is Drake Conway. He said he knew you when you were a child.”
 Aiden sank onto the bed beside his daughter, shaking his head.
 “I don’t know who that is,” he muttered. “Corinne, can you give me a minute with Audrey please?”
 The housekeeper opened her mouth to protest but seemed to change her mind.
 “Of course,” she muttered, closing the door. Before she did, she cast them both a strange look again.
 Aiden turned to his daughter.
 “What are you so afraid of? What did the man say to you?”
 She stared up at him, her eyes still afraid.
 “Dad, he heard my thoughts,” she whispered. “And he spoke back to me just like you do.”
 A bolt of fear flooded through him and he gazed at her.
 “Was it your Uncle Xander?” he asked urgently but Audrey shook her blonde head.
 “No, but…” she inhaled shakily. “He has the same eyes as you.”
 “What do you mean he has the same eyes?” Aiden growled, beginning to sense that he had been manipulated by his eight-year-old again.
 “I’ll show you,” she sighed.
 Aiden tensed as he watched her form melt away, her shapeshifting abilities taking hold. Before his eyes, his daughter became a man in his mid-sixties with almost all white hair, weaves of black intertwined.
 His frame resembled that of a football linebacker, broad shoulder and a military bearing with the short-cropped hair and strikingly cold green eyes.
 As Audrey had claimed, the irises seemed almost identical to his and Xander’s but that meant nothing.
 Lots of people had green eyes.
 Lots of people who come looking for you and your daughter claims are telepathic?
 He silenced the unreasonable voice in his head.
 “All right, pumpkin. I don’t know who this man is but he’s not a danger to you or me, all right?” he told her gently as she shifted back into her own small body.
 “There’s something not right about him, daddy,” she whispered. “Whatever he wants, don’t do it!”
 Aiden sighed deeply.
 This is her way of acting out because I went out tonight. She probably doesn’t even realize she’s making things up; she would have done anything to bring me back home. I wonder what Sage will say about this…if she ever talks to me again.
 “Audrey, I promise you have nothing to worry about,” he told her quietly. “Nothing is going to happen to you or me.”
 She threw her arms around his waist and held him close.
 “I’m sorry I told Dr. Pierce about us,” she whispered. “Do you suppose that’s why that man came here?”
 “Honey, whatever you told Sage is between you and her. She wouldn’t tell anyone what you talk about unless she was worried you were in danger, all right?”
 Audrey pulled back, her lids closing slightly as she glared at him.
 “Since when do you call Dr. Pierce, Sage?” she asked coldly, and Aiden wanted to groan aloud.
 Is there anyone in this world who is going to make my life easy? He wondered. The next day he had to deal with Sarah and Dr. Cruthers still.
 “Dr. Pierce and I are adults,” he said shortly, rising to his feet. “Adults get to call one another by their first names, remember?”
 She didn’t seem to fully accept his explanation but at least she seemed less concerned.
 “I’m going to bed now, pumpkin. I’ll say goodbye before I head to see Aunt Sarah tomorrow, all right?”
 She nodded as he leaned forward to give her a kiss on the forehead.
 He pivoted to leave when Audrey said his name.
 Turning back, his mouth fell open.
 She has shifted into Sage’s sultry frame, batting her eyes flirtatiously.
 “What do you think?” she asked in Audrey’s voice.
 “Stop that!” he yelled, and she fell back into her body, giggling.
 “Good night, daddy,” she called.
 “Good night,” he replied, walking into the hallway.
 He made his way back to the main floor where he had left his cell phone and keys on the way inside the house.
 There were no missed calls or texts and the realization that Sage had not even tried to reach out to him made him uneasy.
 Surely she can’t think I just left with no good reason after that, he thought, unlocking the iPhone to call out.
 As he stood in the doorway searching through his contacts to call her, a flash of headlights showed on the driveway.
 He stepped toward the door, phone pressed to his ear as he half-hoped it was Sage coming to check up on him.
 The cell rang as Aiden stood, watching the black SUV parked behind his BMW. He could not make out anyone through the tinted glass but something instinctive told him that it was not his new lover.
 “You have reached the personal voicemail of Dr. Sage Pierce. If this is an emergency, please hang up and call 9-1-1. Otherwise, kindly leave me a detailed message after the tone and I will return your call as soon as possible. Thank you and have a lovely day.” The tone beeped, and Aiden paused, his attention still focussed on the unfamiliar vehicle.
 “Sage, it’s Aiden Van Hoyt. I’m sorry I ran out of there, but Audrey needed me. Please know I wouldn’t have left you if it wasn’t urgent. I had an incredible time with you and I would still like to take you out to dinner. I don’t know about you but I’m starving.” He chuckled, a flush rising through him as he remembered how sweet she tasted. “Anyway, I, uh, I hope you get this soon and call me back.”
 He disconnected the call and slipped the iPhone back in his pocket.
 “Hey Corinne!”
 She appeared in the foyer.
 “What’s up?”
 “Is that the same car the guy was driving earlier today? The one who was looking for me?”
 Corinne peered out the window and nodded.
 “Yeah. I guess he’s back.”
 Aiden nodded slowly, his pulse quickening.
 Why is he just sitting there? He wondered, opening the front door. Audrey’s warnings were playing vividly in his head and as he stepped onto the porch, he felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise.
 On cue, his cell began to ring but he ignored it, waiting for the man inside to show himself.
 Daddy! Tell him to go away! Audrey screamed in his head. Tell him to leave!
 Get away from the window, Audrey. Daddy’s got this, he told her calmly, but he doubted very much that his daughter heeded his advice.
 Gingerly, he stepped off the patio and onto the flagstone pathway, his blood pressure rising.
 It is nothing. Maybe this is an old friend of Charles and Lisa, he reasoned but as he thought it, another voice played into his thoughts, one unfamiliar.
 I am not an old friend of your adopted parents.
 Aiden was suddenly paralyzed in place, his breaths shortening as the rear passenger door opened and a man stepped onto the driveway.
 It was the same man Audrey had shown him.
 Audrey, stay silent, he ordered her and gratefully for once, she listened.
 “Who are you?” Aiden demanded, forcing himself to stride forward. “What are you doing here?”
 “My name is Drake Conway, Aiden.”
 The men stood face to face and Aiden was filled with a peculiar sensation, one not unlike deja vu.
 “Where do I know you from?” he croaked, his eyes locking into the older man’s, but the answer seemed to be staring him in the face.
 “You recognize me?” Drake Conway asked, his voice catching slightly.
 Aiden snapped his face downward.
 “No,” he said flatly. “I don’t.”
 The man inhaled sharply.
 “I wouldn’t expect you to,” he said quietly. “You were very young when I last saw you, Aiden.”
 “What do you want, Mr. Conway?” Aiden asked. “You seem to have upset my daughter when you came earlier today.”
 “You were still basically an infant the last time I saw you,” Drake Conway continued as if he hadn’t spoken. “You and Xander had just had your first birthdays.”
 The words chilled Aiden and his breath grew shorter as he suddenly realized what the man was trying to tell him.
 “You’re our real father,” Aiden said dully. “Is that what you came here to say?”
 Drake swallowed openly and nodded.
 “Yes,” he whispered. “I have come to reunite all of us, so we can be a family again.”
 He stared at the older man, shaking his head dubiously.
 “This is a lot to process right now,” he said. “Why don’t you tell me where you’re staying, and I will be in touch with you when the time’s better. I have a lot of other things going on right now.”
 Drake hung his head.
 “I see,” he said slowly. “You’re still angry because you were left with the Van Hoyts. You have to know, Aiden that if I had any idea what kind of people they were, we would not have left you in their care. Xander has explained how rough your childhood was and why he did what he did.”
 Aiden scoffed, folding his arms over his chest, conflicting emotions whirling through him like a tornado.
 How many times had he and Xander dreamt about finding their real parents, about finding out where they came from and where they had gotten their abilities?
 But that was when they were children, young and idealistic. They had believed their parents had given them up for some noble cause and would come back for them, rescue them from the wretched Van Hoyts.
 Now he was learning that he and Xander had been deliberately placed with his abusive adopted parents.
 “You have a bit of an ego, don’t you?” he snapped. “I have a life of my own, Mr. Conway. Forgive me if I don’t jump for joy and throw my arms around you after thirty years. Like I said, this is a bad time for this family reunion.”
 “Even to meet your brothers?”
 “Xander and I are not close,” he snapped, his last nerve fraying with the discussion.
 “I’m not talking about Xander. You have two other brothers, both older.”
 Aiden’s blood ran cold and then hot. He was consumed with dizziness as he tried to make sense of what he was hearing.
 I can’t do this. I have to worry about Audrey and Sarah. I don’t have any time for more family. I just can’t.
 “I’m sorry,” Aiden said again, turning away. “I’m sorry I didn’t give you the answer you require.”
 “I am the one who’s sorry, Aiden.”
 He glanced over his shoulder and his jaw fell open in shock.
 Drake had a gun pointed at his back.
 “What the fuck are you doing?” Aiden roared, fury coursing through his veins. “Put that away!”
 His biological father shook his head.
 “I’m afraid I can’t Aiden,” he sighed. “I’m afraid I need you and your daughter and I’m not leaving here until you agree to help me.”