“This air BNB is nice. Why did I think those things were old and run down?” she asked around a spoonful of granola.
Tillie bounced Micaela on her lap softly, tossing her fruit around in her bowl.
“You ok?” I asked her, taking a small bite out of my pancake. Scarlet had to go to work early this morning so we ordered breakfast online. Buttermilk pancakes, fresh fruit, crème fraiche, and warm chocolate milk. Spiked with whiskey. I was starting to worry about Tate’s alcohol intake.
Tillie looked at me. “Not really. We haven’t talked much—”
“—I know, I’m sorry. There’s just so much going on.” I got to my feet and rounded the table. “God, she looks so much like Nate.”
Tillie chuckled, a small smile coming to her face making her deep dimple pop. “She does, right?”
“Can I hold her?”
“Of course!” Tillie turned and handed her to me.
“Wow! She’s heavier than she looks!”
“That, is like her mama,” Tillie chuckled back.
“Lies,” I whispered against her small head that smelled of milky soap suds.
I went back to my seat and continued to slowly rock her with one hand and pick my food with the other. “So when you want to tell me anything, you can, Tillie. We’re your friends. Ok?”
Tate agreed beside me. “Yes, we’re your friends, but while we’re on the friend thing, um, about Nate…”
Tillie shook her head, cutting Tate off. “Don’t. It’s okay, Tate, and he’s all yours. I just hope he won’t hate me all of her life, if you know what I mean.”
“He’ll come around.” I looked up at her. “I know him, and he’ll come around.” I don’t bother to brush off her giving Tate the green flag on Nate, because I didn’t want to hurt Tate.
“No, nope. I won’t go there again,” Tate said.
“So anyway.” Tillie shuffled in her seat. “I’m ready to spill everything. So the night at the cabin, after Nate and I had, you know, he went downstairs to make us something to eat. I got up to wander around the room to burn time and ended up finding myself in the closet, where I found a small lock box. I opened it and all these photos were in there—that I still have. So I came across this one, and it was a woman. Young, tender, beautiful. She had long blonde hair and gentle but mischievous eyes. She was extremely young. There was a man standing beside her, double her size with his arm draped around her shoulder. There was something about the woman that drew me to her. She felt—familiar. In the photo, she was visibly pregnant, and I turned it over to see if there were any names on the back, and there was.” She took a deep breath. “It said Katsia Steprum—pregnant with expected due date: November 18th. I remember just… being rooted to the ground. I couldn’t move and I couldn’t think, and I didn’t know why. So her expected due date was my birthday? I mean, how many times do babies come on their due date…”
“Jesus…” I whispered, chills breaking out over my skin. “Keep going.”
“So I put the rest of the photos into my back pocket and waited on the bed for Nate to get back to ask him about the photo I found. When he came back in, carrying two plates filled with food, his eyes dropped to the photo that was in my hand and then he cussed, his head tilting up to the ceiling…
“Fuck.” Nate walked farther into the bedroom and kicked the door closed so hard a photo fell from the wall and smashed.
“Is this? Has this got something to do with me?” I asked him, lifting my hand that held the image.
He put the plates on the bedside table and took a seat beside me on the edge of the bed. The blankets were still ruffled from our two-hour binge fest, and I wore nothing but his shirt with my hair wild all over the top of my head, but in this moment—none of the feelings I was feeling earlier mattered. I needed to know about this image and why I was so drawn to it.
He looked back at me and licked his bottom lip. “Yes.”
“Yes—what?”
“Yes, that is you, and yes, that bitch is your mom.”
“What!” I shot off the bed and threw the photo away like it had caught on fire. “Nope. No way!”
Nate stood up and readjusted himself through his grey sweats. His skin still glistened. “Yes way, can we do this tomorrow?”
“So yeah. We didn’t do it tomorrow, I urged him for answers until we had a huge fight— ”
“—I remembered that fight. I could hear you both from upstairs.”
Tillie nodded. “Yep. Then I texted Peyton to see if she knew—which she did, of course.” Tillie wiped the tears from her face. “Turns out, Katsia had both of us and gave both of us to the same family. Why? I don’t know. My adoptive mom was a junkie and my dad used to beat me—and Peyton. I don’t know the depths of why, and the story which centers around her, but—”
“Holy fuck, Katsia is your mom. How old was she when she had you and Peyton?”
Tillie laughed. “Huh, very fucking young. Must have been thirteen with Peyton and around seventeen or sixteen with me. I don’t know what the age gap with Peyton and Jase is, but I know they’re not born in the same year.”
“What about the man in the photo? Do you know who that was?” I asked, pushing my plate away. I had suddenly lost my appetite.
Tillie shook her head. “Something else I haven’t gotten to the bottom of yet, either!”
“Well, this is a little messed up. So what happened and how did you get to Perdita?”
Tillie leaned into her chair and tucked a loose strand of faded pink hair behind her ear.
“She came for me, and I don’t know why. I still don’t. I was almost home and a white van pulled up and threw me inside and then I woke up in Perdita. She didn’t know I was pregnant at the time, but when she found out, it only made her more interested,” Tillie paused. “Just for the record, worst mother ever.”
“Bet mine could give her a run for her money.”
“And mine,” Tate mumbled, taking a sip of her orange juice.
“So where is Peyton?” I pondered aloud.
“She’s with The Circle,” Tillie let out bitterly.
“I’ve heard that name be tossed around a lot, but still don’t know who they are?”
“So there’s the Kings, and you know what they do and why they do it, but obviously there has to be someone sitting in the Pentagon and White House who foresee everything. I mean, they run a damn island. Anyway, The Circle is just that. They’re a clang of people, who only very few people know about, that are scattered all over the world and sit in high power positions that make sure everything King related flies under the radar. They’re sort of like the CIA, I guess, but far dirtier.” Interesting to see how deep the Kings’ circle ran, and terrifying at the same time. I wonder why Bishop never thought to tell me about them, probably the same reason why he has always hidden everything from me.
“Why the hell is she with them?” Tatum asked, shock evident in her tone.
Tillie shrugged. “She was always going to go the political way, she only stuck around for Jase.”
I cleared my throat. “About that, I’m not sure if anyone has told you, but since you’ve been gone a few things have happened on this side, too.” I exhaled. “Hunter and Jase are my brothers, as is Daemon who is my twin, but I’m sure you already knew that part.”
She gasped. “Wait, Hunter and Jase? Blood brothers?”
I nodded. “Yeah, turns out I was adopted into Dad’s—or Joseph and Elizabeth’s family. I’m actually a Venari. Daemon got the shit side of the stick and was tossed into The Lost Boys with Katsia.”
“I swear, sometimes I wonder what the fuck I was thinking bringing her into this world.” Her eyes fell to Micaela.
“Well, she’s in it now, and not going anywhere.”
My phone vibrated on the table and I snatched it, seeing it was Bishop.
“Hi, are you ok?”
“Yeah, everything’s fine. Sorry I didn’t text you yesterday, we’ve been getting some shit in line.”
My eyes went to Tillie, who got up from her chair and came to take Micaela. “What sort of shit?”
“I’m gathering all of the previous Kings that I can find, and bringing them in, because on Friday we’re all flying back to Perdita to settle this.”
“I want to come.”
“No.”
“Bishop…” I whined, even though I knew that it would never work on him.
“No, Madison. No fucking way. You stay there and stay alive.”
“And what about you?” I whispered, anxiety taking a hold of my airways and trying to suffocate me. I never thought I’d end up being one of those girls who put all her feelings into one guy, but Bishop crushed those assumptions. The thought of anything happening to him would almost put my heart into cardiac arrest.
“I’ll be fine, baby,” he answered smoothly. “I gotta go. Listen, I need to talk with my mom about something…”
“Oh?” I shuffled up in my chair. “She’s at work right now.”
“It’s my dad. Him and Khales, they’re…”
“Oh ew!” My face scrunched in disgust. “He would never!”
“Nope, he had, and is…”
“That’s disgusting.” I shook my head.
“Yeah, but don’t tell her yet. I’ll tell her when I see her. I just wanted you to have a heads up. Looks like she might be hanging around longer than I would have hoped.”
“That sucks.” Another phone call beeped through and I looked down at my screen. “Carter is calling me…”
“Mathers?” Bishop asked, shocked. “What the fuck for?”
“I don’t know. Call me later?”
“Yeah alright.”
After hanging up on Bishop, I answered my phone, giving Tate a confused look. “Hello?”
“Madison?” He sounded desperate.
“Carter? Are you ok?”
“Are you in town?”
“What? No. I’m out of town right now, why?”
He sighed. “Can you text me when you get back? I need to talk with you.” And he hung up.
“That was weird.” I put my phone back on the table and pushed it to the middle. “I haven’t heard from him in months and then he calls me out of the blue.”
Tillie shook the baby bottle, her eyes going between Tate and me. “What ever happened to him?”
“Nothing,” I answered, picking up my plate and carrying it to the sink. I rinsed it quickly before turning and leaning on the counter.
“I don’t know what to do,” Tillie whispered under her breath, feeding Micaela.
“How so?” Tate asked, her head tilted.
Tillie shrugged. “I think I need to leave.”
“Leave—where?” I tried hard not to sound critical, but it came off as that instantly. “Elena doesn’t know that Micaela is her granddaughter, and then there’s Nate…” I added.
“Exactly!” Tillie shrugged. “I just think that he would prefer I not be in his hometown, if you know what I mean.”
“No, I don’t, and please don’t tell me you’re thinking of running because honestly, Tillie, he would kill you if you took his daughter away.”
“He’s going to kill me anyway, Mads!”
“Why!” I threw my hands up, suddenly annoyed at the whole situation. I loved Tillie, but sometimes we didn’t exactly see eye to eye.
“Because I—I may have met someone else, and I don’t know, I think that he would hate that some other male would be a big part of her life, ya know?”
“I need a holiday.” I rubbed my temples with my fingertips. “Ok, here’s what we are going to do.” I pushed off the counter and made my way back to my seat. “We are going to all sit the fuck down when all of this is over, and have a flat-out chat about what we are going to do with little princess. Tillie.” I brought my eyes to hers, drilling them into her. “I do not, under any circumstances, think you should run from Nate. He will find you, and the erratic way his behavior has been since finding out he is a dad, I wouldn’t trust his intentions with you once he does find you, so I honestly think you should take my route, and ju—”
“—Ok!” she snapped at me with a smile on her lips. “You’re still persistent.”
“That shit will never change,” Tate muttered, standing and going to the sink to rinse her plate.
“Now,” I grinned. “Who is this man you’ve met?”
Her face fell.
“What?”
She shook her head. “Honestly, it would never work out. We had a moment, and I don’t know… I just, I don’t think it’s a good idea.”
“Well, who is it? Do I know him? Please don’t tell me it’s one of those weird guards at Perdita.”
She shook her head. “No. I’m wasting my time because it could never happen. He’s too involved with Katsia to look at me again, and we had a moment or two, but then he went cold and I honestly think it’s a waste of time me even mentioning it. It just made me realize that if something ever did happen between me and someone, Nate wouldn’t allow it.”
“I do have a plan, though,” I said.
“Oh goodie!” Tate bit into an apple. “Let me guess, you want to gatecrash this war?”
I smirked.
“And how are we supposed to get past the wicked witch of the west?” Tatum asked, crunching on her apple loudly.
I skipped toward her. “Well, the wicked witch isn’t as wicked as she seems.”
We finished up breakfast and washed the dishes. The house we were staying in was a two-story loft air BNB. There were two bedrooms upstairs and one downstairs. Tillie and the baby stayed downstairs while Tate and I crashed in here. Flopping onto the bed, I bring my phone up to my face and send Bishop a text.
Weird conversation with Carter.
What did he want
I flipped onto my tummy. I don’t know. He said he wanted to talk with me when I got home.
I waited for the three little circles to pop up, but they didn’t. Two minutes pass before I decided to send him another. The thirst was real. How are your plans going?
Fast. We have a good lot of people coming in today and tonight. We will be all flying out tomorrow night. You? How’s Mom?
Okay, so they were going to be leaving Friday night, not morning, which put a slight dent in my plans. I was hoping that they would leave in the morning so we could get there later that day.
Mom is awesome. I want a swap. Mine for yours.
I realized my bad joke as soon as I hit send and cringed. My face was scrunched and my cheeks were on fire when Tillie walked in.
“Hey! Do you—” she stopped when she saw my face. “Are you ok?”
“No. I just sent a really stupid text to Bishop. Anyway! What’s up?”
She walked in farther, stopping near the end of the bed. “Did you ever hear from Ridge?”
I leaned up on my elbows. “I did. I sort of bumped into him at a bank a few months ago before Tate and I ran away to New Zealand, why?”
She paused, her face falling blank. “Okay, I need to know one hundred percent what happened while you were there, but it’s just that, I don’t know, I thought maybe he would have looked harder for me?”
“He probably did, like I did, but always came out with dead ends. It makes sense now that I know now, though. Katsia hiding you and all that…”
Her finger came to her lip. “Can I ask you something?”
“Of course?” I scooted up the bed, tucking my legs underneath me.
“What was Nate like after I left?” Out of all the things I was expecting her to ask me, that was not one of them.
“Honestly, he was off.”
“Off?”
I nodded and pulled my bottom lip into my mouth. “There were a few times when he would say something about you, and, okay, I’m not good at this. He had feelings for you, Tillie, real feelings. I hadn’t seen him with any other girl like he was with you, and I witnessed my fair share amount of Nate-hos in the months you were absent.”
A sad smile came to her mouth. “Thank you. When I was away, I became obsessive with the memories I had of him, of us. I’d replay every little thing in my head.”
“I know.” I leaned forward and patted her hand. “We do that, replay the memories we have of someone because it makes us feel closer to them. We try to grasp onto every piece we have of them because were afraid that they’ll disappear.”
She sighed heavily, getting to her feet. “Is it weird that the fact that Tate and he have history doesn’t affect me?”
“Yes…” I teased. “Because I know you’re lying. You may not feel it right now, but if you saw them together it would hurt, Tils. And that’s not because you’re a girl, that’s because you’re a fucking human.”
“I don’t deserve you.” She wiped away a stray tear.
“Say that again and I’ll use your ass as target practice.”
She laughed, and walked out of my room, just as my phone started ringing on my bed. I blindly reached for it, swiping it unlocked and bringing it to my ear.
“Hello?”
“Hi, sweetie! So I finished early today, are you girls home?” Scarlet asked. I could hear the echo in my ear, signaling she was in a car.
“Yes! We’re home, and perfect! There’s actually something I want to talk to you about.”
“I’m almost there!” Then she hung up, and I slipped off the bed and jogged downstairs.
“Scarlet is almost here. We need a plan!”
The door swung open. “I have an idea!” Scarlet closed the door behind herself, removing her glasses. She stepped toward me. “I don’t feel right about Bishop going into this alone, and like I told you last night—Hector and I have…”
I smirked. “You want to gatecrash their war?”
Her eyes shot to mine. “How’d you know?”
I snorted. “I was about to pitch you the same idea.” Would Khales be there? I hope so. Maybe I could accidentally push her in front of a stray bullet. I hate how this is going to go with Scarlet.
“See, this is why the Hayes men are dangerous because look at the women they choose?” Tate mocked, gesturing to both Scarlet and I.
“She’s not wrong,” I muttered under my breath.
“Ok, so here’s the deal. You,” Scarlet pointed to Tillie. “Obviously will be staying behind with the princess, but us three will be flying there around four hours after everyone has left.”
“How?” I asked, my legs tingling in adrenalin at this sneaky plan.
Bishop was going to kill me.
“I have a friend,” Scarlet announced, sitting on the edge of the chaise. “He owns an airline and has a private jet we could use.”
“Oh,” I chimed. “Of course you do.”
She gave me a dismissive smile, and then looked to Tate. “You don’t have to come if you’re not willing.”
“Are you crazy? Someone has to make sure Batman over here doesn’t upset the Joker…” She hiked her thumb toward me.
I chortled. “This is actually true. So, when do we leave?”