by Lacey Dailey
“Oh, really?”
“Sure thing, sis. You just wait. I’ll have access to a taser and all sorts of goodies in no time.”
“Pretty sure you can’t just go around tasing people, Brett.”
“You let me worry about that.” I drummed my fingers together, scanning the contents of all that was laid out before me. So many delicious choices. So little room in my stomach. My mother kept her steel box packed full. It made Ace and I’s refrigerator look like French toast. Burnt, soggy, old French toast.
I snagged a plastic container I assumed was leftovers and lifted the lid. It looked like beef and vegetables drowned in some sort of gravy. With a sniff, I smiled in satisfaction and kicked the door shut.
Works for me.
With a quick grab of a fork from a drawer, I plopped into a wooden chair at the table and propped my feet on the edge. If my mother walked into the room, I’d get my head smacked. But a little extra comfort was worth the risk.
I shoved a potato wedge in my mouth and chewed, watching Sage resume her position at the counter and proceed with her cookie making.
She lifted her head. Her nose wrinkled as she watched me lick a line of gravy from my bottom lip. “Aren’t you going to heat that?”
“Why?” I stabbed a square of beef. “Tastes fine cold.”
“You disgust me.”
“Thank you.”
The crown on her head bobbed with a shake of her head. “What are you doing here?”
“You texted and said you were hanging out here today. I figured that was an invitation. Besides, it’s not like I had anything else to do. I bugged Ace at work yesterday. Today, it’s your turn.”
“Lucky me.” She licked a blob of batter off the back of her hand. “How’s studying going?”
“Apparently, a lot better than Spanish is for you.”
A hefty laugh exploded from my chest when she flipped me off with two fingers. “Eat your beef and shut up.”
“But, really.” I pressed my hand to my chest and got control of my laughter. “If you need help with anything, let me know.”
With a wave of her hand, she dismissed me. “Wren’s been helping. I’ll pass.”
“Have you decided what you plan to major in yet?”
“Nope.” She flashed me a dorky grin. “I’m like an actual real-life college girl. I even like Starbucks!”
See? A total fucking loon she was.
Happiness for my sister spread through me like wildfire. It was such a vastly different emotion than the one I was feeling the day I told her I dropped out of college. I expected to disappoint her. Or at least make her sad I wasn’t going to experience that part of life with her as she’d hoped.
I received neither of those reactions. What I got instead was a hug. A hug and a demand that I stop being so hard on myself. According to my sister, the ultimate test of happiness was taking a step back from your life, examining it, and being satisfied with what was there. If I couldn’t do that, then I had to keep moving until I was able to.
So, I took the lesson she’d learned and applied it to my life. As humans, we blame ourselves every time something in our life doesn’t work out the way it should. We take every moment too personally, beat on ourselves too harshly, and drag ourselves through trash just because of it. The grandiose idea I had for my future years ago no longer applied to me. But when I stepped back and examined what I had now, I wasn’t disappointed. I was comfortable looking down that road, seeing a badge, a uniform, and Ace Jackson in my bed.
The sound of the oven going off steered my mind off the course it was on. Which was a blessing in disguise, really. Thoughts of Ace in our bed stirred my man parts. And that just could not happen with my little sister in the room. Un-fucking-acceptable.
I watched Sage shove her hand in an oven mitt. Bending over, she let the door to the oven fall open and pulled out a tray of chocolate chip cookies. The smell permeated the air. I groaned, my mouth watering at the warm, gooey goodness she placed on a cooling rack. I set my beef aside and stood up, creeping forward to grab one while she was facing the opposite way, sliding the uncooked tray into the oven.
I was almost home free when she spun around and smacked the top of my hand. “What are you doing? You are gonna burn yourself, doofus! You need to let them cool. Go eat your beef!”
“They taste a million times better when they are gooey.”
“You won’t be able to taste anything when you singe your taste buds.” With a flail of her arms, she shooed me away and banished me back to my chair and my beef. “You act like a twelve-year-old.”
I snorted. “Says the girl dressed like human vermin.”
“That human vermin can still kick your ass on the racetrack.”
My sister, folks. Hitting it right where it hurt.
“Evil.”
She flipped on the sink and squeezed a boatload of dish soap into the bottom. With a flick of her hands, she slid the bowl she used to mix the batter into the sudsy water. “You might get a break from defeat this week,” she called over her shoulder. “Wren and Ace won’t take a night off from Circuit until they get some answers.”
“I know.” My teeth scraped against my fork with my next bite. “Ace checks his email every ten minutes.”
My boyfriend was revved up. Fully charged. It was as though he'd stuck all his fingers in electrical sockets, but instead of forcing him to short circuit, it gave him more power. He couldn’t stand not knowing. For as much as he despised being met with a dead end when he was desperate for an answer, it was the very thing that drove him.
“So does Wren. I think they feel like they've hit a dead end.”
“I’m not ready to believe that. We still haven’t found out who those dog tags belong to.”
“If they even belong to anybody worth mentioning.” She rinsed the bowl and set it aside on a drying mat.
“Kade wore those dog tags around his neck like some sort of religious symbol. Whoever this is, is worth mentioning.”
“That’s true, I guess.” She spun around to face me, adjusting her crown with a sigh. “I’m worried that this has no end. That Kade is just messing with Ace to mess with me and there is really no point.”
“Sage.” Setting my food aside, I stood up. I was not about to tolerate the shame that floated across her features. “You said yourself Kade doesn’t do anything without a purpose. Even if this is all a way to mess with you, it still wouldn’t be your fault.”
She stabbed her toe into the tile and spoke to the ground. “It’s just pretty fucked up, isn’t it? That he’s able to hurt people from behind bars?”
“I can’t think of anything on a higher level of fucked-up than all of this.”
She lifted her chin. The sound of the front door opening and slamming shut stole the words she was about to speak. Her reaction was immediate. She jumped out of her skin, a distressed noise leaving her throat. I moved swiftly, planting my body in front of her like a human shield. The probability it was just our mom was in the high percentile. She was next door, playing cribbage with our old lady neighbor. It was as much as she did these days. Dad was at work until later this afternoon, so I knew it wasn’t his footsteps I heard padding down the hall.
“Mom?” I called when Sage dug her nails into my wrist, hoping she’d announce her presence and provide Sage with some relief.
“Nah, it’s me.” Wren appeared in the entryway, dressed in his work clothes, a laptop under his arm. “Where’s–" His face fell when he took in the scene before him. “Shit. Sunshine, I’m sorry.”
Her grip disappeared. She stepped around me and smoothed out her dress. “It’s okay. I wasn’t expecting anyone. Just surprised me.”
“I’m sorry,” he said again.
I slipped away and let Wren do his thing, wrapping my sister into a tight, one-handed hug and murmuring something in her ear. It was kind of miraculous watching the haunted look drip right off her face. The healing power of love was alive and well in this house.
/> He kissed the tip of her nose and stepped back. He startled a bit taking in her ensemble of the day. “Sage, have you have been wearing that all day?”
She flicked the center of his chest. “Yes, I have. And I’ll be wearing it to my class later this afternoon.”
“The crown too?”
“What is a princess without her crown, Wren?”
I snickered.
Wren shot me a look over his shoulder. “You look beautiful, Sunshine.”
I laughed louder and moved back to my seat. “What are you doing here, Wilder?”
“Cruz found something on the dog tag name.” He lifted his computer. “I need Sage.”
“Why?” My hackles rose. “Does Ace know? Why aren’t you at Circuit?”
“Yes, Ace knows. I called his work and said it was an emergency. He’s on his way here right now.” He took Sage’s hand and kissed it, leading her over to the table. “I’m headed to Circuit right after I talk to Sage.”
Reluctantly, she slouched on the chair Wren led her to. “Talk to me about what?”
He sat down next to her and peeled open his computer. “Did Kade ever mention being adopted?”
I choked on my beef. “You think Kade was adopted?”
“We aren’t positive yet.” The sound of his fingers on the keyboard stole the room for a moment. “Cruz accessed his birth certificate this morning and found this.” With a push of his hand, he turned the screen around. I frowned.
“Kade Hart?” Sage sat up a bit straighter. “His birth name isn’t Wilson?”
“No. And look at this.” Wren’s finger directed our line of sight. “There isn’t a father listed on this. It’s just a mother. Nancy Hart.”
Kade was born to a woman with the last name Hart. The man who didn’t even possess that organ. Sometimes, I swore the universe was looking down on these moments and getting a grand laugh out of the shit it pulled.
“Yo!” The front door slammed again. The sound of Ace’s sandals clapping against the floor quickly filled my ears. He rounded the wall and appeared with red cheeks and tousled hair. “What’s happening?”
“A.” I grabbed his arm and yanked him into my lap. “Why do you look like you ran all the way here?”
“I’m worked up, sugar. Wren said it was an emergency.” His eyes roamed his surroundings. I chuckled when they bypassed the computer and went straight to the food. “Whatcha got there?”
“Cold beef.” I handed him my fork and let him go to town. A knot was forming in my stomach, anyway. “Kade’s birth name isn’t Wilson. It’s Hart.”
Ace jerked. Gravy ran down his chin. I leaned forward and licked it off.
Sage gagged like she'd just seen a puppy get hit by a car. “Can you two stop? What is it with you and the constant PDA? A sister doesn’t need to see that.”
“Sorry your brother loves my gravy so much, phantom girl.”
“For shit’s sake,” Wren grumbled, gripping the edge of the table and giving the piece of furniture a little shake. “Can we focus? Kade’s father isn’t on his birth certificate, but Cruz was able to get access to a sealed adoption record.”
“So, Kade was adopted?” Sage blinked. She reared back just slightly and covered her hand with her mouth. “He never mentioned it. He never mentioned family at all. At least not to me.”
“Here’s the thing, Sunshine. Kade was adopted, but not by a completely different family.”
“I’m not following.” I watched Wren pull up some records dated back to almost forty years ago. “Slide it closer. I can’t read that print.”
“The basic rundown is Kade was adopted by a stepfather when he was four. It was two months later when Nancy changed Kade’s name to Wilson. They were married for less than two years before she filed for divorce. The adoption remained intact.”
“Did the stepfather have a custody agreement with Nancy?”
Wren snorted. “Cruz is looking into it, but it’s doubtful they went to court and came to any sort of legal agreement.”
Ace set aside the bowl of food and slid off my lap, moving to stand beside Wren. He crossed his arms over his chest and stared at the adoption record. “Gus Wilson.” He clicked his tongue. “You hear that name before, phantom girl?”
Sage sat quietly for a moment. There was a miniscule surge of anger that pulsed in my blood. I felt my eyes darken but held it together. There was just something about the way we were using my sister’s horrific experience to gain leverage. The way we were asking her to remember details she'd spent time in therapy attempting to forget. I hated it, and the only thing that stopped me from letting the anger go full throttle was the notion that she didn’t. She didn’t hate it. She thrived on it. Helping in any way she could. Taking the shit thing that happened to her and using it to stop others from being hurt by the same man.
It was admirable, and I wondered if I’d ever be even a third as remarkable as her.
“Gus.” The name slipped off her lips. Awareness and recognition spread across her cheeks. “Gus.” Both her hands flew to her mouth. She made a noise and exploded from her chair. “Holy shit! Gus is the name on the dog tag. I’m positive. Kade used to wrap his fist around them and talk to them like he was talking to a higher entity. Is Gus dead?” A fierceness encapsulated her blue eyes. She held her head like she was trying to contain all that was happening inside it. “Is that why he was talking to those tags? Was he the one in the car crash? Can we find him?”
“Sunshine. Hey.” Wren coaxed her back into her chair. “Take a breath, yeah?”
She nodded several times and drew in a long breath of air. “This is trippy. Kade has a mother. A stepfather who cared enough to adopt him?”
Trippy was not the word I would’ve chosen to describe it. It was almost unthinkable. Not that Kade was adopted, but that he had a family at all. It was off-putting just thinking about it. Kade Wilson provided active truth to the testament that monsters are real. They lurk all around us and aren’t always recognizable in a crowd. That was easy to wrap my brain around. What I’d forgotten, and was struggling to grasp, was the notion that monsters have moms too. They are created with the same act we are. Given the same start as the rest of the population. And it begged the bone-trembling question.
What separated a man from a monster?
The sound of the oven going off made us all jump. Sage went to scramble from her chair. I held up a hand to stop her and stood up myself, needing the moment and the chance for a reprieve. Every day we got deeper into Kade’s life, I worried how much of a struggle it would be to crawl back out.
Pulling open the oven door, I snagged a dish towel and used it as a makeshift hot pad. I dropped the cookie tray on the counter with a clank and turned off the oven. Ditching the dish towel, I made my way back over to a pop-up Circuit. Mischief and Specter were glued together. Mischief had his hand on the mouse while Specter’s fingers were perched on the keyboard.
“Gus is dead,” Wren blurted. “He died when Kade was nineteen from lung cancer. He was in the service for about three years. Not sure how or when he met Nancy, but it was only five years after discharge he adopted Kade.”
I crowded their space, feet planted into the floor while I fought to see the screen through their heads. “Does it say why he was discharged from the military?”
“Negative, boo bear,” Ace said. “Military records are harder to get into. We’ll dive in tonight at Circuit and figure it all out.”
“Does the reason even matter?” Sage huffed. “Gus died when Kade was nineteen. Obviously, he wasn’t in the car. Unless he was joyriding as a ghost. Who gives a shit why he left the military? If he wasn’t in the accident, it’s a moot point. We aren’t writing a biopic of Kade Wilson for Lifetime. We are trying to figure out if there was a passenger in the car accident to see how the hell it connects to me or the reason Ace is getting emails.” Her cheeks went fire-engine red. “Get your heads in the game!”
I blinked.
Ace whistled. “Alright, phantom g
irl. Take a breather. We just want to make sure we don’t leave any rocks unturned.”
“Yeah, I get that, Ace, but Gus doesn’t matter right now.”
“There isn’t evidence anybody was in that car.” Ace ran his hand down his face. “If Gus doesn’t matter then I’m afraid we’ve hit a dead end.”
“Maybe not.” Wren’s adjusted his glasses and rolled his shoulders back. “Ace, check your phone. We were pinged. I think you got an email.”
Ace made quick work of retrieving his phone. With a click of a button, his screen lit up, revealing the notification. “Wren, it’s there. Pull it up.” Ace tossed his phone aside and rubbed his hands together deviously, watching the loading wheel on the screen spin. “Let’s see what cryptic bullshit this fucker has for me today.”
My forehead pulled together when I saw what the message contained. There were no words. Just a line of numbers. After my brain restarted, I saw them for what they were.
A phone number.
“The fuck?” Ace quipped. “This man wants me to call him.”
“Hell no,” I spat. “Hell fucking no, Ace. You are not calling that man.” Kade Wilson was a vindictive, manipulative, mind-bending shit face. No way was I letting him weasel his way into Ace’s head.
“It’s not a prison number,” Wren said. “How the fuck does he have a cell phone?”
“Same way he can send emails?” Sage mused.
“Wren, look.” Ace used his pinky finger to point at the screen. “There’s an attachment. Open it.”
Wren double clicked the icon. Taking up the entirety of the screen was a photo. A photo of two young men standing on a sidewalk in front of a high metal fence that appeared to house basketball courts. Kade couldn’t have been much older than twenty-one in the photo. He was vastly different looking from any previous phase I’d seen him in, but there was no doubt, it was Kade Wilson. The bird tattoo on the side of his neck gave him away immediately. And he was smiling. But that wasn’t what was so disturbing. It was the man Kade had his arm slung around that made the photo alarming.
Ace made a noise. He stood up quickly and swayed on his feet. I lunged forward and wrapped my arms tightly around his stomach, supporting his weight. His legs became useless. I clutched him tighter and wheezed. I was hit with what felt like a donkey-kick to the ribs.