by Strange, KT
Hidden River Five
Book 5 in the Hidden River Academy Series
KT Strange
Copyright © 2021 by KT Strange
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Cover by CJ Strange.
Heartcandies Publishing
Heartcandies.com
For my mother, God help me if she ever read this.
Contents
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Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Acknowledgments
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About the Author
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Chapter One
Tick. Tick. Tick.
I watched the clock’s second-hand slowly count away the moments in the semi-darkness of my uncle’s bedroom.
The murmur of voices beyond the door, and the light spilling underneath the crack where it met the floor, kept me from truly falling back asleep. My mother’s voice trilled, shrill and bordering on hysterical. I rolled over and pulled a pillow over my head, drowning myself in the feathery black and the wood-smoke smell of my uncle’s scent.
I wanted to die there. It would be less complicated than facing the reality of my ridiculous, horrible, painful life.
Hot tears melted down my cheeks, the wetness thick in the back of my throat. I was Buck’s half-sister.
God, it made me want to vomit. I couldn’t even wrap my head around it, like my brain kept denying that it was real. It had to be a cruel joke. It couldn’t be true.
The feel of his father’s hands on me had my throat closing up. He’d done that to my mother. He’d tried to do it to me.
Did he even know?
That made it all ten times worse. I sat up, my body aching and shivering like I was being eaten alive by a fever. I dragged my arm across my cheeks, and blinked away the blur of tears. I needed to go out there, and see them all.
The guys. My guys.
I sat up, the blankets shifting over my legs, and I wrapped my arms around my knees, pulling them close into my chest.
A hollow feeling was crawling down my throat, settling in my gut. It just seemed too surreal.
My wrecked nylons from earlier scratched against the sheet and I struggled to get out of my uncle’s bed. Once standing, I peeled myself out of my fancy dinner clothes, and grabbed my uncle’s oversized sweatshirt from the end of the bed. It fell to my mid-thigh and it was, well, I was covered enough to go out in public.
Fingers tapped at the door, and the light cracked through, blinding me for a hot second. Colt was there, relief flushing through my veins when I saw his face. He looked so serious. That wasn’t right. I wanted him to smile. That would mean everything was okay. I tried to pull up the corners of my mouth, but it felt like my face wasn’t working.
“Hey,” his voice rumbled low, and he crossed the room. He stood in front of me, shifting his weight, his fingers fisting and unclenching beside his hips. He looked like he wanted to smack something, but that something wasn’t me. He bent, and curled around me, and I was lost in the sensation of his arms, the scent of his skin, everything.
The tears came from nowhere, barreling down the highway of my cheeks, and I cried it out. He tightened his grip on me, firm muscles flexing under his t-shirt.
“I got you,” he promised. “No matter how this shakes loose, I’ve got you.”
“Who’s still here?” I asked. I wanted them all to be. But my mother had shrieked and ordered Buck out of the house.
Colt cleared his throat.
“The rest of the guys went to Cael’s house,” he said. I nodded miserably. I didn't even know what I should be feeling right now. It can't be true, right? It just can’t.
More tears tracked down my cheeks. Colt pulled me into his side, leaning over and kissing them away.
“For all of our sakes I hope it's not true,” he murmured.
I sniffled.
“I thought you hated them,” I said, “I thought you thought it would be better without them.”
He gave me a lazy half smile.
“As much as I would love to have you all to myself,” he said, “I’m not enough to keep you safe. And there's nothing wrong with me having backup when it comes to protecting you and giving you everything you need.”
I buried myself against him, and we lay there. I listened to his slow, even breathing.
“I don't know how you can always be so calm.”
His arm was heavy on me, and he kissed the top of my head.
“I don't know either. You kind of freak me out.”
I looked up at him.
“What?” I asked. He shook his head.
“Not like that. I just get kind of crazy sometimes how you make me feel and how much I love you. I never thought that I of all people would fall in love with you.”
I squinted at him in the darkness, my eyes feeling sandy and irritated.
“You're not helping out your case here, buddy,” I said, and gave a weak laugh. He smiled, rueful.
“What I'm trying to say, and fucking it up, is that I never thought that I was worth loving.”
What he said made me feel so sad inside. He absolutely deserved love.
I squirmed up on the blanket and kissed him.
“You are one of the best things that's ever happened to me,” I promised. “I don't think life would be the same if you hadn't come into it.”
“I think our worlds would have been a hell of a lot calmer,” he commented and kissed me back. “Or maybe just boring.” There was a knock on the door, and he sat up, shielding me with his body.
My uncle poked his head inside.
“She all right?” he asked.
“Ask her yourself?” Colt said, shifting off the bed. I sat up and wiped my cheeks. My uncle's face was sad, and he walked over to me and sat on the edge of the bed. I leaned into him and he curved his arms around me, pulling me into a big bear hug. My eyes watered again and I hid them against the collar of his shirt, sniffling.
“It's been a long day, kiddo,” he said. I nodded.
>
“Is my mom okay?”
He sighed.
“Well, I've learned a lot more about things that happened than I ever thought I would. So I guess that's a good thing.” He wasn’t answering outright. “She wants to talk to you, but she knows that was a pretty big bombshell.”
I swallow.
“He's not really my dad, is he?” I asked, whole body in a low level tremble.
My uncle ran a hand through his hair and sighed, rubbing his other hand over my back, comfortingly.
“She seems to think he is.”
My stomach clenched.
“That means… Buck’s my—” I couldn’t even bring myself to say it. I fell quiet. I felt so sick. It couldn’t be possible, he couldn’t be my half brother. The feeling of absolute disgust at myself and anger at the universe for being so unfair filled my belly.
He sighed again, not sounding pleased.
“Well, there's really only one way for us to find out for sure.” He gave me a look. “And I don't know if Mr. Barron is going to consent to a DNA test without a court order.”
I bit my lip.
“Is that something we could do? Could Buck give one?” I asked, trying not to sound hopeful. “I mean, me and Buck don't look anything alike. So, it's possible that he's not, right?”
My uncle put his hands over mine and that's when I realized I’d knotted them in the front of his shirt, knuckling there, desperate for him to fix everything.
Colt had his arms over his chest and he stood there, looking uncomfortable.
“Is it okay if I stayed the night?” he asked.
My uncle looked over at him and nodded.
“That's fine. I'm not going to tell you to sleep downstairs in Buck’s old room because I know you won’t.”
My uncle pressed a kiss, again, to the top of my forehead.
“I’m going to put your mom downstairs so she can sleep. But you probably should tell her goodnight first. She feels awfully guilty about everything.”
“She's gonna let Buck come back here, right,” I said. “Well?”
He gave me a flat look.
“As much as I think that we need to find out if you and Buck are actually siblings first, your mother is not against having him come here. I explained how good he's been to you,” my uncle sighed out those last words.
Colt snorted under his breath and rolled his eyes.
“He could be better,” Colt said. My uncle laughed.
“You're not exactly winning boyfriend of the year, either,” he said. “I don't see you bringing flowers over every day.”
Colt grumbled.
“Unlike these trust fund babies, I don't have money for that kind of shit.” He looked at me, concerned. “Is that what you want? Flowers every day?”
I shook my head.
“No, I'm fine. You're perfect,” I promised.
My uncle got up and pulled me to my feet.
“Go down. Say goodnight to your mother, and get some sleep.
“Okay,” Colt was out of the room before I could say anything, calling over his shoulder, “I’ll get the bed ready.”
My cheeks warmed at the thought. The two of us, sleeping together in bed. Like we were a couple or something, like we lived together. My uncle gave me one long look before he let me go.
“We are going to get through this,” he promised me. “You are going to get through this.”
I felt like I couldn’t talk, but I had to tell him how scared I was.
“I don’t know if I can stand to find out he’s really my half-brother… if we're in any way related.” I stop, that thought makes my throat close and tears started to fall again. My uncle sighed and he wiped them for me kindly.
“You don't know,” he said, “and you're gonna kill yourself worrying about it.”
“I guess right now he's Schrödinger's brother?”
My uncle furrowed, holding his breath for a moment, and then laughed.
“Mia, that’s a terrible joke.”
I shrugged.
“You're the one who's always making dad jokes,” I said, “it's kind of your fault.” I smile without feeling it. “I’m gonna go say goodnight to Mom,” I tell him, “thanks for everything.”
He nodded. As I left the room, I knew he was saying that he thought I would get through it.
But I really didn’t know how I possibly could. Like…
If Buck was my brother, not only was that the most disgusting thing I’d ever done in my life, but it meant I could never have his love ever again. And as much as I loved the other guys, each of them in their own way, I couldn’t lose a single one of them. It’d break my heart.
I couldn’t lose Buck. But right then, it felt like I already had.
Chapter Two
Uncle Matt’s house had never felt so empty and so full at the same time. Sometime during the night, Shawn had come back, and it was him, me, my mom, and my uncle all under the same roof all at the same time.
There was something else with us too… the feeling of panicked uncertainty clouding the air. I hadn’t texted Buck and he hadn’t texted me. Even Colt was uncharacteristically quiet on the messaging front, and when I came down for breakfast, Shawn was already up.
My mother was too, although I didn’t know where she slept last night. I glanced over at the couch and saw a pile of blankets and a pillow. Oh.
“Good morning, sweet-pea,” my mom sing-songed as she walked over to me, eyes bright and cheerful. “Who is the prettiest thing to ever walk the earth? Oh, it’s you.” She kissed both my cheeks as Shawn smiled at me, tired and hesitant. Until last night had erupted over us, he had been the one with the the more intense family drama.
Now that lucky human was me.
“Morning,” I rasped. She patted my shoulder.
“I was just showing Shawn how to make a proper fry-up, can you imagine that housekeeper of his never showed him?”
Shawn shrugged, sheepish, when I glanced at him, and I slipped onto a stool beside him.
“Hey,” he murmured, “you doing okay?”
I…
I didn’t know how to answer that honestly.
“I think so,” I said with a quiet sigh. It was all still sinking in and there really wasn’t anything to do except move forward and not focus too much on the fact that…
One of the guys I was in love with was possibly my brother.
His father had tried to assault me.
His father had actually assaulted my mother.
His father was maybe my father.
The whole thing was just so fucked up.
“Is he okay?” I asked in return. Shawn pressed his lips together and shook his head.
Oh.
My chest ached. I wished he was there with me right then so I could hold him… but would it feel weird, knowing we were possibly, oh god, siblings?
My throat tightened uncomfortably as my mom hummed around the kitchen, the sound and smell of frying bacon and eggs filling the air.
“If I survive this, the stories I am going to be able to tell my grandkids,” I muttered with dark humor. Shawn laughed too, despite himself and my mom turned to us with a smile.
“Well now, that’s better,” she said. “When I heard Shawn here had also been courting you I was seven kinds of relieved.” She batted her eyelashes at Shawn. “You’re doing right by my baby girl, aren’t you?”
He sat up straight and cleared his throat.
“Buck’s a great guy,” he replied, nervous and uncomfortable. My mother’s expression clouded.
“Nothing good ever came out of the Barron house,” she spat and then turned back to her frying pan and the stove, angrily scraping at the bacon with her spatula.
My mouth went dry and I exchanged a look with Shawn.
Nothing good ever came from the Barron family.
Except… possibly me.
* * *
Uncle Matt dropped the set of keys into Shawn’s hand and patted him on the shoulder.
We we
re playing hooky today, with his blessing.
“Drive into the city,” my uncle said to us both. “I’ve got some appointments for my sister, and I figure it would be better for the both of you if you weren’t here for the day.”
The unspoken reason behind him wanting us out of the house was obvious. He didn’t want us around if Buck tried to come by and my mom caused another scene. Or if someone from the school came to check on us. And, he didn’t want us in town in case we ran into Buck’s parents.
All very valid points.
I glanced up at Shawn and he smiled.
“I’ve got an idea,” he said shyly. I laced my fingers with his.
“Oh?”
The drive felt good… like by leaving Hidden River, even for a day, I was letting my problems fade behind me.
I even napped, Shawn’s smooth driving and the classic rock on the radio making me drift off. My eyes opened, gritty and sore, when the car shifted into park. I stretched and looked around, not recognizing where we were.
It was a downtown area, that much was obvious, with brick low and high rises lining the streets and adorable looking shops, the kind that promised vintage clothes at outrageous prices. I glanced over at Shawn.
“Where are we?” I asked. The sun was overhead. He smiled, and shrugged.
“Portland?”
“You drove for four hours?!” My jaw sagged open in surprise. He laughed and got out of the car. I sat there, shocked.
“Are you coming or what?” He asked as he turned back to me. I glared and got out of the car, stepping up beside him. The air felt watery-fresh, and I inhaled it. “I figured we could make some of our problems go away by spending my parents’ money,” he commented idly with a shrug. “You down?”