“See how good she is?” Dad asked. “Nobody has to get hurt, Winter.”
Caroline patted Dad’s chest. “Well, nobody else.”
The second she said that, my phone vibrated in my pocket.
I reached for my phone and saw a text from Gia.
Talon is missing! Call me ASAP! He was taken!
I looked up from my phone.
Dad and Caroline were smiling.
“What the hell is going on?” I asked.
“Winter,” Caroline said. “I had to make sure you know how serious this is. Plus, what does it matter if a Troc goes missing, right?”
I stepped back until I bumped into the wall.
Then my legs gave out.
I slowly sat down on the floor.
My phone vibrated again.
Another text from Gia.
I put my phone on the floor next to me.
Dad. Caroline.
They kidnapped Talon.
Dad crouched in front of me. “It didn’t have to be this way. But you have this streak in you, Winter. Just like your mother. You can never let things be. I’m not mad at you. I’m not even disappointed. I think it’s bold what you’ve done. But it needs to be fixed. Right now. I know this guy isn’t just some Troc to you. He means more. You don’t want to see him hurt. Or gone for good. Neither do I. I don’t want to be this person, Winter. Don’t make me be this person.”
He leaned forward and kissed the top of my head.
He stood and went back to Caroline.
They held hands right away.
“Winter,” Caroline said. She snapped the fingers on her hand that wasn’t holding my father’s hand. “You need to look at me. Right now.”
I lifted my gaze.
“The games are over,” she said. “Okay? No more lies. No more faking injuries and amnesia. No more dancing around this. Get the money. Give it back. Okay? You can certainly run to Easton and the others and tell them what’s going on. I expect it. If you even think of going near Aldrich…” She laughed. “I’m not even going to say what I’ll do then. We’ll see you tonight. Around eleven. Where your accident happened.”
I didn’t know what else to do.
So I nodded.
I knew the money was basically right behind me. In the closet. In my secret hiding spot.
I could have just blurted it out right there.
But I was still in shock.
It wasn’t all that easy to find out Dad wasn’t who he said he was…
Dad and Caroline exited the bedroom.
I grabbed my phone.
I had to text Gia back.
Get to my mother’s beach house. The guys are there. Stay there. I’ll explain everything soon.
I dropped my phone to the floor again.
I needed to call Xavier.
I needed to talk to Easton.
I needed to see Noah.
I needed to save Talon…
I slowly turned my head and looked at my closet.
Why hadn’t I just told them about the money when they asked?
As the shock subsided, I found the real reason why.
I wasn’t finished with my plan just yet.
Xavier scooped me up into his arms and squeezed me tight.
“I’ll fucking kill them,” he whispered to me. “I’ll fucking kill them all for you, Winter.”
“I’m right here,” I said. “I’m okay.”
Xavier kissed me.
Over and over.
I had to break the kiss and get out of his grasp.
Gia stood near the one corner of the deck, hugging herself, crying.
Noah and Easton were nearby, but nothing was going to fix Gia.
At least not until Talon was back safe with her.
“What’s going on?” Noah asked.
“I have to go put my bag of clothes upstairs,” I said. “Gia is coming with me. Then we’ll talk. Easton… your mother is having an affair with my father. They’re the ones who want the money. My father isn’t in money trouble. He planned it out on purpose. He’s stealing your mother from your father. They’re going to take off together and then roll on your father and on Noah’s parents. Because… at some point, Easton’s mother slept with Noah’s father too.”
I left the ashes of that fire at their feet as I grabbed Gia’s hand and pulled her.
She stumbled forward and I put my arm around her.
I hugged her and we went into the house together.
“Just trust me,” I whispered.
“Talon is missing,” Gia said. “We need to call the police.”
“Trust me, we don’t,” I said. “I can fix all of this.”
We walked up the steps.
Gia cried.
When we got into the bedroom, Gia stepped away from me, then spun around and slapped me across the face.
The slap was so hard, I dropped my bag to the floor and then tripped over it and fell to my hands and knees.
“This is your fault!” Gia yelled at me. “You did this to him. You set all of this up and caused this.”
I looked back and up at Gia. “You need to listen to me.”
“You need to listen to me,” Gia said. “I finally found someone. I’m happy, Winter. I love him. He loves me. We’re happy. But your life just doesn’t… it just doesn’t quit. You paid him to help you again. Now he’s missing.”
“I know who took him,” I said.
“What?” Gia asked.
I climbed back to my feet. “Gia, I know who took him. It was my father and Easton’s mother. They took him. As a message. A warning.”
“They…” Gia shook her head. “It was just so fast, Winter. He went outside and then I heard a bunch of yelling. Brock and Emily came rushing inside and said someone took Talon. They instantly started to blame me for it. That it had to be something to do with you.”
“And they were right,” I said. “This is my fault. But I can fix it. This is all about what happened before the accident. I can’t change the past, Gia. But I can fix the future. You just have to trust me.”
“Trust you?” Gia asked. “Nobody cares about Talon. He’s just a Troc to all of you.”
“Not to me,” I said. “He means a lot to me. And I know he means a lot to you. I know you love him. I believe that you love him. I believe that he loves you. And your friendship means more to me than anything else in the world.”
“Not as much as Xavier means to you,” she said.
“That doesn’t matter. Talon is going to be okay. I just have to talk to the guys and get a plan together.”
“Another plan?”
I nodded. “Gia. My father is sleeping with Easton’s mother. My father is not the person I thought he was. They threatened me. They… my father was the one who tried to kill me. He’s the one who set up the accident…”
Gia ran toward me. “What?”
I nodded. “I overhead their plan and that’s what made me want to do it too. I wanted to escape this place. So I made my own plan to steal the money and leave. They found out about it, so they tried to kill me.”
“Oh, Winter,” Gia said.
She hugged me.
I hugged her and let it all wash over me.
The intense emotion and reality were crushing.
I shut my eyes and let a few tears fall down to my cheeks.
I sucked in a shaky breath.
“I can’t cry now,” I said. “I have to save it for later.”
“Okay,” Gia said. “I’m sorry for slapping you.”
“We can talk about that later too,” I said. I broke the hug. “You have to trust me.”
“What if I say I’m not sure I can?” Gia asked.
I pointed to the bag on the floor. “Go open that bag. Then tell me if you trust me.”
Gia fell to her knees before the bag.
She gently unzipped it and let out a gasp.
She looked up at me, her eyes wide.
I nodded.
“Winter… what
are you going to do with this?”
I swallowed hard. “You’ll find out soon enough.”
Chapter 20
Not All the Trust
“There’s something I have to tell you,” I said as the three guys all turned and looked at me.
Noah leaned against the corner of the deck.
Easton sat on the railing, smoking a cigarette.
And Xavier was already walking toward me.
I put my hands out to stop him.
“Just wait,” I said.
“Wait for what?” Xavier asked.
“For the whole story here. What’s really going on.”
“You already said what’s going on,” Easton said. “Heavy stuff, Winter.”
“The truth,” I said. “And I’m really sorry about that, Easton.”
“You know we want to ask if you’re sure,” Noah said. “But that looks bad on us.”
“Believe me,” I said. “I saw it. My father appeared. Then Caroline appeared. She knew Talon was following her. She knew everything. She’s the one who decided to cause my accident and my father went along with it. They’re sick. Both of them. No. All of them. It’s all about stealing and hiding money from each other.”
“And sleeping together,” Easton said.
“That too,” I said as I cringed.
“Tell them about the bag,” Gia said.
“What bag?” Xavier asked.
“Okay,” I said. “Just listen to me. I went back to the castle to get Talon his money. What I had done before was take money from a secret spot my father had. He told me about it once. He said that if there was ever an emergency, there was money and I could use it. It wasn’t a lot of money. That’s what I used to pay Talon to get back at you guys.”
“Feels like a lifetime ago now,” Noah said. “Doesn’t it?”
“Yeah,” I said. I noted the bitterness in Noah’s voice. “Here’s the thing. I have a secret hiding spot of my own. And as I was in my closet, I started to remember more about it. What I used to hide in there. No big deal, right? I knew that I hid a little money there too. I guess somewhere in me I always had the dream to eventually just take off and get out of here for good. I was going to grab that cash to pay Talon. When I opened my secret hiding spot… there was something else.”
“Something else?” Xavier asked.
“There was a lot of money.”
Easton jumped from the railing to the deck. “What do you mean?”
“I mean… a lot of money,” I said.
“You can’t imagine how much,” Gia said.
“How the hell do you know about it?” Noah asked.
“She just does,” I said.
“The bag,” Xavier said.
I nodded. “I brought it here. That’s the money they want.”
“They want that money back and they’ll let Talon go,” Gia said.
“Wait, wait, wait,” Xavier said. “Back up. I’m missing something here.”
“I know,” I said. “Where did the money come from… right?”
“Exactly,” Xavier said.
I swallowed hard.
It was time to really face the truth now.
“I stole everything on my own.”
I had Gia by my side.
At least for the moment.
“You did what?” Noah asked.
“It was my plan all along,” I said. “To use you three to get to the money, then steal it and leave.”
The deck fell silent.
Easton slowly smoked his cigarette and then flicked it away.
Noah turned around and looked at the ocean.
Xavier just stared at me. “Really?”
I nodded. “That’s the story. I’ve been remembering more and more as things happen. I overheard my father talking to Caroline about their big plans. The way they set it up was that my father would look foolish in front of Aldrich and Roland. They thought they were robbing my father blind. In reality he was just playing along, knowing he was going to get his money back, and a lot more with it. Plus, he had Caroline too. Their plan was to have Caroline divorce Aldrich, bleed him for all she could, then let him and Roland take the fall for their scheme. I was the one who messed it all up. The second I heard about their plan, I came up with one of my own. I needed you three to help. Do you remember that first conversation we had?”
“Yeah,” Easton said. “It was at a beach party.”
“We went for a walk,” Xavier said.
“You got right to it,” Noah called out.
“I knew what I wanted,” I said. “And I was willing to do anything to get it.”
“So you came up with this plan and then screwed us?” Easton asked.
“That’s one way to put it,” I said.
Noah spun around. “What other way is there? Because at the time, you were all over me, Winter. And I was falling for you. We were going to take off together and live a life.”
“Noah, cut it,” Xavier said.
“No, I won’t cut it,” he said.
“I’m telling you to cut it,” Xavier said as he looked back at Noah.
Noah pushed from the railing and walked toward Xavier.
Of course Xavier wasn’t going to back down from a fight.
The two stepped up to each other, ready to fight.
“Be mad at me,” I said. “The old me though… not this version of me…”
“She’s right,” Easton said to Noah and Xavier. “Let her finish.”
“We had a plan,” I said. “It was a really good one too. And I’m sorry for what happened after we had that plan. All I could think about was leaving. We set everything up and… I found out Caroline was the one hiding the money. I took it myself. She was distracted with my father one night and I took it all. I hid it. I became paranoid. I was scared out of my mind. We were all starting to get jumpy about the whole thing. That’s when you three had that meeting about me.”
“That was out of anger,” Easton said. “You were acting different.”
“Which now makes sense,” Noah said.
Xavier looked at me.
I frowned.
I took a step toward him and he stepped away.
My heart felt like wet paper being ripped with ease.
I swallowed hard. “So that’s that. That’s what I did. That’s what they did. Right after I found the money was when my father appeared. And then Caroline. They had no idea the money was in my closet.”
“They want to meet tonight,” Gia said. “To make a trade. To end this all.”
“You really think this ends it?” Xavier asked.
I shrugged my shoulders. “They get their money. We get Talon back.”
“You have the money we’ve wanted all along, Winter,” Noah said. “And you’re giving it up for a Troc?”
“Fuck you, Noah,” Gia snapped.
“Go sit the fuck down,” Noah said.
Xavier threw a punch and smashed Noah in the jaw.
Everything was falling apart.
“Don’t ever talk to my sister like that again,” Xavier said.
“You okay, Noah?” Easton asked as he stood between Xavier and Noah.
Noah rubbed his swollen jaw. “Sure. How about you start thinking with the head on top of your shoulders and see who Winter really is.”
“Xavier?” Easton asked.
Xavier looked back at me. He had a small cut on his bottom lip from a punch from Noah.
Instead of answering, he walked off the deck into the night.
I turned and looked at Gia.
She wrapped her arms around me.
I wrapped my arms around her.
We hugged each other.
“I’ll get the fucking money and leave myself,” Noah said.
“No,” I said.
“This is insane,” he said.
He took two steps and Easton grabbed his arm. “Noah, if you touch that bag, I’m going to break your arm.”
“Are you kidding me, Easton?” Noah asked. �
��This is where you take a stand? Talon is a Troc. Nothing more. Nothing less. Who cares? This is what we’ve wanted all along. Look at what your mother is doing. Look at what my family has done. This is our escape.”
Easton’s nostrils flared.
His eyes moved to me and Gia.
Then back to Noah.
“Not like this,” he said. “We pulled that Troc into this.”
“No,” Noah said. “Winter did.”
“We all agreed to have him follow Caroline,” I said.
“Fine,” Noah said. He showed his hands. “What’s the plan?”
“Let me get Xavier back up here first,” I said.
I broke away from Gia and slowly walked down the deck steps.
I saw Xavier standing, facing the ocean.
I walked up to him.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “For everything. For who I was. For all that happened. For the parts I don’t remember. For the parts I do remember.”
“I want to know what’s real,” Xavier said. “Right now.”
“Real?” I swallowed hard. “My feelings for you are real. The truth about my father and Caroline… Aldrich… Roland… that’s real. The way Gia feels for Talon. The way Talon feels for her. That’s real. I have to do everything I can to save Talon. That’s real. I owe it to him and Gia. I know you guys probably don’t agree because he’s a Troc, but I don’t care about that. What’s real is that I’m not who I was before the accident. That version of Winter was evil. She was secretly sad. She hated herself.”
“And this version of Winter?” Xavier asked.
“This version is me,” I said.
We stood in silence for a few minutes before Xavier touched my hand.
Slowly, his fingers interlocked with mine.
I started to smile but had to fight it off. This wasn’t a time to smile.
“Everything you said was true?” Xavier asked.
“Yeah. I took the money. They want it back.”
“Then let’s figure this out,” Xavier said.
He turned to walk away and I grabbed his hand with both of my hands.
He stopped and looked at me.
“Do you still love me?” I asked.
“Of course I do,” he said.
He moved closer and he finally kissed me.
I wished we could have just called it a night right there.
Devious Love (Bay Falls High NEXT Book 3) Page 19