The twins’ father’s car.
“Do you think... their father...?” Tess asked, still trying to match the cold, stern man she had met her first day of school in the principal's office with someone dealing drugs.
She ought to know better than to judge someone by their appearance. Her own father cleaned up well.
Greg had been a raging alcoholic back when she was younger. Still, he’d gotten up for those early morning shifts, kept his uniform tidy, and remembered the little things, like picking up a birthday card and a coffee for his partner.
One smooth operator.
It was only once his double-dealing was found out and he was given an ultimatum to take early retirement or face charges that his façade collapsed.
“We don’t know about our dad,” Kade said. “That’s why we all decided to investigate things further on our own. I’d already taken a hit to my reputation with the accident. It wasn't that hard to act like I was a washed-up punk, losing myself to drugs and drink to drown out my grief. I had to let my grades slip. I started hanging out at bars and college parties. A few clubs in the bigger towns. Even gangs need to see some credibility, though mine’s all bad on purpose.”
“Shift over or get off, Bastion. I want to sit beside Kade while we talk to Tess,” Keir said, looking antsy as he tapped his foot.
It wasn’t only impatience. All of them could hear the distress in Kade’s voice. Keir needed to be there for his twin.
That voice was dark and full of doubt. How much was Kade playing a role and what was real?
“Fuck,” Bastion said, picking up on the tension. “I’m moving over, not off. You’re not taking all the blame for something you can’t even remember, Kade. Tell Tess the truth and not that shit you just made up in your head to say what happened. You blacked out because of a head injury. Don’t say shit you don’t know is true.”
“Double negative,” Tess said automatically.
Keir laughed and quickly took a seat on the couch in the middle once Bastion vacated part of it.
“Your brain is the best, Pumpkin. You know this means you guessed right about the drugs. That thing you said we were hiding from Jensen’s gang? How’d you know?”
“Someone at my mom’s old work accused her of selling drugs. Then, I talked to my father’s girlfriend at the bar and she confirmed it for me. Easy enough to connect the dots. I figured it had to be a body or drugs. And the body—”
Tess broke off with horror. “I hate my mouth sometimes,” she said, bowing her head on Kade’s chest.
Keir bent down and picked her feet up, pulling her legs up over his lap.
“I like your mouth fine the way it is, Pumpkin. Our mom’s name was Haunani. She would have liked you. Mom was outspoken. She wasn’t perfect, though we never let anyone else say it.”
“Is that Hawaiian?” Tess asked, peeking her head back up.
Nobody had declared her an insensitive knob yet.
“Yeah,” Kade said. “We’re mixed. Mom was too, but her skin tone was darker than ours. She had long black hair and this deep, golden tan all year long. A real Hawaiian princess. Dad loved her long hair. He would brush it every night. It was a kind of ritual for them, something that calmed him down after a stressful day at work. He even let Keir and I brush her hair a few strokes at the ends when we were younger. She would be seated at her vanity and the longest part of her hair reached the floor. Dad told us he couldn’t bend down all that way and we had to help.”
Keir massaged her calves while his brother reminisced for both of them. The massage was soft but firm enough to tell her he was focused on her, still in the now. Kade had drifted off in his memory. When he finished speaking and came back, he gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze. Talking about Haunani was good for the twins.
“She sounds wonderful,” Tess said. “I wish I could have met her.”
“If the accident never happened, you would have,” Kade said, sounding full of recrimination again.
She wouldn't let him sink into despair again.
“Kade?” Tess asked to regain his attention.
She reached a hand up and cupped his face.
He looked at her, his blue eyes dark. Winter and summer. Her first impression of Kade’s interesting mixed-heritage had been more accurate than she’d guessed.
“I know you. It didn’t take long because I got to see how you’d react under stressful situations. You saved me the first day we met. I took you to meet my mother when she was in the middle of a psychotic break. I found out how you would react when someone holds a gun to your head. Don’t tell me now that you are weak or careless. I know better. Something happened to your mother, something awful. I don’t think you are to blame.”
Keir’s massaging hands stopped. “She was stabbed.”
Tess felt her brain stutter and backfire, all the words she was about to say, gone in a moment of shock.
It wasn’t an accident. Their mother had been murdered.
“I didn’t see it happen,” Kade said into the fragile silence. “Or, at least, I don’t remember. They found me unconscious on the driver’s side.”
“You could have been killed, too,” Tess mumbled.
Kade wrapped his fingers around her wrist of the hand she had cupping his jaw. He gently tugged her hand down to his chest, then wrapped his own arms around her in a hug.
Warmth and strength squeezed around her, not too tight but reassuring.
“Exactly what I told him,” Keir said. “I could have lost my mother and my brother.”
Tess pulled out of Kade’s hug, whispering Keir’s name to explain to Kade why she was leaving his arms. Shifting over, she crawled onto Keir’s lap and tried to hug him as well.
Keir kissed her.
It was soft and sweet, a closed-mouthed brush of his lips. He didn’t linger, giving her one last kiss before cupping her face and pushing her back enough to stare into her eyes.
These tragic boys needed so much love and affection. Her heart squeezed.
“That is so awful. I can’t even begin to imagine how you both felt,” Tess whispered.
“As if I had died,” Keir said.
“I wanted to be dead,” Kade said.
Tess turned to Kade.
“But you were stronger. You didn’t give up. All of you didn’t give up,” Tess said, making sure to include War and Bastion as she looked behind her.
They had both gotten out of their seats and were close. She looked back at the twins, glad the other guys were at her back. The twins seemed so alone. They needed to know that wasn’t true.
“None of us are quitters,” Tess said with renewed purpose. She had to get to the bottom of this mystery. “Tell me what you do remember, Kade, and then, we’re going to plan what to do about it together.”
“I don’t remember much,” Kade admitted. “Not even the hospital the first night. Only what others told me.”
“The Watsons found them,” Keir said. “They said the car reeked of alcohol. It was beer. Dozens of cheap beer bottles. Mom and I, neither of us liked beer. There was a broken beer bottle by my mom's feet. The cops figured she had been drinking it while Kade was driving and got them into the accident. The airbags were blown, could have busted the bottle against her neck.”
It wasn't a completely unreasonable assumption. What didn't make sense was why Kade would go to pick up his mother if she had been drinking, yet also, he had been drinking himself at the time. Beer that neither of them drank normally.
It had clearly been staging the scene.
That meant the accident had been deliberate. Murder committed.
“How could the cops miss this?” Tess asked, shaking her head. None of this made sense.
“The Watsons pulled me out of the car and called for an ambulance. As I said, I don't remember, but that was a part of the statement the Watsons gave to the police. They said my mother was almost decap—” Kade broke off. “Her head flopped around like a daisy on a broken stalk was what Mrs. Watson said
in her statement.”
Tess flinched, but Kade swallowed and quickly continued his story.
“Jensen left his signature on the wreck, a gang tag,” Kade said. “The coroner and the police decided that was because of a drug deal gone bad. A message. But they didn't blame the gangs for the accident itself. They figured what happened between my mother and Jensen was before she got in the car. That's why it was so important for Bastion to steal the drugs and hide them. They would have considered it a closed case if they found the evidence of Mom’s wrong-doing, as they had supposed.”
“Jensen branded Kade,” Keir quickly added.
“What do you mean branded?” Tess asked. “Like a tattoo or some mark? And why?”
“He does it to all his kills or to-be killed,” Bastion answered. “Everyone on the streets recognizes Jensen’s brand. He's got a custom cigarette car-lighter with a skull and cross. Except it isn't meant to be used in a car. Push of the button and it heats up the metal stamp inside. He brands anyone that crosses him. If you're not dead when you get the brand, you’re considered marked for death. He carries the damn thing on his key ring like a toy fob.”
“Where is it?” Tess shouted. She crawled back over to Kade and started pulling at his shirt.
“Back of my neck. It’s why I keep my hair a bit long,” Kade said.
He sighed and bent his head down, so Tess could get a proper look. She felt it before she saw it, her fingers brushing over the slightly marred skin.
They had done a quick, sloppy job. Obviously in a hurry.
“Oh, my God,” Tess whispered over the back of his neck. “Does this mean that you are on their hit list? You have to tell the cops. They have to protect you!”
Kade straightened back up. He let Tess keep her fingers on the mark, but he made her look at his eyes instead of the brand.
“No police. We can't afford the risk. Bastion is in on it now because of the drugs. Jensen hasn't really come near me. Too much heat. The police aren’t stupid. They might not have anything worth prosecuting, but they know something is up. It works in our favour and keeps the police from looking too closely at us.”
“How about your father? He's a lawyer, isn't he?” Tess asked.
“Yeah, he fought hard to keep Kade out of jail, at least,” Keir said. “But we don't know that Dad is totally innocent. His client list reads like it’s from Jensen’s gang.”
Tess sighed. It was loud and long.
She slumped against Keir from her position on Kade’s lap. Keir helped her lay down again, letting her rest her upper back and shoulders on his lap. Kade pulled her legs up over his thighs. Her position was switched from earlier. This time, Kade got to give her a massage of her calves.
Bastion looked down at her. “Well, busybody, can you see why we couldn't just tell you the whole truth at first?”
“Yeah, I don't blame you. Hearing what I said in front of my dad, I’m surprised you trusted me with this much now.”
“I’m glad that we finally did,” Kade said. “It's never going to be easy to talk about what happened to our mom, but I needed to share it with you. Now that you know, I feel like it'll be more natural to tell you other stories about our mother. She was a really big part of our lives. Being afraid to talk about her because of the accident cuts out such a big chunk of who we are and how we have lived.”
“It’s true,” Keir said. “We also need you to understand how dangerous all of this is before you go marching back into Daniels.”
“She’s not going to be going back to the bar,” War said. “I can promise you that I won’t be polite about removing you from the premises if there is another time.”
“You guys including yourselves in the ban from Daniels?” Tess asked.
She didn't look at War, her gaze zeroing in on Bastion’s blues instead. He was still the most dominant one in the room, their leader. He’d wrapped his tie around her throat, just in case any of them had forgotten about it for a moment.
“Nothing is out of the question, right now. Whatever it takes to keep you safe and get bastards like Jensen behind bars so that he can’t hurt anyone else,” Bastion said.
His blues added that she was welcome to protest, but his mind was already made up.
“Are you guys going to tell me your big plan now that I know what happened to Haunani?” Tess asked, searching for another way to be involved.
She had to help them. They couldn’t dump this tragic story at her feet and expect her to forget about everything, going on with her life normally.
Life goes on.
Did it really? Was it living to be always looking back into the past with regrets, to constantly be missing those that had died? How could the twins go on living when the most important person in their lives had been murdered and justice had yet to be served?
“I like hearing her name again,” Keir said.
It wasn't the reply she had been looking for, but Tess realized this was more important to the twins at the moment.
“I would like it if the two of you took turns telling me something about Haunani each day. I'll tell you something about Maddy, too,” Tess offered.
“Tell her,” Kade said. “Tess is in this with us now. Greg isn't going to let her go, right, Pumpkin?”
“Yeah, I’m screwed. I ran from Greg, not you guys,” Tess admitted.
War grumbled a curse. At least she assumed it was a swear word. He wasn't speaking in English, accent rough and ready to rumble.
“I warned you not to run from the devil,” Bastion said, sounding calmer than the rest of them.
“She didn't trust us to protect her,” War accused, rightly. “Do you have any idea of the resources at my fingertips? How could you run away without a plan? That was exactly the kind of move an abusive asshole like Greg would prefer—to isolate his victims.”
“I’m not a victim,” Tess said, feeling angry.
It was different than earlier, when her anger had been on behalf of someone else: the guys and what had happened to them. War made her angry for herself.
Greg put her in the position of an abused child. She wasn't going to allow him that power. Running away had been a weakness.
“You acted like a victim,” War said, confirming what Tess had been thinking. “I know he caught you by surprise. Everything happened so quickly, none of us were prepared. And I'm not the type of guy that does anything without preparation. I can't imagine what it was like for you to find out that your mother had been under Greg’s thumb, to see your twin siblings come into the house with his arm around each of their necks, figuratively.”
“I was scared. Do you think he knew?” Tess asked.
“Fuck no,” Bastion answered. “You were magnificent. Just don't ever do it again.”
“Where do we go from here?” Keir asked.
“Our plan to uncover evidence of our mother's murder and the reasons for it were stalled before you came and stirred the pot at Daniels,” Kade said.
“I don't think that we need to do anything more now that Tess has gotten their attention. Months of Kade acting like a punk, strung out on drugs and easy pickings for Jensen, never got them to snap at the bait,” War said.
“Tess represents lower-lying fruit,” Bastion said. “She’s vulnerable. The twins have a lawyer father and they could never be as equally attacked without consequences.”
“Do you think they were scared to approach Kade?” Tess asked, mind already racing ahead with ways to take advantage of her perceived weakness.
“Yeah, I would say that somebody was smart enough to question Kade’s transformation into a useless punk from a perfect student,” War said. “Only a few of the street-level sellers ever approached Kade, and even then, it was for a single buy, personal use. Nothing big enough for us to trace back up the supply line to the guys we really wanted to catch.”
“You guys can’t expect to do a drug bust all on your own,” Tess pointed out, reasonably, she thought.
“We are willing to bring in outs
ide help. Hired and under our control,” Bastion said.
“You didn't want me getting involved until you had something solid,” War retorted, sounding rather put off about it.
“We didn't want anyone else getting their hands dirty if it could be helped,” Kade said.
“So I'm not the only one they're stopping from helping them?” Tess asked War, giving him a commiserating look.
“I’m afraid that the two of us are late additions to the Phoenix club,” War explained. “The lone-wolf act ends now. Bastion isn't about to risk anything else happening to you because he was too proud to ask for help.”
“I know this is primarily about what happened to Haunani,” Tess said to the twins. “So it’s your choice if the rest of us get involved. I don’t want to break up what was obviously a fragile alliance.”
Keir sighed.
“Pumpkin, we're not about to break. What happened is horrible. We needed some time alone. War is right. Keeping him and you out now will only complicate things further. Obviously, you have ties to everything through Greg—no blame, let me be clear. You couldn’t have known at the time that Greg was involved with the same people that killed our mother. Aren't you worried at all about us using you for our own means?”
“Like you would selfishly use me and toss me out?” Tess challenged. “No, that's not what I think at all. Before you even met Greg, I was the one trying to keep a bit of distance because of what was going on with my family. You guys were there for me, for my mom and the kids. I can’t offer you anything less.”
Tess rose from where she’d been lying over the twins. She wanted to talk to them both while looking them in the eyes, and better standing than lying down.
Kade ruined her plan when he also stood up from the couch, giving Tess a taste of intimidation, although she was sure it was unintended. Keir was quick to stand up next, looming behind her.
“You can't get away now,” Kade said. He cupped her face, thumb brushing along her jawline. “There will be no parting ways once we all solve our family problems. This isn't counselling or treatment. We want a friendship, a relationship that goes deeper than even your family ties.”
Duplicity (Victory Lap Book 2) Page 12