Looking at him… I couldn’t help but think back on the words I’d just heard. But this man was closer to my age. He couldn’t be one of the triplets.

So, he was recruited… or born from one of them.

I stared at his face, realizing that he looked… similar to us, to me and my dad. Just something in his face shape, in his eyes…

Were we…

Cousins?

To do this–

Before he could speak, my mom’s voice cut through the room clearly.

“I’ll stay. You can have me here, just let my son and my mate go free.”

“No, no, Maria. I’ll stay. You take Lee and go.”

The man laughed as my dad tried to do the same, protesting against my mother, the both of them trying to get me out, but in conflict about who would stay behind.

He met my gaze, smiling knowingly.

My heart sank.

He knew that I knew.

The longer I kept silent, the truer it became to him.

It won’t work. Their bargaining… it won’t work at all. And neither, it seemed, would my voice. I’d already picked up on the truth of it all… a truth that my parents didn’t know about.

The man before me, as well as myself, we were the only ones who knew why we’d been brought here.

For what purpose.

And it was all because he’d uttered one name.

I’d heard one name.

And I knew.

I didn’t need to know why his family was doing this. I didn’t need to know their objective to know why we’d been taken.

But my parents… they wouldn’t know.

Because I’d never told them.

And they… it was clear that they hadn’t been awake for his words the last time he’d been in here.

He spread his arms wide, laughing boisterously.

“I could let both of you go. You’re just annoyances anyway.”

My parents froze.

I didn’t need to look to know. I heard it in their voices.

“What?”

“But…”

“You two weren’t part of the plan,” he nonchalantly uttered in the new silence of the room.

I glared.

He didn’t need to do it like this.

Don’t tell them like this.

I felt my parent’s gazes on me as I continued to only stare back at him. A man whose name I didn’t know... a man who had been working with someone else to take us down and bring us here. No. It wasn’t us. It was me. To bring me here, specifically. He didn’t need them, my parents, that is…

He needed me.

They’d been planning this.

For a while.

So, why didn’t he just tell his captives why they were here?

I was here as bait.

And, I guessed, to keep my parents in line.

My parents?

They were here to keep me in line.

He came down to my level, only to lean closer as he looked at me. His smile grew.

“I could agree to let your parents go, if you stay. However, I can’t promise not to stab them in the back the second they step out that door. I don’t want them bringing their powerful friends here. That would ruin all the fun.”

I stayed silent, not letting his words change my expression.

It was exactly like I figured.

They were here to keep me in line, so I didn’t try anything.

Fine.

I won’t.

He laughed.

“Nothing to say? Don’t worry. You’ll get to see her again, one last time in your mortal bodies before we send both of you beyond.”

I felt anger rumble through me. He looked delighted by whatever changed on my face at his words.

“What are you talking about?” My mom asked slowly.

I found my voice. The rage in me spilled out in my words, even as the corner of my mouth ticked up.

“You won’t capture her.”

For the first time, he showed his teeth with his smile.

I knew why.

He’d gotten me to admit it. To admit about her. He was trying to push me. I didn’t like being pushed. I. Pushed. Back.

Even if I couldn’t do a dang thing in this room, I wouldn’t just let him say that about her. He didn’t know her as well as I did. Protection wasn’t one-sided for us. Jane protected me and I protected her, best we could. But that only worked when we were together, not with me… likely half-way across the country, too far for protection like that.

As for him, I didn’t have an inkling of forced respect due to familial bonds, through the blood that likely tied us together. I didn’t give a crap.

Somehow, in his words, he’d just insulted Jane.

I didn’t like it.

I was taking it quite personally.

“I wouldn’t bet on that, if I was sitting in your shoes.” He moved closer to me, whispering. “She’ll be coming for you.” He sniffed loudly, exaggerating, eyes glittering the whole time. “Why wouldn’t she?”

Despite knowing that he knew, despite figuring that he knew much more than anyone else in our lives…

My stomach dropped at his actions, leaving me nauseous.

My eyes widened.

Slowly, I reached a hand to my pocket.

I patted it, feeling nothing between the pieces of fabric and my leg. In a panic, gasping, I roughly patted all of my pockets. The object of my search wasn’t there. It was gone. He… he’d emptied my pockets. He’d taken it. But how’d he even know to take it?

How did he know what it did?

Why it was important…

Of all the information to know, there wasn’t any way that finding that out would’ve been easy – or even possible at all.

“You…”

His laugh filled the room in my shock. He stood, making his way closer to the door before stopping, turning to look back at me with a smirk.

He removed something from his pocket and wiggled it in the air.

“I know much more than you think.”

That…

The bottle.

I was horrified.

The only way to know… He had no way of reading the note. We… we burned it. The–

No.

He’d been listening?

The whole time?

We’d…

We were being watched then?

We hadn’t discussed it any more after that night.

Our private moment…

It was suddenly becoming a lot less private.

I hated it. I hated what he was doing to us, to my fond memories, and to my parents. Jane… Jane, too.

“How did you even find out?” I whispered, tears collecting in my eyes with the fury that raged. It had nowhere to go… so it became tears.

To take advantage of us like that?

“We’ve been watching all of you… mostly her and her family, though.”

Her family?

So, this was a Blackstone thing. Their goal was mostly focused on them?

He opened the door to leave.

He’d just been here to taunt me?

I wanted answers.

“Why?!”

The door closed without another word.

I didn’t move from my spot on the floor. Anger pulsed through me. I hadn’t expected him to answer, but even so… Watching her. Us. I wanted to know why. It wasn’t like he’d answer if I asked him if he was a Blackstone assassin. I doubted he would like that question anyway. Part of me wanted to ask just because of that.

But if he said yes, what could I do?

I didn’t have any special powers like twins did. I wasn’t like my father. And I wasn’t as good of a fighter as my mother… or father, or even Jane herself. I was useless. I was bait.

A bead of sweat rolled down the back of my neck. It was like the heat of my rage was coming from within my bones, transferring it to the rest of me. I snagged the bottom of my shirt in my fists, just to hold onto something.

Some of the tears fell silently, to the floor, to my clothes… just down.

“She? Who were you–”

I gave a bit of a glance back at them, only turning my head partway. It was enough to see my father hold up a hand, cutting her off.

“I think the question to ask…” My father’s voice was cold, sending a shiver down my spine. “Is who did you bite?”

I froze.

“What… what do you mean?”

Trying to hold on to the world I’d been living in before, where it was only us that knew… I said those words to them.

They fell flat.

I didn’t think I’d have to tell them like this.

This wasn’t…

It wasn’t supposed to be like this.

I was going to come back from this trip and then – and then we were going to tell everyone.

We were going to admit it…

We were going to tell them…

The whole truth.