Andrew
“What do you mean you lost them?!” I yell when Costin flops down on the couch beside me a few hours later. I had the room cleared after Poppet’s little scene. Another moment I am really in awe of, but damn if she doesn’t pick the most fucked up moments.
“I mean everything else slipped my mind when I heard E screaming. Can you blame me? With everything happening, we were afraid someone was… touching her,” Costin says, pulling at his hair.
“You’re sure they are the same couple? What did he call them?”
“Lilabelle and Kendrick. They were… close. Andrew, something is seriously wrong. We need to get them back here.”
“I already have tons of requests for them. The dance left an impression. Douglass will bring them back. He will love the attention, especially if he has groomed them himself.” I slam my tumbler on the table, feeling sick. There are monsters like me, and there are monsters like him. Neither of us deserves to breathe, but he deserves a special kind of death. A slow death. A painful death. I am the perfect kind of monster to give it to him, too.
“That’s all you know? You said the boy called her Lilabelle Fayre Maxfield. That is oddly close to-” I start but notice Abel standing inside the doorway.
“It can’t be. Costin, what did you see? What did you hear?!” Abel storms over to us, lifting Costin from the couch by the front of his shirt.
“Abel, I don’t know. I don’t know who she was. That’s what I heard. Calm the fuck down!” Costin shouts, pulling away roughly.
“Fayre? Andrew, where did she go? You said she left! Where. Did. She. Go?!” Abel shakes with rage, and I stand. If this man snaps, I don’t know if I can shoot him fast enough. He could kill me, I know it. He’s loyal, but if he knows that I asked Richard to relocate his girl, he will kill me.
“Away, Abel. When she left here, she was very much alive. I told you that. She wanted out of this life, and I let her walk.” I shrug… I mean, I did, kinda. Fuck if I knew where she went or-
“Was she pregnant, Andrew? Was that girl my…?” He doubles over like he’s been physically struck.
“I don’t know, Abel,” I reply honestly. Back then, I didn’t care. Not until it happened to me. Fuck.
“Wait, what’s happening?” Costin stands beside us.
“The picture-” Abel pulls it from his pocket. “She looks just like Fayre, my ex-fiancée.”
“Lilabelle Fayre Maxfield. Abel Maxfield. Holy shit. She’s your daughter.” Costin goes white. “No wonder he didn’t come to the other parties. You were here. But tonight, you worked below. He knows.”
“We have to find her.” Abel shakes me.
“We will find her. We’ll find them both, and I want Douglass. He has some questions to answer.”
“He’s mine, Andrew,” Abel hisses. “I am leaving. I’ll find them.”
“No, you can’t, Abel. If he knows you are looking, we don’t know what he could do,” I tell him, and he snarls. If he finds Douglass first, he might find out I set this in motion. Unknowingly, but still. “Let me send a team. Jaxx can oversee it. There is a reason that Joshua wanted him on this. Let him do his fucking job. Let it sit until after the wedding. It’s two days. He will relax, and that is when we will snatch him. You accompany Poppet later today, and we will throw Jaxx a bachelor party here… invite his dancers. We. Will. Get. Them.”
“You protect my girl, Abel, and I will get yours,” Costin promises.
“You better. Both of you.” Abel turns, leaving the room. “Come on, Costin. We have a birthday to celebrate. I won’t let her down, too.”
They both leave the room, and I immediately start making calls. I will get them back here, and I will kill the motherfucker. Call it a warmup. This is going to lead me to the asshole after my daughter. Talk about two birds with one stone.
Chapter Fourteen
Costin
Grabbing her bags from my closet, I meet Abel outside her bedroom door. With everything they have planned for the wedding, I figured we could move up our normal gift routine to this morning. It might be tough to get her alone later, and I really need to see how she is now.
“Jaxx?” I look into his empty room.
“Must be with E.” Abel motions to her room.
We step in yelling, “Happy birth-“ and freeze.
“Oh, shit!” Abel turns away from the bed.
“OMG, knock. Would it kill you all to knock?” She shrieks, yanking the blankets over her head as Jaxx chuckles then stands and stretches.
“You motherfucking son of a bitch, I’ll fucking gut you!” I storm towards him, but Abel blocks my path.
“That’s going to have to wait, Costin,” Jaxx replies calmly, blocking her from view and pulling back the blanket, whispering something to her.
“Jaxxson?” Abel rubs his neck.
“What the fuck, man?”
“It’s nothing-“ Jaxx is interrupted
“Drop it guys,” She stands from the bed, wearing his shirt which stops right below her knees and is nearly see-through. “I was a mess and made a damn fool of myself. Plus, neither of you cared two shits about me last night, so why even ask now?”
Jaxx’s head snaps to her, and his jaw tenses. “Baby, you didn’t-” she holds up a hand, shaking her head.
“I begged him to take me to bed, and he turned me down, so just let it fucking go. He didn’t do anything. I did. Pathetic, huh?” She snorts, walking to her bathroom and placing a hand on the knob. She glances at her bandaged arm and then looks back at the three of us.
“I needed help. I’m sorry. I just… it was too dark in here.” She rubs her chest absently. “So don’t yell at him. I’m not something fragile you need to protect… not anymore. I’m just trying to survive long enough to set things right. Just like I told Jaxx last night.” She looks at me, ignoring her tears, exposing the depth of her pain, and taking me down with her. “There was no risk to me, nothing left to damage. You can’t break something that has already been demolished. All that’s left to do is wade through the rubble. Thank you for being there for me, Jaxx. I’m sorry I put you in that kind of position.”
She shuts and locks the bathroom door behind her as we stare at the now empty space. Jaxx moves first, rushing toward the door, ready to tear it down.
“Whoa, Jaxx, wait. What happened? Give her a minute, and talk to us,” Abel says.
“Fuck you both! I thought I got through to her last night when we talked, but you had to come in here, insinuating things, and she shut down… again,” he roars, brushing the hair from his face. “What happened? After she left the basement, I brought her up here to watch a movie, to try to calm her down. She said she wanted to shower, but not three minutes later, I heard her sobbing. I went in to check on her and found her curled in a ball under the bench, ice-cold. I picked her up to get her out of the cold water, and she looked at me as if I had all of the answers. Like I could put her back together. She wanted me to take away her pain. I couldn’t do it. I just couldn’t use her like that even if she was asking for it. She is still too fragile; how could I? So we talked. I tried to take care of her heart, and then she fell asleep to me reading to her just like she used to… before. Peacefully. ”