“Women have been having babies forever,” Jade said. “This is family. I’m here for you guys.”
“They were just protecting you, blue eyes,” Talon said. “You’ve had a difficult time.”
“Time to stop protecting me,” Jade said, her blue eyes on fire. “This is my family. I want to help.”
“That would be a big help,” Joe said. “The hacker we hired seems to have disappeared.”
“Disappeared?” Talon shook his head. “I don’t want Jade in any danger. If they can take Mom—”
“Tal,” Jade said. “No one is going to take me anywhere. Unlike your mother, I’m fully aware of my surroundings and won’t put myself in danger. Besides, with the safeties I’ve had installed in all the databases, no one will even know I was there.”
“These guys can hack into anything,” Ryan said. “They changed Mom’s and Marj’s birth certificates. Remember?”
“Which is exactly why I had additional security installed,” Jade said. “Besides, I’m not going to change anything. I’m just doing research.”
“I don’t like this,” Talon said.
“This is something I can do to help,” Jade countered. “And I intend to do it.”
I silently rejoiced at Jade’s chutzpah. I loved all my brothers dearly, but they took the Alpha male thing to a new level.
“We also need to go through the boxes in the crawl space,” Joe said. “There might be some information.”
“And I found old files at my father’s cabin,” Bryce said. “Joe and I are going to go through them later tonight.”
Ruby sighed. “Here we go again.”
“I know,” Ryan said. “I’m sorry, baby.”
“Don’t be. And by the way, you all seem to be forgetting something important. I was a detective. I’ll be happy to look through boxes, files, or help Jade. She’s right. This is family. And Daphne may not be your natural mother, Ryan, but she did raise you for seven years.”
Ryan nodded, an absent look in his eyes.
“Just so we’re all clear,” Joe said, “no one speaks of any of this inside our homes.”
“This is crazy,” Melanie said. “If our homes are bu
gged, we need to take care of it. Now. It’s a total violation. It’s like mental rape.”
“I agree,” Ruby said. “I’ll check our homes myself. Why haven’t you told me about this before now? I’ll say it again. I was a detective, for God’s sake.”
Ruby had a good point, but I didn’t listen to my brothers’ replies. I sat, saying mostly nothing. My mother was foremost on my mind. I hadn’t known her long, but she was mine, and I wanted her safe. Safe and back where she belonged, which wouldn’t be at that same facility. Their security was shit.
Only their security wasn’t shit. That’s what worried me most of all. This had Wendy Madigan and the rest of the Future Lawmakers Club written all over it.
Except they were all dead.
Bryce sat next to me, his strength emanating from him. Empty shell? No way. He sold himself way short. His look of determination made him all the more magnificent.
If only we could escape for a little while, forget about all this other stuff and celebrate our love.
If only…
We’d already eaten dinner, but our plates were still mostly full. No one had an appetite tonight.
Just worry and torment. You’d think we’d be used to it.
Chapter Thirty-Three