“Then you know I was kidnapped too, as a child,” Tristan said. “They were going to kill me, but my mother told them to take her instead.”
I gulped. I couldn’t imagine what Tristan went through.
“I’m so sorry,” I said, reaching over to him to hold him tight.
“Don’t be,” Tristan said. “It made me who I am today. Not the scared kid who watched his mother die.”
Dillon and Drake looked so pained too at that moment, as if remembering how horrible and scared they were. Rose was their mother too.
I looked over at Max. He didn’t look as pained as the others. “Max, did you know their mother?”
Max snapped into attention as he looked at me, blinking as though he was just waking up. “Um, yes, she took care of me like a mother. She and my mother were so close.”
“Like sisters?” I asked.
“They were related, if that’s what you want to know,” Tristan’s deep voice said against me. I was still holding Tristan, and he had his arms around me, too.
“How?” I asked. “Does that mean you and Max are related too?”
“My mother was Max’s aunt,” Drake said. “Who moved out of the family when she was 16 years old to declare herself emancipated from her family. She was 19 years old when she married Dad. Somehow that didn’t sit well with them. But it made her family suddenly get in touch with her.”
“Aunt Rose,” Max said. “I always called her that. She was my father’s little sister…the only sister he had. Of course, Grandfather and Grandmother Bradshaw wouldn’t just let Aunt Rose out of the family. They cared for her and loved her.”
“And Megan? What was Aunt Rose to her?” I asked. Megan would have been around Tristan’s age when Rose was kidnapped. She probably wouldn’t have anything to do with it.
“Megan was Rose Bradshaw’s oldest brother’s daughter. So…her niece,” Max said.
“I don’t get it,” I said. “All this time, you were related? Max is your cousin, too?” I asked Tristan, Drake, and Dillon.
Tristan gritted his teeth as he looked at Max, “Yes unfortunately. It’s complicated.”
“I’ll say,” I said.
“I saw Haven first,” Max said suddenly. “Even before she became a Triton…I wanted her before you Tritons ever knew who she was.”
Tristan walked up to Max and grabbed his shirt, lifting him up with the chair he was tied to. “What the hell do you mean you saw her first?”
“Back in New York…I saw her walking with her mother outside her old Academy. Megan and I were sitting at the café across from her school, and there Haven was… just walking with her mother. I swear,” Max blinked, “My heart stopped, and I couldn’t breathe.”
Max was staring at me as though he was remembering the first time he saw me. Tristan, Drake, and Dillon were looking at me then, too.
“See… you all have felt that, too,” Max said. “What it is like to have fallen for Haven.”
“Only you won’t get to fuck her,” Tristan said, pushing him down.
Max looked at me and said, “That’s up to Haven isn’t it?”
“Oh my God,” I said, “I can’t believe you guys. You’re talking about who can fuck me when yes, it is my decision, not Tristan’s…and hey…my mom has been kidnapped. Hello! Let’s go find her.”
Dillon came up to me and hugged me. “Don’t worry, Haven,” he rubbed my back. “We’ll find her.”
“I’m not so sure,” I said. “Given your history…I don’t mean to sound rude and insensitive, but my mother is only in this situation because she married into your family. She wouldn’t have been kidnapped, if she wasn’t.”
Dillon was rubbing my back again. “We’ve been there, Haven. We know how you feel.”
“Come on,” Drake said, “Detective Holmes is waiting. He’s found some evidence.”
Chapter 3
Haven
We arrived as soon as we could at the red brick building that housed a café, my mother’s office, and other offices with shops below.
It had a cozy small town feel to the place still despite my mother disappearance from the building.
I immediately ran out of Tristan’s car towards the building, and up the stairs to Mom’s office.
This was all a dream. A joke even. I had to see for myself that Mom really wasn’t there before I would believe anything.
I walked past the chairs outside to open the door with the old-fashioned frosted glass panel with the words in gold, “Dr. Pamela Hillshire” on it. Then I stopped.
Terrence was there.
A handsome man about Terrence’s age with ebony smooth skin was standing beside him.
“Haven!” Terrence said, coming over to pull me into the room with a big hug. “I’m so sorry.”
“Mom?” I shouted. “Mom?”
I pulled myself away from Terrence and search the entire room, opening the closet, going into the restroom, going into the small kitchenette. She couldn’t have disappeared from here.
“Miss Hillshire?” a very deep resonating voice asked. It was the man with the notepad in his hand. “I’m Detective Holmes.”
I looked into his chocolate eyes and said, “Haven, Mr. Holmes.”
“Haven,” he said, “We will try everything to get your mother home. But for now, I have a few questions to ask you.”
I looked over at Tristan, Drake, Dillon, and Max who had just entered the office.
“I thought you found some evidence,” I said.
Max walked up to me and put his arm around my shoulder. “Baby, don’t worry. We’ll find your mother. We’ll get her back.” He looked over at Terrence and Detective Holmes and said, “Haven’s been worried sick about her mother since she heard. I mean, it’s her mother for God’s sake. Can’t you hurry up with trying to find her? Isn’t time of the essence? What do they want with her?”
I glanced over at Tristan and the Twins, who stood by the door. They clearly did not like Max’s arm around me or that he was playing the dutiful worried and supportive boyfriend, which he was doing a great performance of, but they were going along with it. We all were.
I leaned my head into his chest and began crying. Somehow
