“The important thing is we know where she is. Vegas, you and I are going to head over there to talk to her. Your mother will stay here with Consuela to coordinate things. Rio, you check Nevada’s desktop computer to see what you can find,” Pop instructed. “Paris, go get Sasha and head out to the house in the Hamptons. Maybe we’ll get lucky and he’s out there. Junior, go have a talk with our friends at the Port Authority and make sure Nevada hasn’t purchased a ticket out of town. And ping his phone again.”
“No!” Consuela shouted. “I am not staying here. I am going to that bitch’s place and burn it down if she doesn’t give me my son.”
My mother stood up. “No, you’re not. You’re going to do exactly what LC said because you don’t want your son to hate you. You want him to come back here and hug you. To say he’s sorry and that he loves you. You go over there and humiliate him, and he may never speak to you again. He’s not a little boy anymore, Consuela. It doesn’t matter how much we want him to be.”
Consuela didn’t reply, but Ma’s speech did take some of the steam out of her. She sat back down, glaring at Vegas the whole time. Pop reiterated his instructions, and we all quickly disbanded without further questions, happy to leave my mother to deal with a pissed off Consuela.
I was halfway up the stairs headed to Nevada’s room when my phone rang.
“Hey, Sebastian. Look, I’m in the middle of a crisis. Can I call you back?”
“Yeah, sure, but I been thinking about this situation you’re in, and there’s something you should think about before you go running around telling everybody about this Roman guy.”
“And what’s that?” I really didn’t like that he was trying to dictate what I told my family.
“Your mother was pregnant with twins, right?”
“Yeah.”
“You and this Roman look identical, right?”
“You tell me. It was your people who thought he was me down at the club,” I shot back.
“Rio, that’s not fair. I didn’t—”
“Look, I told you I have a lotta shit going on here right now, and I’m really stressed out. Just get to the point, Sebastian,” I said.
“Fine. What if Paris was switched at birth? What if she’s the one who may not be a Duncan?”
He was making my head hurt. “Do you know what you’re saying?”
“Hey, you know I like Paris. That’s why I’m telling you to slow your roll and think this through before you go telling anyone about that birth certificate. This could seriously change your family dynamic and fuck some things up in a big way.”
I paused for a second as his words settled in my mind. His theory actually made some sense, and that scared the hell out of me. Paris had always been my twin, my second half, my best fucking friend. What would happen to her—to us!—if all of a sudden she wasn’t a Duncan?
“Rio, you there?” Sebastian snapped me out of my nightmarish thoughts.
“Why did you have to put that shit in my head?”
“I’m sorry. I just thought it was something you should think about before you tell Paris about Roman.” He paused. “Shit, you didn’t tell Paris yet, did you?”
“No, I didn’t tell Paris yet.”
“Tell me what?”
I froze at the sound of her voice, then turned around slowly. Paris was standing right behind me. I pulled the phone away from my ear and stared at her. DNA or not, she was still my sister, and I loved her. The last thing on this earth I wanted to do was hurt her, and by revealing the secret about Roman, I would hurt her deeply. Being a Duncan was important to me, but it was everything to Paris. Losing that identity would be the equivalent of me ripping out her heart with my bare hands.
“Sabastian wants us to come down to South Beach next month for his birthday party.” It wasn’t a lie. He had asked us to come, just not during this conversation.
“Tell him I’m there. I could use a little fun in the sun.”
“Yo, Sebastian, I’ll call you and we can finish this conversation later,” I said into the phone and then ended the call without a goodbye.
“Is that what you needed to tell me earlier?” she asked as we headed down the hall.
“Yeah, that was it,” I said before ducking into Nevada’s room to search his computer for clues.
Vegas
38
“Hey, baby, has anyone heard from him?” Marie greeted me with a hug and wrapped her arms around my neck. The deep frown lines in her forehead let me know that she was just as worried as I was.
“No, not yet,” I said as Pop and I followed her into her office. When we walked inside, I was surprised to see Bubba, the head of security, waiting. He was normally posted where he could monitor who went up and down the spiral staircase that led to the suites.
“Hey, Vegas.”
“Bubba.” I nodded, then turned to Marie. “Did you talk to Kia?”
“Well, before we get to that, Bubba has something to tell you,” Marie said.
My attention went back to the giant of a man. “What’s up?”
“Your son was here the other day, Vegas. But I swear I didn’t know who he was when I caught him.” Bubba looked down.
“Nevada was here?” My voice escalated as I turned to my fiancée. “And nobody said anything to me?”
“I just found out about this ten minutes ago, sweetheart,” Marie explained. “Apparently he came by to see Kia.”
“Where is this girl?” Pop demanded.
“She’s not here,” Marie said. “No one has seen her since Nevada disappeared. Bubba checked her room right before you got here. He found their phones and your son’s laptop. They’re in her room.”
“Go get it!” I yelled, glancing at Pop. That was Nevada’s doing. He knew we’d be tracking his phone and internet
