Page 31

Neri leaned forward and gripped Kane’s hands. “I’m sorry you lost Annabelle, Kane. I can never imagine what you went through.”

He squeezed back, but they all jerked when Xander shouted in excitement.

Daddy!

Xander flinched and glanced upstairs, talking to his son. He smiled as they finished the conversation and turned back to the group and focused on Neri. Hunter, without thinking, lifted Neri into his arms and settled back on the chair with her curled on his lap.

“Your name is Nerissa, or Neri, Elias, no middle name listed. You have a birth certificate but there are no names other than yours. It lists your birthdate as September 11, 1996 born at Snowfall Memorial Hospital and a month after your birth, two firemen discovered you alone wrapped in a blanket on their doorstep. Soon after, the state placed in a group home until you were eleven. After you went to a foster home where you lived with your foster mother until you were eighteen. Her name was—”

“Thalia Costa,” Neri mumbled.

“Yeah,” Xander paused.

Neri nodded, indicating she was ready for more.

“After you graduated high school, you took online college classes starting in early 2014.”

“I remember… I wanted to stay home because a doctor diagnosed Thalia with breast cancer and I wanted to take care of her. She loved me the moment I stepped into her home and despite everything in my being telling me not to trust her, I loved her too.”

Hunter hugged her, unable to do anything to take the pain away. And she was shaking with it. Everything in him wanted to rage, but he pressed his lips to her hair and hugged her.

“According to what I found, you aced almost three years of online classes. But in March 2016, there was an initial report taken by the Snowfall police. Thalia reported you missing after you told her you were making a quick run to the store early that morning. She worried all day and by that evening, you hadn’t come back and you weren’t answering your cell. Although the police took the initial report, no one investigated until three days later, when Thalia visited the police station again and filed a formal report,” Xander said.

Neri opened her mind to him and he closed his eyes. She played through her memories of her time with Thalia. The older woman was single, but he spotted the love in Thalia’s eyes whenever she looked at Neri and Hunter knew he had a smile on his face. Soon, Neri’s memories of Thalia became fuzzy and then black.

“You don’t remember that day?” Hunter asked.

She wiped at her eyes and shook her head. Her brows drew down, and she tried to concentrate, but Hunter knew forcing memories wasn’t what Neri needed.

“Hey, angel, it’s okay. Xander has more information and your memories will come in time.”

Nodding her understanding, she blinked her eyes open and glanced at Xander. “What happened to Thalia?”

“Her chemo was a success. In the police report, she told the police finding you made her strong and until the day they told her you were dead, she believed you were somewhere out there in the world. She still calls the detective assigned to your case each week for an update. He noted on your file it keeps Thalia healthy, trying to find you,” Xander sounded impressed.

“Good. I’ll visit her, as soon as I come up with an excuse.”

Hunter shook his head. “I don’t think you have to. She wants to see you. Tell her the truth about you. She’s your family.”

The others in the room agreed with him and after Neri smiled at them and squeezed Hunter’s hand, she turned back to Xander.

“Did the police find any evidence of what happened?”

“No. They found your car abandoned a mile from the store. Your purse, keys, and cell were missing, never found. They searched surveillance of the store but there was nothing on the video. No one followed you in or out of the store and your purchases were in the trunk. No witnesses and despite assurances from Thalia you didn’t run away, they took a year to list you as a possible kidnap victim. Wait.”

Xander’s fingers flew over the keyboard and he checked something he’d thought of and Hunter held his breath as the snow leopard’s eyes widened in alarm.

“Well, fuck. They found your car across the street from Standard and although they had high-tech surveillance over every inch of the complex, the police stated the system was under maintenance at the same time you disappeared so no footage.”

Liv scoffed and with a snarl, spoke. “Un-fucking-believable.”

Everyone in the room froze before they turned to look at her.

“I’ve never heard you use the word fuck before,” Hunter said.

“Think about it. They kidnapped Neri six months after I fled with the information on the bioweapon. At the end of that same month I left, you rescued Ara along with the shifters and vampire from Standard.”

Reaper scoffed. Hunter and the others chuckled because Ara evaded him for a month after she escaped from Standard on her own.

“Don’t you realize what that means?” Liv snapped.

At their confused glances at each other, she continued. “Neri wasn’t a shifter at the time of her disappearance and we rescued all the immortals held captive, so who turned her?”

Ah, fuck.