Page 49 of Broken Ties
Ky steps back over to the table and gets the food set out in front of us both, the smell incredible as always. The food at the Draven mansion is always perfect, but there’s something about takeout with my sister in the back of her cafe with hertax paperwork spread out around us and her favorite playlist playing on the speakers that I needed more than I could’ve ever put into words. Before I had my Bond Group, I had Ky. No matter what’s happened to her or me, we’ve had each other’s backs.
Maybe it’s that thought that gets me talking with a little more clarity.
I swallow a mouthful, keeping my eyes on my food, but speaking clearly when I break the comfortable silence. “The problem is that I keep second guessing everything. I’ve always known my own mind, done what I’ve thought was right, and leaned on my Gift to steer the course of my decision. I won’t cross that line with my Bond; that’s not who I want to be as a man and a Bond but… I wasn’t expecting to struggle so much with what the right thing to do is.”
Ky nods slowly, her own mouth full, and I continue before she has the chance to comment. I feel like I have to get this all out now or it’ll slip through my fingers.
I clear my throat. “I trust you more than anyone—if I’m being blinded by my bond by how fucking badly I want this, I trust you to tell me. Rip the plaster off and just… let it air out. Maybe then I’ll finally figure out how to learn to live with it instead of reopening these wounds and bleeding out every time I get my hopes up.”
She nods as she chews slowly, her eyes on the food littering the desk between us, far more than two people could ever eat. It’s been years since I last stumbled into her mind accidentally, even longer since it happened intentionally, but I know her so well it’s not hard to figure out that she’s hesitating.
I let out a breath, my voice coming out like a croak that would embarass me if it were anyone else hearing it. “You don’t have to say it, I’ll stop kidding myself?—”
She cuts me off, her eyes flashing as her gaze meets mine. “Stop, Gryph, it’s not that. It’s just—I don’t want to send you on some wild goose chase when I don’t have anything concrete here.”
The beer pauses on its journey to my lips, clanking harshly when I set it back down a little roughly. “Anything concrete? What the hell does that mean, Ky?”
She sighs, rubbing a hand over her face as she leans back. “Fuck, I’m probably making this into something it’s not but… I read her files, just like you did. I must’ve read them a dozen times every night just in case we missed something, a thousand times in the years she was missing. And… well… something hasn’t sat right with me since Black found her working at that shitty cafe.”
A million things haven’t sat right with me, but I motion for her to continue, not caring how desperate and deranged I must look.
She shrugs at me. “She was fourteen when her parents died and she ran away from you. Now, I know plenty of girls who could’ve survived the streets at fourteen years old without running into trouble or being found by North, but all of them have connections, money, training—fuck, aGift.”
She breaks off for a second, gulping down her wine like she’s gaining some courage from it, and her fingers rub the condensation on her glass as she sets it back down and thinks for a moment before she continues. “She was sheltered by her parents, her files made that clear. Most Gifted families are protective, so that makes sense and didn’t flag with any of us, but… what if it was more than that, Gryph? They moved around a lot, and for no real reason, at least, not on paper. Her mother was repeatedly described as being ‘attentive’ and ‘protective’, enough that those words are burned into my brain.”
Shit.
I have the entire file memorized, and Ky’s not wrong. It wasn’t just her mother either; Oli’s fathers were all described the same way, attentive and protective. From the looks of the reports, my Bond was the center of their world from the moment she was born, loved and cherished, wanting for nothing.
Then her entire family was killed in a car accident. She was the only survivor.
When I look up to meet Ky’s eyes, she pins me to my seat with a hard look. “The hospital staff said your Bond was quiet and timid, that she was too worried to ask for something to eat and had to be prompted to use the bathroom to clean herself up. A girl in that state might run, but how far is she really going to get without North Draven’s resources finding her? He threw everything he had at finding her, Gryph. We all did. How the hell did that scared little girl slip past us all?”
I want to vomit.
“We’d know if she was taken… right?”
Ky shrugs, pushing my food back toward me even though there’s no way I can stomach it now. “Maybe she wasn’t taken, maybe someone else came to get her and she trusted them because she was a scared child. Maybe she’s giving you all such a hard time because she’s traumatized from some grooming asshole or—fuck, I don’t know! All I know for sure is that there’s someone else involved in this; there has to be.”
She stabs at her food again for a second before finally she sighs. “If you really want my advice here, Gryph, it’s that you guysallneed to take a step back and remember that no matter how grown up or mouthy she is now, back then… she was just a kid. You can’t hold that against her forever, and maybe you’re piling onto something that wasn’t her choice to begin with. Maybe she’s not the villain in this story; maybe it’s you.”
SEVENTEEN
NOX
Of the many enduring scars my mother left in her wake, my insomnia is one of the few that routinely benefits my life instead of threatening to destroy it at every opportunity. There’s no getting out of my duties lecturing on campus, and I refuse to let my Tac training slip. So, that only leaves the dark of night to sort through the intel I was able to recover on the now-infamous commandeered scouting mission.
It only makes North’s appearance before me more infuriating.
Impromptu meetings after midnight never bring good news. When they happen in my home office, because Shore’s team is having a whine about me with enough so-called ‘valid points of contention’ that my brother insists on seeking me out immediately to play peacemaker, I’m forced to pull out my bourbon to aim my focus somewhere that won’t end in bloodshed.
Maybe I’m getting as soft as the rest of them are, only I’m bestowing that kindness on my ever-suffering brother instead of that pathetic excuse of a Bond they’re all obsessed with. My stomach curdles at the mere thought of her.
It puts me in a contentiously unforgiving mood, destroying any chance of enjoying the savage vindication I feel when I have a counterpoint for every stupid grievance they’d tattled to North about and force him to admit they’re playing petty games.
Practically collapsing back into the overstuffed armchair opposite my desk, he rubs at his eyes forcefully, his voice bone-tired. “You can’t fault them for throwing down the gauntlet, Nox. You’re the one who blindsided them with a reckless and foolhardy mission that has yet to prove worth the significant risks you took. Half the team would’ve gone with you even if they’d known. I think they’re more pissed that you deceived them than because of the danger they were in.”
With a vicious look over the rim of my glass, I sneer back at him. “Who said I haven’t found anything? I’m just uninterested in discussing the intel with you… you won’t care unless it’s about that stupid girl, anyway.”