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CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

BLAKE

I watch as Ro disappears upstairs, then enter the lounge. Syd is sitting on the sofa, staring off into space.

“Hey, dinner won’t be long,” I say as I sit beside her.

“Thanks,” she mumbles without looking at me. “I think Roman is pissed off with me,” she adds, finally facing me.

“What happened?”

“I asked him about his family,” she says with a shrug.

“Yeah, that’s a sore subject. Not your fault though. You weren’t to know.”

“I guess.” She looks at her hands in her lap, twirling her fingers. “So, you cook, huh?”

I sit back, happy for her change of topic. “Don’t sound so surprised. I went to culinary school for a year before I had to leave.”

“What are you making?”

I’m glad she didn’t ask why I left culinary school. Like with Ro’s family, my reasons for quitting my dream job are a conversation best left to another time. We have more than enough to work through.

“As long as you like pasta, you’ll be fine.” I give her a wink. We sit in silence for a couple of minutes, and I can see her gaze flicking back and forth to the box on the coffee table.

“You don’t need to wait for us if you want to look through it,” I tell her, leaning over and picking up the box. Placing it between us, I flip the lid open. I reach in, pulling out the photos and hold them out to her.

She looks at the photos then to me, holding my gaze.

“Just look through them. I know it hurts, but it might help too.”

She finally takes them, but instead of looking at them, her hand drops back to her lap where it remains.

“Just going to check on dinner,” I say as I get up and leave her to it.

I check on the pasta before heading upstairs to find Ro and check he’s okay. I find him laid out on the bed like a fucking starfish.

“Where is she?” he asks without moving.

“Looking through the photos from the box, well, I left her with them. Whether she does or not is another question.” I climb onto the bed and lay beside him, propped up on my elbow. He cracks an eye open, side-eyeing me. “She thinks she pissed you off.”

“Whatever made her think that,” he deadpans and closes his eye again.

At the risk of actually pissing him off, I push up and swing a leg over so I’m straddling him.

“Don’t push it, Blake,” he warns.

I drop over the top of him, an arm either side, and say, “Why, what are you going to do about it?” And like a child poking the bear, I roll my hips as I lick the side of his face before leaping off and running downstairs.

“Blake,” he roars as he stomps after me.

“Sorry, got to check on the food,” I call back. Passing the lounge, Syd looks up wearing a frown, but I don’t stop, though I’m happy to see she has been going through the photos.

Roman doesn’t follow me to the kitchen, and my guess is he stopped to talk to Syd, so I dish dinner up, then carry it through to them.

“Careful, the bowl is hot,” I say as I pass Syd hers along with a fork.

“Thanks.” She takes it and tucks right in. A second later a groan of pleasure comes from her, causing Ro and me to stop and look at her. “Wow, Blake this is delicious,” she says, stabbing another forkful, then looking up to find the pair of us watching her. Tilting her head, she smiles and says, “This is another dirty fries moment, right?”

I laugh as Ro looks on bemused. “Yeah, it is. Watch those noises, Syd, unless you want to become the meal.”

“Oh,” is all she manages to say.

It pleases me to see that despite the dark cloud of revelations and her missing father she can still appreciate a little humour. With a sprinkle of burning desire for good measure.

After that we eat in silence, and I see Ro found a charger for Kincaid’s phone. Once we have finished, I clear the bowls and bring back beers for me and Ro and a coke for Syd.

When I hold it out to her, she raises a brow. “You want me to swap it?”

“No, it’s fine. Probably not a good idea for me to drink anyway.” She opens it a takes a mouthful. “Did you find anything we can use to locate JC on the phone,” she asks,

“Nothing yet, but Oz will be round in the morning to see if he can trace the messages,” Ro tells her, although he doesn’t sound enthusiastic.

She rummages around in the box until she finds what she’s looking for. “So, it seems my name isn’t even Sydney. It’s Summer.” She leans over and hands the pieces of paper to Roman along with a passport. “The top one is a copy of the birth certificate I have with the name Sydney and is the one I used to get a driving licence. I didn’t even know I had a passport. Just another damn secret.”

Roman passes the documents to me, and I note the quality of the counterfeit certificate. The passport is the same, but the surname is different. “This is his backup plan, Syd.”

“What do you mean,” she asks as I give the documents back to her.

“Kincaid was smart and made sure that if he was ever discovered as Warren Burns, you’d have a way to leave the country.”

“And that’s meant to make all this better? It’s okay, Sydney, your whole existence is a fucking lie, but here’s another lie so you can avoid being discovered.”

Ro leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees, and looks up at her. “He was, still is, trying to protect you.”

“I bet it hurt getting those words out,” she bites back flippantly. She sighs, tossing the documents back into the box. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that. It’s just… I don’t even know what it is.” She flops back against the sofa, looking tired.

“Look, it’s getting late, and emotions are high. We can’t do anymore tonight,” I say, hoping to relief some of the tension.

Syd picks up a couple of photos she had separated from the pile and passes them to me. “I found these. That’s Pa and I think the other guy is JC. I doubt they are much use as he probably looks nothing like that now.” She places the box back on the table as she stands. “I’m going to bed. Thanks for dinner, and again, I’m sorry for snapping, Roman. Night.”

I wait until I hear Syd close her door, then I say, “Where do you think Kincaid is?”

“Fuck knows. The guy seems to have vanished. I had Oz swing by the church on his way home, but there was no sign of him.” He pauses, seeming to consider his next words. “Honestly, I think he knows where JC is, or JC found him. Considering the state he left him in, the hospital is the only place he could have been.”

“Yeah, I’m still not sure why JC didn’t finish him off. Leaving him alive is a risk.”

“Not really. Think about it, Kincaid has been keeping his secret for years, why would he give JC up now? It’s all part of the sick fucker’s game.”

Makes sense that Kincaid’s attack would bring questions possibly from the police, but especially from Syd. Maybe that was his plan all along. I don’t want to think about how much that plan aligns with our original one. Hurting Sydney to get to her father is a big fuck no now.

Before following Ro up to bed, I send a message to Oz telling him to find this son of a bitch.