Sins of Mine - Mary E. Twomey Page 0,43
middle of any storm. I can smile at cameras and answer dicey policy questions after dealing with the business end of Father’s belt.
A soft smile brushes my face as I tilt my head to the side. “I’ve never doubted you for a second, even when you’re unsure of yourself.”
Instead of going back to her meditation, Charlotte angles forward to wrap her arms around me. Her head finds a safe haven on my shoulder, and my cheek nestles in the softness of her fluffy hair.
Her voice is quiet, like she’s confiding a secret. “Always be my brother.”
“Always,” I agree, wishing I’d had exactly her—exactly this—growing up.
She squeezes me tight before releasing, sitting back so she can hold onto my hands. Cassia snuggles in at her side, offering as much calm to the room as she can.
If only Gray would stop cracking his knuckles.
Charlotte breathes deeply, her stomach moving as her eyes close. Though it takes a few minutes, there’s a serenity that falls, covering us all with a blanket that weights the anxiety we all feel at losing one of our own.
“Relax,” Charlotte tells me. Or herself. I cannot decide.
Her inhales and exhales cast a net of calm over us all, chasing away the chaos that begs us for attention.
My mind finally settles, so Charlotte can draw on whatever peace remains unrattled inside of me, though there may not be much left. The blank canvas is dark behind my eyelids, but as I keep breathing with Charlotte, small spots of brightness flicker like dying Christmas lights. At first, I don’t understand what I’m looking at, but as the lights draw together and concentrate their illumination, I realize a picture is starting to form.
My perfect princess. My queen. Stuck in some sort of lightless closet. Her fist bangs on the door while she screams something I cannot hear.
She doesn’t belong in tight spaces, nor can she handle the dark, and it’s clear she’s trapped inside of both with no mercy in sight. There is something on the back wall, but it’s too dark to make out the untidy scrawl. It’s clear the lights are showing only me where she is, but that she has no such luxury. Arlanna is shrouded in the blackness. Still, she reaches for the writing as she sobs.
Tears streak my queen’s cheeks, her chest jumping as she hyperventilates and sinks to the floor. She sits sideways. Her shoulders touch both the back wall and the closet door. My chest tightens, imagining how cramped she must be.
Again, I watch her scream. Again, I can’t hear a single sound.
“Ouch!” Charlotte squeaks. As she yanks her hands from mine, the vision fades. “You were squeezing my hands too tight, Paxton.”
I stand, ready to go. Though, of course, I have no idea where. I only know it’s a closet.
I sit back down, mildly defeated. “Did you get anything?”
Sloan ambles back down the steps to the tune of Jen telling him to slow down. Bless that poor woman for putting up with a bull like Sloan when he’s just had his kitten snatched away.
Charlotte rubs her temples while Gray leans closer, like he’s readying for the starter pistol to fire. “She’s north at least forty miles. In a ranch house that’s… it’s buried in the woods somewhere.”
Sloan’s shoulders drop as he sets Arlanna’s pink bag on the floor by the front door. “She’s fine, then. Conan took her to the family cottage. It’s where they used to vacation when she was little. He must be trying to play up the father-daughter angle. If he’s taken her there, I can’t imagine he’s resorted to anything foul.”
Sloan lets out a noise that’s filled with haggard relief, but I’m not celebrating yet.
I stand, putting on my jacket. “Not to rock the boat, but I got a flash of Arlanna while Charlotte was having her vision.”
Cassia stands. “What? How?”
I shrug. “I have no idea. I didn’t see the house or get the feel of the location, but I saw Arlanna. She’s locked in a closet. A real shallow one. She’s in the dark and she’s hyperventilating.” I run my hand over my face, trying to put words to any further details. “There was something written across the back wall of the closet.”
Sloan pales. “It says ‘Sloan is a buttface.’ Conan’s got her trapped in her closet?”
Gray voices the thing we’re all wondering. “Why is Arly in a closet that says ‘Sloan is a buttface’?
Jen helps Sloan button his jacket while he explains. “It’s the family’s vacation cottage.