Tiny Dark Deeds: Chapter 3

Present

Dorian

Ares’s house was chaos…

And we were at the center of it. Us kids got the kiddie table while the parents worked around us, and what used to be Ares’s house became a hub. The parents brought in their resources of cops, lawyers, and anyone else they believed could be of any use. Adults were moving in and out of rooms, opening and shutting doors, and us kids couldn’t do anything about it.

They wouldn’t let us.

We’d done our part, mucked shit royally the fuck up, and now, our parents were attempting to undo all the shit we’d gotten into. We hadn’t seen any of them in what felt like hours, and Thatcher, Wells, and I hadn’t seen Ares or Bow in at least an hour. Ares left with his parents to go back to the hospital barely after leaving it, and Bow was on the cusp of a panic attack after everything in the last twenty-four hours. She’d ended up going with her mom and Cleo, Wells’s mom, to drive the block and calm down. The Mallicks hadn’t been able to sit still either, hence why they were back at the hospital now. From what I understood, they still couldn’t get in, but I didn’t blame them for being there.

I should be there.

My mom hadn’t let me when I’d suggested it, neither of my parents listening to me at this point. I’d talked enough I think for both of their likings, and though my mom had said I couldn’t go back out, she’d ended up joining the Mallicks. She’d gone along with them and my god dad Knight. He had ties to the military, and from how it had sounded as they all left, he was trying to get in contact with old friends. He was trying to get in that hospital, and I wondered if that meant completely stepping over the law and anything else. The law wasn’t on our side here. My parents, our families, had the cops in their pockets, but even they couldn’t get into the place where the news was saying Sloane was being held.

My grandfather had locked it all down, and though the news was saying otherwise, I knew the truth. According to the media, the general public was being kept out of the hospital by their security and for the safety of Sloane herself. They were trying to protect her, the reports stressing the need for it.

She’d been kidnapped.

I didn’t know the details from there. None of us did, and at this point, the news knew more than fucking we did about Noa. We knew she’d been taken, taken by who was supposed to have been her dad. He took her again and…

Well, now she was back at that hospital. We’d all seen her on the news being rushed in. That’d been hours ago, though, and Thatcher and Wells watched that shit the press was going on about now. My friends gauged their time between studying me pacing and that gossip shit on the tube. They’d stopped telling me to sit down a long time ago.

I suppose they’d gotten tired of me telling them to fuck off.

I was spiraling at this point and well aware of it. I didn’t know what my grandfather was doing. I didn’t know his plans, but I did know he had to be in that hospital with my girl. Mine, and that fact alone had me with a bandaged hand. I’d punched a mirror in the bathroom about an hour ago.

I’d be answering to that eventually, my hands working, fingers flexing. Wells had pulled all the little pieces of glass out while Thatcher had swept up the mess, and not one word was exchanged between the three of us. They hadn’t dared, and I hadn’t either.

I might scream if I did.

“I can’t do this shit,” I huffed, heading toward the door. I passed the couch that held my buddies along the way, their heads angling back. Thatcher was up off the couch in seconds, and Wells bounded over it.

“Parents told us to stay put.” Wells raised a hand to me, bold enough to do it. Out of all of us, he was probably the only one who could beat me in a sprint, which was probably why he got to the door faster. He wasn’t as tall as the rest of us, but he was the leanest. “D—”

I shoved him against the door, physically putting him there. My buddy raised his hands, but I had a feeling it was mostly out of respect. He could hold his own, just like any of us. We were the biggest dudes on the fucking football field. Wells’s head touched the door, lazy bottle-blond all over the place. “What are you doing, man?”

I didn’t know what I was doing, but my insides were twisted up enough to justify it. A dull knife slicing at me, stabbing me, couldn’t have felt worse. “Back off.”

Wells’s hands lowered the same time Thatcher’s shadow cast over the pair of us. He probably could stop me. He was bigger than me but only just.

He chose not to in the end and actually opened the door when I shoved Wells off it. Thatcher raised his hands too, head cocked, dark circles under his eyes. None of us had slept in the last twenty-four hours. He nodded toward the door, his spiked earring dangling. He was giving me his permission to go.

Not that I needed it.

I was over this kiddie table shit, and I didn’t care if I could help or not. I needed to know at least what was going on.

I cut a corner but didn’t make it far. I stumbled into a tower well over six feet, Ares with his hoodie hood up and his head down. He hadn’t seen me at all and didn’t stop until I physically put my hands on him.

“Dorian. What?” A disorientation laced Wolf’s eyes, his speech lazy, confused even. He started to say something else but stopped at the heavy cadence that fell to a hard stop behind me. It seemed Thatcher and Wells weren’t letting me go alone to find someone to give me answers. Wolf frowned at them. “What are you guys doing?”

“We could ask you the same thing.” Thatcher tucked his hands under his arms. “Thought you were with your parents, man.”

“Yeah, what’s up?” I guided Wolf right when a couple cops passed us in the hall. I honestly didn’t know why the fuck they were here. It wasn’t like they were fucking helping with this situation. They were just as worthless as us kids apparently were. They couldn’t move on the hospital without risking a body count, not to mention witnesses. The hospital Sloane was in was a private one, and whatever security it had wasn’t shy about flashing what they would do if the Maywood Heights police precinct tried to enter that hospital.

My grandfather had that shit all set up, some kind of outside security obviously. Rent-a-cops didn’t carry the kind of shit or authority all those men and women had at the hospital doors. They’d been professional, outsourced, and not many could do that.

Especially against the most powerful families in town.

There’d been an edge of preparedness I think we’d all witnessed, and though our parents didn’t say it, they’d been quick to get Thatcher, Wells, Bow, and myself out of there. I’d been surprised when my god dad and Brielle had actually allowed Wolf to tag along on their trip back. I didn’t think they were planning on entering, but they were surveying the area with their resources. These were mostly Knight’s and whatever else the city could give them. Wolf’s mom was the mayor, and even she couldn’t get in there.

The irony was had it been any other hospital in town the families would have had no trouble getting inside it. The Mallicks basically owned the others because they were all connected to the one that screwed over their family. Ramses and Brielle’s baby had been taken from one of them.

So, yes. They owned them.

If someone wanted to control foot traffic, taking Sloane exactly where she was definitely would be the perfect place. Again, there’d been a preparedness there, and I didn’t think any of us ignored that.

Wolf’s arm was in my hand when I pulled him away. He came with me, but again, he appeared disoriented. “You okay?”

“Yeah. I’m just higher than shit.” Wolf squatted down, and I made Wells and Thatcher give him room. Wolf breathed in his hands. “I was just wandering the house. My parents wouldn’t let me go back. I…”

“It’s okay.” I got to the floor with him, Wells and Thatcher too. “Have they called you or anything since?”

“Yeah, I was actually just on the phone with them.” His long arms hung over his legs. “We spoke but not about any of that. They wouldn’t tell me anything about that when I asked.”

That didn’t surprise me. They were all shutting us out right now.

Wolf’s fists touched his mouth. “They mostly just wanted to talk to me about her.” He eyed us all, me last. “They were asking all these questions about her. Personal stuff like what she was into. Things she liked…” His arms surrounded his legs. “I couldn’t give them much. I told them you’d know more, D, and they might call you. You know her better.”

But did I? He’d been the one to stay with her, believe her. I swallowed. “Okay. That’s fine.”

Wolf’s throat worked. “I think they’re preparing,” he said, his voice so quiet. He scanned us all. “Preparing for a life without knowing her or some shit, and I…”

“Hey. Don’t say that,” I said, and he pushed me away. He pushed all of us away, getting up.

“But it’s fucking true.” His words amplified in the hallway, suits stopping, cops pausing. They lined the halls on their phones and speaking into coms. Wolf sneered. “What the fuck are you all looking at?”

Wells cringed. “Bro—”

“Don’t fucking bro me. You don’t know shit, Wells. What this feels like?” He shook his head. “I’m fucking dying, and she’s out there and—”

I held him, fucking tight until it was hard for me to breathe.

Wells and Thatcher joined.

We locked in, a strong huddle with Wolf at the center. It wasn’t long ago I’d been at that center. They’d surrounded me when I’d needed it.

“It’s going to be okay,” I gritted, forcing myself to keep my own shit together. Wells and Thatcher backed off when I took Wolf’s face, making him look at me. “I’m going to make sure this shit is okay. She’s going to be all right, and nothing bad is going to happen to her.”

I was telling myself this as much as him, emotion thickening my voice.

The same laced Wolf’s eyes, and I didn’t let go until he nodded at me. I hugged him again, the others too. It took him a second, hell all of us, to stop shaking, but once Wolf did, I had the others guide him back to the lounge. Things would be okay.

I was about to make sure of it.

I found my dad in Ramses’s office, one of the bigger rooms of the house, and it looked like some kind of war room when I entered.

For starters, it held the most people, mostly suits in here. Our parents had a team of confidants and trusted friends in their corner. Our families weren’t just powerful because of their money, but also because they were decent fucking people and did a lot for the community. Any one of our parents would bend over backward if someone they knew was in need and that was why most of these people were here. Very few of them actually worked for our parents.

I angled through them all, a guy I passed watching the news footage on a small screen. He was taking notes beside it, and he must have been watching recorded clips because Sloane was on the screen.

I’d played this over a few times, her being escorted into the hospital with that fucking goon that my grandpa employed. The man was a hired gun, and he had my girl by the arm. I’d let my father know right away who he was, and Wolf had been able to confirm since he’d seen him before too.

If any of our parents didn’t know my grandpa was involved with this hospital takeover they knew now with that little detail, and I stared too long at that clip playing. I’d only stopped because my parents had taken my phone and only partially because I’d fucked up. Them and the other parents had been attempting to use it to call Sloane too. They knew I’d been seeing her.

I’d told them that too.

In fact, they knew just about everything, using all our phones at one point to try and speak with her. She hadn’t answered my friends’ lines or mine, but even before the kidnapping the news mentioned, she hadn’t been talking to me.

Don’t do that.

Fighting negative head shit was the hardest part in all this. To think she wasn’t answering on purpose. We’d had our problems, but the last time I saw her things had been good.

I refused to believe she wasn’t talking to me on purpose, and that almost made things worse. The alternative was my grandfather was deliberately keeping her from me and not letting her answer my calls.

I found my dad in the center of all the chaos with Wells’s dad, Jax. My god dad stood by my father’s side, a receiver to my dad’s ear. They’d been the only two to stay in this fortress of manpower the parents had created, and Dad was the best one to man the hub with the other parents preoccupied.

That said something considering his own dad was at the center of it.

Dad had been too silent when I’d told him everything. It had to have been breaking him, but when he’d finally spoken, he’d been my dad. He’d been calm and more than collected when he shouldn’t have been.

I almost wished he’d yelled at me.

It would have been better than the look I’d gotten when I finally had seen him, the look similar to the one he was giving me now when he noticed me in this room.

A slow shake to my father’s head, he held a stony expression that only said one thing.

Disappointment.

My dad was disappointed in me, and when his shoulders dropped in my very presence, my stomach soured. Few things had been able to cause me to feel ill today. I had held my shit together.

But my father looking at me this way…

He removed himself from the fleet of people around him, Jax too. They were both laid-back, Dad with his sweater bunched at his elbows and Jax in a Grateful Dead tee. My god dad often dressed down. He was cool like that, but Dad never did in the presence of others. They’d both been awake a long time.

Maybe even longer than me. I knew for a fact I hadn’t slept, and how could I?

She was still out there.

The thoughts of Sloane escaped when my father approached, still speaking into the line at his ear. He multitasked this while maneuvering toward me, but with the intent of his strides, I knew I wouldn’t be seeing the inside of this room for long. My father, all the fathers and mothers, had been very clear that we kids needed to stay out of the way and especially out of here, the place of their operation. The adults needed room to work.

Hence the kiddie table.

“Son—” my dad started, but I edged closer first. I maybe had one shot at this before he kicked me out of this bitch.

“Can I talk to you?” I asked, his eyes twitching. Maybe at the audacity? Shit, I didn’t know. I was fucking bold coming in here. I buried my hands in my pockets. “Please. It’s important.”

I forced myself to have an iron stomach in front of my father. I hadn’t told him everything, but now wasn’t the time for that.

I might not get her back if I didn’t.

I suppose the cowardice… the secrets stemmed from the potential disappointment from both my parents. Not just my dad. I couldn’t bear to think how my mother would look at me after I revealed what I had to. I couldn’t have her see me in a way I was already seeing myself. I wasn’t just a coward.

I was my grandfather’s grandson.

My dad covered his line, his eyebrows narrowed, features hard. He had been about to kick me out but stopped and brought the phone up to his ear.

“One second, LJ. It’s Dorian.” Pulling the phone away, he eyed me. “What is it? Have you heard from her?”

He knew I hadn’t heard from Sloane. His people had my phone. I shook my head, and he went back to his call.

“He said he needs to talk to me,” Dad continued, frowning. “Give me two seconds. Just keep working on Judge Perez. Do whatever you have to. We’ve got to get into that hospital.”

He hung up the phone on who I knew to be my god dad. I hadn’t seen LJ here, but I knew both he and Billie, his wife, were trying to get here. I’d heard the adults talking about it. The two had to drive all night from where they were since they couldn’t catch a flight.

Everyone really was coming out for this. Out to help one of us when LJ was more so my Dad’s friend than the Mallicks’. Of course, our parents were all good friends, but some had closer ties.

That didn’t seem to matter as my dad guided me out of the room. He’d given his phone to Jax to handle any incoming calls, my god dad lifting his hand to me with more than a tense expression etched on his face. Jax was hardly ever serious.

Everyone was today, and with my dad asking LJ to get involved, I had a feeling that meant the parents weren’t really working inside the law. If they were trying to do that, they’d speak to Brielle, the mayor, or even Jax, whose dad was a congressman.

Nah, LJ was the guy the parents went to in order to get shit done. Legally or otherwise. I wasn’t certain of LJ’s background, but I did know he had contacts both underground and above. Whatever he was into, whether past or present, made people move for him.

“What is it?” Dad braced my shoulder but released when soft steps touched behind me. He angled his body in that direction, and next thing I knew, he was leaving me.

And my stomach tightened more.

Mom… my mother had her jacket on, a thick blanket and a thermos in her hands. Dad instantly went to her, and though I had too, I had a rigidness to my steps that slowed me down.

She wasn’t supposed to be here. She’s not…

But here she was and with my father.

“Em, why aren’t you at the hospital?” Dad cuffed Mom’s arm in a delicate hold, and she placed her hand on his. My parents together were a fucking perfume ad, that glamorous Giorgio Armani shit that was basically fucking flawless.

Timeless.

My parents had an air about them that commanded people, and only some of that had to do with how visually stunning they were. I took all that from them and more, priding myself on it and even used it to my advantage in the past. I’d felt entitled to it.

And look where it had gotten me.

I had the weight of secrets and loss the equivalent of my goddamn body weight. I used the most beautiful elements of my parents for bad, not good.

And here I thought I was the good guy.

I knew my place in all this now, waiting while my parents greeted each other.

“Getting some stuff for Brielle,” Mom stated after Dad embraced her, touched her. She squeezed his hand. “Tea and blankets. Hoping maybe I can get her to sit down.”

Brielle hadn’t before she’d left, the loudest voice before Ramses had forced her to take a step back. She’d been trying to lead everything, acting like the mayor instead of the grieving mother she was before Ramses suggested they go to the hospital with Knight and his team. Like always, Wolf’s dad played the peacemaker. He had to be dying inside too just like Wolf.

He was just better at hiding it.

Everyone had to be breaking at this point. I mean, they’d all been here when the initial kidnapping had happened, all the parents grieving right along with the Mallicks. Us kids had been spared for the most part.

At least in the worse ways.

Those wounds obviously still remained, and we never had to know Pilar to feel her. She was everywhere. In Brielle’s beauty…

Ramses’s heart.

I swallowed, my parents coming apart.

“Dorian wanted to tell me something.” Dad placed me on the spot, his hand on my mother. “He said it was important.”

“Important?” Mom exchanged a glance with my dad, and though she’d been better at hiding her disappointment at several revelations lately, I noticed her heavy sigh. Her hold tightened on her blankets. “What happened? There’s something else?”

Fuck.

“That can’t possibly be the case.” Dad’s hand warmed my mom’s shoulder before facing me. He frowned. “Because that would mean our son’s still lying to us, keeping things from us.”   He shook his head, his fingers folding into blond hair. He sighed. “What is it, Dorian?”

It was like he knew, right? He did know because he knew me. They both did. I wet my lips. “Remember when I told you Grandpa threatened me? Threatened Mom?”

I had told my parents mostly everything. It’d been necessary. We all needed to get Sloane back, and I’d dished everything I could to make sure that happened. They knew about my visits to Grandpa Prinze this summer.

And they knew why.

My grandfather helped with the Mayberry situation, helped me with Charlie, and though my parents hadn’t been happy, I think it did fill in some blanks for them. Blanks about how it had all gone down. They even knew how he’d tried to teach me a lesson by blowing the whistle that led to my arrest.

They’d been so quiet during that.

None of it’d been good, but the urgency had been there to move. Move to try to help the Mallicks, and everything I’d personally told them hadn’t led to any repercussions yet.

I had a feeling this was for lack of time, my father’s hand folding into his hair again.

“We remember.” Dad eased my mother into his side, his nod subtle. “It’s the reason why cops now have to follow your mother and you every time you leave.”

Ouch.

“Not to mention the authorities being here around the clock.” Dad waved his hand to them. “This is the evidence of that. So yes. We remember.”

I cringed, and Mom squeezed her eyes.

“Dorian, if there’s something else you need to tell us. Tell us.” Mom’s lips thinned. “This isn’t a game. Pilar’s life is at stake. Who knows what your grandfather could be doing to her. What he’s been doing,” she gasped, and my chest tightened. She took my hand. “If you haven’t told us everything, now is the time.”

They did know almost everything. They knew about Sloane, her brother. They knew Grandpa Prinze’s ties to them. How he was their guardian and taking care of them.

But they didn’t know this.

“I didn’t feel like I had a choice,” I started, all this fucking hard. I lifted a hand. “Dad, he threatened Mom.”

Dad’s throat flicked, the only indicator anything I said affected him. He’d been so good about it, hiding his feelings, hiding his pain. His chest rose, a large and full breath. “Dorian, for your safety, Pilar’s, and everyone else involved here, if you know something else about my dad, you need to say it.”

This wasn’t about his dad. It was about me and what a fuck up I was. I didn’t regret what I’d tried to do.

I regretted not being able to finish the job.

I regretted not being able to end this and the possibility of Sloane getting hurt because of it. I opened my mouth, but even when I did the words wouldn’t come out.

My mom lowered to the floor, leaving my dad. Placing the blankets and thermos down, she held my hands. It was like she felt she needed to. Like I was her scared little kid, her little boy. “What is it, baby? Just tells us. Your dad and I won’t hate you.”

He’d promised that before, and I knew he didn’t, but his disappointment almost felt worst. I admired my father so much.

But I’d lose him with this.

He waited too, patient with his hand on my mom’s shoulder. He didn’t give me his hand, and his fingers flexed at his side. It was like he wanted to come closer but was fighting himself. Like he wanted to comfort me and always had in the past.

Today, I appeared to be on my own. At least, when it came to him. It was graduation day.

And this was me walking across the stage.

“I tried to poison him,” I said, but I didn’t whisper it. I straightened. “He threatened Mom so I tried to poison him.”

Dad didn’t flinch, nor did mom. Dad’s mouth parted. “With what?”

“Something lethal.” I didn’t go into specifics because I didn’t feel that was exactly what he was looking for. I assumed he wanted to know the severity. I expelled a breath. “It didn’t take. He survived.”

“Baby, let’s get this straight.” Mom breathed out the words, her hand to her mouth. She glanced my way. “Are you saying you tried to kill your grandfather?”

“He isn’t just saying it, Em.” Dad panned my way, Mom moving to his side. She let go of my hand. She let go of me. He stood tall. “He tried to do it. Our son tried to kill my father.”

“It didn’t work—”

“Obviously, it didn’t, Dorian, but you tried to do it.” Dad angled away, his hand covering his mouth, his face. “My son tried to kill my father.”

It was like he was trying to tell it to himself, sink into it, believe it. I stepped forward. “Dad—”

“And now he’s out there with the daughter of your mom’s best friend with no doubt some sick vendetta against you.” He raised and dropped his hand. “He could be holding her because of you.”

I swallowed. “I know.”

“And you just kept this to yourself. You keep keeping things to yourself. Things like Charlie that have serious consequences for not just you but other people in your life. People who care about you, love you.”

“I know, Dad.”

“I just don’t understand. I don’t get it, Dorian. What has your mother done, what have I done to ever warrant such behavior? To warrant you continuing to shut us out.”

“You haven’t done anything.” I started to move, but Dad still had his hand up. He wasn’t looking at me, Mom’s hand to his chest. I cringed. “I didn’t tell you because I was…” Weak. Foolish. “I thought I was doing the right thing. I thought I had it handled.”

“Well, you didn’t.” His head angled my way. “And now a girl’s life hangs in the balance.”

But it wouldn’t. It couldn’t. I was going to make this right. I had to make this right. “Dad, if you just let me—”

“Let you what,” he started, but Mom said his name. Dad didn’t get angry. In fact, he wasn’t even raising his voice. There were cops and suits moving past us, and none of them looked our way at all because, to most people, my father didn’t give any obvious tell he was angry.

But I knew my dad’s anger. He didn’t have to raise his voice. The heat rolled off him, thick, weighted.

And it made me sick I was the reason.

I kept doing this to my parents, hurting them. “Let me talk to Grandpa.” They’d taken my phone, and if they’d let me, I already would have tried to contact him. My parents had been quick to shut me out, though, said their people would handle contact with my grandfather.

I hadn’t even gotten to voice that contact should be me.

I could end this all if they’d just let me.

“He wants a relationship with me, Dad,” I said, both my parents turning away at this point. “That’s all he wants, and if he is holding Sloane,” I paused, knowing they knew her more so by another name. The guys, Bow, and I told them her name, of course. The parents just didn’t know her by it. She’d always been Pilar to them. “He’ll let her go. I know he will, and he didn’t even want to hurt Mom. He just threatened that, bluffing.”

“Manipulating, which is what my father does to get what he wants.”

“Royal.” Mom’s word was hushed and nearly like medicine. I watched my father’s body visibly relax at the sound of his name, his wife’s hand on his shoulder. “Perhaps we all need a moment.”

He glanced my way, starting to say something, but the door of the war room opened. Jax came out of it, easing through the traffic in the hall.

“Royal, we need you back in there now,” he said, completely overlooking the tension in the hallway. He ignored my mother and me when he normally wouldn’t. “It’s your dad. He made contact.”

What?

“Says he needs to talk to you. Says it’s urgent,” Jax continued, and with that, he was gone, my parents behind him. I think the only reason no one stopped me was because the rush to get into that room was priority.

It was dead silent.

The room, which normally held the hustle and bustle of attorneys, the authorities, and other representatives of the family, stopped, and in the center was one suit, a guy holding up a phone. I recognized the phone as my dad’s, and as soon as the guy gave it to him, the man sat down at a station. This same guy put a headset on, easing in front of a laptop. He then waved to my dad to move on with the call.

I suppose the guy might be trying to track the call, but we all knew my grandpa was most likely at the hospital.

Wasn’t he?

I guess we couldn’t confirm that. We really didn’t know, and the moment my parents did realize I was there in the room with them, they attempted to wave me out of it.

I didn’t budge, couldn’t. Even if I wanted to, I didn’t think I could physically move. I was stuck.

I wouldn’t leave.