Chapter Ninteen

He asked for a cigarette. He actually thought we’d dispense provisions, maybe lend him a few bucks to use at the jailhouse commissary. Instead, we gawked silently like we were collectively having a morbid hallucination. Bernard was really here. In this house.

“Keira, you’re looking well,” he greeted her with a cheeky wink. “Celebrity agrees with you.”

“You son of a bitch!” Keira raced at him.

Julian grabbed her, holding her arms with an agility I didn’t know he had. What was the point? If Keira wanted to pound on this asshole, she should. She had plenty of backup. In fact, I was ready to draw a bull’s-eye on Bernard’s cocky face—or someplace worse—but given Julian’s puny arms were able to restrain my sister, she seemed to lack the upper body strength to do much damage. Of course, I could help with that.

“Oh, cupcake, don’t be mad.” Craig sat up with a fake pout on his lips, his voice as raspy as ever.

“Why are you here?” I asked, stepping closer.

“I’m looking for a little help.” He smiled, the scar on his lip seeming a bit more faded than the last time I saw him. And I noticed his nose was a bit more crooked. Please, tell me I did that. Please, tell me the universe loves me that much. “Don’t worry, there are no hard feelings about our little dustup in Venice. I forgive you.”

He blew me a kiss, and before his lips could unpucker, I shoved my foot into his crotch so quickly no one saw it coming. Including him. He retched, gagging weakly on all fours, and Keira barked out a laugh.

“I see you haven’t lost your touch,” he coughed.

Then I smiled at my sister, my arms fanned out like a game show hostess presenting Keira with her prize. Keira Phoenix, come on down! You’ve just won the chance to kick your nightmares in the crotch! Maybe I should grab some stilettos? But before she could get her foot in, Craig popped up, protecting himself with his hands, which I saw were bound by cable ties. “I didn’t come here for violence.”

“Are you kidding me? You held me captive! For months!” Keira shrieked.

“But we also had some good times. Remember Cinco de Mayo?” He grinned like he was reliving a pleasant memory. “And that night in the hot tub…”

“Shut up,” she hissed.

“That’s not what you said that night.”

“Shut up.”

“A fool for love,” he cooed.

“I didn’t love you.” She spat at his feet.

“Oh, you loved me. Again and again…”

“Kill him, Keira. Seriously, hit him. I’m right here. I got your back.” I stepped forward, waving her toward him like a third base coach.

I didn’t know the proper psychological procedure to treat PTSD, but I imagined this would help her. It would help me.

Craig backed away, eyes looking like he was prepared to fight with his hands bound if he had to. “Temper, temper. I was just saying, it wasn’t all bad between Keira and me.”

“Mr. Bernard,” Julian spoke up, glaring at us like our fight was uncivilized. Did he just call him mister? “You are in my home, as our guest. If you’d like to remain here and not be immediately transferred to the local prison, then I suggest you say what you’ve come to say.”

“Why thank you, Mr. Stone,” Craig rasped, mocking Julian’s manners. “I am here for one simple reason”—his eyes flicked between Keira and me—“to ask you lovely Phoenix girls to tell your parents to back the hell off.”

“What?” Keira and I asked in unison.

“Your parents. They’re trying to kill me.”

It seemed all that time we felt certain that our parents never gave us a passing thought, never cared that Keira was kidnapped or in danger, never considered what we’d been through…might not have been entirely accurate. Yes, most of their efforts were in the name of self-preservation, but lately they’d also sought a little revenge on our behalf.

Since I last saw them in Rio, they’d intermittently tracked Craig Bernard across the globe and attempted to blow off his head more than once. Most recently, last week in Athens, which was when Craig decided he’d had enough. He didn’t want to die for a kidnapping job Randolph Urban put him up to and apparently never fully paid him for after everything went sideways. Craig thought he had another option.

“Do you honestly think we’d help you?” I asked, glaring at him. “Because if we did have our parents’ phone number, I’d call them right now to finish the job.”

Craig grinned, his scar glinting from the beam of the lightbulb as his eyes suggested that he knew something we didn’t. “I haven’t gotten to the best part.” He turned to Marcus and singsonged: “I have something you waaaant.”

“Me?” Marcus’s head tilted, dark bangs falling into his eyes.

“Sí, mi amigo,” Craig mocked his accent. “I know where your parents are. And it’s good, like genius level smart of them. But I’ll only tell you if you convince tu amor to offer some protection.”

“You’re on drugs if you think we will protect you,” Keira huffed.

“I am not on drugs—unless you’re offering.” Craig looked like he wanted to wink. “I’m offering a trade to your sister’s novio, and I have a feeling he really wants to talk with mami y papi.” He whined his Spanglish at Marcus, intentionally being offensive, and I had to physically clasp my hands together so as not to rip every greasy blond hair out of his head. What was he hoping to accomplish with this? Obviously he wanted to piss us off. But why? He couldn’t really think we’d ever help him. “I can tell you where to find tus padres, and I mean the exact address. All you have to do is let me stay at casa del Stone until this Phoenix family squabble blows over.”

“You want to stay here?” Keira yelped, spinning in a crazed circle. I could feel the anxiety spinning off her. Craig Bernard was her literal nightmare, the cause of all her trauma, and now she was being asked to face him like a patient with arachnophobia putting a tarantula on her forehead. “You want to stay in this home? Where I’m living?”

“It’s a large place, cupcake, you won’t even know I’m around.” Bernard winked.

“If you call me cupcake again…” Her eyes looked like she wanted a gun.

I wished I had one.

“I’m sorry, Miss Phoenix.” He pretended to formally bow. “I only ask for shelter in exchange for the Rey Family Reunion. I think your Madrileño friend and your smoking hot little sister might want what I’m offering.”

“Shut up,” I snapped, but I was looking at Marcus. His eyes were so lit even a stranger could see Craig was right. He wanted this badly. After everything that happened with Antonio, Marcus wanted to believe his parents weren’t evil, weren’t like mine, and he wanted to hear it from their own mouths.

“We’ll find them ourselves,” Charlotte said, looking at Marcus like this was a promise.

“Really, ChartrueseWeb?” Craig used her cybername. Was nothing sacred? “Because you haven’t found them yet, and I’m guessing you’ve been looking pretty hard.”

Between me, Marcus, Charlotte, Julian, and who knew how many Stone employees, we didn’t have a single lead to my parents or Marcus’s. Apparently, my mom and dad were in Athens last week, and this was the first we’d heard Greece mentioned. And it was coming from Craig Bernard. We were many, many steps behind. We needed insider info. But from him?

My eyes shifted between Keira and Marcus. I loved them both, and right now they wanted very different things. Marcus’s parents could provide answers, and their capture would bring us one step closer to normalcy, but Craig Bernard was the blinking, neon reason my sister was chugging sauvignon blanc. Did anyone really expect her to live in the same house as the man who drugged her and held her hostage?

“This is your call.” Julian spoke up, his Sinatra-blue eyes turned to Keira. “I think we can all agree you’ve been through enough, and if this is too much, say the word.” He gave Marcus a sharp look, like this wasn’t to be questioned. “We can turn Craig over to the authorities. Justice served. But if we do that, we will likely close a door on a very large lead that could potentially end Department D. We might not get this chance again. But I will not make you live with this man. I can, however, offer you this. If—and this decision is entirely up to you—if you can bear it, we will keep Mr. Bernard locked in this basement under constant surveillance with armed guards around the clock. He will not leave this cellar. You will never see him. I promise you that.”

Keira dug her hands into her light brown hair and groaned at the exposed rafters on the ceiling. I knew she didn’t want him here, but I also knew she wanted this to be over. It was an impossible choice. It wasn’t fair.

“I’ll be a good boy,” Craig squeaked with the voice of a toddler. “I make an excellent prisoner. Ask anybody.” He crossed his heart and smiled.

This wasn’t his first incarceration, and even worse, I was betting a damp basement in a mansion was likely a step up from other places he’d stayed. This was far too good for him, and it was too much to ask of my sister. We put her in front of cameras, we subjected her to death threats, and we made her date a celebrity loser. I would not make her share a home with her attacker.

“Don’t.” I stepped toward her, my tone definitive as I shut out the hope in my boyfriend’s eyes. “You don’t have to do this. We won’t ask you to do this. Craig Bernard is here, in this house. Let’s call the cops and end him. Right now.”

Keira glared at me, seeing that I meant it. And I did. But her eyes flicked to Marcus.

“No. You’ve been through enough,” I insisted. This wasn’t a lame reach across the table for the check. I meant this profoundly. “You don’t have to make this decision, I’ll make it. He goes. He’s not worth it. Let’s call the CIA.” I couldn’t look at Marcus. I couldn’t bear it. I had to block him out. Keira was my sister. I wouldn’t let anyone, including him, morph her into the bad guy for turning in her abductor.

Keira held up her hand, silencing me, then looked directly at Craig. She moved toward him, her boots crunching the cement. Step, step, step. She stopped inches from his face, nostrils flared, and Bernard eyed her like he wanted a kiss. Keira didn’t back off.

I couldn’t breathe.

“You are nothing,” her voice was low and menacing. “You’re a twisted freak. You shoved a needle into my neck, so you could control me. Did that make you feel strong? Like a big man? You’re pathetic.” She eyed his hands, which were bound as hers had been. “It’s nice to see you in cable ties. Are they tight enough?” It felt like she was repeating his words, digs he must’ve made during her captivity, and judging by his clenched jaw, I was right. She was getting to him. “Now it’s our turn to take what we want from you. So enjoy the basement that I let you stay in, because I know I will enjoy the moment when the end comes for you—” Her face jutted closer, her next promise said with a whisper. “Because it’s coming, Craig, and I’m gonna be there to watch. I hope you whimper.”

I’d never been prouder of my sister in my entire life. Because in that moment, there was a twitch in Craig Bernard’s eyes. I could see the slacker in the Nirvana T-shirt who walked into our apartment, I could see the Euro douchebag in a skinny suit who fought me in Venice, I could see the frat boy dropping jokes in Julian’s basement right now—but I could also see he was a human who was scared. Of my family. Not just my parents, but all of us.

We held power over him.

“Where are Marcus’s parents?” I asked.

He had to answer.