Everywhen: (Savage Princess book 1) Page 5

  Nick slips his phone back into his pocket and then angrily pulls it back out a second later while sneering at me. He puts it to his ear. “What?”

  His voice is so fucking deep. That just adds to his attractiveness. If Trent was to manhandle me like this, I’d break his nose. Beautiful people really do have it easier in life, and Nick Cabot is as beautiful as they come. Fucking prick. Attractive and rich. Maybe I will break his nose. It’s only fair.

  He looks away from me. “You’re sure? You ran the test yourself?”

  My stomach clenches at the word test. This will all be over soon. Nick Cabot pressed against my body will soon be a distant memory I will keep to myself.

  “And Charles delivered it?” There’s a tense pause, and then, his nostrils flare, and he says, “I understand.”

  For a moment he looks like he’s going to explode, but then his gaze meets mine, and I watch as his demeanor completely changes. No longer is Nick Cabot the brooding and angry boy. The blood drains from his face, and with frantic eyes, and trembling hands, he shoves his phone back into his pocket.

  He swallows and steps back a foot. “How?”

  I don’t like the feeling I have in my gut, but it could be from the lack of food and the fact he looks terrified. “What?” My voice comes out weak, so I say it again but louder.

  He’s as still as a statue as he stares at me. My heartbeat pounds against my chest. A car slowly drives by, loud music coming from it. That seems to break him out of whatever trance he was in.

  His color slowly returns as does his anger. “You need to do another test,” he growls. “Get in.” He shoves me to the side and then rips the back door open. “We’ll get another swab. There is no way you’re her. No fucking way. You manipulated it somehow. We’ll use a different lab.”

  I feel like my world is crashing down at his words. “What can I do to make you forget all this and walk away?”

  His eyes narrow. “What?”

  “It’s clear you don’t want me to be Anna. I don’t want to be her. Pretend this never happened.” I search his face, but I can’t read anything besides anger. I have no idea what he’s thinking, only that he’s mad. “Please,” I whisper, and he averts his eyes. “The test said I’m her?” Please say no.

  “Yes,” he grinds out, the muscle in his jaw flexing.

  “Fuck. Nobody else knows, though? You don’t have to tell anyone, please.”

  His gaze meets mine again. “Tell me who gave you the mark. Tell me how you pulled off the DNA test. Why have you changed your mind?” He pushes me back against the SUV, his hand on my shoulder, holding me against the cool metal. “Who the fuck are you working for?” When I don’t immediately say anything, he brings his face closer to mine. “Tell me now or I will burn your fucking house to the ground with you inside.” The grin that splits his face is wicked and deadly.

  Chapter 8

  I bet his words and cruel smile would work on most people. Threats usually do. But his over the top threat is unbelievable. Nick may be desperate for information, but I find it hard to believe he’d commit murder to get it. That, and I’m sure James wouldn’t let him.

  I push him back and he moves, giving me space. “I would love to tell you I planned all of this, but I fucking didn’t. You have two options, walk away and pretend this didn’t happen or move forward. I hope you choose to walk away.”

  He tugs at his hair, looking up at the sky and then back at me. “Fuck, what do you remember?” His frantic eyes search mine. “If you’re Anna, you have to remember your family.”

  Stupid boy. I have had too many foster families. The memories are blurred and jumbled together. The people I’m told were my parents were not the Westlings. I shake my head.

  “Think!” he shouts, his fingers digging into my shoulders. “Tell me a memory!” Sounding desperate, he shakes me. “Anything!”

  My forehead breaks out in a sweat. “I don’t know! Eating runny eggs. Trying to fall asleep but a red light from the TV is shining in my face. The girl in the bed next to me won’t stop snoring. The girl on the top bunk keeps crying. Riding my bike. Throwing up from being forced to eat broccoli. A foster brother being hit so hard blood from his nose sprays across my face. Being so hungry I feel like I’m going to die and still not getting fed.” I shove him back as hard as I can. “Happy? There’s some fucking memories for you!” I didn’t mean to let all of that spill from my mouth, but I’m freaking the fuck out. My whole body is shaking as I storm toward the house, but I can’t go in there like this. I’m on the verge of losing my shit.

  I change course to walk down the road instead, but my legs give out. I fall to my knees in the grass. My heart is beating so hard against my chest I feel like if I don’t slow it down, I’ll have a heart attack. I plant my palms down onto the warm earth. I dry heave but nothing comes up because I haven’t eaten since yesterday afternoon. Deep breaths. The birds are chirping. I feel the breeze against my legs. The sound of a car horn blows a few streets over. Deep breaths.

  Strong arms haul me up. Closing my eyes, I let my head fall back against a shoulder. The sound of an airplane. Footsteps scraping over pavement. Deep breaths. Normally I use this tactic so I don’t break everything around me but I’m using it now so I don’t pass out. I open my eyes as I’m set down onto something soft. I’m in the back of the SUV with the door open and Mr. Beefy hovering over me. He wipes sweat from my face with a white cloth. Nick is in the front seat of the SUV, arms crossed and quiet.

  “Do you need to go to the hospital?”

  I wave him away and shake my head. He eyes me warily while I take a minute to catch my breath and slow my heart. “I need… just move, please.” I step past him to pull the passenger door open. “What happens now? What did you decide?” I need to know what my next step is.

  “Aiden’s on his way. It’s up to him now.” Nick’s jaw works. “I swear to God, I hope you understand what this will do to him. You have thirty minutes to grow a conscience.”

  Fuck. I was hoping he’d do the right thing and walk away. My shaking legs carry me inside where Tilly is lying in bed scrolling through her phone. I move to our shared dresser and begin to pack a bag.

  “I have to go, and I can’t explain why. I want you to come with me, but if you don’t want to, you can stay here with Nana,” I say in a rush.

  “What? You’re leaving? Like for good?” She quickly pulls on shorts under her baggy pajama shirt.

  “I don’t know how long, probably a while. Think fast. I need to be gone in five.”

  “Where?” She grabs her bag and begins to shove clothes into it.

  I grab the safe and pull out all my cash, shoving it into my bag. “I don’t know. Maybe Uncle Ben’s place at the lake? Yeah, I think there. We can take the bus most of the way, Uber the rest.”

  “What happened?”

  I slip on my Vans. “I’ll explain later. Ready?”

  She nods, throwing her backpack over her shoulder and heading for the front door, but I grab her wrist and nod toward the laundry room. “Back door.”

  “Your clothes.”

  “Shit.” I hurry back to the room and change into jeans and my Live Free or Die tank, leaving the pajamas on the floor.

  A second later, we’re out the back door and climbing over the fence. Tilly is my ride or die. I love that she doesn’t know what’s going on but she’s by my side regardless. We move through the neighbor’s back yard and then onto the street.

  “I don’t even know where a bus station is. The cabin’s only a little over an hour away. We can Uber.” I pull my phone from my pocket and freeze with my finger over the app. Trey recently started working for Uber. I swipe over to the search bar. Taxi it is.

  Tilly brushes her wispy bangs from her eyes. “That’s gonna be crazy expensive.”

  Finding the number, I say, “I can make more money. It’s fine.” I call the taxi service, give them our location, and then hang up. “They’re gonna have a driver call me back with the estimated time
.”

  “Are you running from someone?”

  My phone rings from a number I don’t recognize. “Hello?”

  “Where are you?”

  My eyes widen and I hang up. That wasn’t the cab driver. “Come on.” I begin a quick pace down the sidewalk. “We need to get a little farther.”

  “Okay, but I wish I knew what was going on. Want me to call Margo? Her mom doesn’t normally let her drive alone, but she might be able to talk her into it. Maybe she could take us to the lake.”

  At the end of the street, I look both ways before making a left. “Maybe. Give me a minute.”

  The same number lights up my phone again. I hit ignore. Nick Cabot is stupid if he thinks I’m going to speak to him. A week ago, I would have bet a million dollars I’d never meet him. Not only have I met him, I know what it feels like to have his body pressed against mine. I know he faintly smells of sandalwood and lemongrass, and he’s fiercely loyal to his friend.

  “They think I’m Anna,” I mumble.

  Tilly stops walking, catching my wrist. “What?”

  I twist loose. “Keep walking or I stop talking.”

  She rolls her eyes but moves her feet. “Who thinks you’re Anna?”

  I tense as a car rolls by, but then relax as I see the driver is an old woman. “That security guard at the interview, and... Nick Cabot,” I mumble Nick’s name. “They’re outside of Nana’s house.”

  “Oh. My. God. No way!”

  “Move those feet!” I snap.

  She does, but she’s grinning from ear to ear and not walking nearly as fast. “Are you serious? Of course you are or we wouldn’t be running. Is Aiden here? He thinks you’re Anna? Is that why you ran from the interview?” She stops walking again. “They didn’t want you to take off your clothes, did they?”

  “No, they didn’t,” I confess. “And they did a test. It might have said I’m Anna, but—”

  Tilly’s scream echoes around the neighborhood, and I knew I should have waited to tell her until we were at the secluded lake. An older man peeks his head out of his door to see what’s going on. I drag Tilly farther down the sidewalk to stand under the shade of a tree.

  Her blue eyes are wide. “We have to go back! This changes everything. I knew it! I told you!” She wraps her arms around my waist, crushing me against her.

  I pry her off. She has no idea what this means. Tilly is probably picturing luxurious trips, shopping sprees, and fancy restaurants. What she isn’t thinking is these people will want to have a relationship and those take lots of time and interaction. We live in Tennessee and they live in California. “Exactly, this changes everything,” I say. “And not in a good way. Our whole family will be questioned by the police. Dad can’t handle that right now. They may even arrest him.”

  Tilly’s smile disappears. “But they adopted you. He didn’t kidnap you.”

  I glance down at my phone and ignore another call from Nick. “He’ll still be questioned. Dad doesn’t need any added stress.”

  “Hayley.” Tilly’s eyes soften. “They are your family. You have a family. Stop thinking about all the bad that could happen and think about the good.”

  The small amount of good is pointless when there’s so much more bad. “I already have a family. You and Dad are my priority. He can’t deal with this right now. He hasn’t been there long and it’s a three-month program. He needs more time.”

  Tilly adjusts the bag on her back. “Maybe the cops would respect that and wait?”

  “This is high profile shit, Tilly. People are going to want answers. Everyone will be interrogated.” That has my heart rate picking up. Foster care was traumatizing. I finally quit having nightmares and flashbacks. I don’t want anything to resurface. Anna Westling was only three when she was taken. They can’t expect her to remember much. “They could have reported the wrong result, or maybe there was a mix-up.”

  “Do you remember anything? You were so little, but maybe if you concentrated you could remember them.”

  “There are only pieces of different families. I thought all of them were foster homes. It’s possible that—”

  The roar of an engine, and my sister’s dropped jaw, has the blood draining from my face. I look over my shoulder and see Nick jumping out of the slow-rolling SUV. Nick’s eyes are trained on me as he crosses the street, not bothering to check for oncoming traffic. Such a stupid and entitled thing to do.

  Chapter 9

  Now that the shock of meeting Dominick Cabot has worn off, my true feelings are emerging. Or maybe I’m just pissed off he chose to fuck my life up instead of walking away. My hands ball into fists at my side. I’m going to break his nose.

  My sister stands dumbstruck as Nick steps up onto the sidewalk next to me.

  “Where are you going?” He looks up and down the street. “Meeting someone?” He focuses on Tilly, eyes narrowing.

  I step in front of my sister. I don’t like the angry look he’s giving her. “I’m leaving. You should let me. We both know nothing good can come from this.”

  “You made your choice when you refused to tell me a name.” Nick’s nostrils flare as his gaze moves to a sleek black car that’s slowly approaching. In my gut I know that’s Aiden. The car parks behind the SUV and James walks over to it.

  Tilly snaps out of her stupor by shrieking, “You’re Nick! Nick Cabot!” She shakes my arm. “Nick Cabot is here!”

  Ignoring her, I focus on the boy getting out of the back seat of the black car. He’s tall and lean like his pictures on TV, but instead of the darkness that usually clouds his eyes, I see light. The driver and James chat while Aiden and I stare at each other. Tilly’s shrieking louder now because she sees Aiden too. Someone is probably going to call the cops. I should stop her, but I can’t stop staring at the boy who’s approaching.

  “I hope you suffer for this,” Nick hisses at me right before Aiden steps onto the sidewalk.

  God, our eyes are the same. The exact same. Sapphire eyes so deep blue they could almost pass for purple. It’s like looking into my own eyes.

  “Hey,” Aiden says, his voice barely above a whisper.

  I think I say it back but Tilly’s still yelling.

  “Can we talk?” Aiden asks.

  I clear my throat. “Um, over here.” I gesture down the sidewalk, and he nods. “Don’t talk to my sister,” I throw over my shoulder to Nick but he’s already on his way over to the SUV.

  Once we’re a good ten feet away from Tilly, I stop.

  “You’re Anna,” Aiden whispers.

  I see hope shining in his eyes. He thinks he’s found his twin sister. “That’s what Nick said, but I think there was a mistake with the test. I should do another one.”

  “James and Nick said you have the mark on the back of your neck.”

  I sigh. “There isn’t anything on my neck. My sister checked.”

  Aiden’s brows dip. “Can I look?”

  I’m about to tell him no when I roll my eyes and nod. I lift my hair and give him my back. “See? Nothing there. Sorry you came all this way.” I feel his fingers probing into my hair.

  “It’s there.” I hear the click of a camera and then he’s holding up his phone for me to see.

  I stare at the image on the screen. It’s hard to see detail because there’s hair in the way but I see black swirling lines. It’s small, about the size of a dime. Tilly must not have looked high enough because the mark is pretty far up into my hairline.

  “He said it was a tattoo,” I murmur. “Is that a cursive W?”

  “It is,” Aiden says. “The royal family marks their children when they are born.”

  This is bad. I glance at Tilly. She smiles and gives me a thumbs-up, and I shake my head in frustration.

  “Let me see yours,” I say, moving behind him. I stand on the tips of my toes to brush his wavy hair to the side to see the hint of a line. His hair is thick like mine and a shade darker. I use both hands to separate his hair enough to see more clearly. There it
is. It’s exactly like mine. It’s even faded like an older tattoo would be. “Shit,” I whisper.

  Aiden runs his hand over the back of his hair, smoothing down the waves. “Are you okay? Do you want some water?”

  I narrow my eyes. “What the hell is water going to do?” I shake my head. I’m not mad at him but I am angry. “Listen, Aiden, I’m sorry but you need to go. I can’t deal with this right now. If you want to give me your number maybe I can text you sometime in the future.”

  “This isn’t going how I imagined meeting you would go. You want me to leave?”

  I nod. “Yes. I don’t know how that mark got there, but I’m not Anna. I can’t be.”

  “The test says you are. My—our parents are flying in and expecting to meet with you at my hotel.”

  “Why would you tell them to fly here? This is a mix-up. This happened to you before.”

  “A local lab was used in that case and the tech knew the girl being tested. She purposely falsified results, and she’s in jail. We used a lab back home this time, and everything about you says you’re Anna, my sister. I know it sounds weird, but I feel it.”

  “What about her mark? Did she have one too?”

  “She had a tattoo on her shoulders that extended up onto her neck. James and I thought it was possible the original mark could have been covered so we ran a DNA test.” He sighs. “If you don’t come with me, they’ll come here. Nothing is going to stop our parents from seeing you.”

  We stare at each other. I’m keeping my face expressionless but inside I’m freaking the fuck out. Things are moving too fast. Fucking typical me, ignored the problem hoping it would go away. I should have run to the cabin straight after the interview. Apparently being a procrastinator can ruin your whole life.

  Aiden scratches his jaw. “If you’d rather them come here, I can ask.” He frowns. “My mom doesn’t like to change things last minute.”

  I can’t hide the horror from my face. That is the worst idea ever.

  “Is there a problem, Aiden?”

  James strolls up, stopping next to Aiden and taking us in. Tilly thinks she can butt in as well and steps next to James with wide, hopeful eyes.