Fallen Crest Home

by Tijan

  “Jeff said you’re going into politics,” I said.

  “I’m hoping, but with my dad how he is…” He motioned in the direction Steven Quinn must’ve gone. “I don’t know if that’s a possibility. I’m getting ready to take over the family company if he doesn’t stop drinking, and you never know. Maybe he’ll end up going to rehab, too.” His eyebrows pushed together. “Where’s the one your mom went to again? We might need a good referral.”

  “Is that what you think?”

  “Hmmm?” His head tilted. With his hands in his pockets, his body half-turned away from me, it came off like he was distracted.

  Was he? Was that why he was asking for the wrong information?

  “My mom wasn’t a drunk. Is that what you think?”

  “I’m sorry. What?” He turned to face me, his hands still in his pockets.

  Adam knew my mom wasn’t a drunk. I said, “You just asked where my mom went to rehab, like your father would go there for his drinking.” I waited. Would he realize his mistake? “You were there, Adam. I talked to you about her. I confided in you.”

  And I waited.

  Then I saw it. Realization filtered over his face, followed by regret, and then sympathy. “Sam, I’m so—”

  I waved that off, shaking my head. “Sorry. I know. I heard you. My mom wasn’t a drunk and a junkie. She wasn’t an addict at all. She has a mental disorder, and she went to intensive therapy for it. I could tell you where she went, but I don’t think that’s where you’d want to send your dad, if you’re actually going to send him somewhere.”

  I’d had enough. Things were fine here. Adam was off in his own head, plotting or planning something. I wasn’t sure why Mason and Nate were still here, but I didn’t care. I started to head back. I needed to hug Becky one more time, and then I was ready to leave.

  “I wasn’t lying about my dad.”

  Adam’s voice stopped me. I turned around again.

  “And I do remember your mom,” he said, his eyes boring into mine. “I’m distracted right now because I do want to go to law school and into politics. I don’t want to stay here and take over my dad’s company, so right now when I asked about the wrong type of rehab, I was wondering if somehow my mom could take over instead. Or one of my sisters. Would that be fair to even ask that? Molly is the next oldest, but she’s just graduating high school. I don’t think that’s a fair burden to place on her shoulders. And then I wondered if that would affect Becky’s decision to marry me. If she’d be okay if we stayed in Fallen Crest for the rest of our lives, if she truly said yes to me because she loves me.”

  Stark pain looked back at me.

  “So please take my apology because I do mean it,” he finished.

  I jerked my head in a stiff nod. I didn’t trust him regarding Becky, but I could recognize another child in pain over a parent. “Becky agreed to marry you. She doesn’t care what you end up doing. Believe that.”

  “Thank you, Sam. I will.”

  As I turned to go, I heard a voice I hadn’t heard for almost two weeks.

  “Uh, yeah…”

  I was already starting to smile.

  Logan came around the back entrance, hand in hand with Taylor. He pointed behind him. “Just saw Dad helping this asshole’s pops into the car, and they both reeked of booze.” He dropped Taylor’s hand and held up his arms. “Come to me, my big brother. The better-looking Kade is back in town!”

  My family was back together again.

  Mason hugged Logan, then Nate, and I was last.

  After setting me back on my feet, Logan skewered Adam with a look. “What’s that motherfucker doing here?”

  I let Mason answer that and moved to hug Taylor. “Hey. How was the trip?”

  “Good.” She waved to Nate and Mason, a little shy.

  She was the closest to me, but even we weren’t super close. She and Logan had been together for almost a year now, but since she was from Cain, she liked to stick close to her friends there. Logan slept more at her house during the year than ours, which had caused some tension between him and Mason.

  Taylor raked a hand through her dark blond hair. “We got to the house, but no one was there, so Logan used a GPS tracker thing he has installed on Mason’s phone. When he realized you guys were here, he got really quiet. Is this a bad place?” She looked around. “I gotta say, this is somewhere my dad would hang out.”

  “It’s not really the place. It’s the people.”

  “Sullivan?” we heard Logan saying. “I remember taking one off your hands more than a few times. Not that one? Tate.”

  Adam shook his head. “Nice, Logan. Yeah. It’s just great to have you back.”

  Nate ignored Adam. “It’s Becky, Sam’s old friend.”

  Logan looked at me. “Old friend, right? Don’t tell me that’s changed, too.”

  “Uh, it was old until about thirty minutes ago. It got genuine again.”

  “It did?” Adam asked.

  I ignored him. “Don’t knock it until you meet her again, Logan. She’s changed.”

  “Not a backstabber any more?”

  More like just a smarter backstabber, but I shrugged.

  Logan turned to face his brother. “What the fuck is going on? You stopped taking my calls a week ago.”

  “You stopped calling.”

  Logan thought about that, tilting his head to the side. “Oh yeah. I think my battery died, and I lost the charger by the Eiffel Tower.” He winked at Taylor. “Plus, I’ve been a bit preoccupied. You know, hanging out with your coach.” He turned back to Mason. “We’re the best of friends now, Mase. I call him Big Poppa Bear.”

  “Right.” Mason’s tone was doubtful.

  “And he calls me his little baby bear. We spoon porridge together, sleep in each other’s beds, and even tried snuggling on his big daddy chair one time.” He grinned, staring off into the distance. “Such good memories. I’m the best daughter’s boyfriend ever.”

  Taylor frowned. “You had a beer together. That was it.”

  “Yeah, but while we enjoyed our Corona, I knew what he was thinking. I was thinking the same. We synced, Taylor. You can’t take that away from us. Me and your dad, we have a bond you’ll never understand.”

  “One where you’re Goldilocks?” She smiled. “That’s not a bond I want. I’m good with the one I have. You might have heard about it; it’s called reality.”

  Mason and Nate grinned, and Logan pretended to pull an arrow from his chest. He held it up. “Look at that. It went in through the front.” He smirked at Adam. “Not the back, like someone I don’t want to know here.”

  “You’re a fucking asshole.”

  Logan’s chest puffed up. He was so proud of himself. “Ah, name calling. Another trip down memory lane. That’s so high school.” He winked.

  Mason caught my eye, a meaningful look there, and I got the message. He was still trying to investigate Adam. If he came to his defense, Logan would be all over that like a bloodhound. Whereas if I stopped things, that’d make more sense. I cleared my throat, moving forward. “Okay. Enough with the pissing on each other.”

  “He started it,” Adam sneered.

  “Adam, go back to your engagement party.” I looked to Logan, whose eyes lit up at the mention of party. “And Logan, you stay away because Malinda is hosting. It’s not one to crash and start a scene. It’s for Mark’s birthday, too.”

  The eager light faded from him, and his shoulders almost slumped. “Fine, but where’s Matteo? I thought he was here, too.”

  “He’s probably hitting on some of my friends.” Adam started off. “I’ll send him out if I see him,” he called back over his shoulder.

  Once he was gone, all humor fled Logan. “What the fuck, Mason? For real. What the fuck?”

  “It’s more complicated than it seems.”

  “I’d hope so.” Logan looked at me. “Are you actually friends with her again?”

  I nodded. “I wasn’t lying. It became genuine thirty minute
s ago when I learned she has a monitoring program installed on Adam’s computer. She can get into his email and social media pages.”

  “Wait. What?” Mason asked.

  I looked at him. “Yeah. Why?”

  “Your new friend has a spying program on his computer?”

  “Oh.” Spying. What he was doing. “She had it installed to catch him if he starts cheating, but—”

  “Can we get access to it? Is she watching his business emails?” Mason asked.

  I lifted a shoulder. “I have no clue. I think she’s been mainly focused on his messages with other female friends.”

  “Sam, we need to get into that program. That’ll help a lot.”

  Logan held his hand up. “Okay. I’ve been gone a month. What the hell is going on?”

  “Logan!”

  We could hear Matteo yelling as he came down the pathway, heading right for us. He still hadn’t seen us, though.

  Mason dropped his voice low. “He doesn’t know.”

  “What?!” Logan said.

  “He’s a good guy,” Mason added, just as Matteo came around the corner. “I don’t want him involved.”

  “Dude!”

  Logan cursed under his breath. “You’re an asshole, Mase. God, I love you.” Then a cocky smirk came over his face and he held his arms out. “What’s up, my fellow SBC-er motherfucker?”

  Matteo swept Logan up in a bear hug and shook him. “Holy crap. It’s good to see you.” He pounded Logan’s back. “My soul brotha connection.”

  As the two professed their love for each other, I drifted over to Mason. His hand came to my hip and around my back as he pulled me against his side. Even now, I could feel some of the tension leaving him.

  I studied Taylor a moment. Things were changing. That was a fact, but this dynamic—Mason, me, Logan, even Nate, and now Taylor—that wasn’t going anywhere.

  Mason didn’t waste any time.

  I was given the task of taking Taylor out on the town that night, which meant I’d be taking her to Heather’s. Matteo was given clearance to spend the night with his girl, and once he left, Mason, Logan, and Nate took off as well. I wouldn’t have thought anything about what they were doing, except all three were dressed in black, and Mason had grabbed some ski masks. I watched as he put them in his bag.

  I didn’t ask. I didn’t want to know. When Mason kissed me goodbye, I just whispered as we hugged, “Be safe.”

  “Always.”

  That was debatable, but I said the same to Logan and Nate after hugging each of them, too.

  “You know nothing,” Logan replied. “Taylor knows nothing. Have fun tonight.”

  “Yep.” I patted his arm. “That’s the plan.” What we would do, I had no idea, but I knew I needed to keep her away as long as they were gone to keep her from asking questions. I texted Heather my mission before we left.

  Heading over. We need to keep busy until I hear from the guys later.

  Her response came five minutes later. No clue what you’re talking about, but don’t want to know. I got a party we can go to.

  When we walked into Manny’s, she was behind the counter.

  “Does this party have Caldron on the guest list? Kate? Matteo?” I asked.

  She’d been reaching for some menus, but paused. “I didn’t know there were stipulations. No Matteo?”

  I shook my head.

  She shrugged. “I’m just teasing. No way he’ll be at this party.” She looked past my shoulder. “Hey, Taylor.”

  Taylor waved, staying a good distance behind me. “Hey.”

  The past flirting that’d gone down between Logan and Heather hadn’t been an issue for Taylor, or so Logan said. But I couldn’t help but wonder if some of that had been swept under the rug.

  Taylor moved closer, glancing around the place. “So Logan said Roussou people were the enemy.” She looked at a table where three girls wore Roussou football jerseys.

  I grinned at Heather as I replied, “Not all.”

  “Hmm…” Heather grunted. “Technically I’m Fallen Crest.”

  “But your boyfriend is not.” I winked at her.

  Her smile turned smug. “And he’s just as amazing as the rest of us.”

  I added for Taylor’s benefit, “I’m pretty sure the party we’re going to tonight is a Roussou crowd?”

  Heather moved out from behind the counter, taking a bunch of menus to some incoming customers.

  “Considering the Kades have dropped the ball on throwing kickass parties,” she said as she returned, “I’d say the Roussou crowd is the only type of party you want to attend nowadays.”

  “It’s safe for us?” Taylor asked.

  She nodded. “Completely.” She held up her house key. “Make yourselves comfortable. I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”

  I snatched it up. “By comfortable, you mean start drinking?”

  She pretended to be confused. “Is there any other meaning for that word?”

  Taylor and I moved around another incoming wave of customers and headed down the side alley to Heather’s house.

  MASON

  Logan popped his head up in between the front two seats. “How far is this place?” He’d agreed to ride in the back because Nate had the GPS ready to go.

  “We don’t have an exact address, just an idea where it will be.”

  “That’s fucked up. We could be driving for hours.”

  We hadn’t been. We were an hour north of home, but as Nate said something else to Logan, I turned onto the shore road. Sam had said the cabin was located on this highway, and this area matched Becky’s description—not many houses, so a lot of trees and rocky cliffs. Nate and Logan were still going back and forth when I stopped the vehicle at the end of a driveway. I could see the tops of a white mansion, and the name on the mailbox said Quinn.

  “We’re here?” Logan asked.

  “I’m taking a wild guess, but yeah.”

  “Do we know how we’re getting in?” Nate asked once we were parked. The house was three stories, with a wraparound porch. Logan and I shared a look as we got out and stood in front of the place. It was a cabin. Yeah, it was big and sprawling, but it was still a cabin. The paint was a little worn. I could see a few spider webs on the porch. The place wasn’t kept up, and I’d bet there was no state-of-the-art security system in place either.

  Logan hopped up on the porch and rattled the door. “It’s locked.” He glanced back at me.

  I gestured around to the back. “Check all the doors. They might have one unlocked—or even a window.”

  And we were in luck. The door to the attached garage had been left unlocked, but inside was another door that opened into the house, and that one was locked.

  Logan started laughing.

  “What?”

  He stepped carefully on a rug. “Are you kidding me?” He knelt down and felt under it, pulling out a key. “Fuckers literally left it under the rug. That’s almost as bad as keeping it in one of those fake rocks.”

  He unlocked the door, and we went inside. We filtered into the