Taken: The MISTAKEN Series Complete Third Season (11 page)

T
oday

I
didn’t know
how to answer her. I didn’t know why the words had fallen out of my mouth in the first place—that Marian was about to castrate me, or whatever the fuck I had said. It was the
again
part that I couldn’t go back on. That was the part that should have stayed in my mouth. That was the one word that had betrayed me to Jen.

I couldn’t just look over at her and
tell
her, even though I wanted to. I wanted nothing more than to sit her down and explain to her every fucking thing I had ever done in my life, no matter how horrible or horrifying those things were. I wanted to be able to explain to her that two wrongs didn’t make a right—but that sometimes
ten
wrongs did. Or a thousand. Sometimes it took a
thousand
wrong things to fix the one thing that was
right
. And whatever else was going on here—I knew what Jen and I had was
right
. And it didn’t matter how many wrong things I had done in my life—I was going to make all of this right.

I just wanted to hold her in my arms. Forever. I wanted to make love to her and walk on the beach with her and sit at her feet, listening to her play the piano for the rest of our lives. I didn’t need anything more complicated than that. Everything I wanted with her—
for
her was simple. And I didn’t know or understand how everything in our lives had come to be so fucking complicated.

I couldn’t even turn to face her. I couldn’t even look at her, but I knew that I had to give her some explanation now. I needed to tell her that yes, I had met her mother before. And yes, she had definitely kicked me in the balls—not literally, but she might as well have. And she hated me for many of the same reasons she hated Jen—it wasn’t that she hated either of us, per se, it was more the resentment. It was more what the other people
related
to us had done to her that she resented. And I wasn’t about to have
that
conversation with her, not when there was so much other bullshit hanging in the air. That was a conversation for a different day—a day when we were lying on the beach somewhere, remembering how fucked up this had all been. Remembering how much we had gone through to be together.
That
day—that would be the one when I would tell her why her mother resented me. Not that Marian was even her mother—and that was also a conversation I wasn’t prepared to have with her yet. I had no idea how I would ever be able to explain to her who her real mother was or how Jen’s life was now a fucked up mess because of her.

It wasn’t really for me to tell her, anyway. This was a conversation she should have with her father. This was something
he
should have explained to her a long time ago—long before she was sucked into this mess. Long before she ever met
me.

I cleared my throat. “I’ve met her before.”

“I gathered that.”

I couldn’t even turn to face her. I was sure she would cry. I was positive that her emotions would overflow—this day had already been so long and so full of emotion, that I wasn’t sure how much more she would be able to take before she cracked. I wasn’t sure how much more I could take, either.

“And you’re not going to tell me anything else?”

I turned to her. There were no tears in her eyes—nothing that would have conveyed she was upset about this revelation, if she even was. I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe she wasn’t a quivering mess over that news. I knew I had betrayed her, even though she had no idea what had happened. “I did a favor for her once. A long time ago.” It was a long time ago—sort of. It
felt
like a long time ago.

She nodded. “Oh. And you didn’t think that was knowledge you might share with me? You didn’t think that might be relevant given my history with Marian?”

She was pissed. She wasn’t a quivering, upset mess of tears—she was angry. Rightfully angry, but her reaction still surprised me. With everything she had been through with that woman, I hadn’t expected this reaction from her. Maybe I had just been around Melissa for too long. Maybe it was that Melissa was so quick to tears and drove me so fucking insane with her bullshit crying spells that I had forgotten that Jen wasn’t like that. She wasn’t quick to tears or quick to lose control of her emotions. I felt like a dick thinking it, but it was something that drove me nuts about women. And maybe because it had been nine months since I had seen her, I had forgotten that about her—that she wasn’t like that.

She shook her head and crossed her arms in front of her.

I wanted to reach over and pull her into my arms, but there was so much. I knew what we really needed was to have a conversation. A long, full conversation where I laid out exactly what I had done. Everything I had done with nothing left out. I knew she needed to know. I knew I needed to tell her. Because I needed her to know my side of things—why I had done all the things I had done. My side of the story, just like she had said. And I knew I wouldn’t hold anything back this time. I just didn’t want to do it in front of
Cade
. Not in front of
him
. Not when he’d had a hand in getting us to this point—not when I still blamed him for my having lost her in the first place. People thought
I
played multiple sides, but no one ever suspected
him
. And he had full access to Jen. Until now—until today. Today was the day that this would end. I would make sure of it.

“Jen, I’m sorry. I promise you that as soon as we get to wherever it is that we’re going, we’ll sit down and talk this out. I’m going to tell you everything.”

Cade glanced into the back seat, giving me a small smile before turning his gaze back to the road.

I could have killed him with my bare hands. I actually
could have
killed him—I just didn’t want to get us into a car accident at this speed. And he knew it—I could see it on his face. He was going to pay for doing this to us. They all were. Cade, Senator Davis, Marian Hennessey. They would
all
pay for taking her away from me. I just needed to figure out how I was going to get her away from them.

I
wasn’t
sure how much I could say to him. I wasn’t sure how much I could reveal without blowing everything. Brandon had worked for my father for years. Just like his sister had. She might have changed allegiances when everything happened, but I still wasn’t sure if
he
had. The ring he had in his pocket gave me hope, but I still wasn’t sure he would be on my side and not on my father’s. After all, I was still nearly certain that my father was signing his paychecks. I was still almost positive that he had been working for my father while he was trying to find me this whole time. Because there was no one out there with more to gain from finding me than my father.

I wanted to tell him everything—I wanted to tell him how Cade wasn’t working for my father any longer. That he hadn’t taken a bribe that night. I wanted to explain everything to him, but I wasn’t sure I could trust him with everything. I wasn’t sure he would even understand what was going on. I knew he would never understand that I was just as involved in this game as he was now, maybe even
more
involved. And I knew he still didn’t get why I had been hiding in Maine—why I had changed my identity and hidden in plain sight.

I knew how this night was going to go. I knew that it would be too late to do anything once we got there—got to Marian’s family compound. Her butler would tell us that she had retired for the evening and that we would deal with everything in the morning. And that was good—that almost brought a smile to my face. Because then I could invite Brandon into my bed and we could have one more night together. One more night of bliss before Marian did whatever she was going to do to him.

And maybe we could figure something out tonight. I would try to tell him enough. I would tell him what Krystal and Marian and I had been doing over the last nine months. I would only tell him enough so that he would understand. I wouldn’t tell him everything—just enough. And if this was real—if there was some chance that he was really here for me and not on some errand from my father, he could work with us. Maybe he would
want
to work with us. He was good at this kind of thing. Krystal knew it, too. Brandon was better at this game than any of us, and
he could help
. He could help us bring down the senator. He had just as much reason to want it as any of the rest of us. Probably more.

I had learned so much over the past nine months. I had learned more than I had ever wanted to know—and I wasn’t scared anymore. I mean, I was still frightened from time to time, and having Brandon around now was definitely a little scary—but I wasn’t scared all the time like I used to be. Having people trust me with information had almost been a godsend—I was definitely in more danger knowing it, but I didn’t feel like a victim. I felt like I had a little control over my life now. Even though I’d had to hide because I was Jenna Davis, I was more in control of my life now than I had ever been.

I looked over at him. I could see he was surprised that I was angry about it. I’m not sure how he thought I’d react to the news that he had worked for my mother, but my anger had already evaporated. If he had worked for her before, he might be willing to work for her again. And that meant he could work with
me.
It meant we could finally be together. It meant I didn’t have to hide from him—even if the whole thing with my biological mother put both of us in danger, we could hide
together
if they still wanted me to hide. And that seemed a hell of a lot better than hiding alone.

“We’ll work this out, Brandon. As soon as we get there. And Cade won’t listen, will you?” I glanced into the front seat.

“Nope, kiddo. You two do what you need to do.”

I smiled over at him, tilting my head to force him to meet my gaze. “Brandon, there is nothing that you can tell me right now that is going to make me hate you. I don’t care what you’ve done or how you think you’ve hurt me or my family. There is nothing—
nothing
—you can tell me that is going to make me hate you.”

His expression softened. “When we get there, I’m going to tell you everything.”

I nodded. “Me, too.”

He reached over and pulled my hand into his, lowering his voice and tilting his head toward me so that Cade wouldn’t overhear. “And after everything else I plan to do to you tonight, you will
never
want to hide from me again.”

I felt the heat rise into my cheeks. I had to close my eyes for a moment as the warmth settled in my belly, my body aching for his touch.

This
was what I had missed. I had missed everything about him, but I especially missed how he knew what to say to make me feel like this. How a single sentence could make my body tingle and almost send me over the edge at the
thought
of him fulfilling that promise.

And I had every intention of letting him fulfill it. As many times as we could before our summons to go see Marian in the morning.

T
he place was a fucking palace
.

I had never been here, and it was my understanding that not many people had even been
invited
here since Marian’s father had been assassinated a long time ago. Before Marian was even born.

We went through a gate of some kind after Cade punched something into a keypad. It was the third one he’d had to punch numbers into since we had pulled through the entrance of this place. Jen might not have thought it was a prison, but it sure as hell seemed like it to me. What the hell kind of place made you enter a security code
three times
to get through if it wasn’t some kind of prison?

We finally pulled up to what I had first assumed was the main house—until I looked to the east and saw what
had
to be the main house—it was about ten times as big as the place we were at.

This didn’t seem real. None of this seemed real—that people actually lived like this. That Jen’s family had this much money—I mean, I knew they had money, but nothing like
this
. This was outrageous. This was … too much. Way too much. And the place we were being taken wasn’t even the main fucking house and it was the biggest house I had ever seen—until I looked east.

The look on my face must have given me away. She took my hand after we exited the car and looked up at me, smiling. “This is the carriage house.”

“Carriage house.”
What the fuck is a carriage house
? I didn’t know. I didn’t care. I just felt completely out of my element even being here—it was over the top. Way the fuck over the top. I knew that Jen’s mother’s family was as close to royalty as this country had ever seen, but I was pretty sure most people didn’t have a fucking
clue
that they lived like this.

She forced a smile. I knew she could see I was uncomfortable—hell, it was impossible to hide.
Anyone
would have been uncomfortable here. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t ever realized any of this about Jen before. That
this
was the kind of life she had lived. Some heiress… That’s what she was. An heiress. And I had known that all along, I just hadn’t put it together until now. Until
this
was staring me in the face.

“It’s not mine, Brandon. This is all Marian’s. I had only been here a couple of times before … before.” She forced another smile as we walked through the doorway. “I didn’t grow up like this. I mean, the carriage house isn’t too much smaller than the house in Virginia where I grew up, but the main house…” Her voice drifted off as she looked up at me. “I’m not like this. You know that.”

I nodded. I did know that. I knew she wasn’t like this, but the whole
this house isn’t that much smaller than the house I grew up in
thing bothered me. I had money. I had a lot of money—but not this kind of money. I could do every dirty job from here to California, and I would never have
this
kind of money. I couldn’t give her
this
life.

And she seemed to know what I was thinking, because her forced smile turned into a real one. She touched my shoulder. “Brandon, this isn’t the life I want. I’d rather live in that shack in Waterville than a place like this. I’d rather live
anyplace
in Waterville than a place like—”

“Waterville? Is that where you’ve been all this time?”

I sucked in a breath at the booming voice that greeted us from the hallway. I recognized it immediately, and by the loss of color in her face, I knew that Jen had, too.

He walked over to us, smiling at me. I couldn’t read it—that smile. I couldn’t tell if it meant I was a dead man or if he was really happy to see me. He turned and smiled down at Jen. “I’ve missed you, Jenna. But I’m glad we have our family back together.”

Her mouth hung open for a moment before she found her words. “Hi, Dad.”