31. Chapter Twenty-Five

Trevante

Being here in Knox's house is not how I pictured spending the past two weeks. Oh, we are not guests. Xander and I have been strapped to chairs in the basement and treated as if we are traitors. We haven't been tortured but Knox has come down here and knocked us around a few times but never utter a word. Xander says he is just working out his frustrations with us because we have both fallen for her. If the bastard would ungag me, then I would give him a piece of my fucking mind!

"You're here." I snap my head to see a woman standing in the corner of the room shrouded in the shadows. She steps forward and I immediately know who she is. Lakeland Bronson. Her brown hair is loose and flows around her shoulders, her green eyes are locked onto Xander who stares straight back at her with a guilt-ridden look which has me frowning. She moves with purpose as she comes toward us, stopping in the middle of him and I. She looks between Xander and me and purses her lips for a second before reaching out and yanking the cloths from our mouths.

I suck in a long pull of air. "Thanks," I rasp out.

"What he said," Xander mutters bitterly, turning away from Lakeland who doesn't seem bothered by his reaction.

She purses her lips and turns back to me, offering a kind smile which I return. "You're the one who called?"

"Yes," I answer.

"Why?" Her question stumps me.

"Because I knew you would come," Xander answers for me, still not looking our way.

"What made you think that?" she counters. He slowly turns his head and lifts his gaze to hers.

"You said you would know if she was dead, you would have felt it. I knew you would send him because it was the only lead you have had since she went missing." Lakeland's eyes fill with sadness but I also see hope lurking in the depths of them.

"Xander, is she really…" She clamps her mouth closed, unable to finish her sentence.

"Yeah. She's alive, Lake." A whimper escapes her before a smile graces her beautiful face.

"I knew it. I told him for years that I would have felt it if she was gone. I knew my soul didn't shatter for a reason because she is still alive." She moves briskly toward the wall and grabs a box cutter. I tense in anticipation and begin to worry that she may share a crazy streak like Doxy until she begins cutting away the duct tape and freeing us from our confines.

"He's going to be pissed, Lake," Xander warns. Lakeland's features harden as she stares up at my friend.

"I'll deal with my husband how I see fit, now you take him and clean up. I won't have you meeting your nephews looking like you crawled out of a donkey's ass." I choke on my own spit. "I have clothes and everything else laid out in the guest room for him, you know where your room is." Xander recoils.

"I still have a room?" he mumbles.

Her eyes soften as she reaches out and grabs his hand giving it a squeeze. "You and I may have a fucked-up past, Xander, but that is where it will stay because my best friend loves you and I will not allow anything to come between her and me when she comes home. I've had years to process and come to terms with that night, I'm at peace with it." Xander eyes her with a look of awe.

"What about Knox?" She scrunches her face at his question.

"He's uh, working on it." Xander's face falls so she quickly rushes to add. "Give him time, Xan, he needs you as much as I need Wave. If he really hated you he would never have named his son after you." With those parting words, she leaves us standing here in Knox's torture basement, slightly battered and slightly bruised but nothing serious. At least Xander's eye is open now and he is starting to heal.

"Let's go, Knox will be back soon."

"How do you know he isn't here?" I ask as I follow after him.

"There is no way in hell he would have let Lake come down here if he was home, she is playing him at his own game and winning."

"What game?" I ask confused and exasperated.

"The game where he comes home to find us washed, clothed, fed and sitting on the mat in his office playing with his sons. Knox wouldn't dare raise his voice while his boys are around because his mother and Lake would beat the brakes off his ass."

These people are fucking weird!

After showering and shaving for the first time in two weeks, I feel a whole lot livelier. Lakeland even prepared a hot meal for us, which Xander and I both shoveled into our mouths like wild animals. I wanted to feel bad that I was eating like a pig in front of Lake but I couldn't because food never tasted so fucking good. Once we were finished, Lake told us it was time to meet her boys.

I can feel the tension wafting off Xander as we follow after her, he keeps clenching and unclenching his hands. Lake opens a door and steps inside. Children's laughter can be heard from inside but Xander is frozen on the spot and won't move. Lake shoots him a concerned look.

"We'll be right in, just give us a second," I say with a smile. She nods and leaves alone in the hallway. "What's wrong?" I ask him.

His shoulders deflate as he faces me. "Those are my best friends' kids in there."

"Yeah?"

He scrubs a hand down his face and shakes his head. "I ran Lakeland down with my car the night I thought she left Wave to die. I didn't just hurt her, I killed their baby!" Sorrow churns inside me for him. Lakeland and Knox suffered a great loss at his hand but I also know he has been beating himself up about this for years, you can see it in the way he refuses to hold eye contact with her for too long.

"Yeah, you did!" We both spin around to find Knox, Taylan and two of Knox's men standing a few feet behind us. Xander remains frozen at my side as he stares at his best friend.

"How can we move past this?—"

Xander cuts Taylan off before he can finish speaking. "Saying I'm sorry won't change what I did, I can't replace what I took from you and Lake and for that I will never forgive myself." Surprise ripples through me at hearing Xander speak so emotionally.

"If you could go back, would you change it?" Knox asks.

Xander sighs and shakes his head, surprising not only me but Knox and Taylan as well. "No."

"Come again?" Knox grits out.

"I wouldn't change it because if I did, then you wouldn't have those two kids in that room. Call me heartless and hate me all you want but no, I wouldn't change what happened because it would mean that you wouldn't have Rave and Axlyn."

Knox's brows raise before he slowly turns to the side and glares at Taylan, who shoots him a toothy grin. "You told him their names?" he forces out.

Tay shrugs. "I'm sick of being your messenger. You claim to hate him but every month you track his whereabouts. When he went off grid a few weeks back, you lost your shit. You still care about him, Knox, and I think it's time you admit that to yourself because he isn't going anywhere, not this time." Both Knox and Xander stare after Taylan as he brushes past the both of them to go inside the room where Lakeland and her sons are.

"I'll give you guys a minute—." Knox pins me with a dark look that has me clamping my mouth closed.

"You stay the fuck away from my wife and kids," he snarls.

"And you can curb your anger, right now!" Knox's features harden as Lakeland comes to join us. "Knoxville Bronson, you will let go of this grudge, right now, because I won't bring my best friend back here with you hating the man—well, one of the men she cares for." Knox flinches in disgust.

"They are not going near you or her!" he snaps.

"With all due respect, fuck you," I say, earning a gasp from Lake and a cruel smirk from Knox.

"My twin not enough for you?" he taunts.

"You make another joke about your sister not being enough again and I'll break your fucking jaw!" Xander says in a tone so fucking cold and menacing that Lake takes a step away from him. "You can hate me, say whatever you want about me, but you will not talk about Wave in that way again. You don't know a fucking thing about what she went through."

"You don't know her at all," I add.

"What the fuck is this shit, Xander? You both think I'm going to stand back and let you, what? Date my sister, sleep with her?" Knox sounds like a prick.

"Enough!" I turn in time to see a woman and man exit the same room Lake came from. I step aside to allow them to pass and notice immediately how Xander softens at the sight of her and Knox tenses. "Hello, my boy," she says lovingly as she gazes up at Xander with a warm smile that is filled with love.

"Hi, Mom," he rasps out before he engulfs her in a hug. She begins to weep in his hold.

"That's Clara, Knox and Wave's mom but she is also Taylan and Xander's mom," Lake whispers. I reel back in disgust.

"Xander and Wave are related?" I hear the disbelief in my own voice and feel bile rushing up my throat at the thought of them being siblings. Lake chuckles and shakes her head.

"No. Clara raised Taylan and Xander as her own and I guess in a way she sort of raised me and my sister as well. She may be blood related to Knox and Wave but she is all of our mother and that man, that's Roberto Da Luca, their father." My eyes widen.

"Doxy took his last name," I whisper.

"The fuck did you just say?" Knox snaps, garnering all our attention.

"Your sister doesn't go by Waverly Bronson anymore, she is now known as Doxy Da Luca." Knox's face pales, I look to his father to find he is shocked by my revelation.

"Why?" Roberto asks, speaking for the first time.

"Waverly Bronson died the night her son did, forcing her to become Doxy Da Luca," I answer. A sob tears from Clara and Lake covers her mouth as tears fill her eyes. Knox darts forward and wraps his arm around her shoulders drawing her into his side.

"My baby had a… baby?" Clara chokes out. Xander rubs her back and tries to offer her comfort. I look to Xander asking without words if I should continue or not, his subtle nod is all I need.

"Yes. She said she had a beautiful baby boy but unfortunately that is all I can say, it isn't my story to tell and honestly, I think I pissed your daughter off enough already," I say with a guilty smile.

"What the fuck did you do to my sister, asshole?" Knox snaps.

"Called you," I say with no emotion in my tone.