Chapter 34

THIRTY-FOUR

Owen

C olin and I have been a little cold over the last few days, and I don't know what to do about it, so I've spent more time training than with him. We are fucking more than is probably good, but there is no stopping that. I can't say no to him. But it's getting to the point even our followers are starting to notice. So when he bursts into the kitchen, it takes me by surprise.

"What's wrong?"

"Cassie is gone!" Colin looks like he's about to break.

"Cassie what?" I don't get what he means.

"She ran off." Colin paces through the kitchen. "I have to find her."

My brain tries to process what he just said. "Who told you? What happened?"

"My mom called, demanding that I bring her back because of course it's my fault she's gone." His voice shakes as he speaks. "They don't know where she is but—" His words shudder. "She's eighteen now, and she could be on the street or taken by some asshole my father tried to set her up with. I could hear my dad screaming in the background. He's said he's going to cut her off if she doesn't come home tonight."

I cross the room to wrap him up in a hug. "We will find her. If your dad cut her off, she won't have a credit card, so she will surface pretty quickly." My mind reels trying to come up with a plan. "Let's call Oliver. He has that PI who stalked us. I bet that guy can find her. She will be fine."

He gives over his weight, nearly collapsing on me. "I will never forgive myself if she isn't okay. I can't let anything happen to her. She's my onl–"

"Nothing is going to happen to her. We will find her. I promise."

"Why didn't I let her move in? Why didn't I help earlier? I knew my fucking father was looking for someone else for her to marry, and I didn't do a fucking thing about it." He sobs into my shoulder, and my heart breaks.

"You couldn't have done anything. Before she turned eighteen, you would have been harboring a runaway. She took matters into her own hands, and you couldn't have known she was planning on doing that before she finished high school." I squeeze him tighter, trying to give him any comfort at all.

"I failed her." He barely can speak between choked sobs.

"She's taking her power like you are. I'm sure she's safe somewhere with friends or something. We will find her." I walk him back out to the living room and get him seated so I can call my brother.

"I know where she is," Oliver says without even saying hello.

"Cassie?!" I ask, unable to believe Oliver, of all people, would know.

"Olivia just called me, and I told her to call you next, but you beat her to it." Oliver sounds more annoyed than anything else.

"Why would Olivia know where she is?" I ask, putting him on speaker phone so Colin can listen in.

"Because I guess they worked it out. Olivia took her under her wing after the last disaster of a family dinner, and started talking to her about why she moved to London, and that she'd help her the day she turned eighteen."

"What?!" Colin and I say at the same time.

"She didn't tell anyone. Neither of them did. Olivia said it wasn't her place, and that Cassie didn't want anyone to know." Oliver is nonplussed about it.

"Not even her brother?" I ask the question I know Colin wants to.

"I guess she wanted to feel like she was making her own solution. Cassie was going to call Colin, but their father cut off her phone service?—"

I cut Oliver off. "He cut off a ‘missing' girl's phone service?"

"Sounds like a move out of our father's playbook, doesn't it?" Oliver scoffs. "But she is on the plane. She can't access Wi-Fi or anything else until she's with Olivia in London because your father froze her cards too, and nothing takes cash."

Colin growls and covers his face with his hands.

I put a hand on his thigh, squeezing lightly. "And Olivia is going there to pick her up?" I glance at the time, like I'd know what time it is in London. "Isn't it, like, the middle of the night there?"

Colin is on his phone looking it up.

"About one in the morning. It's fine. Olivia was still up. They'd arranged this and weren't going to tell anyone until she was safely on the plane so no one could intercept the message. You know how these things are with wiretaps and whatnot," Oliver says it so flippantly, like our parents just have all our phones wiretapped.

"Is that a thing?" I ask, now wondering about all the things I've said over FaceTime to Colin.

"No, I've had ours monitored since we moved out," Oliver scoffs. "But clearly I will have to add your husband to that list since you're sleeping together." Oliver got off the phone, and we sat in silence.

"Do you want me to call my sister?"

Colin shakes his head. "No. I don't know what that would do. I'm just hurt she didn't tell me."

"That's understandable, but maybe she realized your parents were recording her conversations."

"I find it difficult to believe my parents are smart enough to do it, but I wouldn't put it past them either."

"What about in person?" I ask carefully, not sure what will help this situation.

"I haven't seen her much. Our parents have been keeping her from me since we got married and pissed them off."

"Dicks. But at least she's safe now." I try to keep my voice steady, but now that I know Cassie is safe, my entire world starts to implode.

Will Colin realize we don't have to stay married and leave?

"Maybe. I don't really trust they'll leave her alone. Maybe I should have let her marry you. At least then she wouldn't have forty-five-year-old guys sniffing around her making her feel like she can't talk to me and needs to run to another country." Colin sounds hurt, and I'm sure he has a right to be, but I can't handle it right now.

I ball my hands into fists, taking slow breaths to stave off the panic. "You'd rather have her married to me?" I try and word things carefully to not make the situation worse.

"That's not what I mean." He breaks eye contact.

"Okay…" I search his face. Why the fuck did I have to fall in love with him? I know this is fake. Stupid fucking attachment to people.

"Okay what?" Colin narrows his eyes like he's about to say something.

"If she's out of your father's reach…" I don't want to say it. I don't want to put the idea in his head, but my anxiety won't let me not ask. I have to know. I have to prepare myself for it if Colin wants to leave. "Then there is nothing keeping you with me." Sorrow chokes off my throat. "Are you leaving?" Is that what he's trying to do? Did he detest taking care of me so much he wants to leave tonight?

"Am I leaving?" Colin asks, sounding affronted.

Panic creeps up my throat. He's taking it the wrong way. "You said…" What had he said? My words get stuck in my throat. My mind is spinning and closing off. I don't know what to say, or how to ask him to stay.

"I made a stupid comment and you want me to leave?"

"I wasn't telling you to leave. I thought you were saying because your sister is safe and you'd rather she had married me that you were leaving."

"Don't fucking twist your words to make this my fault."

My brows pull. "What? That's not what I'm doing. Tensions are high, that was awful. Can we please talk about this tomorrow?"

"No, I need to know now." Colin pulls inside himself. Away from me. I feel him slipping through my fingers. He gets up and I try to grab him, but he yanks his arm out of my reach. "Stop pretending you fucking want me. You've been pulling away for weeks. You won't even touch me anymore unless I push you to it." Tears well up in the corners of his eyes. "Just fucking tell me you don't want me."

"It's not that." What did I even say to this? My words stick in my throat. I can't find the right ones. "I wasn't saying it like that."

"I heard you loud and clear. I'm fucking leaving."

"You can't just leave."

"Actually, I can. You've made it clear that I'm no longer needed."

And he's gone. The thing I've been dreading is here like I knew it would be.