32. ~Skylar~

I felt sick to my stomach.

For so many reasons that it was impossible to cure it.

The most prominent one was that Bastian was missing.

It had been three hours since he was supposed to have been at King Manor.

Not only hadn't he showed, but he'd failed to respond to any of our texts or calls.

The mansion was in a frenzy with Caspian and his people rushing around doing this and that to track him down, pulling out all the stops, drawing on the shit-ton of resources that Caspian had at his disposal, reaching out to his underground contacts, the whole deal.

"This is Jett," I told Caleb as I paced the patio while he smoked up a storm.

When we'd realized something was off, Caspian had reeled off a list of possible offenders to his people and Jett had been among them. But with the rest of the list, consisting of people such as those who wanted a piece of Caspian and would use those he was close to for leverage, and those wanting a piece of the Thorn estate itself which Bastian was the official heir apparent to, it was a lot to work through.

"The timing… it has to be him."

"It's more complicated than that in our world," Caleb told me between drags. "But I agree he's at the top of the list."

"What about Damien? We now know he was working with Jett. He might know something. Caspian didn't get anything out of him, but if I go over there and—"

"No. You're talking about going dark. Besides, Cas didn't get anything because there was nothing to get. Damien was only involved in leaking that video and helping Jett to monitor you. It's bad enough, yeah, and he'll pay for it, but it's not kidnapping level."

"I wished we'd jumped to the kidnapping angle right away. Precious time was wasted thinking it was Bastian taking off on his own."

"With the way he's been lately, it was the obvious conclusion to jump to."

"I know he hasn't been himself, but he's not—"

"He's been using again, Skylar."

I jolted. "Excuse me?"

"Bastian has been taking meds again."

"What? No, he was in control and—"

"He hasn't been in control since he met you. And now it's gone so fucking far that he's lost it altogether."

His words were like a sucker punch.

"I shouldn't have stayed away, I shouldn't have taken time away from him, or the rest of you to—"

He was there in the next moment, laying a hand on my shoulder. "Shh, it's okay. I'm not blaming you. You were processing what you needed to. I get it… better than the other two, okay? I do. After what you went through with Jett, the fact you were able to let us in is a major deal, but it's not a done deal, there's gonna be bumps along the way, being derailed. I get that. Cas can't, he's all about loyalty with no in between. And Bastian, well, he's way too obsessive to see any of that, all he registers is you pulling away. It feeds into his intense abandonment issues with him losing his dad." He stroked my hair. "Besides, Bastian finally opening up after so long was a good thing. He was feeling and actually living again, instead of existing. Just… all these complications… they brought forth all the bad attached to that too. And he hasn't been handling it."

I sank into him and he wrapped his arm around me, his other still holding his cigarette.

"Thank you," I murmured.

We pulled back and he smiled. "You know, connecting with you helped me too. It showed me that I could actually get close to somebody and feel something for somebody deeply, outside of Cas. For the longest time, all I had was him. I thought he would be the only one who could ever love me, with all that darkness and twisted shit in me. But you proved that wrong." He reached out and stroked my cheek. "You opened things up for me."

"Caleb, I—"

"We've located his Lexus," Caspian's voice came as he suddenly burst out onto the patio.

We both spun toward him.

"Where?" I asked.

"Fifteen miles north of the city."

"That's in the middle of nowhere. What the fuck was he doing all the way out there?" Caleb said.

"Heading to his supplier," Caspian told us. "The one he thinks I don't know about. It crossed my mind and I reached out to the little shit, and he confirmed as much."

I cursed and shoved my hand through my hair. This was bad. So bad.

Bastian was completely losing control.

And, despite Caleb's assurances, I couldn't help but put it down to me. It was because of me. Because he'd met me, gotten close to me, and opened himself up for me. I was causing him pain. Us being together was hurting him. He couldn't handle it. He wanted to, but all of this was proof that he couldn't.

I couldn't allow it to continue this way for him.

Unfortunately, that only left me with one definitive option, one way to give him back the peace he desperately needed.

But to do it, it would break me.

Hell, it would break all of us.

Caspian's phone buzzed, jolting me from my awful thoughts.

His eyes narrowed as he stared at whatever had come in, fury emanating from him. He looked like he was close to losing his cool, something I hadn't thought possible for him.

"What? What is it?" Caleb asked, stubbing out his smoke, then striding to him.

Caspian spun his phone so we could both see.

Bastian: Got your boy, King. Having a nice talk. I'll give you the location to pick him up from in a couple of hours, once I'm done. I'll leave it at that and keep far away from your territory going forward so long as you relinquish Skylar to me. If not, let's just say that I'll make damn sure your chance to take out my brother is ruined.

A shudder rolled through me.

It was yet more evidence that my presence in their lives had become detrimental.

Theirs in mine with Damien's antics, the porno, and the paparazzi was detrimental to me too.

Maybe some loves just weren't to be.

Maybe some connections did nothing but wreck you to pieces.

"Skylar, I don't negotiate with terrorists," Caspian said, reaching out and grasping my shoulder, trying to reassure me.

"Maybe you should."

"No fucking way," Caleb growled.

"Fine," I muttered, not wanting to get into a whole thing about it while Bastian was missing and time was of the essence. "Let me go after Jett. All I have to do is contact him myself and he'll lead me right to his door. He's that obsessed with me that he'll risk too much just to have me in his vicinity again. I can guarantee it."

"No," Caspian said.

"I can end this right here and now!" I yelled, losing my temper in spite of trying so fucking hard to keep control through all of this.

"Ending it is exactly what I'm worried about, and why I won't let you do this."

"What's the missing information I don't have? Because I'm certain you don't want to protect Jett, but it's sounding a hell of a lot like it."

His phone buzzed several times and his gaze darted from it clasped in his hand, out to me and Caleb. Blowing out a breath, he told me, "I don't have time now to delve into it properly. So you're going to have to make do with the CliffsNotes."

I folded my arms across my chest. "I'm listening."

"It was recently uncovered that Elijah Bane was the mastermind behind the murder of my parents and Bastian's father."

I choked. "Oh my God."

"Yeah, it's a lot," Caleb said.

Caspian went on, "I'm masterminding a complicated strategy with an ally of mine that will destroy his empire and take his life. But it's a time consuming process. Volatile and multi-faceted. If Jett is killed by you—somebody connected to me—it will destabilize everything. Instead of the business rivalry we have now, it will become personal. He'll lash out, I'll have to respond with a show of force, and, voila, we're in the middle of a brutal and very bloody war."

I sucked in a breath. That was a lot to absorb.

Off my stunned silence as I tried to reconcile it, Caspian rubbed my shoulder. "Exactly, it's a lot, so you need to stay out of it. I have a plan to deal with Jett in a way that will keep all our hands clean. I just need your patience. For now, we'll extract Bastian and that's it."

"Let me help you find him," Caleb urged him. "Don't keep me on the sidelines."

"So you can go in there and become Wrath, unleashing all over them?"

"Fucking right. We can't punish Jett yet, we at least need to deliver it upon the people he's working with."

"No. Stay out of it. You're emotional and we both know that's dangerous where that dark side of you is concerned."

"Cas—"

"It's done, Caleb."

They glared back and forth, and then Caleb threw up his hands. "Fine. I can't fucking stay here right now then."

With that, he brushed past Caspian roughly, then stormed off through the house.

Caspian cursed and scrubbed his hand over his face.

Then he forced a smile for me, assuring me, "We'll bring Bastian back. Everything will be fine."

Would it?

It seemed like it had already passed the point of no return where that was concerned.

While I didn't doubt that the almighty Caspian King had the means to liberate Bastian from the clutches of that maniac, there was still so much else outside of that beyond his control.

And I couldn't allow that to stand.

I couldn't let them suffer when there was something I could do to alleviate it.