Page 159 of Shadowface 1979

“Father,” I state with irritation.

A pause, then a dark voice. “Remington. About time you answered my calls, boy. Is the line secure?” My father’s thick Italian accent comes out when he’s angry even though he was born here.

I hear a click, probably Lucy or Maribel, wherever the hell that old goat is listening in on everything. “Now it is,” I inform him when I’m sure they aren’t listening.

My father growls. “You little son of a bitch, I’ve been calling for two days.”

“I’ve been studying,” I say flippantly. “Remember, I’m a student studying law, like you want me to.” He wants yet another way to control everything. He wants me to become a judge one day.

“Do you have any idea what kind of mess Talia made? She’s costing me thousands. Professor Crux is an internationally renowned psychologist. Think about that one for a second. She castrated him.”

I chuckle, then cringe at the thought. “Maybe if you hadn’t turned a blind eye when she was being raped by a priest.” My father doesn’t know the rest of it. Talia swore me to secrecy when I rescued her. He did, however, know Father Malcolm had his sights set on her and did nothing to stop it.

“This isn’t funny, boy. I’m about to throw that girl into a loony bin. You need to keep your sister under control.”

I run my hand through my hair. “And how do you suppose I do that? You certainly haven’t been able to.”

A tense silence. “Jimmy Garcia is asking for hundreds of thousands to keep quiet. He is demanding control over the trust. My hands are tied, son. I’m signing control over the fund. The Vitals will be listed as beneficiaries, but we are no longer in control of the finances.” Jimmy Garcia is Stephen’s father, and Kinsmen University’s twenty-seventh president. They are the third original bloodline, and by right have claim to this money. I’ve suspected this for a long time, but Talia didn’t. Although I think she’s starting to figure it out.

I can sense him seething on the end of the line, and I don’t respond. This is exactly what Talia was worried about. Talia will lose herself when she finds this out.

“Do you know anything about this white-haired girl? The one I thought we buried in a well a few months ago? Tommy’s whore?”

My skin burns. “Nope. Haven’t seen her.”

He lets out a deep sigh. “If I find out you’re lying to me, Remy…”

I grab my matches and light a smoke, glancing out the window at the morning mist in the trees. “I would never lie to you, Father.”

“I will take her from you, Remy. She’s not one of us and can never be one of us. We kill our sacrifices. We don’t keep them alive. She’s caught the attention of very dangerous people, and because of your sister’s negligence, this is now beyond my control. If she’s found and tied back to you in any way, we are all as good as dead. So, I ask again, do you know where that white-haired girl is?”

I clutch the phone so hard my fingers turn white. “I told you, I don’t know.”

“What about Tommy?”

“I doubt he’s involved. His dick is buried too deep inside your daughter’s cunt to notice what’s happening around him.”

“Language, Remington. If your mother heard you talk like that…”

I put the smoke out, burning a hole in the table. “Well, luckily for me, Mother is dead. Anything else, Father? I’m trying to study for my finals.”

“If I find her, I will kill her myself.” With that, the line goes dead.

I curse and head into the hallway, toward the kitchen, just as Tommy comes inside from the backyard in his jocks, with sweat pouring down his forehead.

He grunts and ducks into the kitchen ahead of me, yanking the milk from the fridge, chugging it straight from the jug.

I’m surprised he’s up. Tommy’s not a morning person, and I realize it’s been forever since we’ve gone for a run together. Too long.

“Talia would totally freak if she caught you doing that,” I say, sitting at the nook. My head feels like a ton of bricks, so I slump forward, face in my hands, waiting for some witty comeback. But nothing.

Instead, Tommy sits next to me. “Remy, what’s the deal, man?”

We haven’t talked much since the night with Didi, and even less since the other night when he and Didi were together again. But right now, I just need my best friend. “Is this about Didi?”

I stare up at him, and my jaw tightens. “My old man knows about her, man. He knows she’s here, and if she stays with us, he’s going to kill her. We have to do something.”

Talia saunters in, wearing a lacy nightgown, her dark hair flowing down her back, obviously overhearing everything. Tommy stares at her bare, toned thighs as if he hasn’t spent enough time between her damn legs. She stands with her back to the large window that overlooks the misty forest beyond, and she glances back and forth between us.