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“That was his fault,” Jax points at Max with a shit-eating grin.
“That was very lawyer of you,” Max says sarcastically.
Ryan looks around and back at us. “I’m pretty sure Max wasn’t the one screaming.”
My attention turns to Addison walking out of the house. Ryan notices me looking behind him and spins around.
“Everyone, hide your guns,” he says, joking.
Fucking Ryan. Addison’s eyes go wide and her face pales. Max growls behind me as my expression hardens. The silence is painful.
Ryan’s face contorts to regret as soon as he figures out he said the wrong thing. “Addison, I’m sorry. I don’t know—”
I grab his shoulder and shake my head. Max rises from his seat, putting his arm around Addison. “C’mon, Addie, let’s go make Tink some hot chocolate.” She slowly nods her head, letting out a harsh breath.
Once they’re out of our sight, I smack Ryan upside the head.
“Obviously I deserved that, but if anyone ever talked to me and told me shit, I’d know how I messed up.” He punches me in the arm.
“Sit,” I demand. I start the same story that I told Ryker, but when Addison comes out I stop. I’m not sure if I should continue or keep going. She smiles at me and then gives Ryan a soft smile. Max and Syd come out, too. Syd’s wrapped in a huge blanket with a coffee mug, steam rising from of it.
“Everyone, take a seat,” Addison says. My eyebrow shoots up, wondering what she’s going to do. “Everyone here is important to me and Aiden, like brother or sister important,” she says, smiling at me. She sits in my lap, and I wrap my arms around her. “I feel like I need to tell y’all a ghost story. My ghost story.”
“Sweetheart, you don’t need to do this,” I softly say.
“Yes, I do,” she says firmly. “I don’t want what just happened to keep happening. Everyone here knows parts of the puzzle, everyone has different pieces. I need to put it together for everyone.”
I nod. Syd reaches over and squeezes her hand. She knows as well as I do this is tough for Addison. She’s one to keep things bottled up and deal with them herself. My heart beats faster knowing that she trusts my best friends enough to tell them her story. I didn’t think I could love her anymore, until this second.
The fire crackles and the ocean waves are the only sound made for a couple minutes. I can tell Addison is preparing herself. And everyone stays quiet while she does it.
“It all started the day my mom was murdered when I was ten.” I flinch, and she squeezes my hand. I despise knowing that my dad is the one she saw that day. She continues telling her story, how she met Marco and ended up at Travis’s house and why. I hate hearing about Marco, but I guess that’s an important detail.
“So you two were pretty much on the same life path?” Ryker questions. The guys all know that I thought Travis killed my parents. We both nod. I’m not going to spoil the surprise. I’ll let Addison do it. I can’t.
She tells them about how she was held captive for a week and how my job was to make sure she didn’t escape. Everyone’s eyes bore into me.
“It wasn’t like that,” I say defensively. Addison’s eyebrows shoot up. “Well … you were treated well. I would never let anything happen to you,” I try to explain.
“Even though that was when Aiden and I fell in love, I was still being held captive and was not allowed to leave.”
“You seduced a prisoner? That’s low, even for you, Aiden,” Jax says a little pissed off. I fist my hands.
“It wasn’t like that,” Addison says, placing her hand on top of mine. “We both fought it, but it was very mutual.”
“And you didn’t know he was undercover?” Ryker asks.
Addison laughs. “Definitely not. And you’ll believe me in a second. But before I get to that, I figured out why Travis was keeping me there. Come to find out, he didn’t kill my mom. He was in love with my mom. And…” she briefly pauses, “…he’s my father.”
The guys’ mouths drop as they look between Addison and me. I know what they’re thinking. Keep listening, boys, it gets worse.
“When I found that out, he didn’t want me to leave.” She looks at me and grins.
I shake my head. “You can skip the next part.”
“No, she can’t,” both Syd and Max say at the same time. They look at each other and laugh.
“The next part is the best part.” Max chuckles.
