“If you guys don’t mind, I’m going to go jump in the shower and get some fresh clothes. I’ve had a pretty limited wardrobe the few last months,” Aralyn said ruefully, running one hand through her blue dyed curls. “I don’t want you guys to leave; I won’t be long. I’m just really looking forward a real shower instead of a camp shower.” She didn’t think it would be a good time to mention she had been using Richie’s, and occasionally Duncan’s shower since it the weather turned cold.

They agreed to hang out and wait for her. Tim was exhausted but he had missed his friends, and Lyris especially. He barely knew Natala, but she was family and he liked her.

Heading upstairs, Aralyn entered her room and looked around. It was clean, so someone had been in here dusting. Otherwise it looked the same. Her bed was made, her laptop sat on her desk. The curtains were open, her pictures and posters still there.

Stripping off her dusty and dirty clothes, her mind went to Tiffany. She knew she wasn't alonein feeling guilty that they were sitting downstairs laughing, while her cousin was tied up and scared somewhere. Rationally, she knew there was nothing they could do, her parents had said they needed to stay calm, keep their minds busy. Honey and Luke were out of their minds with worry; they didn’t need to see the kids fall apart too. But still...

She should have been here, she thought angrily. She should have been with Tiffany, looking out for her. It was what she did, it was her role as oldest. Tiffany should have never been in that parking garage alone!

Finding her robe in the closet, Aralyn headed for the shower, disgusted with herself.

Leif and Logan’s toiletries were everywhere, and she couldn’t help but smile to herself. They were evidently shaving now. She made note to tease them about it. In the four months she had been gone, they had grown. It had startled her to realize Leif was now slightly taller than her, which meant Logan was too, even though she hadn’t seen him yet.

Under the hot water, she sighed happily. It was so nice to have a good, familiar shower again. No worries about the water suddenly running cold, or if the shower head was up high enough that she wouldn’t have to crouch down, or if she had rigged the privacy screens properly. This was home. She washed her hair and conditioned it, shaved her underarms and legs—the twins didn’t need to know she used one of their razors—and let the hot water relax her shoulder muscles.

Finally getting out, she enjoyed the soft towels against her skin. Even the laundry detergent scent made her happy.

Back in her room, she turned her laptop on, letting it bot it up as she slipped into clean clothes, comfy sweats and socks, and sat toweling her short hair dry as she checked she surfed the web. She had a thousand emails she’d deal with later. She could guess most of them were from her family, and angry ones at that.

But there were more important issues at hand right now, like Tiffany.

Without thinking, she typed in Google maps, and called up the Irvington Estates community. It was bigger than she had remembered. She zoomed in one area, studying some of the bigger lots. Those were wealthy estates, surely he wouldn’t be hiding out there. Something nagged at the back of her mind, something she knew could be important but couldn’t quite grasp. It had been bothering her all night, teasing her, distracting her downstairs.

She rubbed her pedicure lotion into her feet as she looked at the map, before pulling on clean, thick white socks. Once they had Tiffany back, they were going to do a full girls days at the salon, she decided. Her nails and feet looked awful and her hair was a mess. Reaching for her comb, she ran it through her blue curls gently, studying the map, mind racing.

And sat up in her chair. Irvington Estates. The old Willows place. Of course! The ramshackle mansion had been a death trap for years, having fallen into severe disrepair. It was the ultimate test of bravery to dare your friends to break in and spend the night, because it was allegedly haunted. She, Tim, Tiffany and Dean had done it when they were twelve, and she’d bet money the younger twins had too. Maybe even Jesse or Jace or Dana. No way would Rayma or Riley set foot in that place.

She moved the map to where she thought it was, and clicked on Street View. The page reloaded and she caught her breath.

It was the perfect hideout, she thought. The police wouldn’t think to look there. There was one descendant still alive who wouldn’t allow the house to be torn down, but it hadn’t been occupied in at least twenty years. That made it the perfect hideout.

She slid on her old cowboy boots, and smiled as they hugged her foot like an old friend. She had missed these.

Dad said they had pinged McQuade’s cell phone off a nearby tower. Another search and sure enough, there was a cell tower not too far. They had the right general area, but were looking in the wrong direction.

Aralyn reached for her phone to call her dad, then hesitated. What if she was wrong? What if she sent them on a goose chase and cost them precious time in the search for Tiffany? Or worse, tipped their hand to McQuade that they were in the area and he bolted, or worse, hurt Tiffany? Her best friend’s life was on the line.

Biting her lip, Aralyn opened her desk drawer. There lay her gun, untouched while she had been gone. She stared at it for a long moment.

***

Cam found himself glancing towards the doorway. Aralyn had excused herself a while ago to shower. He glanced at the clock. Almost an hour. Aralyn was a no-fuss girl. Warning bells were going off in his head.

“Cam, you all right?” Natala asked.

“Yeah. Does Aralyn always take this long to shower?”

Natala frowned. “No, she’s usually pretty fast. But having not had a real shower—” Natala stopped speaking and got the look on her face that meant she was tapping into her intuition. “Oh, shit. She’s gone!”

“Gone? What?” Tim sat up, adrenaline surging through him.

“She’s not in the house. She must have gone down the other stairs!”

Lyris just stared at her. “I didn’t hear her bike.”

“I knew it,” Cam said. “I knew she was up to something, I could tell she had something cooking in her head!”

“She’s good at sneaking out,” Tim answered with a growl. “She knows the front stairs like the back of her hand. She could have just walked down the street out of earshot and started her bike up down the road.”

Natala took a deep breath to steady herself. Lyris looked dismayed.

“Okay, hold on,” Tim set his soda down. “There’s got to be an explanation. I didn’t drag her ass back up here so she could take off!”

Natala turned pale. “I think she’s gone after Tiffany.”

“But how? Irvington Estates is a huge neighborhood!” Cam said.

“And they don’t even know for certain that he’s holding Tiffany there,” Dean pointed out.

“I think we better go look in her room,” Tim said. “Something’s been bothering me about that name all night, but I can’t quite put my finger on it.”

“Me too,” Dean said.

Tim was already up the kitchen stairs, Cam hot on his heels. Her door was open, her desk light on.

Cam moved to the desk, and touched a button on the computer. The screen lit up instantly.

“Her browser is still open.” Lyris point out.

The five crowded around.

Tim sat down in the chair and checked her recent pages. “Dean, isn’t that—”

“The old Willows place. I forgot about it.”

“She must think that’s where McQuade is holding Tiffany.”

“What’s the old Willows place?” Cam asked.

“Dilapidated old building we all spent the night at once when we were about twelve. Local rite of passage around here. The place has been abandoned for years but the property taxes are paid up and the lone descendant won’t allow it to be torn down,” Dean answered.

Cam reached over and opened the desk drawer. Her gun was still in its holster. “She’s unarmed.”

“No, she’s not,” Tim corrected her. “She’s kept up her self-defense lessons and added some form of martial arts. She found a dojo near her camp spot and has been taking lessons.”

“So what, she thinks she’s Ziva David now?” Natala demanded.

“Maybe,” Tim sighed. “But four months of training isn’t enough.”

“Do you think she called Bo?” Lyris asked. The other four just looked at her. “Of course not.”

“I’d bet money she went to scout it out, and will call him later. Screw this. I’m calling Dad.” Tim stood and whipped out his cell phone. “I’ve seriously put my ass on the line with this family by helping her, and she does not get to go off and get herself killed!”

“Wait, what do you mean, by helping her?” Natala asked. Her eyes widened. “You’ve known all along where she is, haven’t you!”

Tim’s green eyes focused on her, his jaw set. This was the cousin he knew the least, and the cousin who knew the least about him and his history. “Yes.”

She studied his handsome face and his rapidly shifting aura. “You’ve been helping her the entire time. You’ve been lying to all of us, haven’t you?”

Tim tensed. Aralyn and Tiffany were both in danger. There was no time for lies or coverups. “Yes, I have.”

“How could you do that?” she demanded. “Do you know what it’s done to this family, how much pain it’s caused them, to not know where she is? Do you have any idea the hurt it’s caused Tiffany, and Trixie? She had a full melt down when Aralyn left!”

“I did it to keep Aralyn safe,” Tim snapped. They didn’t have time for this!

Natala’s blue eyes flashed with anger. “Tim, you haven’t been around to see the damage! Sean has been so depressed, it’s completely screwed with him. He’s been having these violent outbursts that he never had before because he can’t express his upset. When Aralyn never came home, he completely lost control! Trixie is so full of anger and hurt, there are days she can’t even talk to Bo! The twins are their limit, trying to keep peace between their parents and even they can’t keep things upbeat. The whole family is worried that this might split Bo and Trixie beyond repair because their child has been missing for months! Why would you do this, instead of sending her home?”

“Nat, back off,” Cam said gently. “We all know what Aralyn’s like when she gets an idea in her head. She’s stubborn and hotheaded. If Tim had refused to help her, she would have just disappeared with a backpack full of cash, and we all know it. By keeping tabs on her, Tim kept her safe. If he hadn’t, we wouldn’t have known how to reach her when this happened and she’d be in the wind somewhere, clueless. And if she found out after the fact, she’d never forgive herself for being unreachable. Tim was her lifeline, and the best person she could have gone to. I know what Aralyn did was selfish. But I guarantee you, she beats herself up every day with guilt over it. If she’s gone after Tiffany, in her mind, she’s making things right by trying to help.”

Tim was surprised by, and grateful for the support. He looked at Cam with a new level of respect and realized that this really was a guy he could be good friends with. Tiffany was right. Cam wasn’t just a pretty boy with a monster crush on Aralyn. Cam understood Aralyn in a way that few did.

But Natala wasn’t satisfied. “Cam, you’ve seen the devastation this has brought! Tiffany has been a wreck, blaming herself! Honey and Luke have been as upset as Bo and Trixie, you know they consider Aralyn theirs too! It’s taken a toll on them as well, with them trying to be support of Bo and Trixie, and help with Sean, while trying to keep Tiffany from drowning in despair. Aralyn leaving has sent massive shockwaves through this whole family! Moms and Grandpa Peter have aged ten years since she left trying console Trixie and Bo. And now, with Tiffany kidnapped, it’s like a double whammy on them all— Trixie and Bo and Luke and Honey!” Her expression shifted as she turned to Dean and Cam, when their auras flashed guilty. “Did you two know? Did you know Tim was hiding her? Have you been in touch with him?”

Dean stayed calm, knowing it was the best way to handle his girlfriend when she was mad. But he had never seen her this worked up before. She was fiercely protective of her family. “We guessed the night she disappeared, but we haven’t talked to him about it. Nat, remember I grew up with Tim, Ari and Tiff. I know them well. I knew the one person she would go to for help would be the one person she knew would be brave enough to risk the family’s wrath, because he wasn’t here, enmeshed the family going-ons, every day. So yes, I figured she went to Tim, and I knew Tim would help her. I didn’t ask him. I didn’t want to put Tim on the spot or give him one more person he needed to lie to in order to protect Aralyn.”

Tim just stared at Dean in amazement.

“How could you keep quiet?” Natala demanded of her boyfriend, shaking with fury.

“Because I know Aralyn better than you,” Dean said gently. “So does Cam. She’s smart and resourceful. She was raised by Federal agents and she knows how to disappear. Like Cam just said. If Tim hadn’t helped her, she could have vanished completely, and that would have been even more heartbreaking for everyone. But to let Tim know that we knew, meant widening the pool of people in on the secret and risk of exposure. We decided it was best to keep quiet, and let Tim handle Aralyn. He was the best one to do so in a situation like this. They’ve always had a special bond, different from Ari and Tiffany’s. ”

Tim couldn’t believe what he was hearing, and his respect for his old friend grew. Once again, Dean had come through for his family.

Natala just gaped at her boyfriend, trying to comprehend his words. Dean had been withholding the information from her this whole time! As had Cam! “How could you hurt the family like this?” she turned back to Tim, unsure where to turn her fury, and seeking a target.

Tim stood his ground, his own temper flaring. “How could I? How could I protect my cousin, who’s always been there for me? How could I hurt my family? This is nothing, Natala, compared to what I’ve already done to them. Why not ask Dean about the pain I caused this family a few years ago, because he had a front row seat to it!

“You might be a latecomer to this family, Natala, but let me tell you a few things about our history. I’m the family’s dirty little secret. I’m the screw-up kid who stole from his parents, lied to his family, broke his best friend’s nose over a joint, dropped acid, and put his cousin in the hospital with a beat up face. Dean was the best friend, and Bo was the cousin. I was fourteen and strung out on PCP. I smashed in Bo’s face because I was so strung out and high I didn’t recognize him. It took four fully grown US Marshals to pull me off of him and he was in the hospital for days. Take a good look at Bo’s face in old pictures, Natala, it’s not quite the same, and it’s because of me. Luke and Honey brought in the best plastic surgeon in the world to repair his face because of the damage I did.

“I stole money from Tiffany, Aralyn, and my own kid brother so I could get my hands on weed. I stood in front of my beautiful mother whom I love more than anyone else on this earth and lied to her face, swearing that I didn’t do it, while I was plotting on how to do it next time. I was going to pawn the watch Regan gave me for my birthday, until Dean caught on and stopped me—and I almost broke his arm that day. But that was nothing compared to the time I broke Dean’s nose when he tried to wrestle a joint way from me. I’m the reason Dean’s nose is crooked, Natala. But I bet he never told you that because he’s too good of a guy to rat me out to you.”

The dam was open, and Tim couldn’t stop now. The walls were crumbling.

Natala, Lyris and Cam stared at Tim. Dean, who had kept his old friend’s secrets for so long, looked away sadly, remembering.

“After I smashed in Bo’s face, Dad let me sit in jail for two entire days, to scare the shit out of me. It worked, but it was too late. He finally got me out, in the middle of the night, and dragged me out to the airfield. The only person I got to say goodbye to, was my mother. He hauled my ass to military school in the middle of the night like some filthy common criminal, and dumped me in California. He didn’t even tell me goodbye, and he barely looked at me, the whole time.”

Dean opened his mouth to stop Tim, to spare hisold friend from further opening the old wounds, but Tim was on a roll. Tim needed to talk. The green eyes flashed fury and fire.

“One of these days you should Google Mom’s old interviews. There’s one where right after I was sent away, where this jackass reported decides to get smarmy with her and start questioning her about me and my ‘fall from grace’, instead of her fall line that was about to come out. You ever see my mom turn on her charm? She just smiled at him and within two minutes, had him spilling his guts about his junkie brother and crying how much he missed him. After that, only casual, ‘how are the kids’ questions were ever asked about us. I got swept under the rug, and put away. No one talked about me for a long time, I found out, because the mention of my name made my mother cry for days. My dad couldn’t even say my name for months.

“What does this have to do with Aralyn and why I lied and kept her hidden? Because Aralyn stood by me from the start. I hated my father, for what he did to me. I spent the first year hating him. All I did was hate him, and think of ways to get back at him, ways I could hurt him as deeply as he hurt me, for taking me away, and abandoning me. My mom called for the first time, about 3 weeks after he left me there. And I was so angry at her for letting him do it, I refused the call. I refused her calls for six months.

“Aralyn wrote me the first week. And she wrote me every week after that, through the entire first school year. Every week, without fail, a letter arrived. I didn’t open a damn one because I was a jackass. But I kept them. I stuck them in a box. I got some letters from the others, my siblings occasionally. But every week, without fail, there was one from Aralyn. But I didn’t read any of them, I was too angry. I tried running away a couple of times, got in trouble. Not once, did my parents show up there. They left it to the school to handle me, entirely, and I blamed my dad, and I hated him. And for a while, I hated my mom, for letting Dad do all of this. I hated her for being so weak she let him make all the decisions.”

Tim’s fists clenched and unclenched. Tears slipped down Lyris’ cheeks. Natala felt herself falling into the waves of pain that rolled off of Tim, drowning them all, and her legs weakened under the pain. Her heart hurt for him, tears slid from her eyes as images rolled from his mind to hers.

“When it became apparent that I wasn’t coming home at the end of the term, for summer, that I was staying there, I was so pissed off I almost burned all of those letters. But I didn’t. I opened them, and read them, one by one, because I was so desperate for some link to home, some shred, some tiny thread that would tell me I wasn’t lost to them, that someone did care about me. Even if they all yelled at me, said they all hated me for what I did, I needed some sort of connection.

“I found out Aralyn didn’t blame me at all. She forgave me. In the very first letter, she forgave me for beating the hell out of her father, whom she loved so much. She forgave me for being a class-A dickhead to her all those months prior to being sent away. She forgave me for everything. She said she still loved me, I was still her best friend with Tiffany, and she wanted me to come home. She begged me to be good, and do what I was told, so that I could home. Every letter said the same things. Be good, she forgave me, she loved me. Every week, for those long six months, she wrote me. And I never wrote back because I had my head up my ass and was too busy being pissed off at my father, instead of taking responsibility for my actions. All I could do was hate and be angry and want revenge. But Aralyn never gave up on me, not once. She didn’t even waver, she believed in me that much.

“I found out recently that that June, after the first term ended, Aralyn and Tiffany were on my parents doorstep, begging Dad to bring me home. They hounded him all summer, until Bo and Luke sat them down and told them they had to stop. Aralyn wrote up a petition and pretty much bullied all of the cousins into to signing it, and gave it to my dad, to get him to bring me home. And they didn’t stop writing. I still couldn’t make myself write back just then, and the letters came weekly, then every two weeks after a few months, to finally monthly, and then I wrote back, when I realized what a jerk I was being. Tiffany was writing just as much at that point, but Aralyn was my champion from the get go. Once I got my head out of my ass, took responsibility for what I had done, and started trying to make reparations, then I was able to talk to them. I was able to apologize to them, and to my mother. But it was a long, long road, and even though I thought I was alone through it, I never was. Aralyn was always there for me, she was always at my side, even when I didn’t want to see her. She never, ever gave up on me, and she convinced of all the cousins not to either.”

The tightness in his chest was easing, along with his burden.

“That’s why, when she came to me, lost, alone, broken and needing to run, I helped her. I gave her money, I gave her space, I gave her a burner phone, and I gave her a long enough leash that she had her freedom, but was still connected to me. I gave her what she needed with the assurances that she would stay in touch. We made a deal. And by doing so, I had her trust that I wouldn’t alert the family, and she had my trust that she would stay on my radar.

“So understand this, Natala. I will always come to the aid of my family, and that includes you. But when it comes to Aralyn, she is and always will be my best friend, and I will always go to the ends of this earth for her, no matter the cost. If my father never speaks to me again, so be it. But everything I did these last few months, was to keep her safe, and I would do it again without hesitation. So you can be as pissed off as you want with me, and never speak to me again if you don’t want to but don’t you dare stand there and judge me for protecting my family.”

Tears streamed down Natala’s face and Dean slipped his arms around her. He and Cam both stared at Tim, speechless. They had never heard the story from Tim’s point of view. Dean of course, knew bits and pieces from being Tim’s best friend in their youth, but he had never heard Tim’s side. Lyris wiped her face. Standing behind Tim, he couldn’t see her, but Cam did, and he held out a hand to her. She took it with a sad smile and he squeezed it in comfort, before pulling her to him for a hug.

Natala wiped her eyes, unable to block the sheer anguish and raw pain that rolled of Tim. How could he live with so much hurt bottled up inside of him?

“I’m so sorry, Tim,” she said softly. “I had no idea you carried this, and I was wrong to come at you like did. I didn’t know.”

She watched as the pain started retracting. The walls were going back up, and fast. Tim was back in control, rebuilding his fortress, embarrassed by the display. The moment of vulnerability and exposure was over.

“Water under the bridge,” he said, waving his hand, extremely uncomfortable with all of what he had just revealed. “But Aralyn doesn’t know I know what she did and I want it kept that way.” They all nodded. “Right now, we need to find Ari, before she does something incredibly stupid and gets herself hurt, and puts Tiffany in more danger. Cam is right. Ari thinks she’s trying to make things right on this little rescue mission but my gut says she’s probably just going to make things worse.”

He dialed a number in his phone. “Dad? We’ve got a problem.”

Meet the cast in full & see the family tree!

Author’s Notes
- A huge yee-haa to the fabulous and lovely Ronda, for editing this and her suggestions which made it much better!
- Boy, does Tim have layers.
- Word Count, 4,583