Althena Book 2

111. Captured

Half an hour later, we sit at the dining room table for lunch.

Mike sits at the end. "Anybody find anything else?"

"Yea. We have pictures and a few dvd's. They're in a box by the door."

Clayton holds up a tube. "I have the key. It goes to my dad's old laptop. I'm not sure what's going to happen. It works fine without this. I'm guessing it's a memory stick of some kind. I recognize the port. I've only ever seen this type except on that exact laptop."

"We should probably plug that in and not you." Drogon reaches for it.

"f**k you. He's talking to me in that message. He left it for me."

"That's true." Drogon brings his hand back. "We should be there though."

"Yea, we need to be there. Goddess only knows what he's going to show you next."

Katen smiles. "Actually, you should all work together on everything going forward. No secrets. No lies. What happened to Thena can happen to anyone. It's better to be safe."

Chris nods. "And I think we're all Edwardo now anyway."

Drogon winks at me. "Do you feel better now that we know? I don't want this happening again, babygirl."

I check my arms. "I didn't even know I did it. I pulled some hair out and cut myself once. My brain wouldn't focus after that. I don't know what happened. Yes, I feel better now. I thought you would kill me or throw me out of the cities. I didn't want to die. But I didn't want to live like that either. Nothing made sense."

"It was too much." Conner kisses my head. "We got this, babygirl. We're in this together now. No more lies or secrets. Do you have any other secrets?"

"I don't think so."

"Why do you smell like Monte?"

"I slept on him."

"I couldn't leave her."

Clayton rolls his eyes. "Were you making out with her again?"

"No. She was gone. I've already said that. I couldn't leave. I couldn't chance her grabbing that razor again or a piece of glass, or anything else."

"Thank you for not leaving her." Mike sits back and crosses his arms. "Everything else is done. You're not doing that anymore. Stop kissing him, woman." I nod fast and he rolls his eyes.

Conner smiles. "I found the perfect yacht. It has a pool and a helicopter landing pad. No more arguing."

"How much is it?"

"150 million."

"What the f**k?" Cyrus spins the screen towards him.

Monte spins the other laptop at him. "It doesn't matter. We have money. Buy a few. Edwardo gives nice gifts."

I finish my burger. "Get one for Dacious too. Wedding present."

"Who wants one? We don't need 30."

"Me." Chris smiles. "I'm Edwardo too."

"Chris, Dacious, and Clayton."

Clayton pouts. "I want dad's boat."

"The boat outside?"

"No. Your boat."

"That's fine." I smile at Conner. "Get us a new one, and he can have dad's boat. You guys will have to spend some time teaching him how to drive it though."

"We will, babygirl. I ordered 3. Chris, Dacious, and us. Only billions more to spend. I'll start on planes now." Conner disappears behind the screen again. "Who wants a plane?"

"ME." Chris yells. "I will stop stealing yours."

Drogon rolls his eyes. "Get the throne a new one. Make it nice."

He nods. "I'll get us and the throne each a new one. Top of the line. Most expensive. All the add-ons. I'm not even looking at this point. Great. 2 of those. Then 1 smaller plane for Chris. Katen, you need a plane?"

"I don't even know what I would do with it."

"Fair enough. Moving on to helicopters. 24 passenger. All options. How many?"

Drogon shrugs his shoulders. "20 for the throne. 1 for Mary, Jax, Monte, us, Clayton."

"Send us 2."

"Ok. 26. Onto donations. Who has causes accounts? I'll put 5 million in each."

I lay my head down. "Let me know when you get to jewelry."

Cyrus rubs my back. "Donate to the packs that help us as well. And you're going to need 3 more helicopters for those yachts. Check the size that will fit on the yacht before you buy them."

Katen puts my phone in front of me. "I figured we can get these now. I'm afraid to put mine together."

Mike reaches for it. "I'll talk to your parents."

"Thank you." She throws it at him.

"I missed 300 phone calls."

"That's where the counter stops, baby. We called more than that."

"I'm sorry."

Cyrus kisses my head. "We forgive you. But you promised you will run to us from now on. Do not forget that."

"I promise."

"Good girl."

Clayton looks at me. "What are you doing with this place?"

"I like it the way it is. It's Edwardo's house. It gives us a place if we need to hide. We all know where it is now."

Monte nods. "He needs a real place to have his things sent. Even though he's not real, he needs a physical address."

Cyrus brings up a jewelry store on a laptop and spins it to me. "We won't sell it or alter it, Clayton. Let us get done with this phase and we'll talk about it again. It'll end up going to you in the end."

I put a s**t ton of jewelry in the cart. "Yea, I'm not going to want it forever. It is pretty though. I can see why he liked it here."

"He must have liked fishing. The boat outside had fishing gear and the yacht." Monte cracks his neck. He's so sexy.

"He did. We would go on a fishing trip 3 or 4 times a year."

"Were you ever here?"

"No."

I stretch. "Did he like lizards too?"

"Yes." He rolls his eyes.

"There's a lizard sanctuary somewhere. It's named after Edwardo."

He cracks up laughing. "I'm not surprised."

Mike gives Katen her phone and takes mine. "What was the lawyer's name?"

"Cody."

He goes through my contacts. "I really want to read your messages. But I don't think I can do that. I'm your mate, not your dad."

"Yea, that's too far, Mike." Chris looks at me a couple of times. "But, I don't want her getting in over her head again either."

"I don't care if you read Cody or Akley's. I wouldn't read Conner's though."

Clayton slams his head back. "I never want to think about that again."

Conner cracks up laughing. "Don't worry, Mike. You'll like my messages. And Clayton will never try to read anyone's messages over their shoulder again."

The boys laugh and Chris puts his phone together. Then he rolls his eyes. "Akmae broke up with me and begged for forgiveness about 84 times. We're not even together."

"Aww. He was worried about you, Chris. He does like you." Katen shoves Cyrus out of his seat and helps me with jewelry.

He laughs. "I texted him and said. I was doing throne work. I couldn't have my phone on me. I'm still alive. Thank you for not panicking."

Conner makes a weird noise. "All of us panicked."

Drogon stands up. "Let's finish searching the house so we can get out of here."

Conner shakes his head. "I'm still buying stuff."

Cyrus picks me up. "Take the card and buy s**t from home. Drogon can monitor our purchases from his office."

"That was a total waste of time." Drogon rolls his eyes.

Chris smiles. "Not really. You found Edwardo. Got a lot of money. You got the truth. You know how drugs are getting in. And you saved your soulmate from an insane amount of stress and manipulation."

Mike puts my phone down. "He's right. Not only that, Deriston was on the throne for years and the advisors never suspected anything. It was right in front of them. You've been on the throne for 6 months, and you sorted it out. I'm sure there will be more s**t to sort out, but this is a lot of progress. And now we know exactly how sark is getting into Darkburn. We can make a plan to deal with it. We also know the future plans for moving it to Eldervale and Crystal Falls. We have time to figure out how to stop it before it starts. Akley took a hell of a hit today, he just doesn't know it yet."

"Yea, when you said you were cracking down on drugs, you really meant it. You are doing a hell of a good job." I check out the website and look at Drogon. He has tears in his eyes. "Aww." I run to him and give him a hug.

He picks me up and holds me. "I love you, babygirl."

"I love you too. I'm proud of you. Even though it was me you captured."

"I wouldn't have put so much pressure on you if I knew."

"You did everything right. And now I feel so much better. I'm happy you did it. I feel like I can finally breathe again."

"I'm glad, babygirl. We need to get you home now." I snuggle against his chest and close my eyes. "Let's take the helicopter to the airport. We'll send some guards for it."

"Thank you. 15 hours is a long time in that damn thing."

"I couldn't believe you stole it."

"I knew you would approve it. I was in too big of a hurry to ask."

I feel the lake breeze brush my skin and the sunlight touch me before we get in the helicopter.