Keeping promises finding.., p.1
Keeping Promises (Finding My Home) Book 8, page 1
Keeping Promises (Finding My Home)
Book 8
Nikita Parmenter
Copyright © 2023 Nikita Parmenter
All rights reserved
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
PIRACY IS STEALING!
Thank you for respecting the hard work of the Author!
Cover design by: Serenic Designs
Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
About The Author
Books By This Author
Chapter One
“Wait, Rylie, Rylie?” Jynx asks.
“The Rylie that said she couldn’t be friends with you because it was too dangerous for her?” Lyric adds, her tone sharp.
I can’t reply; I’m still staring blankly at the image of Rylie on Peter’s screen. There’s no doubt that it’s her, she’s older obviously, but she looks exactly the same.
“Sweetheart?” Trick says gently, “Are you okay?”
Swallowing thickly, I reply honestly, “I don’t know.”
Jynx stands up and rounds the table, “Let me get a look at this, Rylie. It would be nice to put a face to the name.”
“Yeah, we’ve heard a lot about her,” Mal adds, getting up as well.
As soon as Jynx sees the screen, her eyes go wide with shock and, if I’m not mistaken, recognition as well.
“Fucking hell. I don’t fucking believe it. That’s R.” She exclaims before I can ask her.
“It’s definitely her,” Mason adds, leaning closer to the screen to get a better look, “she looks older, obviously, but then she would. The last time we saw her, she was only fifteen, maybe sixteen.”
“Who?” Atty asks, confused.
Jynx focuses back on the rest of us as she starts to explain, “When I was kidnapped by Ever’s father, I was held in a human trafficking facility for a bit, and I met R. She always had such fucking fire in her despite the fact that she was stuck there and we clicked immediately.”
“No fucking way,” I gape.
She nods, “That’s not all. Do you remember the first time you met the guys?”
“Yeah, you came to Fresno, and we took out the head of the Ravens,” I reply.
“You what?” Rage asks while sounds of shock go around the room.
“Did she just say she helped take out the head of the Raven crime organisation?” Atlas asks, sounding incredulous.
Rome smirks, “Yep, she and Jynx were fucking spectacular, we were only there as backup, really.” Luc frowns, “I’ve heard of them. Don’t they have some rule about whoever kills the head of the Ravens then has to take over?”
The guys all share a look, and Jynx nods, so Rip says, “You’re right; Jynx took over, hence why we need to stay away from the organisation and Mr R. Even though he is aware.”
The whole room stares at Jynx in shock before devolving into a million questions; Jynx ignores them entirely, “We can get back to that at a later date; it’s not important right now or relevant to what I’m trying to explain.
“She’s right,” I reply, “we can ask about that later, and trust me, I’m going to. What I want to know is what you were going to say about Rylie?”
The guys all stop with the questions, realising that Rylie is the more important issue that we need to be dealing with right now.
“Just say the word, and I’ll fill you in. It’s about time I did anyway. Back to Rylie, though, when we got back after taking him out, we got hired by Mona Romano because someone had been stealing information from her, and then her daughter got kidnapped. I was shocked as shit to realise that the R I’d met over a year before was actually Rylie and the daughter of a prominent crime boss.”
Jensen shakes his head, “It can’t be the same Rylie, though. The Romanos weren’t in our hometown. We would’ve known.”
Rafe nods in agreement, “He’s right; we made sure we knew who the big hitters in town were. The Romano name never even got mentioned.”
Rome replies this time as he explains, “Mona sent Rylie away with her father to keep her safe and at the request of Rylie, who just wanted to be a normal teenager. It was the second time that she had been kidnapped, and Mona didn’t want to risk it happening again.”
“Holy fuck,” I mutter as I blindly sit down, and Rafe catches me before I fall on the floor. Wincing, I add, “She just wanted to be a normal teenager, and then boom, I come along with all my drama and end up dragging her back into a life that she never wanted to be a part of. You know it makes a lot more sense why she wanted to cut communications after the Blake thing.”
“It’s not your fault. Up until that point, she chose to be involved with you. To be your friend, and she was obviously fine with it, up until what happened with Blake; that obviously pushed her a bit too far,” Riot replies, trying to reassure me and only kind of succeeding.
“Plus, look at her now. She’s a ghost agent in one of the most dangerous and highly skilled agencies in the world; she obviously decided she wanted back in at some point,” Jensen points out.
I hum in agreement, but my mind is still going a mile a minute.
Jynx looks over to Atlas, “I was the one who told Mona that you and Alaric were moving to the town and that if anything happened, they could contact Alaric. Mona decided that the fewer people who knew about her connection to Rylie, the better and decided only to talk to D and then have Rylie keep up to date with D’s changing code words so that she could use them while talking to Alaric if a problem arose.”
Atlas’s eyes widen slightly, “So that’s why we suddenly moved to the guy's town? It had nothing to do with my father getting a bit too close to finding where we were?”
Jynx shrugs, “No, you guys were going there anyway. That’s why I thought of the place, and as I said, Alaric didn’t know anything about Rylie and her father being there.”
“Alaric can’t have had any contact with Rylie and known of her origins because I’m sure he would have said something, especially when we rescued her. He wouldn’t have been able to hide that he knew her then.”
I smile at his worried expression, “No, you’re right. It would’ve been obvious.”
“This is a whole heap of crazy,” Jensen points out helpfully.
“I tell you, that woman sure as shit has the propensity to get herself kidnapped; this would make it what? The third time she’s been kidnapped in around six years?” Rome asks.
“Four, she’s been kidnapped four times. Or at least that’s the only other time that I know of, that whole thing I mentioned about Blake a second ago, that was a kidnapping; he took her, but he clearly didn’t know who her mother was, or he would’ve thought better of it.” I mutter, my mind going a mile a fucking minute as I try to make sense of this all.
“That’s almost once a year, like a fucking tradition.” Lyric comments, her eyes wide.
“She definitely doesn’t have luck when it comes to this sort of thing, that’s for sure,” Atlas mutters.
“You know we could always ask Alaric if he had any idea that Rylie in the organisation is Ever’s Rylie?” Jensen suggests.
I start to say that it really isn’t necessary to know, but actually, I think it might be, “You know what, yeah, I need to know because if he did know, I want to know why he didn’t tell me.”
“Well, it could be a couple of reasons, one apart from when you made sure that she was under his protection when we went to the academy a few years ago and when we rescued her. Two, when have you mentioned her to him since then?” Trick points out.
“Okay, that’s a fair point, but he still knew I cared about her, so why wouldn’t he tell me if he did know who she was and where she’s been these last few years?”
“That’s why I think it's likely to be the other reason. I mean, think about it: Rylie is working for Mr R, Alaric will know that; he most likely wasn’t able to tell you for your safety and hers,” Trick adds. “She’s a ghost agent remember, as few people as possible are supposed to know about her existence.”
I’m not too fond of his explanation. I still would’ve rather have known, but I do know how Mr R works, and he did say on the phone that she was a Ghost agent, like Trick just reminded me, and that means only he and maybe one or two others know of her existence in the agency and I wouldn’t have wanted her to be put in any danger just by speaking to me.
“That, and you didn’t really mention her again to him after that; he probably thought you’d either forgotten about her or weren’t that bothered. After all, in his eyes, you’d only known her for a couple of months before we had to leave,” Rafe points out.
“I hear you, and that all makes sense. It’s just frustrating as hell that he had the answers, and I didn’t know,” I reply.
“It’s not like he could’ve told you anyway,” Rip points out this time. “And he might not have had the answers, and you’re just assuming that he knew, he may not have because of Rylie's ghost status.”
As always, he has a point.
“And before you accuse me,” Jynx grins at me, knowing that my mind is already spinning in the direction that she’s thinking, “I had no idea that the Rylie I knew was the Rylie you knew, I mean one, she could have gone to any of the high schools in the area, and two I had no idea whether she was even still in the town. D does these relocations regularly and always tells people that they need to move on within six months or so. They shouldn’t still have been there when you arrived. They definitely should have gone when Alaric left; he was their safety net, even if he didn’t know it. Plus, it’s been years since I talked to her, not since she was sent away.”
I grin, “I figured it would be something like that. I mean, what are the fucking chances that we’re all connected in some way.”
“Like I said, this is fucking crazy,” Jensen chimes in helpfully once again.
“I agree with Jensen. It’s wild how fucking connected you all seem to be,” Jonah says, and I feel really bad because I had kind of forgotten that they were all here listening to this whole thing unfold.
It does make an idea occur to me though, and I ask, “As outsiders to this whole situation, what would you do next?”
“Well, you aren’t going to be able to properly focus on the job until you speak to Alaric and find out what he knows,” Ezra points out.
“That’s where I’d start as well,” Lyric agrees with a frown and then adds, “She’s lived one hell of a life considering she’s only twenty-one.”
“Enough for several lifetimes,” Luc agrees.
“What’s the time?” Cash asks, “Is it too late to ring him now?”
Pulling out my phone and looking at the time, I reply, “It’s only nine-thirty.”
“I can try and call him now, but if he’s on a last-minute job before he comes up here, he might not be able to answer,” Atlas reminds me.
I sigh, knowing the right thing to do would be to wait until he arrives here, but being impatient enough that I don’t necessarily want to do it, “We don’t want to interrupt him if he’s on the job. Just send him a message and ask him to contact us when it's safe to do so and that it’s not urgent.”
“Are you sure that’s how you want to do it?” Peter asks, with a frown, “I know you. I know this is going to drive you mad.”
“It is,” I agree with a smile, “but I’d never forgive myself if I put Alaric in danger, and besides, we have other things we can focus on first. What else does the file say? What was she working on when she disappeared?”
Peter looks to the others before he answers me, “Are you all staying for this?”
“Hell, yeah. I want to see what sort of shit R got herself into this time,” Jynx announces, making me smile.
Lyric’s men all look at her, and she smiles softly, “I’d love to stay, but I am absolutely exhausted and will most likely end up falling asleep. Would you mind if we went home, and then you can give us the cliff notes tomorrow?”
“Of course,” I smile, standing up and hugging her as we all say goodbye to the others.
“We’re going to head off as well. we’ve got to get ready for that job that we’ve got just after Christmas, and we want to put the work in now so we don’t have to worry about it over Christmas.” Noel reminds us. “But let us know if you need anything. Trick, you’ll know better than us if we can push the job off for a bit.”
Trick nods, “We can’t. That one is relatively time-sensitive, but I think we’ll probably need you for the extraction. We’re so far away from that right now, and we’re going to be doing research for a while, judging from what Mr R said on the phone.” Trick replies to them.
“We're also going to need your help because we’re down three team members who all need to heal properly before they do anything physical that will most likely involve us fighting or being shot at.” I add firmly, looking at Trick, Jensen, and Cash before I continue, “As much as I want to get Rylie back now, Mr Rising told us that there was going to be a lot of research to do, which is the only reason why he gave it to us, knowing that we’re injured and supposed to be having some significant time off. Rylie is clearly highly trained, and even if we find her location, if you guys are not up to it, then either only some of us go with the support of the other teams, or we hand the job over to one of the teams at headquarters. I will not risk any of you, but there was a reason why Mr. R only told us about it.”
All of my guys nod in agreement, their expressions understanding and then their gazes turning to Trick, Cash, and Jensen.
Atlas says firmly, “And none of this saying you’re fine when you’re actually not shit. Ever’s right; we’re not risking any of you.”
“We got too close to losing you before. We’re not doing it again,” Rage adds firmly.
“I never want to have to fucking resuscitate one of you again.” Luc agrees, shadows in his eyes.
I don’t think any of us who witnessed that scene will get over it any time soon. I know I still see it when I close my eyes sometimes.
Jensen nods, his expression serious, “We hear you. Not only will we not put ourselves at risk, but we also won’t put you guys at risk by saying we’re ready and then not being able to give you the backup that you need.”
He reaches out to me, and I walk back over to where he’s still sitting, standing next to him as he wraps his good arm around me and holds me close.
“He’s right,” Trick replies. “We will be honest about whether we can handle it or not.”
“No matter how difficult it’s going to be to stay behind while the rest of you are in danger,” Cash adds honestly.
I look at Noel and the guys as I say, “Sorry guys, we got a bit off subject there. You guys do what you’ve got to do; like Trick said, it’s going to be a while before we’ve got a lead or have to do the actual extraction.”
Marty nods, “Okay, well, if you need us at any point before then, let us know. We’re up here for Christmas, and stuff anyway, and our job doesn’t start until the twenty-eighth anyway.”
“Sounds good. From how Mr R worded it and the urgency in his tone, I’m guessing that we will need all the help we can get as we get further into it. See you later, guys,” Riot says as they all get up to leave.
“Bye, guys,” Callen replies.
After we hear the front door close, so it's just us, Jynx and her men, and Peter and Elijah left, Peter turns to the rest of us, “Alright, since everyone wants to see, why don’t we go through to the front room and then I can hook it up to the TV, and everyone can see what I’m doing.”
“Good idea. I have a feeling that you’ll be getting asked every two minutes what you’ve found otherwise,” Elijah agrees with a smile.
“I’m neither denying nor confirming that.” I grin and then add, “Leave the stuff on the table. We can clear it later; I just want to get started and at least get an idea of what’s going on with this case,” I say as they all start to gather plates.
“Sure thing,” Rome replies.
“I’ve sent the message to Alaric; he’ll get back to us when he can,” Atlas adds.
I nod as I help Jensen stand, which he hates, and then we all make our way into the front room. I reply, “I’ve calmed down a bit now, and I get that it’s not important in the grand scheme of things, but I need to know.”
“I want to know, too,” Jynx replies. “She was so fucking adamant that she wanted her normal, enough that she voluntarily moved hours away from her mother and had minimal contact with her for her safety. And they got on; it wasn’t like Mona was a bitch.”
