As I spoke, relaying what had happened, I felt Winter’s soft gasp next to me, and she inched closer, putting her arm around my shoulders. I allowed my head to lean against her, feeling so tired all of a sudden. So drained. Cassius… His whole body was practically vibrating with tension, his fists and jaw clenched so tightly that I knew he was going to explode the second I stopped speaking.
Leaning forwards, I placed my hand on his knee. “Mum dealt with the guys. I wasn’t—I didn’t want it to damage our reputation, so I didn’t want to go to the police.”
“Fuck that!” He stared at me, breathing hard. “Fucking fuck the reputation. You were attacked, Lena! People need to pay.”
“Would you have really wanted the scandal? Would Dad? To have our name dragged through the courts, to be the focus of gossip, for it to be my word against theirs?” I was crying again now, and I was shocked to see tears in my brother’s eyes, too.
“But—” He cut himself off, burying his face in his hands. When his shoulders shook, I lunged forwards and threw myself at him.
“Cass, please.”
“Fuck, Lena. I just can’t…I want to kill the people that did this to you.”
“Mum sorted it. Believe me, they’re never going to hurt anyone again.”
Raising his head, he stared at me. “Our mum? Estella Drummond? Tiny woman who looks like she wouldn’t hurt a fly?”
A laugh burst out of me unexpectedly, and his lips curved up in response.
“Yeah. She— She’s friends with, um, someone. Someone who can make things…and people…disappear.”
Winter’s voice came from behind me. “Why do all of you know people with all these connections? It’s not normal.”
I turned to her, smiling. “We’re Drummonds.”
She rolled her eyes but returned my smile.
“Were you targeted because of who you were?” Cassius hugged me closer, swiping my hair away from my face so he could look into my eyes.
“No. It was a random, unprovoked attack. I guess they thought I was an easy target or whatever.” I laughed, although I didn’t find any humour in it. “Too bad for them that I’m a Drummond.”
We were silent for a moment, Winter and Cassius digesting everything I’d told them. My eyes met Winter’s, and I took a deep breath, immediately feeling lighter as I said the words. “You can tell Cade, by the way. And Zayde, too, I guess. I don’t want to talk about it again.”
“West?” She prodded gently, before her face fell. “Although he’s not exactly talking to any of us at the moment.”
“No.” Shaking my head firmly, I looked between them both. “I need to tell him. I owe him an explanation.”
An expression of horror suddenly crossed her face. “Shit. You know what this means, right?” Throwing her head back against the sofa, she let out a huge groan. “I’m going to have to tell Cade that James played the hero again.”
Cassius laughed loudly as the tension in the room dissipated. “This should be good.”
Winter raised a sceptical brow. “It really won’t. You know how much he dislikes James.”
“I think he secretly likes him.”
“Hmm,” she said, clearly unconvinced, before she turned serious again. “I hate that you’ve had to keep this all inside you for so long.”
I shrugged, feeling lighter than I had in a very long time. “Yeah, well. Mum knew, obviously, and I had an amazing therapist who helped me to work through everything. But I didn’t want to talk about it. At first I felt shame—”
“You have nothing to feel ashamed of. Those sick fucks are nothing but animals.” Cassius cut me off angrily, and I hugged him again, trying to calm him.
“I know. I know I don’t. I’m just explaining that to begin with I felt guilt, and shame, and Kaylie, that’s my therapist, helped me to work through it all. That’s why I started the martial arts classes, too, so that I could always fight my way out of a situation. Anyway. I thought I’d put it all behind me, until now.”
Winter glanced at Cassius, then studied me intently. “Cass, can you give me a minute with Lena, alone? Please.”
He met her eyes over the top of my head, then nodded, releasing me. “Course. Shout for me when you’re done.”
When we were alone, Winter spoke softly, her eyes never leaving mine.
“Tell me to bugger off if you don’t want to talk about it, but…did something trigger it?”
“West.” His name fell from my lips as a sigh, and she nodded.
“I assumed so. You know, he’s refused to take any of our calls or reply to our messages, yet today he called me, pretty much ordering me to drop everything and come to you. Do you want to talk about what happened?”
Might as well. She already knew the rest of it. “It was something he said. It was the exact same words that—” I swallowed hard.
“I get it.” She squeezed my arm.
“Yeah, and at the time he had me pinned on the bed—” Winter raised a brow at that. “—and it just, I don’t know, triggered the memory, and I panicked. I owe him a huge apology. All of you, in fact.”
“Wait, what? You don’t owe anyone anything. You went through something that no one should have to experience, and no one has any right to tell you how you should or shouldn’t react.”
“No, I’m actually not talking about that.” I took a deep breath. “Cass?” I called out, and he immediately re-entered the room, crossing over to us and taking a seat next to me again. “I have something I need to tell you both.”
Steeling myself, I let the words fall from my mouth.
“I’m Mercury.”
Complete and utter silence.
Then—
“What?”
“Not only that,” I continued before Cassius could say anything else, “I sent Weston the footage from the docks. That’s how he found out about his mum.”
“Oh, fuck.” Winter’s anguished tone cut through the room. “Okay, let me think about this for a minute. Forgetting the whole secret-identity thing, because I don’t think we need to go into that right now, what with everything else that’s happened.”
Cassius sat forwards on the sofa, shooting me a hard look. Or trying to, at least, although his eyes were still soft with concern. “Yeah, I won’t be forgetting that one.”
“Didn’t think so,” I muttered.
“Firstly, it wasn’t your fault, so don’t feel like you should apologise. The docks footage thing. We should’ve told him sooner. I’ve been saying that to Cade for ages, and he…well, I know he’d planned with Arlo to tell West.”
“Too late, now,” I said sadly.
“How did he react when you told him?”
“About as well as you’d expect. One more secret exposed, one more person that’s betrayed him.”
“This is such a mess.” Winter pinched her brow. “Okay, I need to find him. I don’t want him to be alone in this state.” She pulled her phone from the small bag that rested by her feet, tapping at the screen. “He’s got his location turned off. I can’t find him.”