THE TRINITY

32.

STORMI

"As you know we were all orphans." Landon starts. "Your dad had a guy named Michael adopt the three of us and keep us in the cabin. He didn't want anyone to know that he had us there. He wanted to train us from a young age so we would be easier to order around."

My face falls but I continue to just listen.

"He used to come out once a month to make sure we were where we needed to be training wise." Myles piped up. "But he never talked to us. He just observed."

"You told me in Hawaii you never officially met him." I scolded looking at Landon. A lie. He told me a lie to a question that I directly asked him.

"We haven't. Seeing someone and meeting someone isn't the same thing." he tries to navigate his way through the conversation. "We communicate through Michael."

"So the tattoos. My dads organization. That's why you all have my family crest tattooed?" I look between all of them.

"Roman... your dad" Noah corrects himself. "Requires everyone who is a part of the organization to have the tattoo."

"And what is this organization?" I press and they all freeze. They look like they were hoping I wouldn't ask that question.

"Organized crime" Myles blurts.

Oh my god. The drugs, The murders, The guys in masks after me. It's all because of my dad. I can feel myself spiraling and I feel like I'm going to throw up.

"So you knew who the men that were after me were the whole time?" More tears formed.

"No," They said in unison.

"We figured it out when Noah and I went to make the deal for them to leave you alone." Myles says and I wipe my face with my palms. Landon looks like he's hurting and that he hates that I'm hearing all of this.

"What was the deal?" I ask and they all look defeated and like they don't want to tell me any more. "What was it?" I repeat.

Landon decides to speak first. "The men work for an enemy of Romans. His name is Lucien."

"Landon" Noah warns.

"It's fine I trust her not to say anything." he reassures him.

"Lucien sent the men to kill you to get back at your dad for some vendetta he has against him. We didn't think you should be punished for something you didn't even know about so we agreed to help him get information if he left you alone." Landon finished.

"So you're double dealing? You work for and against my dad? Lucien is your boss too." I grew angry. "So I was involved in all of this before I even saw you with Jeff in that alley." I started piecing things together.

"Yes and no." Myles said.

I thought back to the dive bar. If all of those people work for my dad then how come none of them look familiar.

"Wait... you said Demi is your boss' daughter. Is she my sister?" I feel sick. I feel disgusted. I want to throw up. If I had a sister this whole time and didn't know... and she was involved with this shit the whole time. Why protect me and not her?

"No... no" Landon says softly.

"Wrong boss." Noah says.

"You let me go into a bar full of people who work for the man that was trying to kill me!?" I stood up completely appalled. A feeling of fear washing over me. I break out in a cold sweat as I dart across the room towards the stairs.

I'm done. They don't care about me. They put my life in danger.

"Stormi" Landon calls after me. "Please listen."

"Leave me alone Landon" I tell him as I walk into his bedroom grabbing my bag off the floor and start stuffing it full of my clothes that are in the drawer Landon cleared out for me.

"Stormi, what are you doing?"

"I'm leaving" I say, packing quickly.

"No, you can't leave." he quaked. I can feel the distress coming off of his body. "Stormi, please" he begged.

"Why? Because my dad says I have to stay here?" I scoff not even looking at him.

"No, your dad doesn't know about anything that's been going on." he explained. I picked up my phone and ordered an uber. It's 5 minutes away. Perfect.

"Oh that's fantastic. Makes me feel so much better" I say sarcastically and I turn to look at him.

"So what was the plan here, Landon? Were you supposed to start befriending me so you could get info out of me for Lucien?" I cry and he shakes his head. I turn to finish putting stuff in my bag.

"Take my virginity to get me to trust you more?" I let out a sob and zip my bag up slinging it over my shoulder.

"Stormi no" I hear Landon sniff but I keep rambling. I'm so hurt. I've never felt this much pain. Not even when I found out about Austin and Tori.

"Well congratulations. I fell for it." I say turning to look at him. His own eyes were glossed over and he was crying in front of me for the first time ever. "I fell for the nice guy act. I fell for the sweet talk. I fell for all of it!" I yelled.

"It wasn't an act Stormi please" Landon cried as I walked towards his bedroom door.

"I hate you" I blurted, turning back to him with wet cheeks. He looks as fucked up as I feel.

"What?" His face pales.

"I hate you because you made me love you." I admit and if it's physically possible I think he went paler. His chest shuddered as he let out a cry.

"Stormi please. I'm so sorry." he fell to his knees and wrapped his arms around my waist. "I'm going to be better. I'm getting better." He thinks this is just about him but it's about all of them. My heart aches at him promising to be better. I froze for a moment collecting my thoughts after what I just said.

"What was it you told me?" I say softly and he looks up to me listening. "I don't believe in apologizing, princess. If people were sorry, they wouldn't have done the thing they're apologizing for in the first place"

Landon's face drops and his eyes fill with sadness. "I should've never said that. I had it all wrong."

"Yeah you did" I say, pulling his hands off of me and turn towards the door.

"Sunshine please don't go" he follows me but I don't answer. "Where are you going?"

"Away. I need time." I get to the bottom of the stairs.

"Cupcake?" Myles rounds the corner and Noah follows. I stop at the door and turn to face them and wipe my tears away.

"If the three of you truly care, you will give me space." I say looking between the three grief filled faces in front of me. They all lied. They all betrayed me. Not just Landon but Noah and Myles too.

"I promise I won't say anything." I say before walking out the door.