Chapter 4

Trigger Warning: neglect, language, violence

POV Ash

We were silent again after Willa scared the shit out of all of us. She was something though. A Danver through and through. West was too. Fighters till the end. Damn they gave us a run for the the money. I smiled as I turned to look at them. West glared at me but I ignored him.

"So you really don't remember us?" Blade asked and the twins turned to look at him carefully.

West shook his head slowly but Willa looked thoughtful.

"Maybe. But it's just bits and pieces. I'm not sure if it's real or just a dream." Willa answered after a moment.

"What do you remember, we can tell you if it's real or not." I offered and she looked at me.

"I remember someone riding a horse with me while someone else rode one with West." She offered after another long minute.

Stone and I grinned at her.

"That was real, baby. I held you and Ash was with West. That was for your forth birthday. All either of you wanted was to ride a horse. Not a pony but a horse. The only way Dad would agree to it, is if we rode with you." Stone explained and she nodded.

"What else do you remember?" Zeke pushed.

"I remember someone showing me how to punch." She replied.

Dad chuckled.

"That was Blade. He insisted on teaching both of you how to punch and fight when you were little." Dad replied.

Willa looked back at Blade and he nodded with a proud smirk.

"So you're the one I should blame for this shiner, then?" Jaden complained.

Blade just shrugged and we fell into silence.

"I remember three guys sitting with Willa and I and three other kids on the couch. They let us watch a horror movie with them." West suddenly said.

"That was me, Ash and my best friend. We would baby sit you two with Zeke, Blade and Jaden and you all loved horror movies. It was the only way we could get all of you to sit still. Of course, Jaden would always end up having nightmares afterwards." Stone explained.

"He would crawl into Willa's bed with her because she would cuddle with him and wouldn't make fun of him, remember?" I added and we turned to look at Jaden who blushed.

"I think I remember that! She would tuck her head under my chin and listen to my heartbeat as she hummed me to sleep." Jaden suddenly said.

West looked at him in disbelief.

"What?" Jaden asked.

"She still sleeps like that with me." West muttered and looked down at Willa.

I let out a sigh of relief when I realized that they were finally starting to believe us.

"Lets grab some breakfast from McDonald's. Everyone want the usual?" Dad called out and we all agreed.

"What do you want, West?" Dad asked.

"I'll take a bacon McMuffin and a coke." West replied.

"Willa, what would you like?" Dad nodded.

"Hashbrown and hot tea, please." she called and we all frowned.

"You have to eat more than that, sweetheart." I protested.

"She's a vegetarian." West explained.

I melted a bit more. Of course my dear, sweet baby sister was a vegetarian. She was beyond adorable.

"I'll get you two then" Dad replied and she shrugged.

"How long have you been a vegetarian?" Zeke asked her.

"Since I was 12." she replied shortly.

"What made you decide to go vegetarian?" Jaden pressed as our driver ordered for us.

Willa and West exchanged a look and Willa nodded to him.

"It's because of me, at least that's how it started." West said and we looked confused.

"That was about the time that Mom started using drugs. Things got really rough for us and we couldn't ever get enough to eat so Willa and I would have to share meals or sandwiches or whatever we could get our hands on. She had it in her mind that I needed to have more meat than her so she always made me eat the meat of whatever we had. She was brutal about it too. Once she punched me until I ate the lunch meat we had in a sandwich. I couldn't hit her back of course so I had no choice but to eat it. After that, even when we had enough to eat, she said that meat made her ill." West explained and all of us looked at them in shock.

My heart was breaking. I knew on some level that they had to have gone through some troubles but hearing it was almost too much.

"How long did that last? You guys not having enough to eat?" Blade asked with a catch in his voice.

They shrugged.

"Not that long." Willa replied but we could all tell that she was lying.

"Who took care of you these last few years? You know, after your mom..." Zeke drifted off.

"We took care of each other, right, Wils?" West smiled at Willa and she nodded.

"Yep." She grinned back.

Stone frowned and looked at them.

"So no one helped you? How'd you move? Get into school? Survive?" he pushed.

The twins just looked at each other and shrugged.

"It was just us." Willa said.

Dad handed back the food and drinks then and we all got distracted by eating. I watched the twins carefully to make sure that they didn't need any help but they seemed to have it all figured out. Willa sipped her tea and held West's drink as he ate with one hand and kept a hand on Willa so she wouldn't fall, the bag with Willa's food in between them. She finished her tea when he finished his sandwich. He took his drink and she ate her food. I noticed that West was always sure to keep a hold on her to keep her safe.

I looked up to see that the rest of my brothers were watching them as well with a variety of looks on their faces. Blade looked proud. Zeke looked troubled. Jaden looked confused and Stone looked deep in thought. I, personally, was in awe of their bond. I'd never seen anything like it.

We finally pulled up at the house and the twins stared at in amazement.

"This is your house?" West asked and I nodded.

"This isn't a house, it's a mansion." Willa replied and the rest of us chuckled.

"It's a far cry from the roach motels we're used to huh, Wils?" West grinned at her and she nodded.

"Yeah. I doubt that we'll have to worry about rats here." she added.

Stone and I exchanged a frown at their words but didn't say anything.

"Oh, yeah. What else do you want from your old house? I can have some of my men pick it up for you." Dad asked as we all slipped out of the SUV.

Willa shook her head and West smirked.

"Nah, all we have is in these bags right here. We've learned to travel light, right baby sis?" West replied as he and Willa put on their bags.

Jaden and Blade tried to carry them but West took them. Willa put on a back pack and a purse while West put on the other three.

"You know it." she giggled.

I glanced at my Dad and my brothers and saw that we all had varied looks of shock and horror at their words.

"What about your clothes?" Jaden asked.

"They're in there." Willa grinned.

"What about things like books or electronics? You know, stuff?" Zeke added.

"We've got a laptop in one of them. We don't need books, that's what libraries are for." Willa explained.

Dad shook his head and shot us a look that clearly said to shut up so we did.

"Come on in" Dad commanded and led us in.

The twins followed him and we followed behind them, still scared that they may try to run again. They looked around in awe as we entered and I realized how we must look to them. They've had to scrap for everything they have and here we are, living in luxury. I never hated their mother more than I did in that moment. My baby brother and sister should have never had to go through all that. They should have been with us all along.

"We'll save the tour for this afternoon after we all get some sleep. I'll take you to your rooms." Dad decided and the twins nodded.

We all walked up to our rooms.

"This is Stone's room. Ash's is across the hall. This is Blade's and Jaden's is next to Ash's. Zeke's room is here and West's is across the hall next to Jaden's. This is Willa's room here. Every room has an en suite." Dad explained and the twins frowned.

"We just need one room." Willa stated firmly.

"But you each need your own bed..."Stone began and the twins chuckled.

"We're used to sharing. Thanks." West said dismissively as he pulled Willa into his room.

"Umm... okay. We'll wake you in a few hours!" I called as he shut the door.

We heard it lock a moment later. Dad looked at the rest of us.

"We'll talk later. Let's rest." he decided.

"I'm posting a guard at their door and under their window" Blade decreed.

None of us argued as he made the texts. We stood in the hallway until the guard appeared.

"Don't bother them. If they come out, take them where ever they want to go but do not let them leave the house." Dad commanded him.

"When are you going to call him?" I asked Dad and he sighed.

"Let's wait a bit. Let them settle in. He's going to be trouble for them. I know it." Dad replied and Stone nodded in agreement.

"Blaise is gonna be pissed if he finds out that you waited." Blade spoke up.

"Tough shit." Dad snarled.

With that, we all drifted to our rooms to get some sleep.

POV West

I woke up again around 11 and smiled down at Willa sleeping on my chest, under my chin just like Jaden said. We were too tired when we got in the room to say much. All we could do is lock the door, drop our bags, take off our shoes and fall into bed. We made sure to stash our guns under our pillows and tuck our knives under the bed. I looked around at the huge room that Liam said was mine and sighed. It was bigger the entire house of most of the places Willa and I had lived in recently.

Willa woke up and looked at me. I could see everything flood into her face and I soothed her. Willa was great at masking her feelings most of the time but right when she woke up was a different story.

"It's okay. We're fine." I whispered to her and she nodded.

"Yesterday and this morning sucked." she joked after a minute and I chuckled.

"You've got that right." I agreed.

She sat up and I did the same.

"What are we going to do?" She asked and I shook my head, unsure.

Willa looked around and then looked at me, seriously.

"Do you think that they really are our brothers and father?" Willa asked me.

I thought for a moment.

"Yeah. I do. That doesn't mean that we owe them shit, though" I replied.

"We could run" I added.

Willa got up and looked out the window. She scoffed and nodded. I followed her and looked to see a huge guy in a suit standing under our window.

"I bet there's one outside our door too." she whispered.

"I know that Mom was a little off and I know that she was a drug addict but she must have left here for a reason. You remember how she was when we were little. She loved us. She took care of us. She only turned to drugs because of whatever was haunting her. Whatever happened here, damaged her. We have to figure out what they're hiding, then we decide what to do." She said in German to make sure we weren't overheard and I nodded.

"What are you thinking, Wils?" I asked and she gave a cold smirk that scared most people but just let me know that shit was about to go down.

"Our Mother deserves justice and we deserve revenge." she replied in French and I nodded again.

"You know what, baby sis? I think you're right!" I agreed in Spanish.

"How do you want to play this?" I asked.

"Innocent. We did what we had to do to survive. We were scared and alone. Don't let them know about our training. Not unless we have to. Don't let them know about the fighting, the hacking, the languages, the explosives, any of it." she decreed in Swedish.

I smirked.

"How long do you think that'll work. Stone already looks suspicious. They're gonna want to look into our past." I added in Greek and she shrugged.

"Just tell them that we don't want to talk about our past. Too many bad memories or some soft shit. Hopefully we'll be able to figure out their secrets before they figure out ours." she replied in Italian.

"Today lets just get used to them and learn as much as we can. Tonight we'll figure out a plan to search for information." I decided in Japanese and she nodded.

"Go take the first shower, I'll get out our clothes." I told her and she hurried off to the bathroom.

"SHIT! West, come see this." she called and I rushed after her.

She was standing in the biggest bathroom I had ever seen.

"Damn, these guys have way too much money." I sighed and she agreed.

"Looks like you won't need the shower stuff." I said as I nodded toward the bottles in the shower.

I left and she took her shower as I pulled out our clothes. I grabbed black jeans for both of us. They had holes in them but it looked like they were done on purpose (they weren't) and I got out a black t shirt for me and a black tank top for her. They weren't much but they were clean and that's about all we had. I grabbed my boxers and left her to find her under ware and bra. We were close but I still wasn't okay with touching that stuff.

She came out wrapped in a big towel a few minutes later and I grabbed my clothes a went into the bathroom. I took the nicest shower of my life and then got dressed quickly after drying off. I came out to the room to see Willa dressed and braiding her hair in two braids and smiled.

"Here" I said and tossed her a zip up hoodie when she had finished.

She smiled her thanks and put it on while I pulled on another one. We only had two and they were both mine but Willa only liked to wear my hoodies so she never bought any for herself, despite my years of trying. I smiled at her again. She looked so little and sweet in the oversized hoodie with her braids. No one would ever guess that she was capable of all the shit we've pulled over the years.

That was always our saving grace. Whenever we got close to getting busted, Willa would just put on her innocent little girl act and I would pull the protective brother act (which wasn't really an act) and we would get away with whatever. Hopefully it would work this time too, of course, we've never had to act for this long.

We strapped on our guns and knives and looked at each other.

"Ready?" I asked and she nodded.

I opened the door as wasn't surprised to see another big dude in a suit. He nodded to us.

"Some of your brothers and your father are in the kitchen, would you like to join them?" he asked and I nodded.

I knew that I was going to have to be super protective of Willa now. Not because she needed me to because, trust me, my sis was a bad ass. But because that's the only way the others would buy our act. I didn't mind, though. I loved protecting Willa, she would hardly let me usually so I was going to take full advantage. We had to be sure that they didn't see her as a threat and they saw me as just a boy that would do anything to keep his sister safe (that part was true).

We followed big guy down the stairs and through a few rooms before walking into the kitchen. I put my arm around Willa as we saw our Dad, Ash, Blade and Stone at the table. They smiled at us when they saw us.

"Thank you Tom" Blade dismissed the guy, who nodded and walked away.

"Why don't you two come sit down. Jaden and Zeke are getting dressed and should be down soon. We'll have lunch and talk" Dad suggested and we nodded.

I was careful to sit next to Willa. I hid my smirk when I caught her smiling shyly at them. I pulled her chair closer to me and looked at the others carefully. I put my arm around the back of her chair and leaned over to her.

"You okay?" I whispered and she nodded.

She looked scared and I wondered how much of that was the act and how much was real.

"You?" she whispered back as always.

I smiled at her and nodded too.

I meant what I said this morning. As long as we were together, we would be fine.