Growing Closer

Growing Closer
Iris POV

The gunshot echoed through the hospital room as Elena fired.

But I wasn't at the hospital anymore.

I was back in the dark church basement, tied to a chair, watching everything happen on a TV screen that someone had wheeled in front of me.

"Exciting, isn't it?" the masked figure said, standing behind me. "Your whole family destroying each other while you watch."

Ian sat in another chair beside me, also tied up. His face was pale with shock.

"That's not possible," he whispered. "That person on the screen—they've been helping us for years."

"They've been using us for years," I corrected. "Just like everyone else."

The masked figure laughed. "Smart girl. Finally starting to understand the game."

"What game?"

"The one your parents have been playing since before you were born. The one that ends tonight."

On the screen, Elena was pointing a gun at someone whose face I couldn't see clearly. Dad was on the floor, and Marcus was bleeding.

"Let them go," I said. "This is between you and me."

"Is it? How sweet. The little princess wants to sacrifice herself for everyone else."

"Yes."

"Too bad. This isn't about you, darling. This is about power. About control. About finishing what started twenty years ago."

The figure walked around to face me. Even with the mask, something about them seemed familiar.

"Do you know what your parents' biggest mistake was?"

"Trusting people like you?"

"Thinking they could change the rules. Your father thought he could fight criminals and win. Your mother thought she could control them from the shadows. But there's only one rule in this world that matters."

"Which is?"

"The house always wins."

They turned back to the TV screen. "Watch carefully. This is where your dear Aunt Elena learns that some secrets should stay buried."

On the screen, Elena was backing toward the window, gun still raised. The person she was pointing it at stepped into the light.

I gasped.

It was Dr. Sarah Chen, Marcus's sister. The family therapist who'd been counseling us since I was twelve years old.

"Dr. Chen?" I whispered.

"Surprised?" the masked figure asked. "She's been reporting every word you've said in therapy for the last nine years. Every fear, every weakness, every secret you've ever shared."

My stomach felt sick. All those sessions where I'd talked about feeling alone, about missing my parents, about not knowing who I really was—she'd been sharing it all with criminals.

"But she helped me. She made me feel better."

"She made you feel safe so you'd tell her everything. Information is power, Iris. And Dr. Chen has been collecting power for a very long time."

On the screen, Dr. Chen was talking to Elena. I couldn't hear the words, but I could see Elena's face getting more and more shocked.

"What is she telling her?"

"The truth about the night your mother supposedly died. The truth about who really runs the criminal families in Chicago. The truth about why you and Ian were really separated."

"We were separated to keep us safe."

"You were separated because together, you're too dangerous."

"Dangerous how?"

The figure untied my hands but kept a gun pointed at me.

"Stand up. Time for a demonstration."

I stood up slowly, rubbing feeling back into my wrists.

"Now, untie your brother."

"Why?"

"Because I want you to see what happens when the Kane twins are in the same room with their emotions running high."

I untied Ian's ropes. He stood up and moved closer to me.

"How do you feel right now?" the figure asked.

"Scared. Angry. Confused."

"And you, Ian?"

"The same."

"Good. Now, take each other's hands."

"What?"

"Take your brother's hand, Iris. Trust me."

I reached out and took Ian's hand. The moment our skin touched, something strange happened.

The room got quiet. Not just quiet—silent. Like someone had turned off all the sound in the world.

"Do you feel that?" Ian whispered.

I did. It was like electricity running between us. Like we were connected by more than just blood.

"What is this?"

"This," the figure said, "is why your parents separated you. Why every crime family in Chicago wants to control you. Why you're so much more valuable than anyone ever told you."

"I don't understand."

"The Kane family isn't just another crime family or another FBI legacy. You come from a very old bloodline, children. One with very special gifts."

"What kind of gifts?"

"The kind that can read minds. The kind that can influence thoughts. The kind that can make people do things they would never normally do."

My hand was still connected to Ian's. And I could feel something. His thoughts. His memories. His pain from the last three years.

"This is impossible."

"Is it? Haven't you always known things you shouldn't know? Haven't you always been able to tell when people were lying? Haven't you always been able to make people trust you, even when they shouldn't?"

I thought about Alex. How quickly he'd decided to protect me. How he'd gone against his own father's wishes.

I thought about Dad. How he'd been willing to sacrifice his career for me.

I thought about Elena. How she'd kept secrets for twenty years just to keep me safe.

"You made them care about me."

"You made them care about you. The gift runs in your bloodline. Your mother has it. Your father has it. And together, you and Ian have more of it than anyone in your family's history."

Ian was staring at me with wide eyes. "I can hear your thoughts."

"I can hear yours too."

"Which is exactly why you had to be separated," the figure continued. "Because together, you're not just twins. You're weapons of mass persuasion."

On the TV screen, chaos was breaking out. Elena and Dr. Chen were fighting. Dad was trying to get up. Marcus was crawling toward his gun.

"Time to go," the figure said.

"Go where?"

"To Kane Manor. To join your mother. To end this once and for all."

"I'm not going anywhere with you."

"Yes, you are. Because if you don't, everyone you see on that screen dies in the next ten minutes."

They pulled out a remote control with a big red button.

"What's that?"

"A detonator. Connected to explosives I planted in that hospital room two hours ago. One press of this button, and your entire family disappears forever."

Ian and I looked at each other. With our hands connected, I could feel his thoughts. He was thinking the same thing I was.

This person had planned everything. The attack on my campus. The kidnapping. The separation. Even this moment right now.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"I'm the person who's been taking care of your family for twenty years. Making sure you grew up strong. Making sure you developed your gifts. Making sure that when the time came, you'd be ready for your real purpose."

"Which is?"

"To help me control every criminal and every law enforcement officer in America."

They pulled off the mask.

And I found myself staring into the face of someone I'd never expected.

Someone who should have been dead.

Someone who looked exactly like an older version of myself.

"Hello, granddaughter," she said with a smile that was both loving and terrifying.

"Impossible," I whispered.

"Grandma Kane died when I was five."

"Grandma Kane faked her death when you were five. Just like your mother faked hers when you were born. It's a family tradition."

She was my grandmother. The woman who used to read me bedtime stories and bake cookies with me. The woman who taught me to paint watercolors and sing lullabies.

The woman who'd been controlling my entire life from the shadows.

"Why?"

"Because someone had to prepare you for what's coming. Someone had to make sure you were strong enough to inherit the real family business."

"What business?"

"The business of power, sweetheart. Real power. The kind that can reshape the world."

She pressed a button on her remote, but not the red one.

The TV screen changed to show a map of the United States with hundreds of red dots scattered across it.

"Each of those dots represents someone with your gift. Someone from bloodlines like ours. We've been finding them, training them, preparing them for decades."

"Preparing them for what?"

"For the day when people like us stop hiding in the shadows and take our rightful place as the leaders of this country."

"You're talking about a coup."

"I'm talking about evolution. About humanity finally being led by people with the wisdom and power to make the hard choices."

Ian squeezed my hand tighter. Through our connection, I could feel his fear and anger mixing with mine.

"And if we refuse to help you?"

Grandma's smile got colder.

"Then I press the red button, and your parents, your aunt, and that nice Agent Chen all die in a very big explosion. Then I find other Kane children to train. Your cousins in Ireland. Your second cousins in Australia. The bloodline is big enough that I don't really need you specifically."

She was bluffing. She had to be.

But then I saw her finger hovering over the red button, and I realized she wasn't bluffing at all.

"Choose quickly, darlings. The explosives have a timer, and it just started counting down."

On the TV screen, I could see a digital clock that had appeared in the corner.

5:00... 4:59... 4:58...

"How long do we have?"

"Five minutes to decide whether you want to save your family or watch them die."

"And if we say yes?"

"Then we go to Kane Manor. We collect your mother and father. We gather our army of gifted individuals. And we begin the real work of changing this world."

"And if we say no?"

"Then you spend the rest of your very short lives knowing that everyone you ever loved died because you were too stubborn to embrace your destiny."

4:30... 4:29... 4:28...

Ian looked at me, his eyes full of pain.

Through our connection, I could hear his thoughts clearly now.

We don't have a choice, he was thinking. She's going to kill them all.

I know, I thought back. But if we help her, how many other people die?

Does it matter? They're our family.

4:00... 3:59... 3:58...

"Time's running out, children," Grandma said sweetly.

I looked at the TV screen. Elena was injured but still alive. Dad was getting to his feet. Marcus was trying to stop the bleeding from his wound.

All of them fighting to save me.

All of them about to die because I existed.

"Okay," I said quietly.

"Okay what?"

"We'll help you. But you have to promise they'll be safe."

"I promise they'll live. Whether they'll be safe depends on how well you cooperate."

She pressed a button on the remote. The countdown stopped with twelve seconds left.

"Smart girl. Just like your mother."

"What happens now?"

"Now we go collect the rest of the family. And then we begin building the future."

She walked toward the door, expecting us to follow.

Ian and I held hands and walked behind her.

But as we reached the doorway, I realized something that changed everything.

If Ian and I really did have the power to influence minds, then we didn't have to be victims in this game.

We could be players.

I squeezed Ian's hand three times. Our old signal from when we were kids, before we were separated.

He squeezed back three times.

He understood.

We were going to pretend to cooperate.

And then we were going to destroy our grandmother's plans from the inside.

But as we stepped outside, I saw something that made my heart stop.

Kane Manor was on fire.

And standing in front of the burning building, with his hands raised in surrender, was Alex.

With a gun pointed at his head.