Broken Promises

Broken Promises
The hospital parking lot was nearly empty at two in the morning. Aidan and Elijah crouched behind a parked ambulance, studying the service entrance.
"Two guards," Elijah whispered. "We'll need a distraction."
"I still don't understand how we're going to get past security once we're inside," Aidan said.
Elijah pulled something from his pocket—an ID badge. "This will get us to the third floor. After that, we improvise."
Aidan grabbed his arm. "Wait. What if this is a mistake? What if the person in that bed isn't really Asher?"
"Then we'll know for sure," Elijah said. "But we can't leave him there, whoever he is."
Aidan nodded, thinking of the sad figure in the hospital bed. Brother or stranger, no one deserved to be Victor Carter's prisoner.
"I'll create a diversion at the main entrance," Elijah said. "When the guards move, you slip inside with this badge. I'll meet you on the third floor."
"Be careful," Aidan whispered, suddenly afraid. Their kiss from earlier still tingled on his lips.
Elijah's eyes softened. "Always am."
As Elijah moved toward the main entrance, a shadow stepped out from behind a nearby car.
"Going somewhere?"
Aidan froze. He knew that voice—his own voice.
Asher stood there, looking exactly like Aidan but somehow different. Harder. Sadder. His eyes were red-rimmed, his clothes rumpled.
"Asher?" Aidan couldn't believe it. "Is it really you?"
Asher ignored him, focusing instead on Elijah with burning hatred.
"You just can't help yourself, can you, Hart?" Asher spat. "First me, now my brother."
Elijah's face paled. "Asher, this isn't what you think."
"No?" Asher's laugh was bitter. "I saw you. Both of you. At the apartment."
Aidan felt like the ground was shifting beneath his feet. "You've been following us?"
"I've been trying to save you," Asher corrected. "From him."
He pointed at Elijah, who looked more shaken than Aidan had ever seen him.
"Asher, we don't have time for this," Elijah said urgently. "Someone's in trouble in there—someone who looks just like you both."
"I know," Asher said. "But he's being moved as we speak. You're too late."
Elijah cursed under his breath. Aidan looked between them, confused.
"What's going on?" he demanded. "How do you two know each other?"
"You didn't tell him?" Asher asked Elijah with mock surprise. "About us?"
"There was no 'us'," Elijah said sharply.
"Keep telling yourself that," Asher turned to Aidan. "Your new boyfriend and I have history. He used me to get information about Dad's company. Then he disappeared."
Aidan felt like he'd been punched. "Is that true?"
Elijah's silence was answer enough.
"I sent those texts," Asher continued. "Tried to warn you. But you chose him anyway."
"I didn't know it was you texting me," Aidan said. "Why didn't you just call?"
"Would you have believed me?" Asher's voice cracked. "After what I did to you?"
The pain in his twin's voice made Aidan's chest tight. Despite everything, this was still his brother.
"About that," Aidan said carefully. "Why did you steal my proposal?"
Asher's eyes filled with tears. "I didn't want to. Dad made me."
"Made you how?"
"He threatened me," Asher whispered. "Said if I didn't do it, he'd reveal something about me that would destroy us both."
"What could be so bad?" Aidan asked.
Asher looked at Elijah. "Tell him. Tell him what Dad has on me."
Elijah shook his head. "This isn't the time or place."
"It never is with you, is it?" Asher stepped closer to Elijah, his hands balled into fists. "You promised you'd help me save him. Instead, you're here playing games with my brother."
"I'm not playing games," Elijah said quietly. "This was never about games."
"Then what is it about?" Asher shouted. "Tell us the truth for once!"
A security guard looked their way, and Elijah pulled both brothers behind a van.
"Keep your voice down," he hissed. "You want to get us all caught?"
Asher jerked away from Elijah's touch. "Don't tell me what to do. Not anymore."
"Please," Aidan begged. "Both of you. I need to understand what's happening."
Asher's anger seemed to drain, leaving only exhaustion. "I stole your proposal because Dad showed me pictures of you in a hospital bed, hooked up to machines. He said if I didn't play along, he'd make sure you never woke up."
Aidan felt sick. "So there is another person who looks like us?"
"A third brother," Asher confirmed. "I don't know who he is or why Dad's keeping him hidden. But he's been there for months."
"Why didn't you tell me?" Aidan asked.
"Dad had me watched constantly. Said if I breathed a word to you, he'd finish what he started."
The pieces were starting to fit together in Aidan's mind. "That's why you've been acting strange. Why you stopped coming to our usual places."
Asher nodded. "I've been trying to find a way to help him—the third one. I thought Elijah was helping me too, until..."
He couldn't finish, but his eyes flicked to Elijah with such naked hurt that Aidan felt ashamed.
"Asher," Elijah said softly. "I meant to help. But things got complicated."
"Because you fell for my brother instead of me," Asher said flatly.
The silence that followed was deafening.
Aidan looked at Elijah, who wouldn't meet his eyes. Then at Asher, who looked like his heart was breaking all over again.
"You and Elijah were..."
"Together. Yes," Asher finished. "Until he vanished without a word three months ago. Now I know why."
Elijah finally spoke. "It wasn't like that. I didn't leave because of Aidan."
"Then why?" Asher demanded.
"Because I discovered something about your mother," Elijah said. "Something that changed everything."
Both brothers went still.
"What about our mother?" Aidan asked.
Before Elijah could answer, headlights swept across the parking lot. A black van pulled up to the service entrance.
"That's them," Asher whispered. "They're moving him now."
They watched as two men in scrubs wheeled a gurney out to the van. On it lay a still figure, face obscured by an oxygen mask but with the same build as the twins.
"We have to stop them," Aidan said, starting forward.
Elijah grabbed him. "There are too many guards. We'd never make it."
"So we just let them take him?" Aidan demanded.
"No," Asher said. "We follow them."
The three men hurried back to Elijah's car and waited until the van pulled out. They followed at a safe distance, tension thick in the car.
"Are you going to tell us what you found out about our mother?" Aidan asked Elijah after several minutes of silence.
Elijah's hands tightened on the steering wheel. "Your mother didn't die in a car accident. She was killed because she discovered Victor's secret—that he had a third son."
"The one in the hospital bed?" Asher asked.
"Yes," Elijah said. "Your triplet. He's been kept hidden his entire life."
"Why?" both brothers asked in unison.
"I don't know for certain," Elijah admitted. "But I think Victor has been running some kind of twisted experiment with the three of you."
"That's insane," Aidan said.
"Is it?" Asher countered. "You've met our father."
They fell silent again, watching the van wind through empty streets toward the highway.
"There's something else you should know," Elijah said finally. "About why I was helping Asher first, then you."
Both brothers waited.
"Your mother hired me before she died," Elijah said. "To protect all three of her sons. But I failed. I didn't find the third brother until it was too late. He was already under Victor's control."
"So you used me to get close to Dad's company," Asher said bitterly. "To find him."
"Yes," Elijah admitted. "But what happened between us wasn't fake, Asher. I swear."
"And what about what happened between us last night?" Aidan asked quietly. "Was that real?"
Elijah looked at him in the rearview mirror. "Yes," he said simply. "Too real."
The pain in Asher's eyes was almost unbearable to see.
"I'm sorry," Aidan told his brother. "I didn't know."
"It doesn't matter now," Asher said, though his voice said otherwise. "All that matters is saving him."
The van ahead turned onto a private road leading into dense woods.
"The old Carter hunting lodge," Asher recognized. "Dad's taking him there."
"It'll be heavily guarded," Elijah warned.
"I don't care," Aidan said. "We're getting our brother out tonight."
He reached under his jacket and pulled out Maya's gun.
Asher's eyes widened. "Where did you get that?"
"Maya gave it to me," Aidan said. "To use on Elijah if necessary."
Elijah's eyes met his in the mirror. "And is it necessary?"
Aidan looked at the man who had saved him, kissed him, and possibly betrayed him.
"I don't know yet," he answered honestly.
The car continued down the dark road, headlights off, following the van that held their unknown brother. In the backseat, Aidan touched the gun in his lap and wondered which was more dangerous—the weapon in his hands or the tangled feelings in his heart.
Ahead, through the trees, lights from the hunting lodge glowed like watchful eyes. And standing on the front porch, as if expecting them, was Victor Carter.