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Gage turned and headed for the door. Brett took a few steps and stopped. He turned back to her and took a deep breath that lifted his shoulders. “Don’t worry. I won’t leave you.”

With that last word, he walked out the door in front of Gage.

No, Brett hadn’t ever been the leaving type. That was her.

Chapter4

Brett

Brett strode out of the hospital room and focused on the thudding of his footsteps as well as those of the enemy behind him. Brett had been unprepared for visitors today. Thea or Gage. Welcome or unwelcome. Well, the horrific night had bled into the early morning, so it was all one big, long, bad day.

When Gage had followed Brett past the nurse’s station and to the double doors, he turned and faced the music, as ominous as it was.

“Who did this to her?” Brett asked.

Gage’s lips thinned, and he looked over both shoulders before responding. “I don’t know.”

“That’s not a good enough answer.”

Gage lifted his hands in the air before letting them fall again. “Take it or leave it. Truth is, I didn’t know Thea was in town. When Emerson told me she thought…”

“Don’t stop there,” Brett said. “Spit it out.”

“Was it one of the Pattons?”

“Very unlikely. With my dad dead and my uncle in prison, the others are too lazy or drugged up to care about the Howards. That leaves your side. Who do you think did this?”

“I don’t have to tell you anything,” Gage said.

The guy’s scowl didn’t scare Brett. He wasn’t leaving until he got some answers. “Listen, I don’t know what you think you know, but I didn’t kill your dad. This doesn’t extend to the rest of my family, butIam not capable of murder. End of story.”

Gage pushed a hand through his hair and sighed. Was the guy putting on an act, or was he ready to start kicking in doors for answers like Brett wanted to?

“Emerson said Thea came to town hoping to see Mom. She got another diagnosis. It’s in the lungs this time, and the docs said she won’t see next Christmas without a miracle.”

Brett slumped against the wall behind him. Thea’s mom had less than a year left. Now her sudden appearance made sense. Thea would run through fire for her mom, but coming back to Blackwater might be worse than facing flames.

Thea had to be crushed. After all she’d lost, losing her mom was just another stab in the back.

Brett hung his head and stared at the bland tile hospital floor. “I’m sorry.”

“You and me both,” Gage said. “Mom never deserved any of this.”

“But who did this to her?” Brett pointed down the hall toward Thea’s room.

Gage planted his feet shoulder-width apart. “I’m pretty sure I know who it was.”

Brett’s fists clenched at his sides. “Care to share with the class?”

“Nope.”

“Tommy, Bruce, and Cain?” Her sadistic uncles and cousin had been Brett’s first guess.

“I’m not telling you what I think.”

“You don’t have to. I can make my own assumptions.” Brett had gotten a taste of the untruth of “innocent until proven guilty” when he’d been in the cross hairs, but it was hard to apply that courtesy to whoever did this to Thea. “I’m assuming it’s them, but what do they have against her? She’s their family. I thought their fight was with us.”

Gage stared at Brett for an extra second. “What happened that night?”