Page 13

13

ZANE

I wrapped my fingers around Fawn’s, leading her along the barely-there path through the trees. Subconsciously, my thumb stroked the back of her hand, and I kept sneaking little glimpses of her, because it was impossible not to.

There was a bounce in her step that hadn’t been there earlier. A small smile pulling at her full lips, drawing my gaze. As we neared the house, something brewed in the space between us. A sense of excitement and hope that was contagious.

I caught sight of the police car parked next to my flat-tired truck before we’d even broken through the tree line. Fawn gasped, tugging on my hand and staring up at me with those huge brown eyes that felt connected to my soul. “They’re already here!”

My heart thumped.

There was a very real chance I was going to get arrested for my part in what had gone down today, and for being an accomplice. But I would happily go down for a hundred crimes I’d been blackmailed into committing if it meant I got to see that life return to her eyes.

She was getting out.

Today.

And Eddie was going to prison, hopefully for the rest of his life.

I stared down at her, a pretty pink flush in her cheeks, and again, was frozen by just how much being in her presence affected me. I tipped her chin up and kissed her, without her permission, but I couldn’t help myself.

I’d barely gotten a taste of her, but I knew I’d already had more than I deserved.

Her lips were soft beneath mine, and I kept the kiss quick, knowing we needed to get in there before Eddie spun some sort of story. “If I’m arrested—”

Fawn reared back and shook her head. “What? No. I’ll tell them you had nothing to do with it.”

I brushed a thumb over her bottom lip. “But we both know that’s not true.”

“He blackmailed you.”

“But I still did things I shouldn’t have. And I deserve to pay for them. But my mom…”

Fawn pressed two fingers to my lips. “I’ll find her. I’ll make sure she’s okay.”

I knew she had no idea yet how she would do that, but I also knew if Fawn made a promise, she would keep it. So all I did was nod my thanks.

She let go of my hand as we emerged from the woods, and with her head held high, she marched across the lawn, with me right at her back in support.

The front door opened when we were just a few feet away, the sound of laughter meeting my ears before I registered the two figures coming out the door.

The police officer from earlier gave me a boost of hope, but the smiling laughter on my brother’s face, that couldn’t hide the coldness in his eyes, left me hollow.

“Good to see you again, Tony.” Eddie clapped the police officer on the shoulder, walking him to his car, even though his gaze was locked on me.

Tony glanced my way but then reached for my brother’s hand and shook it. “Glad we could clear this misunderstanding up.”

“There’s no misunderstanding.” Fawn ran across the lawn, stopping a few steps away from the police officer in his uniform. Just far enough away that Eddie couldn’t touch her.

Her eyes pleaded with the officer. “I don’t know what he’s told you, but all of it is lies. My son and I are not here of our own free will. We aren’t safe. He’s been abusing us for years. We need help.”

The police officer raised an eyebrow at Fawn. “Ma’am, your husband here tells me you are free to leave at any time you want. If you need a lift, I will happily drive you into town myself right now.”

“He’s not my husband. Not in any legal way.” She glanced at me, a silent question in her eyes as to whether this cop could be trusted.

I nodded. “Get Otis. I’m coming too.”

Fawn took a step toward the door, but the police officer held up a hand. “You, ma’am, are free to go. But the boy stays. His father has indicated he does not agree to you removing him from the home, and that he fears for your mental state.”

My mouth dropped open. “Her—are you fucking kidding me? That kid is in danger. She can’t just leave him here!”

Fawn looked between me and the officer with panic in her eyes. “I won’t go without my son!”

But we both knew she was dead if she didn’t.

I clutched the police officer’s arm. “Sir, you need to understand what you’re doing here. He chains her up like she’s a fucking dog.”

But instead of listening to my pleas, he stared down at my hand on his arm. “Get your hand off me.”

“Not until you listen to her side of the story!”

The police officer grabbed my arm and before I could even blink, had it twisted up behind my back. My shoulder wrenched painfully, and the wind knocked out of me when he shoved me up against the side of the car.

“No, stop!” Fawn shouted. “He hasn’t done anything wrong!”

But the cop was already slapping a cold metal cuff around my wrist.

From the awkward angle of my head, all I could see was Eddie, and his smug, self-satisfied grin.

Like he’d known all along this would be the outcome.

“Tony,” he barked out.

The cop paused in trying to get the cuffs on me.

Eddie took a small wad of cash from his pocket. “How about a little bonus payment to forget my idiot brother doesn’t know his place?”

Tony didn’t agree, and Eddie huffed out a sigh and pulled out another stack. He limped to the car and put both piles of money down on the hood.

“How much more to just let him go? I don’t have the time or means to go down to the station and do this down there.”

The cop nodded at the pile. “Another.”

Eddie let out a low whistle through his teeth. “You drive a hard bargain. Anyone ever tell you that? Fifteen hundred on top of the thousand I already paid you tonight? You’re going to send me to the poorhouse, Tony.”

But he withdrew another stack from his pocket, and Tony, the clearly corrupt cop, unlocked the cuff from around my wrist.

I shook out my arm, staring at the cop with hate in my heart.

But Fawn’s expression was so much worse. “A thousand dollars,” she practically spat at the cop. “A thousand dollars was all it took for you to look past the chains he keeps me in. A thousand dollars to pretend you don’t notice my son and I are both underfed.” She spun around, yanking at the cheap elastic on her dress so it exposed more of her scarred skin. Her voice turned hysterical. “A thousand dollars to ignore the scars he’s put on my body! Are you looking at them now? Seeing what he’s done to me, or are you just pocketing your money and walking away?”

Her words hit me like a punch to the stomach. Even though I’d seen her scars, felt them beneath my fingertips, the raw emotion in her voice, and the damage to her back lit up by police cruiser headlights had my stomach rolling.

I stared at the cop, begging him silently to change his mind.

But Eddie just put another stack of money on the pile, and Tony the cop picked them up and got in his car without another glance in Fawn’s direction.

We both stared as he disappeared down the dirt driveway into the darkness. Taking all hopes of escape and freedom with him.

The cracking hit of a gun handle to the back of my head should have been expected. The blackness that followed was the only relief I was going to get from how royally I’d screwed up.

I woke up to screams. They pierced the darkness and the clouded soup that was my brain. I blinked an eye open, no idea where I was until Eddie’s now familiar living room came into focus. But from an angle I hadn’t seen before. I stared up at the recliner, realizing I was on the floor. Eddie was missing from his usual spot though.

Another scream tore through the silent house, splintering through my pounding brain.

“Eddie, please! Stop!”

Fawn.

I pushed up to my feet, ignoring the pain radiating down the back of my neck and through my spine. I lunged for the stairs, scrambling to get up them. To get to her. Her sobs were all I could hear, her screams sending fear through every muscle of my body.

I knew my brother had a weapon and he’d probably shoot me dead the moment I got to them, but it didn’t matter. Couldn’t matter when her pain was more than I could bear.

I’d kill him with my own fucking hands, even while blood drained from my body from the bullet wounds he’d no doubt fill me with.

I took the first two steps in a blind rage that couldn’t be contained. My pain mixing with my anger, all of it driving me forward.

The chain around my ankle jerked me backward.

I fell hard onto the stairs, barely catching myself with my hands to avoid smashing my face on the scuffed-up wood. I twisted to stare down at my leg.

I hadn’t even noticed the thick metal cuffs around my ankles. Hadn’t even heard the jangling of the chain.

All I’d been focused on was getting to her.

And now I couldn’t even do that.

Eddie’s bedroom door slammed open, and he yanked her by the hair to the upstairs banister. She gripped it with white-knuckled fear, her clothes half hanging off her in torn shreds, tears streaming down her face.

Eddie sneered down at me. “’Bout time you fucking woke up and learned that your actions have consequences, brother.” He spat the last word like it tasted bad. “You think I don’t have the police in my pocket? You think that wasn’t the very first thing I did when I moved here?” He glared at me. “You’re a fool, Zane. A stupid little boy who has always wanted to be the hero but never had the fucking balls to man up and do what needs to be done.”

I yanked at the chains, but there was no getting free. They were locked around my ankles until Eddie decided to release me.

All I had left was words. “She did nothing wrong. It was all me.”

Eddie ran his nose up the side of Fawn’s neck. “No, she’s forgotten her place. As usual. So now I have to remind her.” His eyes glinted with dark malice. “And you, lover boy, can fucking listen.”

He dragged her back to their bedroom, slamming the door again.

I squeezed my eyes shut, vomit choking me as their bedframe squeaked and Fawn screamed.

I stared at the ceiling, waiting for death to take me. Because that’s what it fucking felt like, lying there, chained up, unable to get to her.

And worse, knowing everything she was suffering was all because of me.

A door creaked across the hall, and my stomach sank when Otis’s little face peeped out through the gap, his eyes so like Fawn’s, staring at me and full of tears.

“You should hide, buddy,” I whispered to him. “Somewhere safe. Cover your ears and don’t come out until me or your mom comes for you. Okay?”

But Otis slipped from his bedroom and walked down the few steps to where I lay, hating myself with every ounce of my being for what I’d done.

And then he climbed onto my lap, curling himself up, knees to his chest, skinny arms wrapped tight around his legs.

Pain ravaged me from every direction. From my skin, to my head, to my goddamn fucking heart. But I pulled myself up and wrapped my arms around Fawn’s son, clutching him to my chest and covering his ears so he didn’t have to be punished for my mistake as well.