Page 19

19

ZANE

“ I t’s me,” I whispered in Fawn’s ear.

Her body flagged against mine, and I slowly removed my hand, once I was sure she wasn’t going to scream.

She spun around in my arms and then punched me square in the chest. “You scared the life out of me, Zane Sinclair!”

In the privacy of the shed, I cupped the side of her face. “I’m sorry. I just didn’t want anyone to see us.”

Her gaze darted around the small shed, both of us edging away from the windows instinctively. They let in enough light for us to see, which meant if we stood in front of them, others might notice us. I didn’t need any of Eddie’s crew reporting back to him that his missus and his brother were having secret meetings he didn’t know about.

Hopefully after tonight, it wouldn’t be a problem at all.

“I need to tell you something,” I said softly. “Did you know this house was where Mom grew up?”

She blinked and shook her head. “Eddie never said anything about that.” She bit her lip. “Zane, your mom clearly isn’t well. Are you sure she’s remembering correctly?”

I nodded. “I didn’t remember until she started talking about the times we spent here. I was tiny, probably younger even than Otis, but I do have some memories. I don’t think she’s imagining it. Her long-term memory is a lot better than her short term.”

Fawn’s lips pressed together. “I envy her. I wish I could erase the last five years from my memory too. Though I feel like the worst mom for saying that because Otis is all mixed up in that time, but if I could forget it all, and just start fresh with him now, then I would. I’d give up all those memories of his first steps and first words, because your brother ruined all of them.”

There was an anger in her tonight. I didn’t know what had stirred it up, but it could have been any number of things. I stroked a thumb across her cheek. “You aren’t a bad mom. The fact Otis is still sweet and gentle is proof of just how good you are.”

She leaned into my touch and closed her eyes. “I just want this all to end. It’s worse now, since you arrived. Before, I was resigned to living this life. But now…I want more, Zane. I don’t want to be his prisoner.”

“I don’t either. He wants us to give up. You know that, right? That’s what all the punishments were for. We scared him the other day by fighting back.”

“I’m scared all the time,” she whispered.

I drew her in tight and cradled the back of her head to my chest. “I know. But that’s what he wants. To keep us in a state of fear so we don’t try anything again.”

“It’s working.”

I pulled back and stared down at her. “No. It’s not. We’re leaving.”

She sighed. “Zane, you think I haven’t tried? These people won’t help us. They’re all loyal to Eddie because he knows all their weak spots. Would you help a random stranger if it meant Eddie went after your wife or your kids or even your dog? I can’t even blame them, because I wouldn’t either. They’re as much his prisoners as we are.”

I already knew that too. The episode with the police had drummed that message home pretty hard. “We don’t need their help. Mom remembers a property about twelve miles away. The home of a girl she used to play with as a kid. If we can just get there…”

“What if they’re in his pocket too?”

“I can’t risk it, either way. But even though I might not be able to take a life, I’ve no qualms about stealing a car.”

Fawn shook her head. “Twelve miles though, Zane? It might as well be a hundred when we have your mom and Otis as well. They can’t walk that far. I don’t know that I can either. Plus, there’s wolves in those woods at night. I’ve heard them. And we don’t even know if that house is still there. Or if your mom is remembering correctly. We could just end up walking around in circles, completely lost.”

I gripped her arms harder. “Would that be worse than staying here? Staying with him?”

“I have a child to protect.”

“So do I.”

I blinked at the fierceness in my tone. At the protective growl that had come out of nowhere when I thought of that little boy who reminded me so much of myself.

Except he looked like Fawn.

And I was so stupidly in love with her that I automatically loved every extension of her without any effort.

She glanced up at me in confusion, and I was quick to add, “He’s my nephew. He’s not just your responsibility anymore.” My heart flushed with the overwhelming desire to protect them both.

To love them both.

To make them both mine.

The feeling was all-encompassing. And built on nothing real. All daydreams of the woman I thought she was. But I couldn’t tell my stupid heart that. It had loved her since the day I’d met her and never gotten over it.

“I just need another day,” I promised her. “One more day to fix the wagon so Otis and Mom don’t have to walk the whole way. And so we have something to carry supplies in.”

She touched her hand to her pocket, pulling out a bottle of pain pills. “I’ve got his medication. I could take some of these. Crush them into his drink. Make sure he’s out for long enough to give us a head start.”

The plan started coming together in my head. “He’ll look for us along the roads, so we’ll stay well away from them. We’ll follow the stream. Where there’s water, there’s people. These older properties were always built not far from a water source. Mom will know the way.”

I wasn’t confident of that at all until I remembered the look of clear determination in Mom’s eyes. She’d survived more of Eddie’s games than anyone. And that now she too, had Otis and Fawn to fight for.

It wasn’t just Eddie who craved family connections. We all did.

Fawn’s fingers trembled against my chest. “If he catches us…”

He’d already promised to kill us if we tried again. I was sure he meant it this time. We’d already used up our one chance, this next one had to pay off.

I opened my mouth to reassure her when voices got loud outside the shed door, Audrina’s girly giggle and Eddie’s obnoxious baritone standing out above all the rest.

“Where are you taking me?” She giggled.

“You said you wanted to work out this business deal in private. There’s a million people hanging around here, so I’m taking you somewhere there isn’t.”

“Not the woods!” she shrieked. “I heard those wolves howling earlier.”

Eddie laughed. “You don’t have to worry about wolves when you’re with me, baby.”

Audrina must have made a face at him or said something we couldn’t hear, but Eddie’s response was loud enough to catch every word. “The shed then. It has a door. We can be alone.”

“Perfect.”

Fawn and I moved in unison, both of us knowing they were too close for us to leave, and that our only shot of not being caught in here together was to hide.

If he found us, we’d be over. There’d be no explaining away the two of us in here in the dark. We’d be done before we even got a chance to put the plan into place.

The shed was filled with junk. Cobwebs covered old machinery that I suspected had once belonged to my grandfather, now that I knew this was his house. There was a tool bench along one wall, and old bikes and rusted old white appliances toward the back. The deepest shadows hid the details, and that’s where I headed, Fawn’s fingers clutched in mine, both of us silently ducking behind the piles of junk and praying we couldn’t be seen amongst the items left behind, and the rodents that most likely had made homes in them.

I really fucking hoped I was wrong about the rodents, but I mentally prepared myself for them just in case.

I wouldn’t give away our hiding spot just because I hated those little fuckers.

The door swung open a second later, crashing hard into the wall behind it, and I held my breath as light spilled in, along with my brother and Audrina Guerra.

Audrina shut the door behind them though, and the light disappeared once more. “Ooh, mood lighting. Romantic.”

Eddie let out a sharp laugh. “It’s a dirty old shed. Not very romantic at all, but at least every fucker out there isn’t all up in our business now and we can have this discussion in private.”

Fawn breathed near silently behind me, blocked by my body so she couldn’t see what was going on. But I watched every move Audrina made.

She trailed her fingers up my brother’s arm. “I don’t know. There’s something exciting about this, don’t you think? Tucked in here, away from everyone else. My husband nowhere to be found…” She leaned in so her tits pressed against his chest. “You could fuck me on the tool bench right now and he’d never know.”

Eddie sucked in a sharp breath and stared down at her.

It only took a second, and she was up in his arms. He gripped her ass roughly, crashing through the rakes and shovels and dodging lawn mowers and other machinery to get her up onto the bench Fawn and I had stood in front of just moments earlier.

Audrina wrapped her arms around Eddie’s neck, kissing him wildly, and Eddie returned the kiss with a groan of desperation.

He ripped down her top, and she gasped as her tits were exposed. He grabbed a greedy handful, his other hand yanking down the fly on his jeans.

Audrina wriggled until her skirt was up around her waist, and Eddie wasted no time, ripping her panties to one side and plunging into her.

“Oh!” she shouted, throwing her head back.

Eddie’s hips worked hard and fast, fucking her like it was a race, slamming himself inside her in quick pumps that I doubted were as pleasurable as Audrina made out.

But if she wasn’t enjoying it, she was a great actress. “Yes! Yes, that’s it, Daddy! Fill me up with your cum!”

I fought the urge to make a face and gag. If she’d said that to me, I wouldn’t have been able to keep a straight face.

But Eddie lapped it up. “You like that, you dirty slut? You like taking another man’s fat cock? You gonna tell your disrespectful husband that your pussy got all wet for me?”

“Yes!” she shouted again.

He yanked her down off the table and spun her around, bending her over it and slapping a hand against her bare ass. “You’re going to go home to Guerra and sit on his face, letting him taste my fucking cum dripping from your pussy?”

“Yes!”

“He can’t even knock you up. But you know I can, don’t you, you little bitch? That’s why you want Daddy’s fat cock, isn’t it?”

“Yes!”

Eddie was an idiot. Fucking Guerra’s wife was going to get him buried six feet under, and all because his pride was hurt Guerra hadn’t shown up tonight? He couldn’t even see she clearly had some other agenda and she was playing him just as much as he was playing her.

Eddie rutted into her a few more times, groaning, their skin slapping together one more time before he doubled over, leaning onto her heavily and coming deep inside her stretched-out pussy.

She clung to the tool bench, and one arm reached around to hold on to him, keeping him inside her.

He pulled out of her abruptly, and she turned around slowly, straightening her clothes back into place.

She smiled up at him, and he was all over her again in a second, kissing her neck, grinding his now limp dick against her.

She laughed, pushing him away. “So eager.”

“You’re fucking beautiful.”

She practically preened under his compliments. “Do you think so? He doesn’t seem to notice me anymore. I’m just his errand boy, running around making deals for him that he deems not worthy to make himself.”

I scrunched my eyes shut, knowing exactly how much those words would trigger my brother.

“Guerra is a fuckwit. Why are you even with him? If you’re the one doing all the deals, why do you even need him?”

She shrugged. “He’s the one with the money.”

Eddie cocked his head to one side. “We could kill him. Then all the money would be yours.”

Audrina paused. “You would do that?”

Eddie considered the idea. “For a fee. Fifty percent of everything left to you.”

Audrina paused, then laughed. “You’re crazy.”

But Eddie’s eyes had that dead expression in them. The one he got when he had his mind on the prize, and that prize suddenly looked like half of the Guerras’ fortune. “I’ll do it. You just say the word.”

She sucked in a breath.

And then nodded. “Do it. I hate that old cunt. I can already see him sniffing around other women. I refuse to be like his exes, out in the cold without a cent to their names.” She rubbed her completely flat belly. “The baby I’m going to have and I deserve more.”

Eddie’s grin turned wide. “I think we need a drink to celebrate our new partnership, don’t you?”

She grabbed his arm. “But listen, you can’t say anything out there. This is just between the two of us. They can’t know. Not yet, or someone will tip off my husband.”

He nodded and poked his head out the door. “Coast is clear. After you.”

She gave his crotch one last grope and giggled as she walked out on her high heels. “Such a gentleman, both with his dick in his pants and out of it.”

Eddie chased after her, the door shutting behind him.

The lock sliding into place.

Behind me, Fawn took a breath so deep it sounded like the first one she’d properly drawn in the past fifteen or so minutes Eddie and Audrina had been in here. She slumped back against the wall, and I wriggled around to join her, so we were sitting shoulder to shoulder.

“We’re locked in,” she said quietly.

I glanced at her. “I just had to watch my brother call himself Daddy in a sexual way.”

A small smile lifted the corner of her mouth. “You’re right. That was worse.”

I sniggered, trying to mentally erase the image from my brain. “You want Daddy’s fat cock,” I imitated, overexaggerating Eddie’s gruffness. “Come on, sugar tits. Daddy’s gonna fill you with white Christmas like Santa Claus.”

Fawn burst into laughter, and she clapped a hand over her mouth, but it did nothing to hide the amusement in her eyes. She laughed so hard they watered, catching the light from outside with a glint that was super pretty.

Her laughter did things to my insides I couldn’t explain. But I wanted more of it all. That feeling. That sound. I wasn’t a funny guy, but I suddenly wanted to be. For her.

I peeled her fingers away from her mouth and replaced them with my lips. Kissing her softly, loving every second because I could feel her smile.

“You really just ruined Santa for me,” she whispered.

My lips barely left hers. “Sorry about that.”

“Eh. Halloween can be my new favorite holiday.” She kissed me back, her fingers finding my shirt and twisting in it to pull me closer. “How are we going to get out of here?”

I glanced around. “You’re small enough to get out of one of the windows.”

“They both face the party though. Someone will notice. Eddie can’t know we heard whatever that was with Audrina Guerra.” Her expression sobered.

I had no idea if all of that talk had been for real, or if Eddie was just running his mouth to get his dick wet. The thing was, he was capable of both, and I didn’t know Audrina from a bar of soap. I doubted most women would plot to kill their husbands and take over their fortunes, but then most women didn’t run in this world.

Eddie hadn’t even blinked at the suggestion.

That was the core difference between him and me.

I didn’t want to think about knowing he planned to kill a man in cold blood. My moral compass would demand I do something to stop it. But my moral compass needed to get over itself, because we had bigger problems right now than my brother’s business dealings.

“So no jumping out the window right now,” I agreed, kneeling up to peep out of the dirt-smeared glass, then ducking back down because there were indeed a crowd of guys not too far away.

“These parties go all night,” Fawn said quietly. “We could be here for hours.”

“Let’s hope Eddie is so preoccupied with Audrina that he doesn’t come looking for us then.”

She chewed her bottom lip, giving away how worried she was. So I pulled her onto my lap, wrapping my arms around her from behind.

She rested her head back on my shoulder and drew in a slow, deep breath. “We fix the wagon tomorrow. I’ll crush the tablets up for Eddie’s evening drink, and we hope like hell they knock him out. Then we leave.”

“It might be better if we waited until the next day—”

She shook her head hard. “It has to be tomorrow. He’ll be distracted by whatever the hell is going on between him and Audrina. It’ll be the best time.” She swallowed hard. “And it’ll be our last chance before I lose my nerve. I’m not brave, Zane.”

That was the biggest lie. Her still living and breathing was the bravest thing she could have done. No weak person would try to run from a man who would surely kill them if he caught them. This wasn’t a normal situation, and anyone who said they weren’t scared, if it had been them in her shoes, was lying.

She was the most courageous woman I knew. And the most beautiful.

I twisted her face and kissed her mouth again.

She was the one who deepened it. She licked her tongue against the seam of my mouth, and I opened for her like she was the password. I touched my tongue to hers, both of us exploring each other with slow, sensual kisses that spun my head and made me forget where I was, and the danger we were in.

She kissed me back with the same fervor. Like she wanted to drown in my kisses, sink beneath the surface and get lost in them so everything that had to happen tomorrow didn’t come too soon.

My dick got hard beneath her, reacting to the sensual glide of her tongue and the delicious weight of her on my lap.

She noticed and ground down against me, rocking her hips until the friction was maddening. I speared my fingers into her hair, holding the back of her head and flexing my fingers slowly, raking my nails gently along her scalp.

She moaned a little, her eyes closed.

I found the zipper on the back of the old, shapeless dress and pulled it down, letting the thick shoulder straps fall away and the material settle around her middle.

She wasn’t wearing a bra. She didn’t really need to, her tits were small, not even a handful, but they were perfect. I cupped them both from behind, swiping my thumbs over her nipples until she stopped shooting worried glances at the windows and just let herself feel.

Her nipples beaded beneath my touch; perfect twin peaks so desperate to be touched. I squeezed one, rolling it between my thumb and forefinger, while I slid my other hand down, over the bunched-up material of her dress, to her thigh.

Instantly, like she’d been waiting for it, she spread her legs.

I wasted no time moving aside her panties. She was already wet from grinding on me, and her pussy swallowed two of my fingers easily.

She gasped, rocking against me, moving so the heel of my hand connected with her clit each time my fingers pressed into her body.

“That feels so good,” she murmured in the darkness.

I swapped hands, withdrawing two wet fingers from her pussy and bringing them up to her nipple, using her lubrication to play with her.

She moaned softly but grabbed my other hand, guiding it back between her legs, letting me know exactly what she wanted.

If it was possible to get harder, I did. I loved her taking control. Loved she felt safe enough with me to demand what she wanted, when with Eddie she was meek and timid.

Her pussy gaped for me, pulsing just a little, a pending orgasm clearly on the horizon. I wanted to send her over it, then start again. And again. Until I’d given her orgasms all night and the party was over.

I wanted to keep going until all she could think about was me, and not the danger we were in, or what we needed to do tomorrow.

“Zane,” she whispered.

My name on her lips was everything. I wanted to hear her scream it. I wanted every person out there, especially my brother, to hear her shout it when I made her come.

But all we had were whispers.

And it suddenly dawned on me that once I got her out, once I got her back to her family and her friends, there wouldn’t be any more of this. She clung to me now, riding my fingers, letting me take her closer and closer to the orgasm her body so desperately needed after years and years of neglect.

But this is where we would end. She wouldn’t want me around once we were out of here.

I’d just be a reminder of a time in her life that was better forgotten.

The thought left me cold.

She came around my fingers with a muffled gasp, twisting her head so her lips connected with mine again.

“I want you,” I whispered.

I knew in my heart I meant for always, but she turned so she was facing me and quickly undid my fly, drawing down my pants just enough to free my cock.

I was thick and hard for her, straining toward her entrance like she was home and I just needed to get inside.

She pulled her panties to the side again and sank down onto my cock.

The warm heat of her almost sent me into oblivion. I fought the urge to shout her name and instead gripped her hips, guiding her up and down my shaft, thrusting into her from beneath because I was a greedy bastard who couldn’t get enough of her.

I put a hand to her back, guiding her sweet tits to my face, and licking her nipples, tasting her arousal on them from earlier when I’d used it as lubricant.

She was so sweet. I tried committing the taste of her to my memory so I could relive it, but all too soon, I’d licked away every last trace from her skin. “Stand up.”

She glanced at the window again.

I shook my head. “We’re in the shadows. No one will see, but I need to taste your pussy, Fawn. I need it.”

She let out a whimper of need, despite the fact she’d just had an orgasm. She got to her feet, leaning on the wall for support.

I checked she was deep in the shadows, but that was all I could do before fitting my head between her thighs and licking her from clit to opening.

She reached down, palm to the back of my head, her weight resting on her other hand.

My dick mourned the loss of her warmth but remained hard, just from the taste of her on my tongue. She was sin and sugar and sweetness all wrapped into one, and I fucked her with my tongue, spearing it into her pussy, lapping up every drop of her juices.

I wrapped my hand around my cock, stroking it, needing the friction. I used my free hand to grip her leg, holding her in place and opening her up so I could eat every inch of her.

“I need to come again,” she moaned.

She was so close. I could feel it in the shake of her legs and the pulse from deep inside her body.

“Back on my cock, baby,” I murmured, nipping gently at her inner thigh. “Need you to come on my dick. Want to come inside you when you do.”

“Yes,” she rasped out in a voice so sexy I knew I’d hear it every night in my dreams for the rest of my life.

I pumped my cock again as she got back onto her knees and straddled me. I lined myself up with her entrance, teasing her clit just a little with my tip, before sliding back through her arousal, so she could sink down.

We both groaned in unison. Two more pumps into her body, and I’d reached the limit of what I could take. It was a fucking miracle I’d lasted this long, when just a single glance or whispered word from this woman, at any time, any place, had me hard and ready to come.

I buried my face in her neck when I came, the sounds of her moans filling the shed and my ears. The music outside would surely cover her noises, but even if it didn’t, I was powerless to try to keep her quiet. She needed the release, and I needed to hear it.

Her pussy clenched around my cock, spasming with her orgasm. It was so good it verged on painful, especially if I let myself think that this could be the last time.

When we got out, and her new life could begin, away from Eddie and all of this mess, she wouldn’t want the reminder of what we’d done in stolen moments, two people connecting because it was the only light in the darkness.

But for me it would always be more.

It would be memories of me loving her, even while knowing she could never love me back.

Her movements slowed, the orgasm subsiding, and we clutched each other close, breathing slowly, my cock warm inside her but neither of us moving.

Just enjoying the feel. Needing each other close.

We stayed like that until I got hard again, the two of us slowly rocking our hips until we were fucking; our bodies perfectly fit together like this was exactly where we were supposed to be.

I lost count of how many times we did that, in that dark, dirty shed. But the setting didn’t matter. Just that we needed each other.

At some point I drifted off to sleep, sticky and hot with sweat and cum, only to wake in the very early hours of the morning, the sun peeping over the horizon outside the grimy shed windows.

Fawn was curled up against me, wearing my shirt that I could barely remember shedding, or her putting on. My heart stopped, just taking in her small frame swamped by my clothes.

If things had been different, if I’d been the brother who’d met her first, this could have been our lives. The two of us making love all night then waking up to her body wrapped around mine, her scent on my clothes and my skin and her name tattooed across my goddamn fucking heart.

But that wasn’t the hand we’d been dealt.

“Fawn.” I nudged her gently, waiting until she was awake and supporting her weight before stretching to ease the crick in my neck. I rose onto my feet, just enough to peep out the window. “There’s no one out there.”

She nodded sleepily, then blinked, noticing the rising sun. “Shit! Eddie is going to have noticed we’re missing by now!”

She scrambled to her feet, ripping off my shirt, and threw it at me. She found her dress on the floor and yanked it on, struggling to reach around and zip it up.

I put my hands over hers and took over, relishing one last touch of her skin before I yanked open the window for her.

She wasn’t a short woman, but she wasn’t tall enough to get out of the window without my help. I put my hands around her waist to boost her up, and then she was through the gap and dropping down on the other side.

She glanced around nervously, like at any minute Eddie and his crew might shine a spotlight on her and shout, “Caught you!”

But nothing of the sort happened, and Fawn jogged around to the door to unlatch the lock so I could get out too.

The only signs left of the party were the empty bottles and cans strewn about the lawn, a table full of platters that now held little more than crumbs, and a few knocked-over chairs.

There were no people around, and I realized we’d made a vital mistake in falling asleep. We should have gotten out of there as soon as the crowd had drifted away. Now we needed a cover story Eddie wouldn’t immediately see through.

“When he asks, we’ll tell him we’ve been outside cleaning up the mess.”

Fawn glanced at me doubtfully, and then at the mess strewn about the yard. “We’re pretty shitty cleaners if that’s our story.”

“We’ll just have to hope he’s inside somewhere, in too much pain or too hungover to bother to get up and look for himself until we do have a chance to get out here and clean it.”

She nodded. “If he’s awake, I’ll distract him—”

A low, grumbling came from my chest. It took even me by surprise, but the thought of her getting down on her knees for him again had a physical effect on me I couldn’t contain. “Not distracting him with…”

She shook her head, squeezing my hand gently. “Not like that.” Then she added sadly, “If I can help it.”

I closed my eyes tight, praying I never had to watch my brother lay another finger on her after this day. I didn’t think I could bear it.

“It’s just one more day,” Fawn whispered at the back door. “One more day, and then we’ll be out. Together.”

I nodded at her words, even though I knew they couldn’t be true. I would get her out. Without relying on the cops or anyone else. Or I would die trying.

But we wouldn’t be together. At the end of this, she would be welcomed back into her family who could love her and protect her and nurse her back to health.

And I would make sure I was very far away, so she didn’t have to relive the nightmare every time she looked at my face.

It was the least I could do for her. I loved her enough to walk away so she could be happy.

My heart felt like it was going to shatter into a million pieces, both from adrenaline and from knowing the inevitable was coming, but I opened the back door.

We crept in, our footsteps light, both of us avoiding the creaking floorboard in the kitchen.

The house was quiet, and a little relief settle over me. I could see it in Fawn’s posture as well. She peeked around the corner into the living room where Eddie’s favorite recliner was, then glanced back at me, and shook her head.

He wasn’t there.

I pointed up the stairs toward her bedroom.

She nodded. “I’m just going to check on Otis and your mom and then I’ll meet you outside.”

“I’ll come with you.”

We both quietly walked up the stairs.

On the upstairs landing, I moved for Otis’s closed bedroom door, but Fawn paused, grabbing my arm.

I glanced back at her.

She pointed to her room. The bed was empty.

A quick glance at the bathroom told me there was nobody in there either. My bedroom was just as empty, the bed still neatly made from yesterday.

“Oh God. Where is he?” Fawn lunged for her son’s bedroom door. She fell onto the handle, her weight pushing it open easily.

My heart sank. Mom and Otis had barricaded that entryway last night, but now the door moved too freely.

Someone had been in here.

Fawn and I both rushed into the room, Fawn’s gasp of shock spearing through my soul first.

My mother’s dead eyes a close second.

She stared unseeingly at the ceiling, her fingernails ripped and bloodied.

“Noooo.” Fawn dropped to her knees over the body and shaking her shoulders. “Margaret! No!”

But there was no life in my mother to bring back.

She was gone.

And so was Otis.

Fawn seemed to realize the same thing in the same moment. “Otis?” She lurched to her feet; yanking open the closet door. “Otis!”

I did the same, frantically checking under the bed, in the bathtub, in closets and chests of drawers. Anywhere a small boy could hide.

Nothing.

I caught up with Fawn on the bottom floor, catching her as she ran wildly, fear turning her dark eyes huge.

“Anything?” I asked her.

She shook her head frantically. “He’s not here, Zane! He’s not here!”

I couldn’t breathe through the ache in my chest. It wrapped around me like two thick bands I couldn’t shake. “No. He’s here. He’s got to be here somewhere. Otis! It’s safe. You can come out!”

A slip of paper on Eddie’s recliner caught my eye, out of place because of its white color against the dark brown of the fabric.

I recognized my brother’s handwriting before I even picked the paper up.

I tried to make us a family. But I have a traitor for a brother and a slut for a wife. I told you I didn’t do second chances. You should have listened.

The paper crumpled in my fingers. “Fawn.”

My voice was barely above a croak.

She came running, snatching the paper from my fingers, her own trembling as she read my brother’s message.

“He was never going to kill us,” I muttered.

She shook her head. “No. He’s not that kind. He just killed the person you loved.”

I swallowed hard, the situation settling into full, horrifying color. “And took yours.”