Page 5

5

ZANE

F awn walked away into the house, her little son following her quickly. She let him take a bag to help her, and I pressed my lips together, watching them.

When they disappeared inside, I turned on my brother. “She was dead. I saw her with my own eyes.”

He raised an eyebrow. “So now you’re accusing me of what? Raising corpses?”

I couldn’t breathe. “Her entire family thinks she died at the bottom of that staircase, Eddie! They held a fucking memorial for her!”

He laughed, the sound deep and rich, but I didn’t miss the arrogance in it. “I wonder why?” He clapped his hands together. “Oh, that’s right! Because you sent them a video that made it look like she was!” He side-eyed me. “How will Ophelia and Vincent Hanover feel if they know you lied to them about something so important?”

“I didn’t lie,” I hissed, trying to keep from yelling because I didn’t want Otis to hear. “You wanted me to think it!”

He slung his arm around my shoulder, using me as a crutch for his injured leg. “Settle down, Zaney boy. I didn’t deliberately do anything. I fucking thought she was dead too. But she’s made from tough stuff, that one. The fact she survived only made me love her more.”

I shrugged off my brother’s embrace. “And what? She just started loving you back? Is that what you’re trying to tell me?”

His eyes narrowed. “Because that’s so hard to believe? That a woman as beautiful as her would want me when nobody else fucking did?”

And there it was. The abandoned child inside the forty-year-old man.

I had no sympathy for him. Our father had left me too. It didn’t mean I went around hurting people the way my brother did.

“You don’t seriously think that woman loves you? After everything you’ve done to her?”

Eddie glared at me. “You’re all grown-up, Zane, but still know nothing about the real world, do you? Have you even fucking had a girlfriend?”

I said nothing. Because he was right. I hadn’t. When would I have had time for a relationship? In between work and being our mother’s caregiver, all while looking over my shoulder every five minutes for the brother I’d prayed every day was dead, even though I just knew that would be all too easy and life was never that fucking kind?

Eddie shook his head. “Don’t worry. We’ll get you a nice bitch to bounce on your virgin cock while you’re here.”

I didn’t bother telling him I wasn’t a virgin. That I’d scratched that itch with random hookups in my truck, fast, quick, and dirty. Women whose names I didn’t remember and faces I hadn’t truly seen, all because there was only one woman I’d ever wanted in my arms.

And she’d just looked at me like I was the scum on the sole of her shoe.

I sure as hell wasn’t going to hang around watching her play happy family with my psychotic brother. I’d already done that for years, back when they’d first been together. “I’ve done what you wanted. I drove you home. You’re here with your family to take care of you. Clearly, your symbiotic relationship works for the two of you, so whatever. I’m leaving.”

I moved to the driver’s side of the truck, but Eddie’s hand grabbed me like a snake striking its prey.

“You’ll stay for lunch. My woman isn’t in there slaving away to make you a meal, only to have you turn around and walk out before she even gets it to the table.”

I opened my mouth to protest again.

Eddie stretched nonchalantly.

But the move was as calculated as they came, perfectly designed to show off the gun shoved in the waistband of his sweatpants.

I was sure he hadn’t had that when I’d picked him up from the hospital. He must have grabbed it when he’d gone inside to get Fawn.

When I took too long to answer, he spelled it out in words. “Do I need to remind you about who’s babysitting Mommy right now? The quicker you come inside and have a meal and a chat, the quicker you can leave.”

I ground my molars, knowing there was nothing to do but agree. If I didn’t, I’d either be marched inside with a gun pointed at my kidneys, or worse, Eddie’s guys would do something to hurt Mom.

I strode toward the house without another word, leaving my brother to limp after me. Asshole. I hoped that fucking gunshot wound hurt.

The inside of Eddie’s house was spotlessly clean, but the furniture was old and mismatched. Like most of it had been picked up at garage sales or charity stores. The front door opened into a small living room on the right, an even tinier dining room on the left that housed a four-person table and chairs. A cheap plastic vase sat in the middle, but there were no flowers.

It was oddly sterile. As was the whole house. Like it was a display home, rather than one a family lived in.

I couldn’t put my finger on why. But it was a similar feeling to the one I had in my own home.

Like little happiness had been shared between these walls and the vibe in the air knew it.

Like once Eddie’s evil had touched you, it was impossible to get rid of.

I followed the sounds of clinking pots and rustling shopping bags along a short hall and to the right I found the kitchen, Fawn moving around it briskly, a couple of steaks sizzling on a hot pan. She twisted a pepper grinder over the top of the meat, seasoning it with her bottom teeth pressed into her lip.

Otis sat at the table, devouring a sandwich that was as big as his head.

Fawn stiffened as I walked past her but said nothing, only twisted the grinder harder.

I washed my hands in the sink, noticing an abandoned carrot on a chopping board. On instinct, I picked up where she’d left off, sliding the peeler along the outer layer to remove it.

Fawn knocked it from my fingers.

I blinked at her in surprise.

“Go on out with your brother. You don’t need to be in here.” Her tone was crisp. Cold.

Nothing like the smiling, friendly woman she’d once been.

“I don’t mind.” I reached for the peeler again.

She picked it up before I could get my fingers to it. “I don’t need your help, Zane.” She paused, not looking up at me. “Not in the kitchen.”

“I wasn’t trying to imply you couldn’t do it yourself,” I said quietly.

She yanked the dull blade down the carrot with sharp, jerky movements. “Like I said, I don’t need you in here. Go on out with Eddie. I’ll bring your steaks in a minute.”

I picked up a cucumber and sliced it instead.

Fawn dropped the peeler and stared up at me, her dark eyes huge. “Why are you doing this?”

“Helping you? Because it’s polite.”

She shook her head, a nervous glance at the kitchen door, or perhaps more accurately, the living room beyond it. Eddie hadn’t come back inside yet, but he wasn’t far away, his overbearing voice filtering through from outside as he talked on the phone with someone.

“Please, just go on back to your brother. If you really want to help, just—”

The front screen door slammed, and Eddie bellowed through the house. “Zane! Where the fuck are you?”

Otis picked up his sandwich and took off in the opposite direction, disappearing into the backyard.

Fawn pressed her lips together and picked up a salad bowl.

But this time, there was a shake in her fingers.

A squeak of couch springs came from the living room, accompanied by a long, pained groan from Eddie. “Zane!”

Fawn implored me with huge eyes, panic behind them. She reached around me and pulled open the refrigerator. She took two cans of cold beer, ones that had obviously been in there a lot longer than the cans I’d picked up for Eddie in town after we’d left the hospital. She shoved them into my hands and nudged me toward the door. “Go on!”

Her demand was a whispered shout.

But I couldn’t make my feet move. “Are you okay?”

She turned away and hustled back to the chopping board. “Of course I am.”

Without thinking, I set the beer down and grabbed her arm, forcing her to face me.

She gasped at the touch. Probably because my fingers were cold from the beer.

But the one I stifled was because touching her had always felt like electricity shooting up from my fingertips.

And apparently five years had done nothing to change that fact.

For a second, she was that girl again. The one who’d smiled and laughed and made me feel like a million dollars every time she’d spared a glance for her boyfriend’s younger brother.

I stared at her. “Tell me you’re truly happy here.”

The brightness in her eyes instantly dimmed into something more volatile. Something angry. Something hurt. She yanked her arm out of my grasp. “Just go, Zane. Your brother wants you.”

But I wouldn’t be swayed. I couldn’t help myself. I took a step closer, always wanting to be closer to her back then, and apparently nothing had changed. I hadn’t even meant to. She was smaller than I remembered. Or maybe it was just that I was bigger. But I crowded her against the corner of the counter, forcing her to look up at me. “Not until you answer the question.”

Her bottom lip trembled. Then parted, like she was going to say something.

“Zane!” Eddie bellowed from the front room.

Fawn flinched ever so slightly before she straightened her spine and glared at me with defiance. “Go, Zane. You’re being summoned, and we all know you do exactly what your brother tells you. Like a good little boy. So just go. I don’t want or need you in my kitchen.”

She ducked beneath my arm and went back to the frying pan, angrily jabbing the two steaks and turning her back on me.

I went because her words hit home. I’d always been Eddie’s puppet. That hadn’t changed. He was still the one pulling all the strings.

In the living room, I passed my brother a beer wordlessly.

He cracked the top and motioned for me to sit on the recliner across from him. I did, setting the beer down on the scratched coffee table in between.

Eddie eyed me. “You gonna drink that?”

I shook my head. “No.”

“Drink it.”

I eyed him. “I said no.”

Eddie sat back with a grin. “You grew yourself a tiny backbone, huh? That’s good. You’ll need it if you’re going to control my guys.”

“Also told you I’m not doing that.”

“And yet you’re here.”

He was right. But I’d only come to check on Fawn. And she’d made it more than clear she didn’t want me here any more than I wanted to be here, so what the hell was I hanging around for? “Then I’ll leave.”

I waited for the threats. For the demands I do as he said.

Eddie shrugged. “Go on then.”

It was the last thing I expected him to say, but I wasn’t going to argue either. I pushed to my feet and strode to the door, catching Fawn’s eye as she emerged from the kitchen with two plates of food.

“You’re leaving?” she asked.

I gave a curt nod, ignoring the watering of my mouth. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d eaten.

She didn’t say anything else, and neither did I.

I opened the front door and stepped through onto the creaky wooden porch steps.

And froze.

Eddie erupted into laughter behind me. “Maybe you’re not going anywhere after all, huh, Zaney boy?”

All four tires on my truck were flat, gaping holes slashed in each one.

I spun on my heel and glared at my brother. “Are you for fucking real?” I should have known he was up to something when he’d taken too long to come in. Should have known that even with a limp, it didn’t take that long to walk from where I’d parked the truck to the house.

But I’d been too distracted by Fawn.

Eddie pointed at the table. “Sit down and eat the lunch Fawn so graciously made for you, Zane.”

There was nothing else for me to do. Eddie’s house was in the middle of fucking nowhere. Without a vehicle, I wasn’t leaving. And I somehow doubted he was going to loan me his.

Fawn held a plate of food out to me, a tiny flicker of pity in her eyes, before it hardened again.

I took the food and ate it silently, not listening while Eddie explained his plans for my takeover of his crew.

All I could think about was how I was just as trapped as Fawn was.

And how just maybe, it was exactly what I deserved.