Page 45

“And you’re just telling us about this now?!” Tommy’s roar makes me jump.

After my run in with Eddie and Damien, I shut down. I didn’t tell anyone what had happened. Damien’s death wasn’t on the news and no one in town seemed to even notice he was gone. Eddie became a ghost after that night, and I convinced myself that if I didn’t say anything then he would remain that way.

But the guilt and fear have been eating at me every day for the last six months. I’m a coward and a terrible person for staying silent for so long.

Damien deserves more than what I gave him. He saved my fucking life that night. He deserves to be remembered as more than a smalltown drug dealer.

“I was scared!” I scream. “I didn’t know what to do!”

“You should have come to us!” Colson retorts, jabbing his thumb into his chest. “We are family, Sarah. We are supposed to protect each other.”

Shame rises in my chest.

“Where is this guy now?” Ronny asks.

I shrug. “I have no idea.”

Xander has been quiet throughout our entire exchange. He sat as still as stone when I shared my involvement with Damien and the drugs, and how Eddie tried to take me the night I came home looking raggedy and bruised. I can feel the anger oozing out of him. I don’t miss the tension in his shoulders and the way his fists have stayed clenched.

“You should have told us,” He mutters and the room falls silent.

He pushes off the wall he’s been leaning on and walks toward me, where I’m sitting on the couch. “Do you even realize how many times you could have died?” He lowers himself to a crouch in front of me. The worry and anger in his eyes serve as another punch in the gut at how I’ve hurt them.

“We need to find this cocksucker before he decides to show up again,” Colson growls. Tommy and Ronny nod, agreeing with him.

Xander’s head snaps in his direction and he levels him with a glare. “We don’t need to do anything. The three of you will be keeping an eye on Sarah while I go see what I can find out.”

Chaos ensues as my brothers shout and curse at each other. They fight about who is going to stay with me and who is going to search for Eddie.

“STOP!” I shriek when it all becomes too much. “Eddie has been gone for months. Don’t you think if he wanted to come back, he would have?

The four of them look at me like I’m either crazy or stupid.

“This is a piece of shit who tried multiple times to kidnap you, Sarah. Are you really that dense?”

I growl at Colson’s insult. “No, fuckface. I’m just saying he killed Damien and then disappeared. I doubt he’d show up again if he thinks there might be a chance he’ll get arrested for it.”

“Sarah, this guy is involved in drugs,” Tommy deadpans. “And the way he tried to take you and didn’t hesitate to kill Damien; tells me it’s not his first time doing something like that.”

A chill travels down my spine and I shudder.

“We’ll figure it out. Until then, we need to find a way to let Damien’s family know he’s not going to be coming back.”

My heart plummets to the floor. I hadn’t even thought about what his family is going through. I’m not sure how close they are, but there is no way they wouldn’t notice their son not coming home for months. Right?

Wrong.

Damien’s family members are complete dogshit people. They clearly don’t care that he hasn’t been around. My siblings and I showed up at their home, which is in the next town over. When I delivered the news of Damien’s death, they didn’t even ask what had happened.

His dad had the audacity to ask if we paid to get him buried because they weren’t going to.

My heart hurts for Damien.

It’s no wonder he went down the path he did. With a family like this, I probably would have too, just to get away from them.

I’m not na?ve enough to think everyone who grows up in a shitty household ends up on the wrong side of the law. But I know it does happen more often than it should.

I’m fuming by the lack of human decency these people have toward their son. Sure, my relationship – if you’d call it that – with Damien was not the greatest but, seriously?

To have empathy or even a small amount of emotion toward never seeing a member of your family should not be difficult.

Maybe looking for Eddie would be a good idea. Not for me, but for Damien. If we find Eddie, then we can find a way to get him arrested and charged with murder. This way, Damien gets justice, and I don’t have to worry about looking over my shoulder for the rest of my life.

“You know what?” I cut off Damien’s mom, who is complaining about the mess they’ll have to clean up when they get rid of the things in his room. “Damien might have been involved in some shady shit, but he deserves to have a family to mourn him.”

I stand from the stained couch and stomp toward the front door.

“You’re all pieces of shit and I hope you have the life you deserve.”

The house shakes when I slam the door behind me.

* * *

I’m making my way down to the kitchen when I hear them.

“I heard from Callie at the Sherriff’s Office that there have been some questionable things happening in Henderson Valley.”

I strain to listen to the conversation between Tommy and Xander. Being who they are, my brothers have been checking each and every lead while searching for Eddie. So far, all have been dead ends.

“What do you mean by questionable?” Xander asks.

I hear the creak of the wooden chair, signaling one of them shifting closer. They voices are hushed but I can just make out the end of Tommy’s sentence.

“… and I’ll bet that’s where the fucker has been.”

“We’ll check it out this weekend.”

I think the fuck not.

I storm down the rest of the stairs and enter the kitchen.

They barely spare me a second glance before rising to their feet and telling me goodnight.

“You’re not going,” I bark.

“Told you she was listening,” Tommy huffs.

Xander side-eyes him. “She’s always listening.”

“She is standing right here. You are not going to look for him.”

“Yes, the fuck we are. We can’t risk that fucker coming back and taking another shot at kidnapping you.” Tommy throws out his arms.

I take a step closer, jabbing my finger in his chest. “You.” Jab. “Are.” Jab. “Not. Going.” I shove him back. “Just stop. I told you guys about what happened so we can tell Damien’s family.”

They both grimace, remembering the way I lost my shit when we got home after seeing them.

“Just let it go. Eddie isn’t going to come around,” I plead.

The look they share is gone before I get a chance to identify it. But they nod and agree to stop looking for him.

I bore my eyes into theirs. “I mean it.”

“We’ll stop looking for him,” Xander says.

They each plant a kiss to the top of my head before going to bed.

* * *

“You promised you wouldn’t go!”

“No, we promised we wouldn’t go look for him,” Tommy retorts.

“You did!” I scream.

“Can’t look for someone who wasn’t even there.”

I give Xander a bored expression. “That literally makes no fucking sense. You guys said you’d leave it alone and you lied.”

Tommy pulls me into a hug. “Relax. The house was basically empty and abandoned. Nothing but some boxes stacked in the garage.”

“How do you even know that’s where he was staying?” I ask.

“Callie’s boyfriend is a deputy in Henderson Valley, and he told us there was a group of people with gang affiliations squatting there.” Xander shrugs a shoulder. “We figured it was him because of the drug dealing.”

“So, we left a message for him. You know, in case Callie’s boyfriend is right, and Eddie is actually staying there.”

I scramble out of Tommy’s arms. “What did you do?”