Page 26 of Die for You

Regardless, I won’t give up on him. My baby brother is inside there somewhere, and I will find him. For now, we have to reconnect and build trust.

I park the car close to the docks and kill the engine, but I don’t get out. I scope out my surroundings, looking for anything out of place.

The warehouses seem eerily quiet. Most are likely a ruse, just like Aldo’s store. Because who would suspect a shop selling crystals and fucking lavender incense would be anything but a haven for people who dance around a bonfire during a full moon while charging their crystals and manifesting world peace?

It’s actually genius on Aldo’s behalf.

Thanks to Gianna, this is another thing I must take care of before I leave for Italy.

Peering over at Lewis, I realize I just found his first job. “What do you know about crystals?”

I hate that it appears he’s in a constant, disjointed state. It’s like I need to repeat myself after everything I say because he wasn’t listening the first time I said it.

He slowly turns his cheek to look at me.

It still pains me to see him so gaunt and so…ghostlike. It’s like this person wears my brother’s face, but he’s nothing but a stranger.

“Meth?” he asks.

I clench the steering wheel, refraining from acting on instinct to reach out and slap him. “That shit is your past, all right? Leave your habits there. This is your life now, away from that.”

Lewis shrugs, such a noncommittal gesture. “You haven’t changed.”

“What the fuck does that mean?”

“Thinking you can control everyone around you.”

“Excuse me? If only you knew the shit I’ve been through to find you!”

“I was fine where I was!” he yells, unsnapping his seat belt and getting into my personal space.

I don’t waver because this is good. His passion shows that he isn’t completely lost to me.

“Fine? You call turning tricks for gear fine? Because me, I call that pretty fucked up!”

“I never asked you to come find me.”

“You ungrateful brat,” I spit, our faces inches apart. “You want to go back out there, then? You want to be a slave to some vile predator who would sell you for five bucks? Is that what you want? You want to be an addict to the junk you inject into your veins? Is that it?”

Lewis’s eyes fill with tears, but fuck him. This is the real world, and it’s time he stop being a little pussy and remember who the fuck he is.

“Because I’m giving you one chance and one chance only. If you don’t want to be here, then leave. I won’t stop you. But there are no second chances—so choose wisely because I swear to God, blood or not, I will fucking kill you myself if you betray me.”

I press the button to unlock the car doors.

Lewis mulls over what I just said, and once he realizes this is no joke, he backs down.

I wait for him to jump out of the car, fleeing into the night.

But he doesn’t.

“Good. Now, let’s get to work.”

We get out of the car and keep to the shadows as we walk toward the docks. The sky is pitch black. It seems even the moon has gone into hiding, not wishing to witness what’s about to transpire. I know Gianna is here.

I can feel it.

But like the coward that she is, she’ll wait and hope that I destroy myself, saving her the trouble.