Page 111 of Distress Signal

“Tell me where you are.”

“Not until you agree.”

Reagan let out a harsh laugh. “That will never happen.”

“Then we’ll have to do this the hard way.”

My hand whipped out, taking the phone from Reagan before she could protest.

“Listen here, fucker. Do you know who I am?”

“Finn Lawless,” the mechanical voice spat. “The bastard my girl is shacking up with.”

“She’s not your girl. She. Is.Mine. And since you know who I am, you can trust me when I tell you this: when I find out whoyouare, the things I will do to you for causing Reagan this pain and stress will make the interrogation techniques I used as a Ranger look like child’s play. Do you understand me?”

The laughter that followed my statement was nothing short of menacing, sending cold tendrils of fear down my spine.

There was no warmth to it. I could describe it as nothing but pure evil.

“Happy hunting.”

Then the line went dead.

Rage overtook me as I whipped the phone across the room, where it slammed into the wall, leaving a dent in the drywall, before falling to the floor.

Too late, I realized it was Reagan’s.

“Fuck,” I breathed, my chest heaving from exertion like I’d run a marathon and not had a simple phone conversation with, arguably, a crazed psychopath. “I’m sorry.”

Reagan rose and shuffled to the phone, picking it up and inspecting it for damage.

“It’s okay,” she murmured when she returned to the bed. “No harm done.”

I huffed out a laugh and gestured at my ruined wall. “Alotof harm was done.”

Reagan flopped backward, turning on her side and curling into a ball. Her eyes focused on some middle distance, here with me physically but not mentally.

“I fucking hate this, Finn. I want Lainey home. And I want to feel safe.”

“Do you…not feel safe with me?”

She shook her head. “No, that’s not what I mean. There’s this invisible threat toallof us. And Lainey has to deal with this fuckerevery day. Who knows what he’s doing to her.”

Tears sprang forth from her eyes immediately, like a faucet turned on full blast. The flood gates had opened, sobs racking her body hard enough that the entire bed shook with the force of them. I curled myself around her, shielding her, holding her together while she fell apart.

I could not imagine her pain. Could not comprehend what it would be like to have my twin missing, like half of my being had been ripped away.

I wished there was something I could do to carry this burden for her. I didn’t like feeling useless, hated that the best I could offer was giving her a soft place to land when she needed to break.

When she at last quieted, I brushed her hair out of her eyes and pressed a kiss to her forehead.

She smiled, grateful but also a touch rueful. “I’m sorry.”

“Neverapologize for your feelings, belle. I want you to always be honest with me, and that includes not hiding your emotions. Big, small, happy, sad. Everything in between. I want them all.”

“Greedy.”

“Care about you,” I retorted.