Page 33 of Faded Gray Lines

I was about to give up my search when something dark caught my eye under the toaster.

“Brody, have you considered the fact that Leighton just shot him?”

“My sister is the victim here,” he insisted. “You don’t know her like I do.”

Oh, that’s where you’re wrong. I know her better than you do.

I shook my head. “If you say so.” Pulling the small, round device from underneath the toaster, I dropped it into my pocket just as Brody stormed into the kitchen.

“Look, just focus all your energy on the burner phone and stop wasting it suspecting Leighton. If you’d get to know her, you’d realize how innocent she is in all this.” Stalking itno the kitchen, he grabbed his jacket from the back of the chair and held up his phone. “I’ve got to go to the warehouse downtown. A shipment arrived in Corpus Christi, and it’s fucked up. I’ll be back later.”

“I’ll go with you.”

“No,” he said, dropping his phone into his jacket. “Leighton should be home any minute, and I don’t like the idea of her being here alone.”

“You want me to babysit your sister?” I tried to keep my face impassive, but I wasn’t sure I succeeded. “I’m not sure I like how things turned out for the last guy you tapped for that job.”

Brody stopped at the door and smirked. “Yeah, he’s dead, so I’d keep my hands to myself if I were you.”

I said nothing because I knew I couldn’t keep that promise, and he took my silence as compliance. I thought Brody was smarter than that.

After watching his car leave, I inspected his apartment, but I couldn’t find any other devices. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind who planted the bug, and not just because she was the only one with access to the place. Anyone with an ounce of experience would never have been stupid enough to bug a fucking toaster.

I was restless. As minutes ticked off the clock, I paced by the window. What the hell was keeping her? Dark thoughts loomed in the most jaded parts of my brain. The parts that had seen and participated in the torture of witnesses who thought they could escape our reach. The more I thought, the tighter my chest became. Frustrated, I stopped mid-pace and ran my hands through my hair, tugging on the strands as if to force some sense back into my head.

She’s a job. She’s nothing but a job.

Just as I reached for my phone to break down and call her, tires squealed in the parking lot, followed by the slam of a car door. I didn’t bother moving to the window again to look. Something inside me knew it was her.

I braced myself, determined to stand my ground, when the door flew open and the brutal reality of what I lost came barreling inside and ran full force into my arms. I barely had time to register what happened before she wrapped her arms around my neck, her small body trembling uncontrollably. I couldn’t help tightening my grip, dipping my nose in her hair and inhaling the intoxicating scent of wildflowers.

My chest squeezed in agony. I drowned in longing as two sides of me fought a losing battle. The monster inside me demanded I make her pay for turning her back on me, while the man who lost her screamed at me to take what belonged to me.

I didn’t have to make the decision. In the end, it was her who pulled away first.

“I’m—I’m sorry. I expected my brother to be here.”

My head knew that, but my heart ripped a little more with her confession. A small part of me wished it was me she looked for when she came in, and it was my arms where she sought solace. “It’s fine,” I said, forcing indifference in my voice. “Brody had to leave.”

“So he left you here instead?”

I smirked. “Lucky you, huh?”

Her slender fingers trembled against my chest, eventually sliding down my shirt until they dropped by her side. “Is he coming back soon?”

“I don’t know. It could be a few minutes, it could be a few hours.” The disappointment in her sigh was audible, and I stiffened. “Of course, you’re free to stay here by yourself. I have better things to do than hang—”

“No!” she screamed, bunching both hands around my shirt and pulling herself against me again.

“What happened to you?” I asked, sensing something had happened.

“Somebody rear-ended me. It was just a little accident, that’s all.”

“You seem pretty shaken up for just a little accident.”

“Let it go, Matty.”

No matter what she said, I couldn’t let it go. “You can tell me, or you can tell Brody. Your choice.”