Page 48 of Look My Way (Bloody Desires #1)

Working fast, I tug the key from under my shirt and shove it into the lock counterclockwise until I hear a click.

One cop looks my way, and I quickly position my hands behind my back as he walks closer.

He lifts his glasses, squinting his eyes as he looks at me through the back window. “What are you up to back there?”

I shake my head, mouthing, “What?”

Sliding his glasses back down, his muscles jump in his cheeks, and he repeats himself. I mouth, “Can’t hear you.”

He blows out a breath, jutting out his bottom lip as he opens the door. “I said, what are you up to back here? I saw you moving around and lifting your legs up.”

“Nothing. Staying put like you said.”

His glasses slide down his nose and he looks me over.

Leaning closer, he lowers his head, and as he’s reaching his hand out to grab and examine my wrists more closely, I use the opportunity to swiftly turn my body and kick him in the chest. He flies back and I jump out, kicking him when he tries to get up.

I step on his hand when he tries to reach for his gun, kicking it out of his fingers.

I pluck his keys from his pocket, stepping on his hand again.

His partner looks over when he shouts, and as he’s grabbing for his holster, I snatch the gun from the ground before running behind the car.

I climb into the front, shoving the key in the ignition after locking the doors.

I’m being shot at as I duck my head and drive away.

My bag is in the trunk. I saw them put it in there.

It has my phone and everything else I need inside.

I don’t have to look at the map anymore to know where Daniel is probably headed, though.

The lake house is his holding area, isn’t it?

Will I also find the missing guy there? I’ll know once I arrive.

Speeding up, I run stop signs and turn on my siren as I drive straight through red lights.

The cops will track the car and follow me to where I’m headed.

Good, I want them to. Pulling onto the street where the lake house is, I slam my foot on the gas, and my heart thunders when I see Daniel’s car in front of the house.

He’s here. I hope I’m not too late. Whatever he’s done to Liam, he better get ready to pay for every hair he’s hurt on his head.

I’m not a good person, but there’s not a bigger monster out there than someone who’s capable of what Daniel has done.

As soon as I’m parked, I get out and grab my bag on the way to the porch.

The door is of course locked, so I break a window, not caring who hears me.

A song is blaring in the living room, and I follow loud screams to the basement.

It takes me a minute to realize what’s playing around me.

“Smile,” by Natalie Cole. My stomach tightens.

I jiggle the door to the basement and shoot at the hinges when it doesn’t open.

Rushing down the stairs, I get closer to the screams, and a man is lying on the bed against the wall fighting against the ropes tied to the frame.

“Help. Please.” His face is stained with tears, his red hair caked with blood. “Please,” he says again, and as I shine a light on him, my stomach plummets. It’s not Liam.

“It’s okay. Help’s on the way. The cops should be here soon.”

“Don’t leave me. He’ll hurt me again,” he croaks. “They’re both insane.”

“I’m sorry, I’m looking for someone, but I’ll be back, I promise.

” I try to reassure him before running back in the direction I came.

The song is playing on a loop, and the guy in the basement is back to crying.

It’s like nails on a chalkboard and hurts to ignore.

He’ll be okay, but I don’t know if Liam will be yet. I have to get to him before he isn’t.

I run up the narrow steps, my shoes pounding against the carpet the faster I move.

The first room I check only has a bed in it.

No Liam. Behind the second door are nothing but boxes.

Growing impatient, I kick open the door to a bathroom and move past an open doorway that’s clearly another loose end.

Noise from the last room has me locking my eyes onto it and nearing it with careful steps.

The door pulls open before I can touch the knob and Daniel is pointing a gun at me. “Drop the weapon, Zavier. You don’t want to be the reason Liam suffers before I end his life, do you?”

“You’re sick,” I say. “Did you ever really love him? Was this your plan all along?”

Laughing, he shakes his head. “No . . . I didn’t think I’d lose him to you either. But it’s funny how things work out, huh? And here I didn’t think it was possible to hate you more than I already did.”

“What do you want?”

“You to suffer like I did. You to be the one no one cares about and left in a dark place, rotting.”

“What the fuck are you talking about, you deranged lunatic? You followed us to Liam’s sister’s house, didn’t you? You made him think he was having nightmares and hallucinating again, didn’t you?”

“I’m not sure what you mean.” He tilts his head, smiling the way a crazy motherfucker like him does.

“Sure you did. It’s something you’ve been doing to him for too long. You deserve to be in those handcuffs. Not me.”

“Maybe, but it won’t be me. No one will believe you. Not with Liam dead and no evidence to prove what you’re saying is accurate.”

“I won’t let you get away with this.”

“Oh, but you’re only one against two, so I beg to differ.” Another voice comes from behind me, the safety button clicking. “Drop the gun, you worthless sack of shit.”

My gun hits the floor, knocking against my foot, and Jared steps around me to bend down to retrieve it.

I elbow him in the face, knocking him to the ground, and I grab the gun, dodging the bullets coming my way.

I scream when one hits my leg and limp forward, bulldozing into Daniel so hard he loses his grip on his weapon.

He tumbles backward and I aim my gun at Jared first, taking him down with a gunshot to the head before turning my attention back to the main guy I want to hear begging for mercy.

There won’t be any for him, though. Not from me. He laughs, looking up at me and shaking his head. “You think you’re getting out of this, don’t you? Liam is still passed out and you just killed a cop. I got you right where I want you.”

Sirens blare in the background and he laughs harder. “You think they’ll believe you with all the evidence you’re holding in your house. Everything I planted there?”

“Don’t worry about me when you’re the one with a gun pointed to your head. Liam will get up eventually, and the guy downstairs is sure to talk.”

“Yes, but he’ll only say it was a man in a black mask. One I know you’ve used before. You got the tag off the car, but you didn’t notice the camera I planted.”

“Stop talking. I don’t need to hear anything you have left to say.” My grip tightens on the gun.

“You sure? What about how you were caught sneaking around Liam’s house. Stalking him and waiting for the right moment to take him like you did the others.”

I huff. Love doesn’t blindside you. It got me a different way than Liam and my mom. “How long have you known? Were you watching us all this time?”

“No. I had a feeling, and that’s what made me set up the cameras. Right before you came in and drugged me to do whatever sick fantasy you had planned with him. He was supposed to be mine. But just like her, you took him for yourself. He’s a lot like her too. Is that what drew you in?”

My brows dip. “Who the hell is her?”

He wipes his mouth, leaving a smirk behind. “Our mother. She gave me away and kept you. The note said it was to keep me safe from our father, but I don’t believe that bullshit. I wasn’t safe. Not with the person she left me with.”

“Are you saying what I think you’re saying?” My chest expands, throat tightening. “You’re lying. I’d know if I had a brother.”

“Would you? I guess our dear mother had secrets she was hiding, just like you. Tell me, Zavier . . . when did you plan to let Liam in on your extracurricular activities?”

“Did you—”

“Before I knocked him out again, I told him everything. Even about you putting his editor in the hospital. You really should make sure you’re not being followed when you do something like that.” He clicks his tongue.

“You knew who I was all this time.”

“Yes. I did. I moved next door to the woman you call sister hoping to find a way closer to you. She gave it to me very easily too. Recommending you for work on my fiancé’s garden boxes. You being a carpenter came in handy. So thanks for that.”

My hackles rise. “You’re demented. All this because I got to see our father beat and try to kill our mother while you were taken to a better home.”

He scoffs. “Better home? Ha. Is that what you think I experienced? It was an old, trusted friend of hers, or so she thought. Her husband hated me while she . . . let’s say she loved me in ways a mother shouldn’t love her child.”

Bile rises up my throat. “I’m sorry you went through that, but we all bear childhood trauma. My life wasn’t all roses either, but you don’t see me taking it out on innocent people.”

“Innocent?” He cackles. “Hardly. They were all flirty little redheads who used their bodies to get their way. Liam wasn’t supposed to be like them.

And he wasn’t. Then you came along bringing out the worst in him.

Then I saw all the bad that I’d seen in her.

The mom you should have had instead of me. ”

He means the old friend of my mom. One I’m wondering whether I ever met.

There was someone she saw every now and then who had a little boy a few years older than me.

Could it have been . . . shit. “That’s shitty.

It is. But they still don’t deserve what you did to them, and neither does he.

You hurt him every chance you got. You kept him prisoner. ”

“It was the only way. Either I got the control, or he did. And it wasn’t going to be him. He was perfect. I didn’t think someone as weak as him would even be your type.”

“Someone weak like him?” I roar out. “Except he’s not the weak one here. You are.”

“Zavier,” a small voice whispers. “Where are we?”

“It’s okay, carino. It’s going to be okay.” I look over to where he’s lying with his limbs secured to the bed.

“You shouldn’t lie to him.” My eyes shift back to Daniel too late, and he throws his body at mine. We wrestle on the ground and he tries to get the gun from me, elbowing me in the face. I hold on, used to winning fights like this, and get him in a chokehold with my legs.

He gasps, squirming beneath me, and Liam shouts, shuffling against his restraints. “What’s happening? Why can’t I move?”

The sirens get louder and I breathe a sigh of relief, looking down at a purple Daniel. I slam the gun into his head, smiling. “Time for you to go away where no one will ever find you but me.”

His eyes bulge and I choke him harder until he passes out.

Looking toward the roaring sounds outside the house, blaring down the street, I drag him down the stairs and out the back door, looking around me as I drag him out to the lake and lift him into the back of a boat.

After taping his limbs and mouth, I loosen the rope, keeping the boat tied up but letting it drift further out into the water. I’ll be back for him later.

“Don’t worry. We’ll meet again, big brother.”

I blow a kiss and run back into the house. The door is being shoved at, and people are shouting. Cops barge through holding guns, and I lift my hands in the air. “He got away. He drove off in a brown car.”

“Quiet. You don’t talk until we tell you to. Drop to the ground.”

I do as they say, placing my hands behind my back as one searches me, while others run around the house to check all the rooms.

“We got one down here,” a man shouts.

“One up here too,” a woman says from up the stairs.

“Tell me what the hell happened here?” A heavier guy looks my way.

“One of yours . . . a cop . . .” I steady my breathing. “He brought Liam here and I came to help him. I didn’t know what I’d find when I got here.”

“One of ours, huh?” He scratches his chin.

“Sir, we found a camera in the bedroom. His story matches what was on it, along with what one of the victims is saying.”

He recorded everything he did. Did he forget? Or was he unaware? Was it Jared?

“It was in a bag I think belonged to Officer Carpenter.”

Ah, good old Jared. Had to get everything on camera so he could watch it later.

See, this is why you can’t be too greedy, but I’m glad he was.

The guy holding me down releases me, helping me up from the floor, and the one standing in front leads me to the couch so I can be looked over by paramedics.

Liam is carried to where I am. When he sees me, instead of putting distance between us like I expect him to, he closes it, arms latching around me.

“Hey, carino. I’m glad you’re awake.”

“Me too,” he says, eyes glazed over. “He was going to kill me and make it look like you did it.”

“Yeah, well, we can be glad that didn’t happen.” I rub his back, kissing his head.

“But what if he comes back?” His tone is high-pitched.

“He won’t. Trust me.” I gaze down at him, reaching for his hand and he nods, Adam’s apple jumping in his throat.

Lowering his head, he sits there quietly, and a man with an EMS uniform checks us both out.

The guy from the basement is rolled out on a stretcher, and Liam lifts his head, eyes rounding in horror at all the cuts on his face.

“Why would someone do something so horrible?” His voice cracks.

“Because there are horrible people out there,” I whisper in his ear. And as soon as the others are out of hearing range, I say, “And that’s why people like me exist, to take them out when no one else will.”

His face pales and he glances at our joined hands, nodding without saying another word.

We’re asked more questions before being taken to the hospital for observation, more so Liam than me.

He needs stitches and X-rays done. I wait with him in the room, not leaving his side, and then when there’s finally no staff with us, he leans toward me and says, “Will you lie with me, Daddy?”

My heart lights up. “Of course, pequeno.” Climbing in beside him, I adjust my body in a way where we both fit perfectly and hold my boy as he falls asleep.

He’ll have more questions when he wakes up, and like with everything else, I plan to answer them all honestly no matter what ends up being in store for me later.