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S hocked, Sadie turned and looked back at Don. “What are you doing?” she wailed.

He motioned at her. “Walk to the door.”

Numb, she looked at the other two men, sensing that they were both tensing, ready to jump. She shook her head at them. “Please, don’t get shot.”

“Not as if we’ll have much choice,” Gage noted, his tone hard.

She closed her eyes, then turned to her brother. “I’ll go with you, but you can’t shoot them.” He glared. “That’s the only condition I have,” she stated.

“You do realize I have the gun,” he stated, “which means that I get to call the shots.”

She stuck her chin out pugnaciously. “Not if you expect to have me not cause trouble the whole way,” she muttered. “I’ll go with you willingly and peaceably, but you don’t get to shoot them.”

“Fine,” he muttered, pointing at the door. “But, if they leave this property any time within the next hour, I will shoot them the next time I see them. Do you hear me?”

She turned and looked at the others. Morrison snapped, “No promises.”

Don laughed. “Just means I’ll shoot you the next time I see you.” As soon as she was out the door, he pointed it back at them. “Now I really want to just pop you right now.”

But Sadie grabbed his arm and pulled him out. “You promised.”

“I did not,” he snapped. “I did not promise, and I wouldn’t promise. These guys are trying to put me in jail.”

“No, they’re trying to stop you from killing people,” she said in exasperation, “and now I can see that it’s obviously for good reason.”

He turned the gun on her, and she just stared up at him.

“Is that what it is now?” she asked. “You finally get to meet your twin sister that you didn’t know you had, and you’re ready to kill her?

” she asked, tears coming to her eyes. She wiped them away impatiently.

“Then just shoot me now,” she spat. “Don’t worry about shooting them, just shoot me. ”

“Don’t—”

“I don’t really give a crap,” she cried out, tears already threatening to choke her.

And it was true. At that moment, she didn’t give a crap.

She didn’t want to die by any means. She didn’t want anything to do with death, but neither could she sit here and watch Don shoot down the people who had done so much for her.

“I can’t believe that’s who you are, Don. ”

“It’s because you don’t want to see anything,” he muttered, “especially my brother.”

“Isn’t he the one making you do this?” she asked, looking at him.

“He’s at home,” he said, with a shrug. “I’m taking you over there now.”

She looked up at him. “Then don’t shoot them. They don’t know where he lives, so just let them go. I’ll go with you.”

He hesitated, then looked back at the others. Both had their hands up. “I mean it, if I see you again, you know what will happen.”

They both just nodded.

And, with that, he slammed the door shut, then, grabbing her hand, ran through the hallway, then down the stairway. Once they were outside, he shoved her into a van, then started laughing, almost hysterically. “Now that was fun,” he declared, with a grin.

She wasn’t even sure what to think because how could he find something like that entertaining when he’d obviously terrorized so many people? She sank back into her seat, staring at him.

He laughed. “You know, with you being able to do energy, we will be invincible.”

“To do what?” she asked. “Go shoot and kill more people?”

“If they behave, we won’t have to shoot them.” He laughed and added, “Anyway, you can talk to Don anytime you want to now.”

And just like that, he shifted, and she looked at him in shock. “How can you let him take you over like that?” she asked Don, remembering the personality change when he almost shot Morrison.

Don shuddered. “I’m sorry. He’s always been able to do that.”

She sagged into her seat, wondering how to get him to stop giving over control to Darren.

“And, besides,” he added in a defensive tone, “I can’t just stop him from popping in. He’s very strong.”

She groaned. “I gather we’ll go see him now.”

“Yes, that’s what he wants me to do.” He looked at her and smiled. “That’ll be the first time we’ve gotten the family together in all this time. Except for your sister.”

“Our sister,” she corrected.

“I know, but I don’t even know anything about her.” Don chewed on a fingernail, even as he drove. “Maybe Darren can sort it out.”

Sadie rolled her eyes, not at all sure that Darren could do anything at this point. He seemed to be nothing but a big bully. As they drove, she kept trying to send messages out mentally, until finally Don looked at her. “They can’t hear you. You know that, right?”

“Why can’t they hear me?” she asked.

He shrugged. “We always block everything around us so they can’t.”

She didn’t know what to say to that and sat silently as the miles rolled by, until he finally pulled into an apartment complex. She frowned because it looked familiar. She cast a sideways glance at Don. “How long have you been connected with him?” she murmured.

“Forever,” he said in a passionate tone. “He’s always been there. He’s always looked after me.”

“That’s not what you told me before. You said you met him at the pool hall or something just a year ago.”

“I didn’t even know you. It’s not as if I’ll tell you all about us.”

“Of course, that loyalty, that family bond,… that’s what I didn’t get.”

“Nope, but you got a lot of other things.”

She winced at that because his voice kept shifting.

She nodded, wanting to tell the other brother to take a hike and disappear, but she didn’t know what would happen if she even started that.

And it probably wasn’t the most sensible thing to do when she was sitting here in a vehicle with somebody who was obviously intent on using the gun in his hand.

She was grateful that he hadn’t shot Morrison or Gage.

“Thank you for not killing them,” she whispered.

He looked at her, hesitated, then nodded. “Obviously you care about that one, but it’s really shitty that you would go hook up with a cop.”

“He’s not really a cop,” she clarified. “He’s been in Special Forces, and now I don’t know exactly what he is.”

He laughed. “So, he doesn’t even have a job. That’s rich.”

“Oh, he has a job, but it’s not one that he can really talk about.”

She hadn’t at any point in time even questioned Morrison about it.

It’s not as if there’d been time to discuss such things or to even contemplate that there would even be such an issue going forward.

Regardless she just wanted to see him after this.

That wasn’t something that she had thought about either, until her brother had brought it up.

“How serious is it?” Don asked.

“We haven’t had a chance to be serious at all,” she murmured.

He grimaced. “It doesn’t seem you’ll get that chance either.” He shrugged. “Our brother isn’t exactly the easiest person to get along with.” And, with that, he smiled at her. “So, come on. Let’s go meet him,” he said, his voice suddenly boyish. “You’ll like him.”

“How can you even say those two sentences back-to-back and expect me to like Darren?” she murmured to herself, since Don was already out of the vehicle, waiting for her, the gun nowhere in sight.

Relieved at that, she headed with him up to the apartment building.

As she got closer, she realized it was the same place where they had found him.

“How are you feeling, by the way?” she asked cautiously.

“I’m fine. Sometimes I get a bad trip, and that’s unfortunate, but, hey, I can’t really blame anybody but myself for it.”

“I’m sorry the drugs have such a strong hold on you,” she murmured.

He looked at her and asked her curiously, “You haven’t done drugs?”

She shook her head.

“That’s all right,” he replied, with an excited laugh, “you’ll like it.”

She stiffened at that. “I don’t want anything to do with drugs,” she declared.

“Once you’ve been with us for a while, you will,” he stated. “We all do drugs. It’s a great way to unwind.”

Not liking anything about the direction they were going, she carefully walked at his side, looking around.

“They’re not coming after you,” Don said. “I sent an energy blast, something you probably don’t know how to do yet.” He laughed. “From what I gather, it would have hit them pretty hard.”

She froze in place and turned to look at him. “You said you wouldn’t hurt them.”

“No, I didn’t,” he clarified, looking at her. “I said I wouldn’t shoot them.”

She swallowed hard. “How badly are they hurt?”

“No idea. I’ve never been around to see the repercussions afterward.” Don shrugged. “For all I know, it’s not even much of a blast.”

“Yet you’re expecting it to be devastating.”

“I’m expecting it to at least give us a head start.”

“And yet you came back here, why?”

He looked around and frowned. “Yeah, that probably wasn’t the smartest move, was it?”

He hesitated, and she realized her mistake. “But, if your brother is here, I’m sure it’ll be okay.”

He looked at her, then back at his apartment and nodded. “Yeah.” Yet confusion filled his tone, as if he wasn’t sure what was going on.

She definitely wasn’t at all sure what was going on. Something strange was happening, and she didn’t know how to get to the bottom of it.

She was desperately trying to stop Don from doing anything that would hurt his chances of ever getting out of prison, but, for all she knew, it was already well past that point from the jewelry heists and people killed, plus he hurt a cop in his escape.

He didn’t kill him at least. “You didn’t hurt that cop too badly, did you? ” she whispered.

He looked at her, then shook his head, looking confused. “No, no, of course not,” he said, clearly puzzled. “I didn’t hurt any cop.”

That explained all of it. His brother Darren had been in control at that point in time. As they headed to the stairs, she tried to stay with him, but he was moving at a rapid rate. “Hang on,” she cried out. “Apparently you aren’t hurt at all because, man, you are moving.”