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Sadie sucked in her breath, once again stunned at the shock and the transformation in his moods, and nodded, realizing he was easily triggered. “She is,” she agreed, “and, for that, I’m very sorry. I would have loved to have known her.”

He seemed to calm down at that again, and finally, when she couldn’t take it anymore, she had to ask him, “What are you waiting for?”

He looked at her. “Can’t you feel the energy?”

“Where?”

“Somebody’s coming,” he said, with a bright smile.

“No, I can’t feel anything,” she admitted, looking around, wondering. “I thought you had something to stop people from finding you.”

“I do, but I dropped it so Darren can come in. Now I can feel him coming.”

“Ah, okay,” she said, as she settled back to wait, staring at the door. When nobody was here after another five minutes, she looked over at Don, but he was puzzled too, staring at the door.

She opened her mouth to say something, but he immediately lifted his hand to stop her. She snapped her mouth shut and sent out a warning to anybody who might be coming. Almost as soon as she did that, the door burst open, and Morrison stepped inside.

*

At the sight of him, Don snapped to his feet, racing for the gun that he’d put down somewhere. Morrison caught him by the back of his neck and tossed him to the floor, then quickly landed on his back and secured his arms behind him with handcuffs.

She stared down at Don and told Morrison, “I don’t know what’s going on.”

“I know, but hopefully it’s about to end right now.” He picked Don up, and she watched as two cops and Gage stepped inside.

She walked over to Gage. “What’s going on?”

“How’s he been?” Gage asked, with a head nod to Don.

“Erratic.”

He nodded. “That’s probably a good word for it.”

“You want to explain?” She looked back at her brother, who was glaring at her solemnly.

Gage asked, “What happened? What are you doing here? Who are you waiting for?”

“Darren. We’ve been sitting here waiting for him to arrive.”

Gage looked back at Don. “You want to tell her, or should I?”

Her brother stared at Gage in surprise. “Tell her what?”

“You need to tell her what you did.”

“I didn’t do anything,” he said in a small voice.

She looked back at Gage. “I don’t understand. What’s going on?”

He sighed. “We went to Darren’s place to pick him up.”

“Oh, good,” she muttered, relief washing over her.

Gage studied the relief on her face and then shook his head. “No, not quite so good.”

She frowned.

“He’s dead. And this guy killed him.”

“I didn’t. I didn’t. I didn’t,” Don cried out.

“I didn’t. I didn’t kill him.” He stared around the room in a panic.

“No. We were supposed to kill each other, and it was supposed to be all of us going out at one time because we knew that the police would get us at some point.” He was frantic and sounded like a broken radio.

“So we were supposed to die, but not until he got her.” Then he stopped.

“I don’t think Darren would really go through with it though. ”

“You don’t think he wanted to go through with it, or you weren’t going through with it?” she asked intently.

“I don’t think Darren wanted to go through with it, and I had to ensure he did.”

“Why is that?” she asked.

And then Don started to cry. “So, I could finally be free of him.”

Morrison watched as the sympathy crossed Sadie’s face, but he held up a hand.

“Oh no you don’t, not yet,” he told Sadie, before turning his gaze on her brother.

“That’s a good story, Don, but there’s another part to this, isn’t there?

” At that, Don turned to him. Then Don’s face twisted and out snapped the other voice she had heard before.

“I don’t give a shit what that little piss-ass says,” the new voice spat.

“Darren deserved to die. He treated us like shit since day one, ever since he found us. I couldn’t wait to get a chance to pay him back.

You better believe I killed him,” And then he smiled, looking from one to the other, and Don’s face had completely morphed into someone else’s.

He looked over at Sadie. “Hey, sis. I guess you don’t know me, huh ? ”

She got up and walked closer. “For a while there I was afraid it was Darren.”

“No, Darren is just as weak as Don is. I’m the strong one. I’m the one who runs this ruse,” he declared. “Don just does what I say, and Darren did too.”

“Who are you?” she asked.

“They call me Bob, Bob the builder. We split personalities many, many years ago—after one of our foster homes treated us really badly, and Don couldn’t handle it.

He went inside, and, as soon as he did, I popped up and took over.

I let him out every once in a while because that was healthy for him, and I want to keep him safe. ”

“What about Darren?” she asked.

“Darren, well, he wasn’t as weak as his brother Don, so that’s why I had to kill him,” Bob shared.

“I mean, there can’t be two bosses, and he was getting worried about the way things were getting a little more erratic with Don, and I had been a little harder to control.

Plus, the more energy work we did, the more Don was coming into his own.

I just can’t have that, no way. I’m the boss, nobody else. ”

She stared at him, as if finally realizing what was going on. “Couldn’t you just let Don have a life?”

“No, I can’t. He doesn’t want a life. He just wants to be taken care of now.

He’s had enough of what people can do to him,” he stated, staring at her.

“Not everybody got to have the nice, sweet little life that you had.” He watched her for a moment and added, “See? You’re already ready to bawl.

” He gave her a mock shudder. “I’ll never be that weak again.

” He shook his head. “We were weak once, but not anymore, not again. Nobody’ll ever hurt us like they did back then. ”

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “Even though it was a long time ago, I’m sorry for what you went through.”

He laughed. “Don’t be because that made us strong, and it made us realize what we could do. But Darren started to understand the energy stuff. Once he realized that we could all do it, I think he thought he could help Don get free of me.”

“So, Darren had to go.”

He gave a hard laugh. “Nobody gets free of me.”

She sucked in her breath. “And the suicide pact?”

“Don really does want to commit suicide,” he noted, “but I couldn’t let him do it, although I was more than happy to have Darren dead and gone, which was no skin off my teeth. The man was a loose cannon.”

“So, you’re the one who killed all those people, right? But why go do all the jewelry heists if you were just committing suicide anyway?”

“I wasn’t going to. We were just using the suicide as a ploy to get rid of Darren that way, and it worked,” he declared.

“Now we have lots of money and don’t have to worry about it anymore, but, if we do, we’ll just do another heist. We weren’t going to do any more, after that last one went sideways with too much bloodshed,” he shared, with a shudder.

“I really don’t like all that blood, but it’s a necessary part of this. ”

“It’s not necessary at all,” she stated. “You could easily have robbed those stores without killing people.”

“It’s hurt or get hurt,” he snapped. “You really haven’t learned anything, have you?”

“Apparently not,” she noted. “At least not anything that matters to you.”

“That’s true.” He snorted, then looked over at Morrison and Gage. “Once I realized these guys were energy workers, and I could feel that power in them, I knew that the game was up. I probably should have let Darren kill Don, since prison won’t be much fun.”

“I don’t know that you’ll get to prison either,” she stated.

“You probably won’t be considered fit to stand trial.

They will lock you up in a little padded cell and leave you there.

” He glared at her, and she shrugged. “Just listen to you right now. Split personalities are not well assimilated into a general population,” she pointed out.

“Not our fault, it’s those assholes who abused us,” Bob declared, his voice hardening. “Even Darren had a shitty life, but, hey, he was trying to take me out of the picture, so it’s our life now.”

She just nodded, not knowing what else to say. When the two cops each reached for an arm on either side, he stopped, shifted personalities, then asked her, “Will you come visit me?” The plea was in Don’s plaintive voice.

She smiled at him. “Of course I will,” she replied, and, with that, he was led outside. She walked over to Morrison and collapsed against his chest. He wrapped his arms around her and held on tight.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“I am. It’s just shitty the way the whole thing worked out. I was so hoping to have some family.”

He nodded. “And yet it won’t be an easy time. Not once we realized what they were involved in. They each had an ugly side.”

“And the drugs,… apparently Don’s been heavily into drugs for a very long time,” she added.

“Yeah, and that can have a huge effect on people too,” Morrison agreed.

“Darren also left information on the other two hired hands involved in the heists. They are being picked up now. Penny is one, down as their driver, which won’t make you happy.

However, Don is not the father to Penny’s son.

So he’s not your nephew. The kid just had contact with his mom who had contact with Don, as the driver on these heists. ”

“This story just keeps getting sadder.”

“Yeah, well, the fourth member of their crew was a part-time security guard at one of the jewelry stores.”

She looked up at him and groaned.

“But,” Morrison added, “we now have Don’s gun. This may be the evidence needed to get a conviction—or a psych ward stay.”

Sadie sighed. “Can I go back to my place now, please? I just want to forget about all this.”

“Absolutely,” he agreed, as he looked over at the cops, who were still talking in the hallway. “You’ll have to give a statement.”

She winced. “That’ll be fun.”

“I know. It’ll be hard, but this way you can be completely honest.”

“Sure,” she muttered. Then she stopped, a confused expression on her face. “How did you find us?”

He smiled. “I tracked your energy here. We already knew that Don was heading to his brother’s place because that’s what he told us.

However, once we got the report back that Darren was already dead, I knew Don would probably be here.

I was pretty worried he wanted to take you out, so you couldn’t interfere with his life anymore. ”

“It’s so sad to think that he’s ending up like this,” she whispered.

“It’s sad, but it’s not your fault. However, I do have some good news for you.” He looked over at Gage. “You want to tell her?”

Gage smiled at her and announced, “We found your sister. She’s alive, and actually… she’s a nurse and living right here in town.”

Sadie stared at him in shock. “Really?”

He nodded. “For all intents and purposes, though it’s a little early to be sure yet, she seems to be completely normal.”

Sadie immediately burst into tears and burrowed her head tightly against Morrison’s chest.

When she finally calmed down enough, he added, “Come on. I’m taking you home.” But first she had to go to the police station and give her statement. So, by the time she collapsed onto her couch in her own apartment, she stared up at Morrison, exhausted. “I’m just done.”

“That’s why you’re going straight to bed,” he suggested.

“What will you do?”

“I’ll stay here for the night, and we’ll reassess in the morning.”

She nodded, not sure what to say to that. She didn’t want to say goodbye. Hell, she didn’t want to say anything to him right now, except to have him stay with her. “Please stay. You’ve got to be as tired as I am.”

“Maybe not quite as tired, but I’m definitely wiped,” he admitted, with a smile. “Now get to bed, and we’ll pick this up in the morning.”

She stumbled off to bed, and, while he watched, she was out cold in a matter of minutes.