Page 48 of The Bad Brother

I ’VE BEEN WATCHING REESE PACE AND Billy cry for about an hour now.

Neither one of them have said anything to me.

To be honest, I don’t even think they know I’m here which is fine.

Preferable even. What could I say to make this situation better?

Sorry, my psycho brother tried to kill your dad is about all I’ve got and if it were me, and I were Reese, I’d shove my pathetic sorry up my ass.

After having me identify the torched truck as mine and the one I hired Red to fix, Colt brought me to hospital.

It’s not where I want to be. I want to be in a car with Sloane, halfway to Austin, but it’s where I should be, so he dropped me off with a let me do my job, Jen before driving off to check on his mother, Sera and the kids. It’s Sunday—no school. Everyone’s home.

Even though I know Cade is standing watch, I pull out my phone to check on Sloane. Logging into the security app that’ll let me access the security cameras I had installed, I expect to find her sleeping. Instead, I find her up and dressed, flying down the stairs, her pager in her hand.

I know what she’s doing.

She’s leaving.

She’s coming here.

Reminding myself that Cade is there with her, that she’s safe, I watch while she rushes out the door and into the hall where she has a brief, tense-looking conversation with Cade before she steps out of the camera’s view.

Flipping from camera to camera, I watch their progress until I get to the cameras that survey the parking lot and see Ethan’s car parked next to hers.

Before I can call Cade to warn him, the front door to the bar flies open and there he is, Sloane in tow, a baseball bat levered against his shoulder.

Words are exchanged while Cade leads Sloane to the passenger side door of her car and helps her into it before he closes it.

Circling the front of her car, Cade stops and exchanges words with Ethan again.

Moving to open his own car door, he stops long enough to point his bat at the security camera I have mounted on the roof, the angle of it wide enough to catch the entire parking lot.

Warning issued, Cade climbs into the car and drives away with Sloane riding shotgun while Ethan moves into the spot they just vacated to watch them drive away.

As soon as they’re gone, Ethan turns and looks directly at the camera I’m watching him on. Lifting his hand, he smiles and waves before getting into his own car and driving away.

I don’t take a full breath until I see Sloane rush past the surgical ICU waiting room, so focused on the job waiting for her that she doesn’t notice me while Cade and his bat bring up the rear.

Stopping in front of the waiting room, Cade stands in the middle of the hallway, watching while Sloane badges in and disappears behind the security doors where Red is waiting for her to save him.

As soon as she’s gone, Cade turns toward the open doorway.

Gives me the same look he gave me this morning when I opened the door to find him and his brother waiting for me on the front steps of the bar.

Moving into the room, bat choked in his fist, Cade stands over me for just a moment, probably contemplating the finer points of laying it across my skull, before he finally finds his own chair and sits.

Like her spidey senses start tingling, Reese stops pacing and looks at him from across the room.

“Hey, Cade.” Her gaze drops to the bat laying across his knees before it bounces back up to his face.

“Batting practice?” she asks, her tone just pointed enough to tell him that his answer better be yes .

Out of uniform or not, no matter who Cade’s brother is, she’s still a cop and he’s still a convicted murderer.

“Yes, ma’am.” Cade gives her a bland smile. “How’s your dad?”

“He’s hanging in there. They’re prepping him for surgery now.” In the corner, Billy lets out a watery hiccup. Reese shoots him a worried look before looking at me. “You don’t have to be here. I know you feel responsible but?—”

“He is responsible,” Cade cuts in bluntly. “It was his brother who stabbed your dad—my guess is because our boy here has been fucking his ex behind everyone’s back. Ain’t that right, Jen?”

Suddenly I understand that this isn’t just about my brother and my refusal to put a stop to his escalating behavior. This is about Sloane and the danger I put her in.

Dividing a sharp, pointed look between the two of us, Reese moves across the room to snag her little brother by his shirt sleeve.

“Come on, Billy,” she says, hauling him to his feet.

“Let’s go get some coffee.” She gives us one last you better settle this shit before I get back look before she drags him out the door.

“Did you tell Sloane?” I ask quietly, feeling like an asshole because with everything that’s happened over the last few hours, that’s the thing I’m worried about.

Care most about. That I still have a chance to salvage things with her.

Come clean before it all blows up in my face, even worse than it already has.

“Did I tell Sloane?” Sitting forward in his chair, Cade barks out a laugh. “I’m not the one fucking her, you asshole. I’m not the one who?—”

“ Did you tell her ?” I bark back, in no mood for a lecture. I know what I did. I don’t need a recap.

“No.” Sitting back in seat, Cade glares at me. “And before you ask—for reasons I don’t understand, neither did Ethan.”

Cade might not understand but I do.

I know my brother.

He doesn’t shoot to kill.

He shoots to maim.

He’ll wait for just the right moment to drop that particular bomb.

“How do you know?” Another shitty question that shouldn’t matter but does. If Cade knows so does Sera. If Sera knows?—

“Everyone knows by now,” Cade tells me, confirming my worst fear. “One of our regulars works as a waiter at the Clearwater Club. He came in, telling everyone how the hot doctor that lives upstairs paid him fifty bucks to tell Ethan Pryce that she was sleeping with his black sheep older brother.”

“She doesn’t know,” I say, shaking my head. “She has no idea who I am.”

“Thanks, but I figured that one out on my own,” Cade says with another bland smile. “What I want to know is when you figured it out.”

The back of my neck goes hot and tight. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

“It means…” Leaning forward just a bit, Cade cocks his head on a sneer. “Did you figure it out before or after you started fucking her?”

“I didn’t figure it out ,” I tell him. “She told me—I mean, she told me without telling me.” I’m not making sense and it’s not helping either one of us. “She mentioned him by name and I?—”

“ When ?”

“Friday night—early Saturday morning. After we closed, I went up to the loft to check on her. I didn’t see her come in, so I got—” Because I’m not making sense again, I stop talking and sigh. “I thought I had time.” Looking around at where we are, I shake my head. “I never thought?—”

“We were doing good there, Jen—” Cade’s tone is softer. Less I want to kill you and more how stupid are you, exactly? “Let’s not start tellin’ lies now. You know, better than anyone, exactly what your brother is capable of. ”

He’s right.

I do.

“We were going to go to Austin—make a trip of it,” I tell him, though I’m not sure why exactly. “I was going to tell her then. I was gonna try to find a way to?—”

“Tell her that her asshole ex and your psychotic brother are one and the same?”

Cade’s my friend.

Probably the best friend I’ve ever had and he’s family. Him. Sera. Colt. Their parents. Tank didn’t just leave me a bar and an old pick-up when he died.

He left me a family.

But Cade is Cade, which means he’s an asshole most of the time and I made a mess of things, so while he might be done being mad, he’s gonna make sure I don’t forget it.

“I’m in love with her.” It’s about the dumbest thing I can say but I say it anyway because it’s the truth and I know that above all, trying to make it right is something that Cade can understand.

“Yeah.” Sitting back on a tired sigh, Cade’s shoulders slump. “I know. But if you don’t figure out a way to tell her before Ethan gets ahold of her, I don’t think it’s gonna matter much, one way or the other.”