Page 59 of The Bad Brother

“ E THAN.”

I say his name carefully, gaze flicking between his face and River’s. Trying to give myself time to process what the hell is happening.

Ethan isn’t at home, sleeping like he should be.

As a matter of fact, he doesn’t look like he’s slept at all.

He looks crazed. Slightly disheveled like he’s been up for days.

The way he’s looking at me hammers a cold spike of fear down the length of my spine.

His eyes are flat. Lifeless like a shark’s.

Have they always looked like that? Was I that oblivious to who and what Ethan really is that I just didn’t see it?

If there were any lingering doubts about the validity of what Jensen told me last night about the things his brother has done—what he’s truly capable of—there aren’t anymore.

The man I’m looking at is capable of anything.

“What are you doing?” Stupid question. He has a gun shoved into River’s ribcage.

What he’s doing is pretty obvious but I need time.

Shift change isn’t for another three and a half hours which means this level of the parking garage is pretty much a ghost town until noon.

Unless someone needs to run to their car for something or gets clearance to cut out early, I’m on my own.

My only hope is that a security guard will see what’s happening on one of the surveillance cameras and call Colt.

The longer we stand here, the more likely that is to happen.

“What am I doing?” Ethan grins at me like a loon, his too white smile, taunting me from over River’s shoulder. “What the fuck does it look like I’m doing, Sloane?”

“It looks like you’ve completely lost your fucking mind,” I say, answering him honestly. “There are cameras all over the?—”

“Disabled,” he tells me, his grin sharpening slightly. “It’s amazing what you can get done with money and the Craig’s List app.”

“You hired someone to disable the cameras?” I curb the urge to look around, instead focusing on River. She’s shaking. Her face pale. She’s scared. Hopefully not scared enough to fall apart. “Was it the same guy you hired to slash Jensen’s back?”

“Nope. Completely different skill set. The guy I hired to do my brother was supposed to slit his throat but he got nervous. Too many witnesses for his liking.” Wrapping his hand around River’s ponytail, he gives it a hard jerk. “Drop your phone on the ground.”

River’s eyes widen, her frightening gaze aimed in my direction.

I give her a nod, telling her to do what he says.

Ethan is completely off the rails. It wouldn’t take much to send him over the edge.

When she hesitates, Ethan gives her hair another hard jerk.

“Better listen to your friend,” he hisses in her ear. “She’s trying to save your life.”

River drops her phone where it lands in the puddle of iced coffee at her feet with an anemic splash.

“Good girl,” Ethan says before kicking it away, sending it skittering across the parking garage floor and under a car about twenty feet away. Sliding the barrel of the gun from her side to the small of her back, Ethan prods her with it. “ Now, move .”

Watching them close the distance between us, I feel fear flutter in my gut. “Just let her go, Ethan,” I tell him, fighting to keep my tone steady. “She’s not important. She’s just?—”

“A waitress?” Ethan shoots me another cruel smile.

“That’s funny—that’s exactly what Jensen said when I asked him about her a few days ago.

She’s just a waitress who needed a ride in for her shift .

” Stopping in front of me, he shakes his head.

“But she’s the one who picked him up yesterday and then she never left.

I don’t think just a waitress would have sleepover privileges, do you?

” Before I can answer him, Ethan stops in front of me. “Where’s your phone?”

My phone is stuck in a mesh pocket sewn into the inside waistband of my scrub pants. It’s where we’re supposed to keep our pagers when we’re in a surgical suite. I put it there out of habit when we got here.

I shake my head. “In there.” Thinking fast, I gesture toward the skybridge that attaches the parking garage to the hospital. “I told you I resigned,” I remind him. “The phone was hospital property. I had to turn it in. That’s why I’m here.”

The look he gives me tells me he doesn’t just think I’m lying—he knows it. “Empty ‘em,” he tells me, jerking his chin at the cargo pockets on my scrub pants.

Bending over on a silent prayer that my pants and top are baggy enough to conceal the outline of my phone against my thigh, I do what he says, pulling out my stethoscope and my car keys.

“There’s nothing else,” I tell him on a head shake while squeezing the outside of my pockets. “I don’t have anything else.”

“Okay.” Watching me closely, Ethan gives me a cruel smile.

“Let’s go for a ride.” Jabbing River with the barrel of his gun again, he jerks his chin at my car behind me.

“You’re driving.” He gives me a cruel smile.

“If you try to run, I won’t chase you, Sloane. I’ll just shoot her—do you understand?”

Giving him a nod, I give River what I hope to god is a reassuring smile before I turn on my heel and start walking toward my car while my mind races through every scenario, every nightmare, that we might be facing.

Ethan has a gun and he freely admitted that he not only hired someone to attack Jensen last Thursday—he hired him to kill him. That can only mean one thing.

Ethan has no intention of letting either of us live.

Stopping in front of my car, I reach slowly into the cargo pocket for my car keys and hit the fob to unlock it. Continuing past me, River in front of him, Ethan’s back is toward me for less than a handful of seconds.

But it’s enough.

Reaching into my bag, heart knocking around in my chest so hard I feel like I’m going to pass out, I feel tears prickle at the corner of my eyes when I immediately feel the smooth, hard plastic of my stun gun beneath my fingers.

Hand wrapped around it, I pull it out and drop it into the loose cargo pocket of my scrubs, just as Ethan rounds the front of my car to the passenger side.

Opening the door, he shoves River into the front seat before slamming the door closed to look at me over the roof, barrel of the gun pressed against the window, mere inches from River’s head.

“Drop your bag on the ground and get in the car.”

Doing what he says without hesitation, I drop my bag and get into the car while he climbs into the back seat. Jamming my keys into the ignition, I look at Ethan’s reflection in the

rearview mirror. He’s staring right at me, watching my every move.

Waiting for me to do something that will give him a reason to pull the trigger and kill us both.

Like he’s reading my mind, the corner of his mouth lifts in a smirk that somehow, inexplicably, makes him look like his brother.

“I don’t want to kill anyone, Sloane.” The smirk on Ethan’s face spreads into a full-fledged smile. “Not yet anyway.”

Looking away, I shake my head, focusing on getting the car started while the phone tucked into my waistband buzzes against my hip.

Shit.

Twisting the key in the ignition to cover up the faint hum of it, I rev the engine when it buzzes for a second and third time.

It’s Jensen. It has to be. He woke up and knows I’m gone.

Knowing him, he went across the hall, looking for me and knows that River is gone too.

He’ll call Colt. It’s going to be okay. We just have to hang on for a little while longer .

Turning my head to look at River, I give her another smile. “It’s going to be okay, Riv,” I tell her quietly.

Giving me a wobbly smile, River nods her head. “I know.”

I’m pretty sure she’s lying.

I’m pretty sure we both are.

All I know for sure is that Ethan isn’t going to walk away from this unscathed. I’m not going to make it easy. If he kills us, he’s going to have to work for it.

Still stalling for time, I put on my seatbelt, slowly dragging it across my chest before clicking it into place. Shifting into drive, I look at Ethan’s reflection again. “Where are we going?”

“I don’t know. So many choices...” He pretends to think about it for a moment, playing with me before he sits back in his seat on a sigh. “I know—” He lifts the gun from his lap and jams the barrel of it into the back of River’s seat. “Let’s go see my brother.”