Page 128 of The Brothers Hawthorne

He managed to believe that, until, for some unknowable reason, his index finger navigated away from his email and to the photo roll on his phone. He’d made a critical error in leaving the original photograph of Trowbridge’s password accessible. Just like he’d made an error in giving Gigi his phone in the first place. He’d made far too many mistakes, and now he was paying the cost. Because when Grayson Davenport Hawthorne made mistakes, there was always a cost.

He’d taken Emily cliff-jumping, and she’d died.

He’d failed to go to Avery when his father’s bomb had nearly killed her, and he’d lost her to his brother.

He’d trusted Eve, and she’d betrayed him.

Some people can make mistakes, Grayson. But you are not one of those people.He knew that. He’d known it since he was a child, but he just kept making them anyway, and every time he fell short, every time he made an error in judgment, every little mistake cost him someone he cared about.

Every time he let himself care about someone, he lost them.

Grayson scrolled across the photo roll and saw himself with Gigi. Every picture she’d taken of the two of them was a little off-center or too close-up. She was beaming in every single one.

Minimizing the photos, Grayson focused on what had to be done. He arranged a flight back to Texas. Robotically, he finished packing his suitcase. That only left the puzzle box, the photographs, and the withdrawal slips.

I can’t leave them here.There was still the FBI to consider. If they ever obtained the box, if they realized the journal was a fake, if they found his fingerprints all over it…

Grayson was done making mistakes.

He put the withdrawal slips in the box, alongside the fake journal, then reassembled it. He called down to the concierge, requested that an additional piece of luggage be acquired on his behalf, and sent her the specifications he needed.

Then Grayson turned his attention to the photographs. He began stacking them facedown, avoiding looking at any of the pictures.

He didn’t think about his father.

He didn’t think about the boy in these photographs, the boy he’d been.

He didn’t think about anything except what needed to be done now.

That worked until it didn’t. The photograph that pierced his protective shields had been taken during his gap year, halfway around the world.My whole life, my father watched me. Even when I was grown. Even when I was traveling.

How much money did he spend having these pictures taken?

How much time did he spend looking at them?

Clamping his jaw, Grayson flipped the photo in his hand over and stacked it with the others. His gaze caught on the date on the back of the photograph.He got the date wrong.Grayson wasn’t certain about the day, and the year was correct, but the month was off.

What did it matter? What did any of this matter?

Grayson finished stacking the photographs and returned them to the briefcase the bank had provided. “Done.” As the word left his mouth, his phone rang—an unknown number. He answered. “Grayson Hawthorne.”

“Most people just go withhello.” The sound of the girl’s voice washed over him, a balm on open wounds, and the second Grayson recognized the effect it had on him, the muscles in his face tightened.

“What is it?” he asked, clipping the words.

“I guess you don’t have any answers for me.” Her tone was thorns now, not roses, rough and sharp.

Grayson swallowed. “I don’t have answers for anyone,” he said. “Stop calling.”

After another second or two, the line went dead. It didn’t matter.Noneof this mattered. He had a life to get back to, work to do.

On his way to the airport, his phone rang again.Eve.Grayson didn’t bother with hello this time, either. “I am done with this,” he said instead, the only greeting she deserved. “Done with you.”

She’d threatened him, threatened his sisters. The FBI’s sudden raid on the Grayson household was proof enough that Eve had already started making good on those threats.

“You don’t get to be done with me,” Eve said.

Grayson went to end the call, but she spoke again before he could.