Page 70 of Branded By Shadow

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Eyes already on me.

I lurch to my feet, but Brianna still has my hand. Her nails dig into my skin.

“Don’t make a scene,” she whispers.

I stare at her.

The tears are gone.

The fear is gone.

My sweet, missing stepsister looks at me with dry eyes and a soft little smirk.

“You always were so easy,” she says.

A hand closes around my arm from behind.

Another clamps over my mouth.

I scream Shadow’s name anyway.

Muffled.

Useless.

Through the front window, I catch one flash of black leather as Jayce turns.

Too late.

Landon’s men drag me backward into the hall.

The last thing I see before the rear door swings shut is Brianna sliding out of the booth, calm as anything, while my whole world finally understands the truth.

My sister was never missing.

Chapter 9

Shadow

Idon’tlikethevan.

That’s the first thing.

White delivery van. No markings. Pulled against the curb with its hazards blinking, blocking half the Bluebird Café window like bad luck with wheels.

Could be nothing.

Usually isn’t.

Ghost is in my ear, talking fast, but my eyes stay on the glass.

“Say that again,” I tell him.

“Damned Sinners sent us intel twenty minutes ago,” Ghost says.

That gets my attention.

The Sinners ride out of Roseburn Falls. Grim’s club. Different patch, different territory, same kind of violence aimed at the same kind of monsters.

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