Page 15 of Brutal
“An old name.”
I lift my eyebrows.
“Victor Halstead.”
My hand tightens before I can stop it. The ring presses harder into my finger.
Something shifts in my chest. For a moment, the room seems to narrow. Not many names affect me like that one does.
God, we were young. So young. Cain wasn’t even eighteen yet.
“What kind of questions?” I ask.
“Enough to notice,” he says. “Not enough to be obvious.”
“Who’s asking?”
“That’s what I’m working on.”
I nod.
“Could be nothing,” he adds.
“It isn’t.”
Nathaniel draws in a breath. “No,” he agrees. “It probably isn’t.” He steps away from the window. “If I find anything concrete, you’ll be the first to know.”
I nod. We all knew that ghost from our past wouldn’t stay buried forever.
He moves toward the door but then pauses. “And Sam?”
“Yeah?”
“If your woman turns up again,” he says, “I suggest you pay more attention. Not less.”
He leaves the library.
I remain where I am.
Halstead.
The name sits in my mind.
And beneath that… Her.
Delaney Cross.
The pendant at her throat. The way she involuntarily slid her fingers over it. The way she watched me as if I were something to be understood instead of avoided.
I lower my gaze to my hand. The iron key is worn into the face of the ring. I turn it slowly with my thumb. For a moment, it isn’t my father’s voice I hear.
It’s hers.
You didn’t threaten him either. You simply explained what had already happened to him.
I clench my teeth.
Then—
