Page 176 of Secret Obsession
I’ll pay for not discharging myself appropriately later.
Right now, I’m going to kill my brother.
And then the dead guy’s brother.
I manage to make it all the way past the security desk, out the front door, before someone calls out behind me. I ignore it and hop into Greyson’s truck idling at the curb. I slam the door and twist around, looking first at Greyson, then Violet and Steele in the backseat.
“She’s my best friend,” Violet says steadily. “I’m going with you.”
“Fine. Where’s my brother?”
“At the hockey house,” Steele answers. “Aspen’s watching him.”
I grunt.
Not quite good enough.
“That’s where we’re going,” he adds. “Because that’s where he brought Willow.”
We get there in record time. I stride into the house and make a beeline for my brother, who stands from the kitchen table when he sees me.
I slam my fist into his face. There’s a crunch, but it doesn’t do shit to dull the ache in my chest.
And then my phone rings.
It’s Willow.
55
WILLOW
Daniel Freeman’s brother stands in the middle of the room, my phone in his hand. He’s got a mask on, but it doesn’t hide the eyes. He has the same eyes as his brother.
He asked if I knew him.
He asked if I knew where he was.
He asked if I would tell him anything to save my life.
No, no, no.
Lie after lie, sitting sourly on my tongue, while he paced in front of me.
We’re not in the hockey house anymore. I walked in, registered the quiet, and the way Knox sped off, and then felt the prick of the needle in my neck and a presence behind me, catching me when my legs gave out.
He took me out the back, my body slung over his shoulder, through a yard. Then another. He cut up along the side of a house and onto another street, where his truck waited.
He put me in the passenger seat and bound my hands together in front of me. It was the weirdest thing, not being able to move but being aware of all of it. My eyes were half-lidded. Almost able to blink, but not quite enough to shut out the world.
We drove and drove. He typed in a code. And then another.
I eye the freezer in the corner of the room that holds his brother’s body. The man cave-ness to the room that is so fucking familiar. Because we were just here a day ago, or two?
Steele’s family home.
So close, and so fucking far away.
He hasn’t looked twice at it, and it makes me wonder if he really knows how close we are to his truths.
