“I found her murdering her friend,” Aodhan said, not answering either of Zane’s questions, as per usual. “She was actually very good at it. Took her apart like,” he made a slashing motion with his right hand, a scalpel held loosely between his fingers, “like a stick of butter. It was beautiful.”
“I’m sure.” Zane could see where this was going. He sighed and rubbed at his temple. “Why do I get the feeling she didn’t commit this masterpiece of a murder at the hospital?”
“Because you, dear baby brother, are a genius. No, I found her on Fourth and Went.”
“Fourth and—” Why did that sound familiar? “Hold on.”
Aodhan tapped his forehead, uncaring about the spot of blood he smeared there with the tip of his gloved finger. “Smart. That’s what Dad likes best about you.”
“Mom always says you’re the smart one.”
He clicked his tongue and then returned his gaze to the cooling corpse, as though he still wasn’t done with her even though most of her insides were already on the outside. He’d carefully laid them out too, in some weird pattern Zane had never tried to decipher.
“Please tell me this isn’t the girl we’re all looking for,” Zane said, but he already knew the answer. If Aodhan had found her on Fourth and Went, he knew the exact person she’d been killing at the time.
“I’m fairly certain they said her name was Carter,” Aodhan drawled. “On the news? That’s what they said when they showed her picture.”
The press had finally gotten their hands on the death of Royal Aura, Jem’s sister, and was spreading it around like wildfire. They’d even leaked that Aura’s two best friends who’d accompanied her on planet had also gone missing, with only one of them turning up dead.
The other, Avaline, had been tortured to death and they’d yet to discover any clues to lead to her killer. It’d been so different from the way Aura had died, they were out of leads.
“Why did she do it?” Zane asked.
“There,” Aodhan pointed to a holo-pad set on the edge of a metal table off to the side. “Her full confession was recorded. I believe you’ll find that useful, baby brother.”
“Stop calling me that,” he demanded as he headed over to get the device.
“But I like calling you that. It’s the only time you’ll look at me with anything other than disgust.”
Zane frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“I know you don’t like what I do.”
“This?” He waved the device at the body. “I don’t give two shits about—”
“No, not this,” Aodhan corrected, propping a hip against the table, blood instantly seeping into the white material of the jacket he wore. “I could kill everyone on this whole planet and you wouldn’t bat an eye. We have that in common.”
There was very little they had in common and Aodhan well knew it.
Aside from their dark hair and basic features—not including the eyes.
And their height.
And the last name scrawled on their birth certificates—though Zane’s was fake.
And—
He straightened and made a noncommittal sound which had his brother chuckling.
“You hate that I chose to work off planet,” Aodhan said. “Removing myself from the ties that bind our family to the Diars means all of the pressure to keep the peace falls to you.” He tipped his head. “You also don’t like the director of my hospital.”
“I don’t give a shit who you fuck,” he growled, his burst of anger giving him away. “I was always the replacement child, you leaving only solidified that fact. But do us both a favor and stop coming around so often. It’s causing problems.”
“Why? Oh.” His expression darkened ever so slightly, anyone else would have missed it. “You don’t mean with Mom and Dad. It’s that bitch again, isn’t it?”
“Don’t call her that.”
“Out loud,” he concluded. “You mean don’t call her that out loud. We both know you think it. Tell me. What’s she done this time?”
