Thisguy is my brother.
“I’m sorry,” the words slip out. Cade just shakes his head, but I keep pushing. “I’m sorry that I left you. I’m sorry that I wasn’t there. I’m sorry I didn’t have the courage to do it myself. You were brave.”
He glares down at me, and then flings the tire iron across the room, shattering a window. “I can’t get the demons out of my head, Jen. I tried. I tried to run them out. I tried to do all the psycho-bullshit with Bradford. And you know what happened? They gotlouder.I’m a monster.”
“No,” I plead. “You’re not. You can get better.”
He curls his lip in disgust. “Youneed to get better, Jen.You.Let me be. Go live your goddamn life. Stop trying to give yourself purpose by making me better.”
I bat the tears away. “Wait, please.”
He shakes his head, not meeting my eyes. “It’s better this way. You’re not like me. You don’t understand. Youwon’t.” Heopens the back door, cold wind slapping the hair into his face. I want to chase him, but I feel frozen.
Really fucking frozen.
He’s halfway gone when he turns, just for a second. “I love you,” he says, pausing. And inthatbrief moment, is when I see my little brother, but then it fades, his eyes black. “Go home, take care of Mom, and stop chasing me. Or I’ll fucking gut you and leave you to rot in this goddamn tree farm.”
I jump as he slams the door behind him. I sit there in the dead silence of the office, every muscle screaming at me to run after him, but I can’t. I’m stuck in place, lungs burning, tears freezing on my cheeks.
And honestly, Ibelievehim.
I pull my knees to my chest, and the version of my brother I don’twantto believe settles in my chest. Maybe heisa monster. Maybe I didn’t love him enough to save him. I break into a sob, years of fucking trauma exploding from the deepest darkest corners of my mind.
It’s only when I hear the creak of the front steps that I lift my head.
The doorway fills with a shape too big for the frame, too solid for the dreamlike logic of the past ten minutes.
Calvin Bradford.
He stands there, eyes taking in everything—the shattered window, the mess in the office, and me on the floor, gasping for air.
But there’s not an ounce of understanding, his voice cutting like ice through my entire body.
“Found what you were looking for?”
Chapter 31
Bradford
She’ssilent as she sits on the floor, jaw locked, eyes red from crying or from the cold, I can’t tell which. I step inside and shut the door behind me, flipping the lock.
I didn’t expect to find her here, when we came to search for Cade, but there’s no time like the fucking present to put this matter to rest.
And solve it.
“You forgot this.” I set her bag down on the old oak desk and unzip it.
She doesn’t even try to stop me, as I dump the contents onto the desktop, spreading everything in a fan.
Then, I pluck up the photo of me, Cade, and Turner, and flick it at her. “Strange thing, I thought you were a professor.”
Jenna, if that’s even her fucking name, peers up at me, tears building up in her eyes. “It’s… I…”
“That doesn’t sound like an explanation.” My voice booms through the room. “You got close to me, to mydaughteras a means of getting information.”
She swallows but says nothing, her eyes dropping to her hands.
“Why are you here?” I demand, pushing off the desk and walking over to her. My boot kicks the toe of her sneakers. “Now’s your chance. Speak, Jenna.”
