I glance at him as she leaves the room. “You’ve done this before.”
His mouth twitches. “It’s all the same, cleaning up bodies.”
I swallow hard. “But he’s alive… We should call an ambulance.”
He shakes his head. “He’s stable. No concussion.” He then peers up at me, his voice lowering. “Jenna?—”
Mark groans, cutting him off. It’s faint, but Bradford is on him in an instant, checking his pupils, smacking his face until Mark blinks and tries to focus.
“Can you hear me?” Bradford asks, voice stripped of all humanity.
Mark nods, slurs something like “what—happened?—”
“You took a header off the table. Concussion. You’ll live.”
Mark’s eyes flutter, then settle on me. “No… No, Molly hit me,” he mumbles, but there’s no fight in it. “I know she did. Broke a fucking lamp…”
“No,” Bradford reiterates, and I see the way Mark looks at Bradford, then at the blood on his own hands. “No one fucking touched you, you clumsy piece of shit.” He hits once in the side of the head and knocks him out cold again.
I raise my brows, as Bradford drags him toward the couch. I take the moment to move toward the office, wondering exactly how much Bradford knows. When I step inside, I see Mark’scomputer open and unlocked. I go straight for it, determined to see what they have on my brother.
“Stop.” Calvin’s voice sends a shiver down my spine, and I turn around, my heart in my throat. “What the fuck are you doing?”
I swallow hard. “I was just…seeing what was there.”
“No,” Bradford’s pistol is pointed at me once more. “There’s something I haven’t had the chance to ask you.” He gestures to me. “Who the fuck are you? Because you haven’t answer that yet.”
I take a deep breath and choose the truth. “Jenna Kellan.”
Chapter 33
Bradford
Jenna Kellan.
“Kellan.” The last name slips out of my mouth, as I stare at her, hovering over the computer. “You’re Cade’s…” My voice trails off as I take in the shape of her face, which is rounder than Cade’s.
But the nose. The shape of her eyes.
She’s too young to be his mother.
“His sister?” It comes out of my mouth in a titillated way.
“Cade’s older sister,” she says quietly. “By six years. He’s technically my half-brother.”
“Different mom?” I drop my gun, my head fucking spinning. First, I thought she was NCIS, now, she’s someone completely different.
“Different dad, actually,” Jenna lets out a sigh. “My dad skipped town before I ever knew him. My mom met Monty Kellan when I was three. They got married, had Cade, and then adopted me.” Her voice is quiet, and as much as I want to fucking hate her for all the lies, I find myself drawn to the vulnerability in her eyes now.
“Once he adopted me, and Cade was about seven,” Jenna’s eyes grow distant as she continues, “Things got really…weird.Monty would drink a lot. Him and my mom would have atrocious fights, he’d beat up on all of us, and Cade won’t confirm it, but I think that’s whenhisabuse started for him.”
It clicks in my brain. “Monty was a chomo?”
“He liked his own son,” Jenna’s voice drops. “And no one knew. My mom didn’t know. I didn’t know. Cade didn’t come clean about until the summer of…”
“The house fire,” I follow her, my mind flashing back to the file. “He killed his father.”
“I think my mom helped,” Jenna mumbles, plopping down into the desk chair and resting her head in her hands. “I’m not sure though. I was home from college, and Cade told me what happened to him.” She looks away from me, a tear rolling down her cheek. “And then the boat fire.”
