“You sure? Maybe we shouldn’t split up.”
“The house is empty. I’ll be back soon.”
Anthony sat down with the gun on the floor nextto him. He picked up some of the scattered papers and started reading, but everything turned out to be finance-related—lines and lines of figures and dates. He kept reading, hoping to find any sort of clue to the brothers’ whereabouts, but how would he even know how to spot it? He wasn’t likely to stumble on a map with a red circle around the treasure.
A few minutes later, Ethan came back looking troubled.
Anthony put down the papers he’d been reading. “What’s wrong?”
Ethan sat next to him, holding what seemed like a stack of photos. “I found those in one of the bedrooms, hidden in a drawer.”
Anthony took the photos. He only needed a single glance to understand Ethan’s reaction. His stomach got tighter and tighter the more he saw, until it started to hurt. A teenage Chris appeared naked in most of the photos, staring at the camera with a void expression. When he wasn’t naked, he wore sleazy clothes. A couple of the photos were from an event, maybe a dinner party. The only visible face was Chris’s, but other people were clearly around. In one of the photos, he stood with large angel wings strapped to his back, his bare skin golden and gleaming.
An old memory resurfaced, making Anthony shiver. After the first time he’d slept with Chris, he insisted on taking Anthony’s intimate photos.How much of whatthey’d done had roots connected to this house and to this family? He took a breath, refusing to let those dark thoughts take over. What he and Chris shared had moments of beauty, of sincere intimacy that could never be associated with these sick photos, or with any of the dark memories floating around this house.
He tried hard to believe that.
Ethan took the photos back. “I’m keeping them. We might need them as evidence.”
Anthony nodded. The need to free Chris turned into a physical force, a piercing pain. He stood up, dizzy and nauseous, his skin hot. Without thinking, he lifted the framed family photo and hurled it against the wall. Glass splashed across the floor, with pieces of wood flying around.
Ethan came to stand next to him. “Did it feel good?”
“I think so. Yes.”
Ethan picked up a round glass paperweight from the desk. He bounced it in his palm, then threw it against the wall. Glass flew like bullets, luckily not hitting them.
Anthony locked his eyes with Ethan, both smiling in mischief. In seconds, they grabbed whatever they could find and smashed it to pieces. From the office, they stormed the living room.
Ethan took out his phone and put on “It’s The End of the World as We Know It” by REM. They both loved that song, and it felt fitting since their world might never bethe same again. Ten, twenty, fifty years down the line, they would still carry the wounds of Chris and Jay’s absence.
With the drums and guitars bouncing between the walls, they wreaked havoc like a raging tornado. They broke, smashed, and shattered everything they could grab. A sea of debris formed on the floor, yet Anthony couldn’t find satisfaction.
When there was nothing left to break, he breathed heavily, his shirt clinging to his sweaty skin.
Ethan stopped the music and slumped on the couch. “Fuck, I needed that.”
Anthony sat next to him. “And now we need a shower.”
“Badly.”
They smiled tiredly at one another, although there was little to smile about. At least they were in this shit together.
Ethan nudged a broken chair with his foot. “I didn’t know I was such a vandal.”
Anthony chuckled. “Yeah, dating you is definitely a wild roller coaster ride.”
Ethan’s eyes narrowed. “A roller coaster ride...”
“What?”
He grabbed Anthony’s hand. “I just remembered something!”
21
TREVOR
Should guns be so loud?Trevor’s ears rang. It always sounded quieter in the movies.
