“Miles –”
“You were always the favourite. Even when she wasn’t our mum anymore, the voices taking over, she still chose you over me.” He shook his head, stepping back.
“That money’s everything I have, Miles. Everything. It was supposed to help me buy out this fucking contract. But that doesn’t matter, does it? Because you know I’d spend my last penny on you.”
“There you go again, always protecting me.” His smile was cold, empty. “Guilt’s a powerful emotion, isn’t it?”
His words cut as deep as any knife. “Go home. Put some ice on your face. I’ll deal with your fuckups, just like I do every time.”
“What would I do without you?” he chuckled, the sound hollow.
She didn’t watch him leave, folding her arms around her chest, tight enough to hold herself together. Their father was the perfect husband and dad on the outside, a highly respected officer, friend, and neighbour. But behind closed doors he was anything but, disciplining his kids, and his wife with frequent outbursts of violence. Rae couldn’t recall everything, sure her mind was suppressing most of it, but she remembered crying, her arm broken at just five, maybe six. Miles had been only three years older, and he’d cuddled her on the floor, wiping away her tears. His face had been black and blue, and yet he sat with her until their mother came back. After that she’d stepped in whenever she was home, taking the beatings instead of Rae.
But she wasn’t always home.
‘She needs some respect.’
Her father’s voice flowed across her mind, and fear speared through her heart much the same as when she was small. It had taken her nine more years to gain enough courage to stand up to him, and as a result he’d lost it. He’d killed their mum in a rage, and because he was a corrupt cop, he’d gotten away with it. He’d told everyone she was crazy, planting a knife in her hand despite him having nothing but defensive wounds. His skin beneath her nails as she fought until her last breath.
Strangely, one of the things Rae remembered in vivid detail was the time directly after, the media circus surrounding the ‘crazy’ mother who’d attacked her police detective husband. She remembered every face of the force members who’d investigated, and quickly swept evidence under the carpet. Almost everything before then was a blur, pops of colour in a history of black and white.
Her father had gotten away with it, and Rae had taken great pleasure in pulling the trigger less than a year later, watching her father’s brains explode from the back of his head. She’d used his own gun, the same one he’d trained her with. It had been easy to set it up as a suicide, typing a note admitting everything, from the beatings to losing control. How he couldn’t live with himself anymore. The same people who’d failed her mother, didn’t give a shit about her father.
Guess she was a result of her upbringing. Nature versus nurture, and all that.
“Why do you put up with him?”
She’d felt Titus approach, a comforting warmth who’d given her the space she needed. The same man who she’d tried to kill, and yet helped her without question.
Rae turned, confused why the ache in her chest calmed at his presence. “He’s the only family I have left.”
“You can choose your family, you know.”
“Like you did?”
Titus didn’t smile, and she wasn’t sure why she was disappointed.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” she said, clearing her throat. She’d cried too many tears over her parents, and then Miles. There would be no more.
He blinked, expression empty. “Done what?”
“Stop playing fucking games.” Rae moved forward. “I can’t, not right now. Just…” She wasn’t sure how to react right then, her emotions raw. “I don’t have another seventy-two hours. I’m not sure I even have half that.” And unlikely the money to pay him back anytime soon, which meant if she somehow survived timing out, she’d owe him.
“We better keep working on who fucking hired you then.”
Rae licked across her bottom lip. “We need to keep moving. I can’t risk you getting yourself killed before I decide whether to collect on my assignment or not.”
A break in his mask, a slight curve of his lips. “Such a Rae of fucking sunshine.”
* * *
Rae waited for Titus to unlock the door, pulling the fabric from her face. “I don’t think a blindfold was necessary.”
“I don’t trust you.”
Okay, fair, she thought, taking in the large house that had an amazing amount of natural light, and the grand stairwell that led to the floor above. “But with your t-shirt? You keep trying to get naked around me, it’s alarming.”
Titus shot her a look over his shoulder, guiding her to what she’d assumed was his room. “We can’t stay long.”
