“Whose bodies?”
“Thad and Janelle.”
Prime was quiet for a second. “Aight. I’ll take care of it. What about Bryce? Zainab is worrying me about him.”
“Justice has him. He’s fine for now.”
“Cool. I’ll hit you when I know something.”
I hung up and Mehar was staring at me from the passenger seat with an expression I couldn’t fully read.
“Bryce?” she said. “What does my brother have to do with any of this?”
I kept my eyes on the road. “Shortly after the casino shooting, Mekhi grabbed a kid connected to the Vipers. The crew that shot up the grand opening and put Zephyr in a wheelchair. That kid turned out to be your brother.”
She sat up straight and her face changed completely. The exhaustion was still there but something hot flashed through it. “Wait what? I knew it. I knew he was doing something shady. So you have him locked away somewhere?”
“Justice has him and he’s safe. I found out he was your brother the same night you went missing, Mehar. It all happened at once. I was trying to find you. He’s the one behind the robbery and fire.”
“Is he hurt?”
“No. He’s at Justice’s place. He’s fine.”
“That boy, I swear to God.” She pressed her bound hands against her forehead and closed her eyes. “I knew he was into some bullshit. I told him to be careful when we had dinner and he just smiled at me and said ‘I will, sis’ like he wasn’t out hererunning with a gang. You have to hide him, Quest. If whoever he’s working for finds out he’s been taken, they’ll come for him.”
“He’s working for Mega.”
Her eyes opened. “Mega. Your sister’s Mega?”
“Yeah.”
“So the man who was beating Serenity is the same man who hired my brother to attack your family.” She shook her head slowly. “This is insane.”
“I know. But Bryce is cooperating. He gave us Mega’s location, his stash house, everything. He’ll be safe as long as he stays put.”
“He better be.” She looked at me and her eyes were sharp despite the exhaustion. “And you better not hurt him, Quest. I don’t care what he did. That’s my blood.”
“I’m not going to hurt your brother.”
“Promise me.”
“I promise. But he has to pay for the damage he’s caused.”
She held my eyes for a long second, deciding whether to believe me. Whatever she found in my face must have been enough because she nodded once and then looked down at the chains on her wrists and let out a breath that sounded like it had been trapped inside her for hours.
She was quiet after that. Her eyes got heavy and by the time we crossed into Virginia she was asleep with her head against the window and the chains resting in her lap and my jacket draped over her shoulders.
The estate was dark when we pulled up. I’d bought this property three years ago as a retreat, forty acres with a main house, a guest cottage, a small hangar, and a private runway. It was the one place in the world that had nothing to do with Banks Reserve or the casino or the streets. It was just mine. And now it was hers too.
I carried her inside because her feet were too cut up to walk on gravel and she was barely conscious. I laid her on the couch in the living room and went to the garage where I kept a toolbox with bolt cutters. When I came back she was sitting up, looking around the house with glassy, half-awake eyes.
“Where are we?”
“Virginia. My place. You’re safe here.”
I knelt in front of her and took her wrists in my hands. Gently, because the skin underneath the metal cuffs was raw and torn and crusted with dried blood. She winced when I touched them and I stopped until she nodded for me to keep going. I positioned the bolt cutters on the first cuff and squeezed. The metal gave with a sharp snap and the cuff fell open and I eased it off her wrist as carefully as I could. The skin underneath was angry and red and stripped in places where the metal had been grinding against bone for hours.
I moved to the second wrist. Same care, same patience. She was watching my hands the whole time and neither of us was talking because the moment didn’t need words. I cut the second cuff and it fell away and the chain pooled on the floor between us with a heavy clatter and Mehar looked at her bare wrists and then looked at me and her eyes filled for the first time all night.
