“Where is he?”
“Bliss—”
“Where the fuck is he, Knox?”
The entire group went still. People nearby turned. I didn’t care.
Knox flinched like my voice had physically hit him, but he still didn’t tell me. That scared me more than if he had. My big brother, who had spent my entire life answering questions before I asked them because he knew I hated not knowing, looked me in the face and kept the truth behind his teeth.
“No,” I said, backing away from Aura and Charm’s hands. “No, don’t do that. Don’t you do cop voice with me. Where is Cade?”
Dad moved in front of me. “Bug, listen to Knox.”
“I am not listening to anyone until somebody tells me where he is.”
My voice cracked on the last word, and there was no part of me left to be embarrassed by it. The old me would have madea joke. The old me would have reached for something shiny and stupid so no one had to see the panic bare on my face.
But there was no joke. There was nothing shiny left. There was only Cade somewhere inside The Furnace while my brother asked if he was breathing.
Knox said into the phone, “Stay with him. Do not leave him. I’m calling you right back.”
He ended the call before Ryan could answer.
“Knox,” Ryker snapped.
But Knox was already answering another call, and the second he did, something about him changed again.
Worse.
Which seemed impossible.
“Detective Bennett.”
Not my brother… Detective Bennett.
The part of him that belonged to the law stepped forward while the rest of us stood in the cold with our hearts in our hands, waiting for the world to tell us what it had taken.
Knox closed his eyes for half a second. It was quick, maybe nothing to anyone else, but every Bennett saw it. Every one of us knew what it meant when Knox stopped looking at the world.
He was bracing. Not as a cop. Not as the brother who always had a plan. But as someone about to hear something bad enough that even he needed one stolen second to survive it.
“Yeah,” he said, voice scraped raw now. “I’m here.”
My pulse beat once.
“What?” I whispered.
Nobody answered.
Knox looked toward the arena doors like he could see through concrete, steel, people, distance, everything. “No. I’m outside with my family.”
Another pause. His gaze flicked to me, then away so fast it felt like a slap.
“What?” I said louder. “Knox, what?”
His jaw worked once. Then he said, “You need me to identify him?”
Ryker moved first. “What the fuck does that mean?”
