Chapter 35
CASSIE
Morning sun streamed across my apartment floors as I boxed up my parents’ files. It was quiet, the light both familiar and comforting, but I was surprised to find that I didn’t miss it.
I’d lived in the apartment since I’d graduated high school, ever since Bram bought the building for me as a graduation gift. I had a lot of good memories here: laughter-filled takeout with Daisy and Sarai, more than a few heart-to-hearts, lots of TV binges curled up on the sofa in my pajamas.
But it felt like part of a life that wasn’t mine anymore.
My life — my real life in the here and now — was in the sprawling house outside of town.
With the Hawks.
My heartbeat kicked up a notch at the thought of them. I never stopped wanting them, never stopped craving whatever they’d do to me next when we were naked and desperate for each other, and I’d almost gotten used to walking around in a state of near-constant arousal.
Hawk and Jagger had come home late after meeting up with the Kings to try and track the recipient of the money transferred from Kensington Trust to Aventine.
The transfer my parents had highlighted before their murders.
I’d been post-orgasm and asleep in Vigo’s bed when they come home, but that hadn’t stopped them from joining us, from stripping off my pajamas and making me come again and again before I’d fallen back into a deep sleep, this time with all three of the men who dominated my thoughts and dreams.
Thanks to my early morning shift at the coffee shop, we hadn’t even gotten to ask what Hawk and Jagger found. I probably should have called out — I’d hardly slept — but the coffee shop still felt like my real life and I hadn’t wanted to bail on Kaylee.
Plus, I wanted to move the boxes full of my parents things to the Hawks’ house where I could access them anytime I wanted.
I was putting the lid on the box I’d just packed when a heavy knock sounded at my door.
I knew it was Bram — he always knocked like the police serving a search warrant, or the way I imagined the police would sound serving a search warrant anyway — but I’d been extra careful to double bolt the door and use the chain so I got up off the floor and crossed the room to answer it instead of just telling him to come in.
“Good.” He scowled when I opened the door. “I’m glad you’re locking up even when you’re home.”
I opened the door wider. “I’m not an idiot.” I was careful after what had happened to me on the mountain, not just in my apartment but everywhere. “And good morning to you too.”
“Sorry.” He strode into my apartment and looked around like he expected the Hawks to be hiding behind the furniture.
I didn’t know what to do about the fact that they seemed to hate each other, about the fact that my ninety days with the Hawks was up in less than two weeks and I had no idea how to talk to the Hawks — let alone Bram — about what came next.
What I wanted to come next.
“What are you doing here so early?” I didn’t bother locking the door when I shut it.
In Blackwell Falls, Bram was all the deterrent I needed.
“I could ask you the same thing,” he said. “I thought you opened on Wednesdays.”
“I do,” I said. “I did, but I wanted to pack up some things to take to the Hawks.”
I hated even mentioning them to him, but I hated the fact that I hated it even more, and for the first time in my life, I felt resentful of my big brother.
“What things?” His gaze landed on the cardboard file boxes strewn across my living room floor.
“Mom and Dad’s things,” I said, lifting the box I’d just repacked on to the stack of the ones that were ready to go to my rental car.
His expression darkened, and the scar on the left side of his face creased deeper into his skin. I couldn’t look at it without thinking about what had happened to him on the mountain when he’d been just a teenager, especially now that I’d been through something like it.
“Why would you do that?” I only saw pain in his eyes but I understood why they scared people.
Why he scared people.
His eyes were so dark they were almost black, and the energy I read as anguish everyone but Maeve seemed to read as danger.
And to be fair, Bram was dangerous. So there was that.
“Because I’m still trying to figure out who killed them,” I said. “Who tried to kill me.”
“I told you,” he said, running a hand over his short dark hair. “I’m taking care of that.”
They were the words he’d murmured when I’d opened my eyes at the hospital after my surgery: I’m going to find out who did this to you.
But he hadn’t said a word after that and I’d left it alone because the last thing I wanted was Bram on a tear, putting himself in danger because of what had happened to me.
Whoever had killed my parents had already taken a shot at doing the same to me. I didn’t know if I’d survive losing Bram.
“How?” I asked.
“I’ve got people inside BPD,” he said, looking out the window like he was tracking a stalker.
“I’m not sure the Blackwell Police Department knows anything about the international sex trafficking ring Mom and Dad were investigating when they were murdered.”
“You’d be surprised,” he said without looking away from the window.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing. Never mind.” He turned to look at me. “The point is, I don’t want you mixed up in this shit.”
I sighed. “Let’s not fight about this again. You asked why I wanted to bring Mom and Dad’s stuff to the Hawks. And since Travis Dorsey said someone hired him to run them off the road and I’m still trying to figure out who that is, I need to bring the boxes home.”
The nerve in his eyebrow jumped like it did when he was trying to control himself. “Home?”
My cheeks heated and I busied myself throwing papers and file folders into one of the open boxes. “It’s home for now.”
I was almost relieved to be off the subject of the people who had killed my parents, although I didn’t know what was worse, talking to Bram about that or about the Hawks.
Honestly, it was starting to seem like it was the talking part that was the problem.
Bram didn’t know how to communicate without breaking things, and while I knew Maeve was working on it with him, it probably wasn’t easy for him to unravel a lifetime of using knives and fists as his only conversional tool.
“Only for two more weeks,” Bram said. “Then you’ll be back here.”
The hard edge to his voice said there was no room for argument, so I didn’t say anything, but he must have picked up on all the things I left unsaid because when he spoke again, his voice sounded more worried than mad.
“You are coming back here when your ninety days are up, right Cass?”
“Yes,” I said. “I mean. probably.”
He folded his arms over the mountain of his chest. “Probably?”
“I don’t know!” I said. “I don’t know what I want.”
That part was a lie. I knew exactly what I wanted.
Them. The Hawks.
But it was easier to lie than to admit it out loud, especially to Bram.
“Well you’re not staying with them,” he said. “That’s out of the question.”
Now I was the one folding my arms over my chest. “I’m an adult.”
His jaw tightened and his face got red, like he was a cartoon steam engine about to blow. “You have no idea the shit they’re mixed up in, Cass.”
I stared him down. “Maybe you should start by telling me the shit you’re mixed up in.”
I knew. I mean, I’d heard the rumors. But I’d left it alone because Bram wanted me to leave it alone.
Except now he was all up in my business, and that made his business fair game.
He rolled his shoulders, like he was trying to control himself and strode across the room. “We’ll talk about this another time.” He opened the door and turned to look at me. “But Cass, if you think I’m going to let you stay with those psychotic fuckers, you’ve got another think coming.”
He slammed the door behind him, leaving me standing in my living room, alone and surrounded by our dead parents’ things.