Page 107 of Veiled in Brick

I winced at his accusatory tone.

“It’s Mister Milkovich, Liam,” Luke corrected him without an acknowledgement of his brother’s confusion regarding Liam’s presence.

James returned slowly. “Luke? Am I on speaker?”

“Mhm.”

The hum of a yes came from all of us at the same time that a light lit up on the dashboard along with a ding that signified low tire pressure.

James asked, “What was that? Are you driving?”

“Yup.”

My succinct response hung in the air, the rigid tension around us all grew even more, and, because James wasn’t there to feel it himself, he replied with a gentle exhale, “Zoey, I said to stay and relax. You’ve gotta be running on fumes.”

I sighed. “We ran into a bit of a situation.”

“A bit of a situation?” Liam said disbelievingly.

Claire admonished me, “Zoey.”

Luke didn’t say anything aloud, but I could make out his dissatisfied grumble from the back seat.

“Am I missing an important piece to the puzzle?” James inquired sarcastically. “It feels like—”

“The guy tried to snatch Zoey in her parents’ kitchen after everyone went to bed,” Liam interjected. I shot him a glare, for I wasn’t in the mood to be bringing up my most recent interaction with the mystery man, and as Liam caught my eye, he snapped, “Don’t fuckin’ look at me like that, Zo’. I’m not hiding shit. She had to stab him with a goddamn kitchen knife to get away—”

“Oh my God,” James muttered. “And you let me go on about my camera footage shit, what the fuck? Zoey, are you—”

“I’m okay, yes, I’m fine, Jesus,” I retorted, wholly tired of people asking about my wellbeing. Silence greeted me, and I rephrased, “I am fine. Thank you, Jay.”

“You had to stab him?” James asked, and I could picture his grey eyes wide; his high eyebrows creating wrinkles all along his forehead.

“Wouldn’t consider it a stab,” I replied. “Think I just kinda…I dunno…nicked him.”

“It was more than a nick,” Claire joined in. “The blood I had to clean off the floor was way more than a nick’s worth—”

“Jesus…wait, you cleaned the crime scene?” James whispered incredulously. “Why?!”

I spoke before Claire could, “Not involving my parents in this. They slept through it all and I had no intention of—”

“He attacked you in their home,” James argued. “Pretty sure they’re involved. You guys had this fucker’s DNA and decided that it was time to ensure your squeaky clean rep with your parents isin-fucking-tact?”

Liam stated definitively, “Even if Claire didn’t clean it, all that did was prove Zoey attacked him. There was no clue of him forcing his way in. This is exactly why we didn’t keep the knife.”

“Well, thank God you’re not on the road with a bloody knife in the car,” he sneered.

“James!” Luke interrupted his brother in a curt tone. “Let it the fuck go. We’re fried.”

The line was quiet for several seconds, and then James calmly replied, “Okay. Sorry.“ His breath ran over the speaker in a huff. “How did he even find you? I don’t understand.”

Stress and repeatedly living through my most recent hellscape nearly made my teeth itch, and I remarked, “Y’know, I didn’t ask questions while he was pressing my neck into the goddamn ground and he was saying he’d kill anyone who gets in his way.”

James uttered a very quiet, “What the fuck.”

“That’s not making me want to murder this guy any less, Zo’,” Liam said under his breath as he narrowed his eyes at the road.

The knowledge of the man’s deadly intent sank in for the rest of the car. I saw Luke’s eyes widen to the point that they were bulging as I glimpsed him in the rear-view mirror, and Claire—well, Claire’s body stiffened for a beat of altogether horrid silence. Then, she finally voiced aloud what had flashed through my mind the moment that my phone had begun to buzz with James’ call.

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