Page 69 of Save Me

Sam’s brother.

I place the photo down on the table, my hands no longer feeling like they belong to me as I back away slowly.

“What’s wrong?” I hear Sam ask, and I mumble something unintelligible in response. My heart pounds in my ears as I back further and further out of the room, trying to maintain my composure, and failing miserably until I give up, turning around and rushing for my keys, opening her apartment door, and darting to the elevator.

*

It doesn’t takelong for me to drive back to Jax’s place, his car zooming through the city streets and twenty minutes later I’m walking through the front door, throwing the keys on the entryway table, looking for any sign of him.

Loud voices sound as I walk down the hallway, and I’m surprised to hear them so clearly through the closed office door.

“You need to think this through.” Ryan all but yells to Jax.

“Yousawher when we found her. Youknowwhat they did to her. There is nothing I need to think through. They are dead men walking,” Jax says, his tone sending shivers through me, and I can’t help but feel a twinge of worry for anyone on the receiving end of his wrath.

I hear Ryan sigh, and someone starts to pace around the room.

I wring my hands nervously as I start to walk back and forth down the hallway, waiting for a lull in the conversation, needing to tell them the news that has rocked me to my core.

“And how will you explain a trail of dead bodies?” Ryan questions intently, his voice still loud. “We already left a few behind. It will draw too much attention if more people in their circle are found so soon after. It’s only a matter of time before Evi’s name gets brought into it—”

I jump at the sound of glass shattering as Jax’s voice reverberates through the entire house.

“I will kill anyone who even thinks about trying to bring her into this investigation. The whole city will bleed before I let them say her name.”

“Always so level-headed,” Ryan says in response as footsteps storm towards the door.

The door swings open and my eyes meet Jax, the rage that’s usually contained boiling to the surface, anger etched into every feature.

He softens as soon as he sees me. “Sorry, love, I didn’t realize you were—what’s wrong?”

He closes the distance between us, his hands cupping my face.

“You’re as pale as a ghost, what happened?”

“Bryce. Bryce is… Sam’s brother,” I stammer.

Jax’s eyebrows raise in surprise, but he listens quietly to me as I explain everything that just transpired at Sam’s apartment.

When I’m done talking I look up at him and notice that at some point Ryan has joined us, standing in the doorway to the office, listening to everything I just said.

“How?” I ask no one in particular. “How can Bryce be Sam’s brother? How can she be related to someone like that?” My eyes shoot to Jax. “How could she not mention the fact that her brotherdied?”

“Let’s find out,” Jax says, his voice dripping with violence, as he gestures behind Ryan. I follow their gaze, only to see the security cameras in the office showing Sam as she walks up the front steps of the building.

I meet Sam at the front door before she even has a chance to knock.

“Are you okay?” she asks worriedly. “You took off in a panic…” She trails off, looking at Jax’s expansive entryway behind me.

“So, this is where you live now—”

“How did you find the place?” I cut her off, having never given her Jax’s address.

“I followed you here, obviously. You took off in such a rush I wanted to make sure you were okay, which I’m not so sure about.”

Her brows crease together with worry, as she looks at me.

I let out a sigh, not sure what to think, not even sure if I want to process the idea that Bryce is related to Sam. Or even worse, that Sam could somehow be involved.

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