Page 46 of The Bad Brother

The pantry is full.

And I don’t mean just full.

I meanstuffed.More of the organic canned soups I ate when I first moved in. No less than four different types ofcrackers. Pasta and jarred sauce. Boxed rice. Packaged snacks. It literally looks like someone walked into a grocery store and said,I’ll take six of everything.

Setting my pilfered soups on the island because there’s no room for them, I reach out and open the fridge.

Same thing.

Stuffed with eggs and cheese. Milk and butter. Fresh fruits and vegetables. Condiments and yogurt. Opening the freezer, I find the same thing. Ready-made meals alongside steaks wrapped in butcher paper. Several containers of ice cream and frozen pizzas.

Letting the freezer swing closed, I race upstairs and into the bathroom. Checking the shower, I find the toiletry items I’d taken from the hospital supply closet are gone, replaced with brand-name products. I’d been so tired and worried about what Jensen was doing in the basement that I hadn’t even noticed.

Heart hammering in my chest because I knowwho, I just don’t understand why, I let out a soft, wobbly sigh just as my tea kettle starts to whistle, the sound of it snapping me out of my reverie just as the front door bursts open downstairs and somebody shouts my name.

“Sloane!”

It’s River, the frantic hysteria in her voice pulling me to the railing that surrounds the sleep loft. Peering over it, I feel the air rush from my lungs like someone just punched me in the stomach.

Cade and Austin are standing in my living room, dragging a pale-looking Jensen between them, wearing nothing but a pair of loose track pants and blood.

Lots and lots of blood.

ISHOULD’VE SEEN THIS COMING.

I should have known that after the bomb I dropped on Ethan at the club a few weeks ago that he’d find a way to get even. Make me pay for getting the better of him in front of his fiancé.

I got sloppy.

Let my guard down.

And now here I am, bleeding all over Sloane’s hardwood floors.

“Sloane!” River calls her name, the near hysteria I hear in her tone feels like getting cut all over again. Riv’s got a thing about blood. Falls apart at the tiniest drop. I’m not exactly sure what it is but, if I had to guess it has to do with her parent’s accident.

“I’m okay, Riv,” I tell her, trying to reassure her over the shrill whistle of a tea kettle. “It’s not that bad.”That’s a lie. I can feel the blood running down my leg. It’s pretty fucking bad.

Hearing footsteps, I lift my head to see Sloane hustling down the steps so fast I’m afraid her feet are going to get tangled up enough to pitch her down the stairs.

“River.” Landing on her feet, Sloane rushes toward us. “Grab a chair from the dining room and bring it into the kitchen,” she says, her commanding tone cutting through River’s hysteria and snapping her back to reality. While River rushes to follow directions, Sloane steps in front of me and tucks her hand under my chin. Lifting my head just enough to look me in the eye, she frowns like she doesn’t like what she sees. “What happened?”

Before I can tell her, River hustles past us with a chair, dragging it into the kitchen. “Now what?”

“Shut off the kettle and then go upstairs and grab every clean towel you can find,” Sloane tells her without hesitation. As soon as River is moving again, she flicks a hard look at Cade. “Get him into the chair so I can see what’s going on.”

Austin and Cade shuffle me into the kitchen, right behind River who cuts the burner on the stove before bolting for the sleep loft. The silence that replaces the shrill whistle of the kettle is so deafening, my ears are ringing. Setting me in the chair so that I’m straddling the seat, Cade drapes me over of the back of it, handful of bloody bar towels still pressed firmly against my back, trying to staunch the flow.

Coming around to the front of me, Sloane hunkers down again while River tears the linen closet apart upstairs.Frowning again, Sloane looks me in the eye. “What’s your name?”

“I’m not in shock, Peach,” I tell her in a quiet tone. “I just need you to stitch me up.”

Still frowning, she looks up at Cade. “Doyouknow what happened?”

“We’re not sure,” Cade says. “He was between fi—” Realizing he’s on the verge of saying too much, Cade looks down at me and I give him a barely perceptible nod, telling him that it’s fine. To keep talking. “He was between fights, walking through the crowd when suddenly people started screaming and—” Cut off by River’s footfalls on the stairs, Cade shakes his head. “Sera’s downstairs by herself,” he says. “I need to go?—”

“Go on,” Sloane says, just as River rushes toward the kitchen with a stack of clean towels. “Take care of your sister.” Replacing Cade’s hand pressed to my back with her own, she tips her chin at the door. “I’ve got this.”

Giving her a grateful head nod, Cade disappears back downstairs to help his sister clear out the bar. Towels dumped on the kitchen island, River lets out a shaky breath. “Now what?”

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