Page 85 of The Bad Brother

Facing forward again, I look at Cade. “YouknowEthan.” It’s not a question. The fact that not only do they know each other, they violently hate each other is obvious.

“I know Ethan.” Cade confirms while pulling onto the road.

When it becomes clear he’s not going to say anything else, I sigh. “Care to tell me how?”

“How doyouknow him?” His tone tells me Cade’s not looking for clarification. He’s looking for confirmation of what he already knows.

Suddenly ashamed of the life choices I’ve made, I shake my head. “He’s my ex.”

When I say it, Cade mutters something under his breath, glare aimed at the road in front of us. “Your ex-fiancé,” he elaborates, making it clear I’ve been the topic of more than a few conversations.

“Yes.” Refusing to feel bad about it, I nod my head. “Your turn. How do you know Ethan?”

The set of his jaw tells me he wants to tell menobefore he shakes his head on a sigh. “There’s only one high school between Clearwater and Barrett. One elementary school too—school board calls itsocialization.I call it a way to condition us poor folk into recognizing our betters from an early age.”

It takes me a second to process what he’s telling me. “You went to school with Ethan?”

“Clearwater might have a Louis Vuitton but it’s still a small town. We all went to school with each other, Doc.” Cade finally looks at me. Finally gives me a smirk I recognize. “You mentioned meeting your mother for lunch yesterday. That means she lives here.” Flicking a look in the rear view, he shakes his head. “Who Idon’tremember going to school with is you.”

“We moved here from Dallas when she married Mark?—”

“Mark?” Cade shoots me a pointed look. “MarkBarclay?”

“Yeah.” Momentarily confused again, I nod. “He’s my stepfather. Do you know him?”

“Everyone knows him,” Cade informs me, his tone tight. “He’s your father?”

“Mystepfather,” I say, making the distinction. “I barely know him. He shipped me off to boarding school as soon as I was able to tie my shoes,” I tell him, turning around in my seat again. The road behind us is clear. “He had no interest in raising another man’s child and my mother was too interested in the money to put up much of a fight.”

Something ugly and hard crawls across his face. So ugly and hard it scares me a little. Makes me remember what Ethan just said to him—I think you’ll find there’s a difference between killing me and killing some white trash whore nobody gives a shit about.Before I can ask him what Ethan meant by it, Cade speaks.

“What about your dad?” he asks, his tone hard enough to match his expression. “Why didn’t he take you?”

I look away from him to watch while we cross the bridge, the hospital immediately coming into view. It’s been

less than twenty minutes since I received myBLUE TEAMpage but it suddenly feels longer. “Because he’s dead,” I tell him, my tone steady. “He and my mom were never married. He died of a drug overdose when I was six. To be honest, I barely knew him either.”

I can feel Cade, alternating looks between me and the road like he’s waiting for me to start crying. He doesn’t have to worry. I stopped crying over my father a long time ago.

I’VE BEEN WATCHING REESE PACE ANDBilly cry for about an hour now. Neither one of them have said anything to me. To be honest, I don’t even think they know I’m here which is fine. Preferable even. What could I say to make this situation better?Sorry, my psycho brother tried to kill your dadis about all I’ve got and if it were me, and I were Reese, I’d shove my patheticsorryup my ass.

After having me identify the torched truck as mine and the one I hired Red to fix, Colt brought me to hospital. It’s not where I want to be. I want to be in a car with Sloane, halfway to Austin, but it’s where Ishouldbe, so he dropped me off with alet me do my job, Jenbefore driving off to check on his mother, Sera and the kids. It’s Sunday—no school. Everyone’s home.

Even though I know Cade is standing watch, I pull out my phone to check on Sloane. Logging into the security app that’ll let me access the security cameras I had installed, Iexpect to find her sleeping. Instead, I find her up and dressed, flying down the stairs, her pager in her hand.

I know what she’s doing.

She’s leaving.

She’s coming here.

Reminding myself that Cade is there with her, that she’s safe, I watch while she rushes out the door and into the hall where she has a brief, tense-looking conversation with Cade before she steps out of the camera’s view. Flipping from camera to camera, I watch their progress until I get to the cameras that survey the parking lot and see Ethan’s car parked next to hers.

Before I can call Cade to warn him, the front door to the bar flies open and there he is, Sloane in tow, a baseball bat levered against his shoulder. Words are exchanged while Cade leads Sloane to the passenger side door of her car and helps her into it before he closes it. Circling the front of her car, Cade stops and exchanges words with Ethan again. Moving to open his own car door, he stops long enough to point his bat at the security camera I have mounted on the roof, the angle of it wide enough to catch the entire parking lot. Warning issued, Cade climbs into the car and drives away with Sloane riding shotgun while Ethan moves into the spot they just vacated to watch them drive away.

As soon as they’re gone, Ethan turns and looks directly at the camera I’m watching him on. Lifting his hand, he smiles and waves before getting into his own car and driving away.

I don’t take a full breath until I see Sloane rush past the surgical ICU waiting room, so focused on the job waiting for her that she doesn’t notice me while Cade and his batbring up the rear. Stopping in front of the waiting room, Cade stands in the middle of the hallway, watching while Sloane badges in and disappears behind the security doors where Red is waiting for her to save him.

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