Page 2 of Lane

I had a plan though. As soon as we returned, I was going to find the man who ordered my brother’s death. If he didn’t kill me on the spot, I was going to beg him to help me, make him an offer he couldn’t refuse.

My mom gasped in her sleep, her head rolling from side to side.

I reached for her hand again, holding it in mine. “It’s okay. I’m safe. You don’t have to worry about me.”

Her dreams weren’t about her well-being. About a month ago, she told me they were about her children, wanting us alive and well. Losing her son was very difficult for her. In her current state, sometimes she thought he was still alive and asked for him. She’d requested my other brother too, but he didn’t visit her.

“Lane…” Her eyes were still closed in sleep.

“I’m here, Mom.”

“You’ll figure it out.” I’d heard this before while she wasn’t fully awake and still had no clue what she meant. Previously,she’d brought up North Carolina, something about a small house on the water.

“I’ll try.”

Her voice rose above a whisper. She didn’t have the strength to yell. “Run, Lane, run.”

“I will.”

“Promise me.” Her head stilled, her eyes opening, but she wasn’t lucid.

I swallowed, emotion choking me. “I promise, Mom.”

“You’re a good boy.”

My eyes squeezed closed, tears slipping from the corners.

“My Lane.”

When I looked at her again, her eyes were shut and she was calm in sleep. She could leave this world tonight, tomorrow, or days from now. It was inevitable I would lose my mom. Until I did, I’d spend as much time as I could with her.

And while I didn’t want to think about when she was gone, I had to for her. I had to run from the only family I’d known and find a way to be free for good. I’d do it for her and me because neither of us deserved the hands we’d been dealt.

1

LANE

Present Day

I wore a smile as I walked through the door to the building. Not all of the dates I’d been on were great. Hell, some of them were downright awful. Last week, I went out with a man who hit on multiple people at the bar and ignored me. I ate my dinner alone and made him pay for it for wasting my time.

If I didn't have other people requesting dates, I would have thought there was something wrong with me. There still could be. None of the men I’d been out with desired a repeat. At least tonight, I leaned into the fact my date only wanted a good meal and an even better fuck. Hence the smile on my face.

“That good?” Sheldon asked when I exited the elevator onto my floor. It was one in the morning, and he was doing his usual pacing of the building.

“The best I’ve had in a while.”

“Does that mean you're seeing him again?”

“Nope. We ate, came, and parted ways.”

I started walking down the hall toward my apartment. It wasn’t the same one as when Jordan had me under a guard’s watchful eyes. I’d moved to a higher floor, lost my babysitters, and enjoyed a two-bedroom apartment. There was rent I hadto pay, but the utilities were covered. The rent was much lower than it should have been. Being related to one of Jordan’s partners had its perks.

“Now what?” Sheldon asked as he trailed behind me.

I stopped when I reached my door and leaned against the wall beside it. My arms crossed as I assessed the late-night conversation with the guard turned shadow once the sun went down. “Why do you want to know?”

Sheldon raked his hand through his blond hair and glanced down the hall, where there was nothing but closed doors. His sweatpants hung low on his hips, and the T-shirt he wore was a size too big. "If you must know, I need a distraction. I have no love life to speak of, so I’m latching on to yours.”

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