Page 44 of Unchained

“I don’t know. When I think of them, I feel like I was near a fire.”

Several seconds passed. Lexi remained silent. He pulled his hands away from his face to look at his sister. Her large blue eyes were rimmed with tears, and the tip of her nose turned pink as she struggled to stop herself from crying. “What?” he asked breathlessly.

“The memory you’re having is of the night everything happened.” She brushed her sleeve underneath her eyes. “You were investigating Lionsgate while being employed—”

He stiffened. “I worked for them?”

“You and Dad both did. But you found some suspicious records and reported it to Dad, and then Conrad found out . . .”

“What happened?”

She sighed heavily. “You discovered that Lionsgate was trafficking children through their group home. You didn’t tell me what was going on because you didn’t want to endanger me, but you hid evidence for me to find, in case something happened to you.” She sniffled, and tears rushed out of her eyes. “I was staying with Mom and Dad that night to help Mom organize donations for the women’s shelter. They went to bed, and then you called and told me you had something huge. Something you couldn’t tell me about, especially over the phone, but you said you were coming over.”

His chest tightened with every breath.

“I fell asleep and woke up to the smell of smoke. When I went into the hallway, it was full of flames—I couldn’t make it past. I told Mom and Dad to get downstairs and I’d go through the window.” Lexi wrung her hands as she spoke.

“Then what happened?”

“I climbed out and saw a man running for the woods behind our house. I got down and chased him—”

Brooks tensed. Of all the stupid things to do.

“Don’t look at me like that,” she scolded, her eyes hot. “All I wanted was something to identify him with. He stabbed me and ran.” She paused and took a deep breath. “Mom and Dad died, but I know they were murdered because I saw them make it downstairs, so close to the front door. And you were nowhere to be found.”

The air around Brooks thickened as if he were sucking in steam. His mind fell back in time to that night. He remembered lurching to a stop in his car and seeing his childhood home up in flames. He’d run inside, and a man had struck him in the neck with a stun gun. His body had jolted as he fell to the ground, smoke closing in around him. Then he’d woken up chained to a stained mattress in a bunker somewhere in the fucking desert, where he’d done slave labor until Leonetti showed up with a van and bought him as if he were a bag of barley.

Bastards. All of them.

Lexi touched his shoulder. “You remember that night, don’t you?”

He nodded.

She rested her head on his arm. “I’m just glad you’re okay. Everything else will fall into place.”

He bristled. “No, it won’t.”

She straightened. “What do you mean?”

“Conrad trafficked children and is out on bail.”

“Not for long. The detective working his case—”

“Bullshit.” Brooks stood, and Lexi toppled to the cushion he’d vacated. “I need to find him. Where is he?”

Lexi sent a wild gaze to Nash, who quickly entered the living room. “Hey,” Nash said. He stood at eye level with Brooks. “Relax, man.”

“I can’t relax. They killed my parents, stabbed Lexi”—he gestured at his sister—“trafficked innocent children and sold me as a fucking slave and guinea pig.”

Cam brushed around Nash and pressed her body to his. Her hands locked around his waist. His insides melted a little at her touch, but part of him wanted to revolt. To break away from the calm that she brought. He needed to be angry and carry out his revenge before it was too late.

“They’re after me. They want me back at the lab, and they’ve marked Cam as a kidnapper and a danger to society. It won’t be long before they find us.”

Lexi pushed to her feet. “That’s not going to happen.”

“So what are we supposed to do?”

Nash came forward and gripped his shoulder. “You’re right. You need to get your revenge and you’re entitled to that. I’ll help you.”

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