Page 58 of Liam

“Never know what?” I ask her, pretending to take the bait.

She smiles even wider and brings her face closer to me. I ignore the horrible smell coming from her mouth. “I had a baby eight years ago.”

My heart hits the floor. Liam has a little brother or sister. She could be lying. I almost hope that she is because I hate the idea of another child having this kind of life.

“Boy or girl?”

“Boy.” She cackles, and my stomach twists. I open the door and run into the main room to find Liam. He needs to know.

Liam sees me running and walks toward me, along with the other guys. He catches me, holding me by my elbows. “What is it?”

“She just told me that she had a baby eight years ago, a boy.”

Liam’s face pales and I can see that he has the same kind of mindset I did. It is a scary thing to think that another child is in that situation. His dad is dead but where is the kid?

Is there even a kid?

20

Liam

I hope that she is lying, I hope that what she is saying is a bunch of shit to get out of dying and that I don’t have a little brother who is suffering the same way I fucking did.

I follow Paisley into the interrogation room where Shaylin is breaking her fingers. “Tell me!” she screams and breaks her pinky finger. Shaylin looks at all of us and takes a step back, and Paisley does the same.

I walk straight to her, and she is staring at me. “You are going to tell me where the fuck he is or I will enjoy slicing every single inch of your skin off your body, then I will sew you back-to-fucking-together and do it over and over again. I will make you suffer and I will keep you alive for months,” I snarl into her face, not giving a fuck that she is a woman. She is not a woman. She is a fucking piece of shit. I hate her more than my fucking father at this moment.

“Will you not kill me?”

“Not if you tell me where he is.” I am lying right through my fucking teeth. She will be dead by the end of the day. She is just choosing how easy her death will be.

She tells us an address next. “His name is Caiden, he is eight years old.” She stops and looks at my face like she is studying it. “You can’t miss him because he looks just like you.”

Fuck me.

I look at Kyle and he nods. “Let’s roll!” he yells and everyone walks out of the room. I look at Paisley, who just looks sad. I bend and kiss her forehead. “I will be back, Baby.” She nods and I follow my brothers.

I hope she is lying.

* * *

We find the address she gave us; it is a run-down drug house outside of town. We won’t allow places like this to be in our town, and this is why it’s just outside of our borders. We are all parked around this fucking house, and heads are sticking out of the windows and ducking back in.

It’s fucking chaos inside. I can hear people running and shit slamming against the walls. Kyle raises his hand, giving us the go-ahead to get off our bikes and approach the house. I hear people running inside in pure panic. They are thinking we are here to shut them down and, honestly, we will probably also fucking clean this place out of drugs. That shit ruins lives.

I walk in front of everyone and kick the door in. Someone tries to run past me, and I grab him. “Is there a little boy here?” I ask him.

He looks like he is about to shit his pants, but he nods and points upstairs. I let him go and he runs away and climbs out of the house through a broken-out window.

I walk further into the house with Kyle and Torch on either side of me. I hope the fuck that this person imagined a kid.

I walk up the stairs, which are sinking with every step. This place is completely falling apart. I walk down the hallway and the brothers break off, searching each room. I go to the last room with Torch. I push the door open and there is a couple about to fucking shoot up right on the floor. They look up and see us. The girl screams, and I step away from the door as they run past. Torch walks to the bathroom and I check the closet. I open the door and look down.

Fuck me.

A pair of eyes identical to mine look back at me. I fall to the floor. “It’s okay,” I whisper softly. His body is shaking in fear. I notice how dirty and skinny he looks. This shit is not fucking fair. I hate that fucking bitch. “What is your name?” I ask him.

He looks at me, studying me, and I can tell that he is scared out of his mind. “Caiden,” he says, barely above a whisper.

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