Page 96 of Clap Back (Carter Brothers)

If staying here would keep me safer and out of the way, with less people worrying about me, then here was where I would stay.

“What kind of discussion would you need to have with Auden?” I asked. “You should have a discussion with me.”

“There’s no reason to discuss anything with you,” he said. “You’re not even my sister, I hear.”

No, no I wasn’t.

“That is exactly right,” I said. “So why are you there? I shouldn’t matter to you anymore.”

Scott chuckled. “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe retribution. I have a feeling Auden played a part in what happened to Dad.”

I gritted my teeth. “Don’t.”

“Don’t what?” His chuckle was dark.

It sent shivers down my spine.

“Don’t do this,” I pleaded.

I felt Ellodie’s hand on my shoulder. Shayne moved in close.

Pepper was now on the phone with who I guessed was 911.

And Hollis was on the phone with someone still.

Hopefully Quincy.

“Too late,” he said. “Too. Fucking. Late.”

Then he hung up.

I was hyperventilating when the door of my bakery opened.

I hated to seem unwelcoming, but I was not in a good place.

“We’re closed,” I barked.

I only looked up when the door didn’t ding, announcing their exit.

My breath caught in my throat as I stared in awe at the man at my door.

Dima.

And with him, Dorsey.

Last night, I’d studied the faces of my siblings.

I’d committed each one of their faces, and everything there was to know about them, to memory.

I knew their birthdates. I knew their favorite foods. I knew their eye colors. I knew which schools they graduated both college and high school from. I knew their grades. I knew their first cars.

Hell, I even knew their middle names.

And there was no doubt in my mind who the man standing in front of me was: Dima Major Semyonov.

My older brother.

“What’s going on?” he asked, voice low and scary.

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