Page 108 of Wanted

That confuses me. “Then?”

“Then? Then chicken pox happened. As luck will have it, I got it and you didn’t because you were in a different room with a cold. When they came back for me, they gave you away as a replacement.”

Fuck, this is heavy stuff.

It seems like some black clouds have settled over us, the atmosphere feels cold and heavy.

Chilling. Whoever claims to be my brother isn’t right in the head. He moves strangely, thirty years holding grudges and boiling rage inside, have eaten away at him.

“I didn’t know, I had no idea…”

A bitter laugh comes out of his mouth. “You forgot about me so quickly? Did you forget my existence and even my name, Boo?”

I close my eyes, and a thousand images rush to my mind.

A boy just like me hiding under the bed. Slender arms hugging me as I cried after wetting the bed.

“Boo…” I start to say, because I remember it perfectly. It has been there all the time, hidden in a remote place. “Broderick?”

“Hello, dear little brother,” he replies.

“I swear to you that…” I begin to explain, wondering if there is any point in doing so.

“Excuses, excuses,” he cuts me off. “They are useless after thirty years. While you lived my life, I prepared my plan. You took what belonged to me, now is the time to give it all back.”

My heart is beating fiercely in my chest, as cold sweat runs down my back. Somehow I need to find the right words to calm him down and get out of here alive—everyone alive. He may be a tormented man, but he’s still my brother.

“You can keep all the money, let’s get out of here and you can have it. It doesn’t matter, it’s yours.” I really mean it, I don’t care about money, not even the company I’ve worked so hard to build. I just want Stella’s safety.

“I’m not an idiot,” he yells at me. “I won’t fall into your stupid trap.”

“It’s not a trap,” I reply. “Let Stella go and the rest is yours.”

That causes a laugh that echoes through the leafless trees around us.

“You’re not going to take anything else from me, she’s mine.”

Shit, shit, shit.

“I just want to know that she’s okay,” my voice is strong, but inside it feels like I’m pleading. “She has nothing to do with this.”

“Of course she has,” he argues. “She was the woman I chose for me and you took her away, you think I don’t know that she was whoring after you? Do you think I don’t know she slept with you?”

The words get stuck in my throat. Broderick definitely took his time preparing this whole mess and must also have some kind of informant within my inner circle. But who?

“Let me see her,” I ask him once more.

He gives a slight nod, then the tattooed man appears, dragging Stella by the arm.

“Lionel!” she screams as soon as she sees me, she’s fine. She isn’t hurt, she’s fine. I keep repeating mentally as my eyes roam her body.

I shake my head, I don’t want her to say one more word that could send Broderick into a rage. We need to tread carefully. Also, Davis is somewhere waiting for the moment to act, the man is smart, if it’s just my brother and the tattooed man, we have a chance.

“Or maybe we should start with her,” says the tattooed man raising a gun to Stella’s head, who surprisingly freezes, lightning bolts streaming out of her blue eyes. The fire has been lit inside her, my star is ready to win the war.

“I’ll take care of her,” Broderick replies. “She’s mine.”

“And what am I?” asks a female voice, one I know well.

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