Page 168 of Unwrapping Deviance

I stare at it. Then at her.

“Where’s Dirk and Boyd?” I ask her.

Lucy doesn’t even bat an eye. “Probably doing their own thing. You know how they are.” She waves the paper at me. “Come on. We only have a little daylight left.”

I accept the page and stare down at the neat blocks indicating each person’s search area.

“Why did you send them to track the girl down the other day?”

Lucy does blink then, but I know it’s for show; I’ve seen her go almost twenty minutes without blinking. “I didn’t. Why would I?”

“I was going to the hardware store and they suddenly needed to come with me. They never just want to come with me to run garage errands.”

“Maybe they wanted to spend time with you.”

I suck in my sigh. “Lucy, they said you sent them to find her.”

Her brows scrunch in baffled amusement. “Well, they were probably confused. I barely knew this girl existed up until very recently and, really, James, do you hear how crazy you sound? Why would I even want to hurt her?”

I step closer to my sister and lower my voice. “Let it go. Whatever the hell you’re doing, let it go. Dad’s dead. Mom’s so doped up on drugs she doesn’t even know her own name and the town is finally at peace. Let it go. Or I swear to God, Lucy, I’ll—”

The mask slips for only a fraction, but I see the cold hatred right behind it. “You’ll what? What’ll you do, big brother? Are you really going to disrupt your perfect little life with your airhead wife just to rat on your own sister? Go ahead, call the sheriff over. Tell him you think you know something. See how that turns out for you and Clammy.”

My muscles tense as the weight of her threat drops on my chest.

“You touch her and there isn’t a place on earth you’ll be safe,” I warn her.

Lucy smiles, bright and beautiful, and full of love I know she doesn’t know how to feel. “Don’t be silly. She’s like a sisterto me.” She pats my arm lightly. “I would never let anything happen to her.”

With that, she pivots on her heels and marches back to where the others stand. Where Clem stands, dark head bent over the map. She saddles right up to my wife and hooks an arm through hers.

Clem visibly starts. Her big eyes swing up to Lucy’s smiling face. She seems uncertain, but Clem has always wanted to get closer to Lucy. To bond. My sweet baby has no idea she’s bleeding next to a shark. She only thinks the shark is trying to be friendly. She smiles warmly in return and it breaks my heart.

My gaze drifts to the brothers. To the worry and panic in their eyes. They have no idea how warranted it is. I’ve seen the tiny graves behind the house of all the missing town pets.

And it’s already been too many hours.

“She’s innocent,”Daniel’s words play through my head.

Part of me disagrees. She put her damn hands on my Clem. Hurt her. I almost have half a mind to let her get hers, but the crime doesn’t fit this kind of justice. No one deserves this. Innocent or not.

Wyatt hadn’t been innocent, but his blood is on my hands. I can look the world in the eyes and say it was an accident. It was dark. I thought it was the brothers I was clobbering with all my strength. That I didn’t hear my name being screamed. That I didn’t hear the brothers slip into the bushes and escape.

I can pretend I didn’t mean to kill my brother that night.

But in the mirror, in bed, in my sleep, I know better. I saw a side of Wyatt that night I knew needed to be stopped.

I look to where Lucy’s helping Clem adjust the collar of her coat. Sliding her long, pale fingers around my wife’s throat and turning the edges down. Her green eyes on me over Clem’s shoulder.

Cold.

Dead.

Yet somehow strangely alive like a pit of writhing snakes.

I suck in a breath.

The page in my hand crumples into a ball and drops to the dirt at my feet. I see the smirk slip off my sister’s face.

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