Page 81 of The Devil's Secret

He chuckles with sadness piercing through, wiping under his eye. I hadn’t realized he was crying.

My stomach churns.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but it’s nice to see you haven’t changed much.”

Goose bumps break over both arms, running up so quickly, it almost hurts. “Who are you?” I breathe.

He comes nearer, a gentle hand tentatively falling to the top of my shoulder. “It’s me, Jade.” He sighs. “It’s Elliot. God, I’ve been looking everywhere for you. I can’t believe you’ve been here all this time.”

I don’t know what happens after because I fall, my knees buckling, the lights going out.

I think I faint.

* * *

“Give her some room,” someone demands as I grumble, my eyelids flickering as I start to see again, the overhead lights causing me to squint. That same man stands over me, the one who claimed he’s my—brother. I jump to a sitting position from the sofa, but as my head spins, I regret it.

“Hey, drink some water,” he says, extending a glass toward me.

Glancing up, I try to find bits of the sixteen-year-old boy within the man who looks nothing like him.

Could it be him?

“You can’t be my brother,” I say, grabbing the cup and drinking all of it, now suddenly parched. “I don’t know who you are.” I shove the glass back his way and he takes it. “This isn’t funny.”

With a head tilt, he tells the others to go, and they leave us alone in the den. He sits beside me, letting out a hard sigh. “Who else would prank you the way I used to?” He lets out a chuckle. “Like put shaving cream and cinnamon all over your mouth? Remember how we told Mom that day you—”

My body breaks with a tremor, blinking through the large tears welling. He was always coming up with weird and unexpected ways to prank me. “Oh my God,” I cry. “It really is you.”

I slap a hand over my mouth, staring at him with fresh eyes, both of us gripped with so many emotions, it’s too difficult to contain them.

“Elliot?” My chin quivers. “Elliot.” I throw my arms around my brother, hugging him so tight, I’m probably killing him.

His arms wrap around me even tighter. “It’s me, sis. I’m here.”

I silently cry in his arms for a while, and I think he cries in mine. He lost me too. It must’ve been hard. He said he looked for me, but how did he end up here?

It’s a conversation we have to have, but not now. Not when I still have to get to Robby. Maybe he can help. Gently pushing away from him, I look on the ground for that piece of paper.

“Elliot, I have a million questions. So many that it’ll take us days to talk, and I’m sure you have them too, but I have to find someone before he’s killed. You have to let me out of here.”

“Do you mean Robby?”

I jerk back. “How did you kno—”

But as he fishes in his pocket, lifting a hand, I find the note dangling from his fingers.

“Who is Robby, Jade? What are you involved in? Are Enzo and his brothers hurting you? Because I don’t give a shit that I work for them, I’ll kill each one if they did something to you.”

My eyes grow.

Whoa. What happened to my sweet, pain-in-the-ass little brother?

“No. I love Enzo.” I clasp my hand over his, releasing an audible exhale. “I guess I have to tell you, but be prepared. You’re going to hate this story.”

He steels his jaw, nodding once. I tell him everything, skipping the parts filled with the specifics of what those men did to me, but I recite the important parts, about the Bianchis, how Agnelo raped me, how I met Enzo.

When I’m done, he looks enraged. He’s scary like this, even while I know he’d never cause me any harm.

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