Page 7 of What Lies Within

I jog to catch up, holding the gate for Tyke as we lengthen our strides to match her haste.

"Where you headed?" Tyke whisper-yells.

She glances over her shoulder without slowing her pace. "Have you two never been here?" she seems genuinely perplexed.

"Not for a while." Tyke catches my eye with a dry smile. "What do you know of the area?" he asks her.

"Never knew what it was called," she says, "but Connor brought me here the second week we 'dated.'" She says the last word as though the idea is a fucking farce.

It boosts my pride somewhat to know she thinks that little of her time with him.

“I thought you guys would have come here a lot when you were younger?”

“Didn’t grow up in Red River,” I admit. “Nearby, but not close enough to know the hype about this patch.”

"What about you?" She looks behind herself again, long enough to catch Tyke's eye.

“Wasn’t too popular with the ladies in school.”

She stops walking at his admission. “Real?”

“Surprise you?” he teases with a smack to her ass as he keeps walking.

“A little.” Rae jogs to catch up.

I trail behind again, fingertips splayed at my side to catch the tips of the overgrown grass. Anything to distract from the bitter knives sliding in my chest at the sight of them together.

They look so—right.

Do we look the same? Her and I?

"There." Rae jogs ahead a few steps, arm outstretched to point to a giant black hole in the trees.

As we near the shadow, I recognize the outline of a building—a little hut, basic square-ish construction with narrow windows on either side of a door small enough that Tyke and I will need to stoop to get through. "What is this place?"

A spark, then a flame. A flash of orange highlighting a face I’d rather not lay eyes on if I could avoid it. “Took you long enough,” Connor bitches as he rises to his feet.

He continues to flick the flame, reigniting it over and over. Pointless dramatics.

“She’s here. So, talk,” Tyke snaps, crowding the insolent little shit.

Connor takes a pointed step sideways to escape Tyke's influence and approaches Rae.

I rest my hand on the gun at my back.

“Hate that this is what it took to get close to you again,” he offers her. “But can’t say I regret that it brought us here, now.” He reaches out to run a hand down the side of her arm, yet she recoils from his touch.Exactly.

“What’d you do, you fuck?” Tyke reads the same insinuation in Connor’s words that I do: that this is all some sick game of Connor’s to get Rae back.

"Calm your tits, old man." The kid lifts a hand. "Maddie's disappearance ain't my doing." He seems genuine as he says, "I like Maddie. I wouldn't do a fucking thing to hurt her." But then again, it's fucking near pitch black, and I'm reading the slight shifts of his posture rather than the details of his face.

“Where. The fuck. Is she?” My brother advances on the cocky asshole, forcing Connor to step back to keep any distance between them.

Tyke doesn't stop until he has Terry's son backed up against the splintered wall of the shack, and even then, he continues until his chest pushes the kid flat, restricting his movement.

Trapping his knives.Smart.

“Get the fuck off me.” Connor lifts his hands and shoves at Tyke, my brother immovable.

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