Page 48 of Under an Endless Moon

“Just so you know, you’re my favorite person, too.”

SIXTEEN

OTTO

EIGHTEEN YEARS OLD

Otto hustledup the sidewalk that cut through the yard that was nothing but dead grass toward the small, tattered house. Its white paint peeling and the screen on the front window dislodged and barely hanging on at the corner.

He didn’t pause to knock. He didn’t want to give his pathetic excuse of a mother the chance to prepare for him.

He wanted to be sure what he was walking in on was legitimate and not fabricated. Not a result of more of her stellar manipulation.

The door complained against its hinges when he threw it open. The television was on, tuned too loud to some soap opera, though he could actually hear his sister’s laughter rising over it from somewhere in the kitchen.

He closed the door behind him and strode through the living room filled with worn furniture and old pictures, though for once, it was actually tidy and not littered with garbage. He edged right up to the small square arch and peered inside, gaze sweeping the surroundings.

Shock nearly knocked him flat when he found his mother stirring something at the stove. But it was Haddie laughing where she satat the round table in the nook, clearly cackling at whatever wild story their mother was telling, that had him reeling.

His little sister squealed when she noticed him, a bright smile filling her face. “Otto!”

The chair legs screeched against the floor when she threw herself out of it to get to him. The angst he’d carried like a millstone around his neck lessened a fraction when she threw her arms around him and pressed her cheek to his chest. “I missed you.”

Devotion tugged at every cell inside him, and he curled his arms around her, mumbling, “Missed you, too,” to the top of her head before his attention lifted to his mother who’d turned with the commotion.

Annoyance colored her features, and she lifted her chin as she stared him down. “What are you doin’ here?”

There wasn’t a whole lot of love lost between the two of them. He’d been subject to her bullshit for too many years, her selfishness and greed, way she always came before anyone else.

Well, herself or whatever prick she decided to drag home to share both her bed and her needle.

She’d kicked him out when he was just fourteen after he’d called the cops because some dickbag had been beatin’ on her, likehewas the one to blame, like it was his duty to keep her dirty secrets.

He’d been living on the streets since. Starving and scared until he’d figured out what it took to survive.

He’d basically run alone until he’d met Cash, Theo, and Kane, and they’d decided that things would go better if they teamed up. If they made a pact to forever have each other’s backs. It was only the four of them until River and Raven had come to them a week before.

“Wanted to come check on things.”

His mother scoffed and went back to stirring the pot. Even though the life she led had frayed her edges, she was still beautiful. Stunning, really.

His baby sister was starting to look so much like her it was painful.

Tall and willowy. Warm brown hair and these big brown eyes.

“You don’t need to come around here checkin’ on me. I’m just fine,” his mother grumbled.

Funny, she never had a problem with him stopping by when he was bringing her money.

Otto angled back and turned his focus down to his sister. “Well, someone had her first ballet class, so I had to stop in to see how that went.”

Yeah, he was paying for that, too.

Not that he was complaining. Only issue was where that money was coming from. How he just got deeper and deeper. He guessed he’d been a fool that he’d thought by now he’d have shucked this lifestyle like a bad skin.

Moved beyond it to bigger and better things.

He was beginning to believe once you were there, you were trapped.

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