Page 46 of Cold Case Murder Mystery

She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Her brother was telling her what had happened to him, what he’d done. And she wanted to hear it. “So, you went back to Dad?”

“Yeah. I convinced Dad I really wanted back. Wanted to be a part of it. I didn’t. I wanted to mess up his plans. I wanted to help kids like us. And the way they treated those girls...” He shook his head. “I just always saw you. So I had to do something. I spent a year doing that, always so afraid Dad saw right through me while I tried to protect those girls. I was always waiting for a real end, but in retrospect, I guess I fooled him.”

A real end. Brooke looked at her brother, thought of Zeke. A death wish. The idea that if they died doing something noble, it would somehow make everything all right.

It made her want to cry for them. Maybeallof them.

But she could tell Royal all the things she couldn’t tell Zeke. Because this was her baby brother and he’d done something noble, even if she wished he’d gone about it in a different way.

“I love you no matter what. I’d have gotten you that lawyer even if you’d been in the wrong. I don’t know why it got kept from you that I was behind it, but it doesn’t matter. What matters is, I was going to support you no matter what. I always will.”

Royal sighed. “Because you think you owe me, Chick. And maybe I let you think that because it’s easy, but you don’t. We were both kids. Failed by a hell of a lot of people.”

Brooke had to carefully inhale then force herself to exhale at his words. She wanted it to be true, but... How could it be? She’d been older. She should have... fought harder. Done something. She didn’t know how to explain that to him, and he was talking about the situation at hand anyway. Not their past.

“I don’t think it matters how dismantled the Sons is. I disrespected Dad when I tricked him into letting me in then protected those kids. I embarrassed him in that circle. No amount of jail time is going to make him let that go, because it wasn’t about the Sons. It was about him and me, and me pulling one over on him. Maybe he’s still in jail right now. Maybe he has no ability to reach the outside, but I doubt it. I really doubt it. Men like that don’t just stop being sadistic, Brooke.”

It wasn’t that she disagreed with him. She remembered just how vindictive their father could be. That’s how he’d gotten Family Services called on him. How he’d managed to lose his kids no matter how the Sons had tried to wriggle him out of it. Because he’d been determined to make someone elsepayfor their lack of reverence. That had mattered more than any consequence to Jeremiah Campbell.

It was just that she hadn’t known her brother as an adult. And he stood there looking and sounding like aman. It was disorienting.

“He’s the only one who’d know you matter to me, Chick. Someone threatening you to me... it had to be him.”

“Or come from him.”

“Yeah. Look, leopards don’t change their spots. Maybe the Sons is gone. Maybe he’s in jail. But it doesn’t mean he can’t wield a certain group of people against us.”

She didn’t like it at all, but Royal was right. “Did you tell all this to Thomas?”

“Bits and pieces. Hart seems legit, for a cop, but...”

“I need you to tell him. Everything. Anything. No matter how little. We can’t protect you if we don’t know what this is. The police can look into Sons’s things. They can look into all Dad’s prison records. They can really dig into this and keep you safe in the process.”

“What about you?”

“It’s not about me. You said so yourself.”

“No, I said our father is the only one who’d know that to hurt me he only had to get to you. That meansyou’rein danger. I don’t think he’d be too broken up about hurting you again, Brooke.”

She didn’t like the way her brother used her real name, though she couldn’t pinpoint why. Only that it made this all so much more serious, when she didn’t want him worried abouther. She couldn’t be a burden to him when...

Zeke’s words from earlier came back to her.

You’re always so afraid. That you might ask too much. That you have to walk on all those eggshells your foster families made you walk on. That if you’re not perfect, people will turn you away.

Maybe she felt those things, but was it really wrong? Except she’d failed Royal before, and here he was and... It didn’t matter. This wasn’t abouther. Even if she got caught in the crosshairs. “Okay, maybe, but—”

“You going to tell your boyfriend?”

She sighed. There was no point explaining,again, that Zeke was just... Zeke. Maybe the old feelings were still there, but... There was no ending that wasn’t the exact same as four years ago.

Even if Zeke acted like he understood his mistakes. Even if he understoodher. Even if he’d changed from that angry, edgy, desperate-to-actman.

Brooke was the same.

“Here’s the deal,” Royal said when she didn’t answer. “I’ll tell the cops everything, if you tell Zeke everything. No point leaving that guy out of it when it’s clear he’ll protect you.”

“I’ve asked for his help in that department because he’s perfectly capable, but—”

---