Page 12 of Caged Bird

“I told you. I need a lift home.”

We both knew that was not why I was there. “You could have got an Uber.”

“An Uber driver can’t be trusted with my empire.”

I bit back a laugh. “Your empire? You mean your low-level drug deals that are so insignificant the police can’t even bebothered to arrest you?” I pressed my lips together, knowing it was stupid to poke the bear, but he was so fucking full of himself.

Eddie’s eyes narrowed. “Things have changed since you’ve been gone. I have a business to run. A crew to oversee. Deals to be made.”

“And yet you can’t call a taxi?”

“And yet,” he mocked, “I called in my brother to take over while I’m out of commission.”

I was rapidly losing patience. Exhaustion plagued me. My eyes were as dry and gritty as sandpaper. “Call in one of yourcrewthen.” I made air quotes with my fingers. “Get one of them to take over. Just leave me and Mom the hell alone.”

Eddie shook his head. “Can’t do that. Need someone smart. Someone I can trust.”

“Someone you can manipulate, you mean.”

Eddie’s grin widened. “See? Smart. My guys are all misfits. They do as they’re told, but only because they’re too dumb not to… But you, on the other hand… You’re smartandeasily played because you have something to lose. You’re like a little puppet dancing around at just the tiniest jerk of my fingers. All I have to do is threaten the old bitch, and you do whatever I say.”

Anger boiled through me, thick and fast. This was the string he always pulled with me. He’d learned a long time ago that hurting me didn’t work. I’d take the beating. Take his torture. I could endure whatever he dished out.

But I couldn’t handle him hurting others. The cat when we were kids. Mom.

Fawn.

I squeezed my eyes closed, thinking about her broken body lying at the bottom of the stairs. Staring into my brother’s eyes now, I realized her death might have actually been a mercy. Because nothing had changed with Eddie. There had been nomellowing with age. If anything, the hate and evil in his eyes only burned brighter.

Or maybe that was just lit up right now because he enjoyed tormenting me.

I leaned in close. “I’m not running your business for you. Not now. Not ever.”

Eddie shrugged. “So I’ll just tell the guys to let themselves in then? I’m sure Mom will be ready to welcome them with a nice cup of tea…”

The anger simmering inside me bubbled up, and though each word made me sick to my stomach, I spat them out anyway. “And then what, Eddie? You kill her. Put her out of her goddamn misery, and then what?”

We both heard the shake in my voice. Saw my fingers trembling. A sharp, stabbing pain hit me in the gut over the terror my mother would feel as she died. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t stand the thought of her being hurt because I’d said and done the wrong thing, and my psychopath brother had taken his frustration out on her.

But I couldn’t be his puppet either. And so I called his bluff and played my ace card. “Without her to hurt, you have nothing.”

Eddie pulled over his crutches and slowly pushed himself to standing. Even with all his weight on one leg, he was still half a head taller than me, despite the fact I wasn’t short by anyone’s standards at a few inches over six feet. Even with a hospital stay, he had a bulk about him I’d never achieved, despite the hard, manual labor I did each day.

We just weren’t built the same. Not on the inside. Or the outside.

His gaze burned me. “Even if I believed your bravado, little brother. Which for the record, I don’t. Not for one secondbecause you always were the old bitch’s favorite, I already know you’re going to do exactly what I ask.”

I waited. Not bothering to reply because Eddie liked the sound of his own voice more than anything else.

He chuckled that dark laugh that played out each night in my own nightmares. “You have a nephew, Zaney boy.”

Of all the things that could have come out of his mouth, that was the absolute last thing I expected. But then horror rushed me. A tidal wave of terror for the innocent child growing up with my brother as his father.

Eddie knew he had me. He knew my weakness and how to play it like a goddamn violin. I’d always cared too much. Felt other people’s pain like it was my own.

All I could think about was the boy I’d once been, constantly tormented and abused by my older brother.

Eddie cocked his head to one side, gleefully watching my reaction to his bomb drop. “Did I mention who his mother is?”

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