Page 52 of Caged Bird

Half the time, Eddie just threw them away once I’d gotten a hold of it. It had never been about the object itself. Only that Eddie knew I hated stealing, and he got off on making me do things I didn’t want to do. That was where the fun lay for him.

It was the making me uncomfortable bit he wanted. And he’d always known exactly how best to do that.

Back then it had been stealing.

Now it was hurting people I cared about. My gaze darted to Fawn, and I sucked in a breath at the bruises on her pretty face.

For half a second, I forgot what I was doing and just stared at her in horror, taking in the details, wanting with every fiber of my being to reach out and stroke her skin, desperate to erase Eddie’s touch, even though I knew I didn’t have the right.

Since it was my fault he’d punished her in the first place.

The force Eddie sent me to the floor with took me by surprise. I hit the clean but shabby linoleum with a bone-jarring thud. Or maybe it just hurt more because my body was already so broken from the beating I’d taken last night while I was unconscious.

“Get your grubby, backstabbing fingers off my food,” he practically growled in my face.

I forced myself to nod. To drag myself out of the room like a dog with its tail between its legs.

To let Eddie think he’d won.

I got up and hurried around the corner, into the living room, praying it would take Eddie a minute to realize his phone was missing.

All I needed was thirty seconds to call…someone.

I wanted to call Ophelia, Fawn’s older sister. She’d be able to get a message to their brother.

And Vincent, with his split personality, though both were ruthless, was the scariest motherfucker I knew. Someone even Eddie feared, which was no doubt why he’d faked Fawn’s death. He knew they’d have never stopped searching for her if they thought she was alive, and eventually, their perseverance would pay off and Eddie would end up with his entrails strung up like Christmas lights.

But Ophelia’s number was stored on my phone in Eddie’s fireproof safe, and I certainly didn’t remember it by heart.

Maybe Fawn would.

“What are you doing?” she hissed.

I jerked my head up like I’d been caught red-handed in the cookie jar.

Her expression was full of fear. And then anger. “Do you want him to kill me? Seriously, Zane, are you literally trying to get us buried six feet under?”

I didn’t have time to explain to her. “Do you know one of your siblings’ phone numbers?”

Fawn let out a sharp breath. She darted a glance over her shoulder. “Yes, but he has a lock on his phone. He’s not stupid, Zane. You think I haven’t tried working out the passcode before?”

My fingers shook. God, I was so fucking stupid. Of course there’d be a code.

I racked my brain, trying to think up a sequence of numbers that Fawn wouldn’t have already tried.

Our dad was the only person Eddie had ever cared about besides himself. All I remembered of him was him being a mean old bastard, but Eddie had always hero-worshipped him. Gone out of his way to impress him. Not that he ever had. The man had been impossible for anyone to please. He never had a complimentary word for Mom or Eddie or me.

I hadn’t been sad when he’d left.

But Eddie’s already bad behavior had instantly gotten worse.

I stabbed the old man’s birth date into the phone.

And watched the damn thing magically unlock.

Fawn’s mouth dropped open into a little ‘O’ of surprise, but she recovered quickly. “One, eight, six—” She stared at me. “Zane! Are you going to put the number in?”

But I couldn’t move.

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