Page 64 of Caged Bird

“He doesn’t have any friends.”

That was true. Vincent and I had been tracking Zane for years, watching his movements, noting the places he went and who he spent his time with, all with the single-minded hope he’d lead us to his brother.

Who I would then gut slowly and painfully, making sure he stayed alive long enough to feel hours or even weeks of pain before I let Vincent or Scythe run a blade through his throat.

We’d spent years trying to track down leads on Eddie, but he was smart. He’d gone completely off grid.

Or he was dead in a dumpster somewhere.

I hoped not though, because I didn’t care how long it took, or how much therapy I did, there was no erasing the woman my parents had raised me to be.

And though I might have been the aunty who stayed in on Saturday nights, braiding little girls’ hair badly, there would always be a part of me that craved revenge for what Eddie had done to my sister.

He’d taken so much from her. She would have been obsessed with Vincent’s kids. My title as favorite aunt would have been lost in a heartbeat, the moment Lexa and Mila set eyes on my sweet, Disney princess-ish younger sister.

The gaping wound inside me her death had caused ripped open again at just the thought of getting my hands on her killer.

But I needed to think logically. Vincent, though he was the quieter of my brother’s personalities, was no less bloodthirsty than Scythe. Though they were claiming they were retired from the family hit man business, I’d seen the longing in my brother’s eyes the past year or so.

The bloodlust could only be kept at bay for so long, and he’d been fighting it for five years now.

I eyed him. “You good?”

He nodded quickly. “Yes.” But his voice sounded tight.

“You think Eddie could be out there?”

Vincent’s jaw went rigid. “It’s the childhood home of their mother. We looked into it when Eddie first went on the run and found no one there.”

“So it’s probably nothing. We both know that after this long with no word on his whereabouts, Eddie is probably dead, picked off by some gangbanger he ran his mouth to.”

Vincent cracked his knuckles. “Yes. You’re right. That most likely is the explanation.”

“So you don’t want to go out there?”

A muscle in his eye twitched.

The darkness in him I’d gotten used to when we were younger dropped over his eyes like a veil. It wasn’t the same as when he swapped with Scythe.

It was like the darkness held both of them in its grip, and even though they fought it, it never quite let them go.

I grinned. “Let me go cuddle that baby for ten minutes. Then get your knife.” I crossed the room and elbowed him, not scared of his darkness because I had more than enough of my own as well. “We’ll have to drive all night, but it’s been too long since we had a brother-sister stabfest.”

18

FAWN

Eddie paced the length of the house. “Well?”

I shook my head. “The limp is barely noticeable. If you walk slowly, and in the dark outside, no one will notice.”

“Good.” He picked up a bottle of painkillers from the kitchen counter, shook out more than the prescribed dosage, swallowing them down without water. “Hide those somewhere. They’re all fucking snoops out there, and nobody needs to know my business but me.”

I picked up the bottle and tucked it away in my pocket. “Of course.”

He took a handful of my behind in his big hand and squeezed it. “That’s my woman.”

I fought the urge to cringe away from him as he kissed my neck.

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