Page 5 of Red River

He rushed away. A second later, the door slammed shut. Then came the sound of something heavy being dragged across the floor, followed by a loud thud.

I spun toward the balcony. The room was on the second floor, and below was nothing but the concrete driveway. I wanted to scream, to call for help—to the people walking their dog fifty yards away on the other side of the street—but my voice died in my throat.

They would contact the cops… and the cops would notify Family Services, the enforcers. That would be the end of our family. What Igor had done to me would be undeniable proof of hisMusth.

So now, I was a prisoner in my own house.

My legs buckled, and I stumbled onto the floor. My God, I just wanted somebody to fix it all. To save us.

Because I hated my fucking life.

ARCHER

A call from Sam interrupted me while I was in the middle of attempting to bypass DevApp’s company firewall. They had hired my services two weeks ago to test their security measures, and I was nearing the critical phase. So close to the juicy part!

But the phone rang again. I sighed, glancing at the screen. My older brother was a big talker, and I knew this would probably eat up a lot of time.

"What’s up, Sam?" I grumbled.

"Hey, Archer. I can hear from your tone how thrilled you are to hear from me."

"I’melated."

He chuckled. "That’s what I thought. But I might have a surprise for you… I just had to call and tell you what happened with River."

River? I blinked, caught off guard. The topic of the redheaded beauty rarely came up between us. I usually shut it down, not wanting to revisit memories from years ago.

Sam knew it wasn’t my favorite subject, so he tended to avoid it—95% of the time.

"Umm… what happened?" My tone dropped, wary.

"Don’t growl at me, Archie. His husband died."

Wow. Now that was news. A strange shiver ran down my spine. Over the years, I’d done my best to push thoughts of Riverout of my mind, accepting that my childhood crush was never going to turn into anything real.

So why should I care? He went his own way, just like he said he would.

"That’s… unfortunate. Five kids, no father. Send him my condolences—"

"Listen, things are really strange, Archer. What happened is quite unsettling."

I leaned back in my chair, trying to play it cool, even though something in me stirred—some weird energy I couldn’t place.

"Just spit it out. I don’t need the buildup," I muttered, knowing Sam’s tendency to drag things out, creating silly suspense.

He scoffed with mock indignation. "His son Igor—you know, the wannabe influencer—is trying to take over as the new alpha of the family!"

I couldn’t stop myself from chuckling. "The hell? Well, you’ve got my attention now. Don’t waste it, Sam."

"You’re so annoying, Archie! Listen: literally minutes after Thomas died, Igor suddenly declared himself the alpha of the house. When River called me with the news, but Igor interrupted him mid-sentence! Next thing I knew, the call ended. I sent twenty texts asking what was going on, but he never replied. Then, out of nowhere, I got a short message saying, ‘Everything’s fine. Don’t worry.’ But that’s not like River! He’s not the type to be so curt."

As I listened, I got this weird feeling—like a little storm was brewing at the edge of my mind.

Something was awakening.

"When I kept pushing, he ignored me. So, Stephen and I decided to go check things out. When we got to River’s house, guess who opened the door? Igor! He straight-up told us his dad wouldn’t talk to us. I said it wasn’t his decision and that I wantedto hear it from River. And then—get this—we heard banging inside the house! Like fists pounding on a door! Stephen pushed past Igor, even though the boy was cursing and trying to stop him. We found River locked in his bedroom, nervous and distraught."

My jaw dropped. This sounded like something out of a bad movie.

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