Page 28 of Them Bones

“Not with Cary. With Jerry.”

Oh.

Laney inched her feet towards him so their big toes were touching, but he pulled away a fraction. She frowned.

“Shane – ” she started, but he cut her off.

“This thing, with us. It won’t happen.”

Won’thappen.

Notcan’thappen orshouldn’thappen.

Won’t.

He’d already made the choice, and he’d made it without her. Her stomach churned.

“It’s not what you think,” Laney said in a rush. “Cary… he’s just… he’s always been like that, okay? He – he usually only sticks around for a few days, and then he’s gone again. He’s protective, he – ”

“Cary isn’t protective. Cary ispossessive.”

You’re not wrong.

“I know. I know… But…”

“Does he hurt you?” Shane’s words were dripping with venom.

Laney sucked in another breath.

Cary’s hand on the back of her head, pressing her mouth to the kitchen floor, hissing in her ear to eat off of it and then maybe she’d be bothered to mop once in a while.

Cary’s knee in her back, shoving her against the wall, accusing her of stealing his money.

Bruised wrists, backhands, two bloody noses… And a concussion, when she’d good and truly blown up at him and tried to kick him in the balls after Milo, the stray orange tabby she’d been nursing to health, had appeared dead in the gutter out front, his little neck broken…

“No,” she forced out.

“You’re lying,” Shane seethed.

“What do you want me to say, Shane? He hasn’t touched me in a while…”

The air was sucked out of the room attouched me,and she could hear the crack in Shane’s knuckles, feel him vibrating with something that ironically reminded her of her brother.

“Hit me,”she amended. “He hasn’thit mein a while. Okay?”

Shane just breathed loudly, in and out, for at least two straight minutes. “Dustin?” he finally asked, his voice tight. “His leg? The cast?”

Laney frowned. “I honestly don’t know what happened. Cary was home when he broke it, so maybe. I was at school. But Dustin says it was an accident and won’t say anything more than that. He doesn’t lie to me. He never lies. But I just… don’t know.”

Shane shifted in the dark, scrubbing his face with his hand, still breathing heavily.

“I can’t be here, in the same house as that guy. We’ll fucking kill each other. But I can’t leave you alone with him.” He pinched his nose with his thumb and his forefinger. “Why is he even here? Clearly he doesn’t givetwo shitsabout either of you…”

“It’s his house,” Laney breathed.

Shane froze. “I’m sorry… did you just say…?”

“He owns this house.”

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