Page 113 of Chasing Sarah

I shrug. “I have no idea.”

Xander has been quiet throughout our entire exchange. He sat as still as stone when I shared my involvement with Damien and the drugs, and how Eddie tried to take me the night I came home looking raggedy and bruised. I can feel the anger oozing out of him. I don’t miss the tension in his shoulders and the way his fists have stayed clenched.

“You should have told us,” He mutters and the room falls silent.

He pushes off the wall he’s been leaning on and walks toward me, where I’m sitting on the couch. “Do you even realize how many times you could have died?” He lowers himself to a crouch in front of me. The worry and anger in his eyes serve as another punch in the gut at how I’ve hurt them.

“We need to find this cocksucker before he decides to show up again,” Colson growls. Tommy and Ronny nod, agreeing with him.

Xander’s head snaps in his direction and he levels him with a glare. “We don’t need to do anything. The three of you will be keeping an eye on Sarah while I go see what I can find out.”

Chaos ensues as my brothers shout and curse at each other. They fight about who is going to stay with me and who is going to search for Eddie.

“STOP!” I shriek when it all becomes too much. “Eddie has been gone for months. Don’t you think if he wanted to come back, he would have?

The four of them look at me like I’m either crazy or stupid.

“This is a piece of shit who tried multiple times to kidnap you, Sarah. Are you really that dense?”

I growl at Colson’s insult. “No, fuckface. I’m just saying he killed Damien and then disappeared. I doubt he’d show up again if he thinks there might be a chance he’ll get arrested for it.”

“Sarah, this guy is involved in drugs,” Tommy deadpans. “And the way he tried to take you and didn’t hesitate to kill Damien; tells me it’s not his first time doing something like that.”

A chill travels down my spine and I shudder.

“We’ll figure it out. Until then, we need to find a way to let Damien’s family know he’s not going to be coming back.”

My heart plummets to the floor. I hadn’t even thought about what his family is going through. I’m not sure how close they are, but there is no way they wouldn’t notice their son not coming home for months. Right?

Wrong.

Damien’s family members are complete dogshit people. They clearly don’t care that he hasn’t been around. My siblings and I showed up at their home, which is in the next town over. When I delivered the news of Damien’s death, they didn’t even ask what had happened.

His dad had the audacity to ask if we paid to get him buried because they weren’t going to.

My heart hurts for Damien.

It’s no wonder he went down the path he did. With a family like this, I probably would have too, just to get away from them.

I’m not naïve enough to think everyone who grows up in a shitty household ends up on the wrong side of the law. But I know it does happen more often than it should.

I’m fuming by the lack of human decency these people have toward their son. Sure, my relationship – if you’d call it that – with Damien was not the greatest but, seriously?

To have empathy or even a small amount of emotion toward never seeing a member of your family should not be difficult.

Maybe looking for Eddie would be a good idea. Not for me, but for Damien. If we find Eddie, then we can find a way to get him arrested and charged with murder. This way, Damien gets justice, and I don’t have to worry about looking over my shoulder for the rest of my life.

“You know what?” I cut off Damien’s mom, who is complaining about the mess they’ll have to clean up when they get rid of the things in his room. “Damien might have been involved in some shady shit, but he deserves to have a family to mourn him.”

I stand from the stained couch and stomp toward the front door.

“You’re all pieces of shit and I hope you have the life you deserve.”

The house shakes when I slam the door behind me.

* * *

I’m making my way down to the kitchen when I hear them.

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