Page 71 of Brother's Keeper

The investigator’s impulse grab for her waist made me wonder what she hoped to have within reach. Handcuffs to slap on me and drag me to the Capitol forquestioning? A gun?

“But I didn’t kill them,” I said. An important caveat. “I kidnapped them and put them in the storage units at Lock n’ Roll—”

“What?” Surprise overtook her expression and her body language as she shifted away from me.

“I used that brown car the owner of the place was talking about,” I explained. “It’s a Bronco, by the way. More practical for moving people than, well,” I jerked a thumb over my shoulder at the Porsche, “that thing.”

“So,you’reCorbin Calloway?” Holland asked.

I raised one shoulder. “Like you said, I had all the books.”

“Why are you telling me this?” she asked.

As the night air wound around us, I remembered what she could do. Guns and handcuffs may not have been on her person, but they were in her car, quickly accessed by someone who could sink into shadow at any moment, then sneak up behind me and snap one of those collars around my throat. It must have occurred to her, too. I was the vulnerable party here.

“You were bound to find out,” I answered at length. “With whizz kid Felix at the controls, I couldn’t keep it from you.”

“And you expect me to believeyoudidn’t kill them?”

“Grimm killed them.”

“Convenient,” Holland said flatly.

“It’s true!” I protested too loudly, perhaps, because she flinched back. I regretted putting out my cigarette, needing something to do with my hands other than wrench them together while I spoke. “Grimm told mewe were keeping them in storage until the vote, then we would let them go. I know a guy who makes memory elixirs. We were gonna drug them, then release them. I swear.”

“Grimmtold you?” she echoed. Leave it to an investigator to pick that phrase out of all the rest. “So, you’ve been working for him and the Bloody Hex all along?”

My face pinched. I hadn’t set a limit on this confession and hadn’t thought how much I would have to say to get to what needed to be told. I also hadn’t considered the sting of being faced with my own deception.

“If I could’ve gotten away from the gang, I would have.” I slouched, defeated. “But it’s not that easy. They would kill me first.”

The settling quiet was interrupted by the distant sound of water lapping against the docks and traffic buzzing by on the nearby street. Holland and I stood in the halo of a bug-swarmed lot light. It felt so similar to our chat on the beach outside her father’s home a few days prior but with a much more somber mood.

“I should have known,” she mumbled. The statement wasn’t meant for my ears, but it hurt nonetheless. The investigator regathered herself and came back with conviction. “Do you realize what you’re confessing to? Political sabotage? Conspiracy to commit murder? Treason?”

“I meant to save those people, Holland. I wanted to change.”

“Stop.” She held up her hand. “The sob story mayhave worked for you in court, but I didn’t buy it then, and I’m not inclined to now. You’re a grown man, Fitch. You knew what you were doing.”

I bit back argument to confess instead. “I was stupid, I’ll give you that. Hell, it’s stupid to tell you this now, but I’m desperate, and I need your help. And you need mine.”

“Yourhelp?” she scoffed. “If what you’re saying is true, I’ve never had your help. You’ve done nothing but lie to me from the start.”

Whatever levity I’d achieved from my bout of honesty had worn off. I felt low, and deservedly so, but time spent discussing the past would be better spent addressing current problems. One in particular.

“Grimm has the Capitol in a chokehold,” I said. “He’s been in the building with us for the past three weeks, doing your dad’s job.”

Holland shook her head. “That’s ridiculous. How could he possibly—?”

“After the vote, Grimm wanted your dad dead, and he sent me to take care of it. Like I said, I’m not reveling in the murder work these days, so I kept him alive. Now, Max is stored somewhere safe, but Grimm thinks he’s dead.” Like a dam breaking, I’d opened a door I couldn’t close. Not until all the shit that had been building up for weeks spilled out.

“Stored?” Holland’s slim, dark brows raised. “Like youstoredthe voters?”

It took quick thinking to pull off that dig. Good on her.

“Not exactly,” I replied. There was better food, atleast.

“Prove it.”

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