Page 68 of Brother's Keeper

“He’snotdead.” I was surprised by how readily I said it. Hadn’t I invaded Grimm’s office this afternoon with the same concern?

Donovan wadded his empty burger wrapper and asked past a full mouth, “How do you know?”

Setting the shake cup on the floor beside my feet, I held out my hand. “Gimme your phone.”

His nose scrunched, but he gave it over. I clicked into the messages and opened the thread presumably started by Jette and York. The last update was twelve days ago. I grimaced. If Ripley was alive in the care of those unhinged bastards, I doubted they were treating him well.

The last message had set up our clash at Lazy Daze. Their terms. Time to see if they would accept mine.

Ready to negotiate. I typed. Need proof of life.

“Negotiate what?” Donovan peered around me at the screen. “What do they want?”

I set the phone on my thigh and scooped a handful of fries from the bottom of the drive-thru bag, feeding them into my mouth one at a time.

The response as a buzz against my leg followed by a hyperlink added to the message chain. I tapped it, and an internet browser window opened to a grayscale video feed.

It came from some kind of security camera, showing a cramped closet of a room. There were no windows in sight, making the only thing of interest a scraggly figure knelt on the floor with his hands bound and his head tipped impossibly far back. I thought his neck was broken until I saw that it was fixed in place by a piece of metal stretching from his chest to his chin. Despite the colorless display, I could tell he was bleeding. His throat was stained with a long dark smear, possibly punctured by the unyielding device.

“What the hell is that?” Donovan asked.

The half a shake I’d guzzled lurched into my throat, laced with bile that burned coming up and going back down as I swallowed. Despite Donovan’s audible concern, my glance at Maggie found her blissfully ignorant.

I clicked out of the video feed and set the phone screen-side down on my leg. Twelve days, they’d had him like that. I rubbed my hands across my face.

“Fitch, was that Rip?” Donovan pressed against my back as he leaned in closer.

Scooping the cell into one hand, I pushed off the couch and stood. My stomach was roiling, and rage threatened to suck me in like a riptide.

“Let me fucking think, okay?” I snapped. My first step knocked over the Styrofoam shake cup, dumping its contents onto the linoleum floor. I swore and stomped it under my heel. Strawberry shake shot out in a burst.

Maggie perked up and trilled a sound in the back of her throat.

“It’s fine. Everything’s fine,” I told her, thenmotioned to my brother. “Donnie, turn on a movie or something.”

Abandoning the ice cream mess and the two other people in the room, I stormed toward the door. I burst out onto the deck with Donovan’s phone gripped tightly in my hand. Opening the text thread again, I fired off another message.

Good enough. Want to meet?

Bubbles bounced across the bottom of the text field while I nibbled on my lip ring.

A minute later, the reply buzzed through.

both of you this time

Fine hairs prickled down my spine as I nodded my way through a one-word response.

Where?

The door opened, and Donovan stomped across the wood deck. “They’re torturing him,” He came around from behind me to insert himself in my field of view. “Why? Who’s doing this?”

Cool air whipped off the ocean, bringing salt and mist to dampen my measured breaths. “Donnie, I have this under control—”

“We have to tell Grimm!” he shouted.

I scowled at him, my body strung tight with stress and fear and a dozen other feelings I couldn’t explain. Of course, he believed our gang leader would help—the man Donovan claimed was his father. Some therapy-worthy issues right there.

But the moment I was ready to shout back at him, awareness stole the words out of my mouth. I’d done the same damn thing after the meeting at Lock n’ Roll and ahalf-dozen times before. Every time I panicked, I went straight to Grimm, practically on my knees, begging. And every time I left, I felt more abandoned.

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