Page 17 of Always Salty

Walking in the middle of the night.

Luckily, most of the street that I lived on was private and belonged to the Semyonovs.

The area I wound up didn’t belong to the Semyonovs, though. It belonged to the Carters.

The huge subdivision that looked more like a compound than a subdivision.

I vaguely wondered if they had an HOA where they policed each other’s houses, because all of them were immaculate.

Their yards were shaped perfectly.

There wasn’t a weed in sight.

Though there was something that was out of place…

I stopped and stared at the kid that was standing in the middle of the yard with eyes blank, staring at nothing.

I knew one of the Carter brothers sleepwalked—something I’d learned since my youngest sister had married into the Carter family—and I guessed that extended to their own children as well.

And, because I was such a stand-up guy, I picked the kid up and started walking toward the closest house.

I didn’t know if the kid belonged to said house.

All the fuckin’ Carter kids looked the fuckin’ same, and also, I couldn’t quite remember which house belonged to who. Nor did I remember which Carter sleepwalked.

The kid collapsed into me the moment he was in my arms and laid his head on my shoulder, not putting up a single ounce of fight.

Which I was thankful for, because I didn’t need any of the Carters coming out and thinking I was kidnapping the kid.

The moment I was at the closest front door, I pressed the button for the doorbell and waited.

The sound of the Ring Camera doing its thing sounded, and then a sleepy male voice rang out, “What the fuck do you want?”

I grinned at the angry voice on the other end of the line.

I had no clue which brother it was, but I bent down anyway and showed him my prize.

The pissed-off man cursed. “Be there in a minute.”

I waited and swayed, hoping the child stayed asleep—or whatever the fuck he was at this point—until the person he actually knew well was here.

I knew all of the kids.

I’d been around them enough at family gatherings.

But I didn’t know them well enough to be holding them in the dark and them knowing who it was.

The door opened after several seconds, and Quinn Carter answered the door with only underwear on and a gun in his hand.

I gave his gun a raised brow, and he shrugged.

“Occupational hazard,” he offered. “Plus, you look creepy with that mask pulled down over your hair like that.”

“How do you know it’s a mask?” I wondered.

I’d put the same mask on as last night, but hadn’t pulled it over my head. I’d left it bunched up on my head because, even though it was one in the morning, it was still hot and humid as fuck.

“Because I can see your skin through one of the eye holes.” He paused. “Why the fuck are you wearing that, anyway?”

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