Page 127 of Filthy Liar

“Nope. He’s losing it, dude. He almost charged out the door today after he thought he saw him on a camera. Barely even looked like Dante, but he was adamant it was him. He needs to get some decent sleep.”

We walked into the office, and I found Ander right where he’d been all damn week, searching through footage that we’d already gone over a thousand times.

He’d managed to hold off his freak-out this long, but he was obviously close to snapping for real. The situation with Blake was only making it worse.

Drake sat at his own computer and put a headset on, getting back to work on whatever thieving job he’d been supervising, leaving me to walk past the others towards Ander.

“Hey,” I murmured, but he barely acknowledged me. His finger stopped scrolling on the mouse for two seconds, then he got right back to it. “Lavaro.”

“I’m busy.”

I took no offense to him brushing me off. If I’d given a fuck about my brother, I probably would’ve reacted the same.

Except I was glad that mine was dead because my brother was a piece of shit.

I moved closer, needing to ground him in a way that he’d snap out of it. Touching him was risky, he could start swinging if he was really as bad as Drake thought, but I slid my fingers into his hair and massaged his scalp.

His scrolling halted again and his shoulders dropped a fraction, letting the exhaustion show. He was running on fumes and at least needed to eat something decent.

“You’re no good to him like this,” I said when he stayed quiet, continuing to move my fingers through his hair.

“I have to find him, Zav. He’s been gone too long without a word,” he said tightly, but there was no fight in his tone.

“If he was dead, Stefano definitely would’ve sent you proof to make you spiral,” Stone said as he appeared, crossing his arms. “I’m kicking you out for the rest of the night, man. Go home, eat a decent meal, sleep a full night, and you can come back freshly showered tomorrow after breakfast.”

Ander’s fist clenched on the desk, and I sighed. “Taking a swing at him will only get you kicked out indefinitely, dude. Not to mention Stone’s hit is as hard as yours. C’mon, we’ll head home and get a good sleep.”

“I don’t need?—”

“If you want to send yourself crazy and start chasing hallucinations, be my guest,” I replied, cutting him off. “But just so you know, you’re upsetting Raven. She asked me if I’d heard from you earlier because you’re ignoring her messages. She’s worried, and she knows you’re not sleeping properly.”

He pulled his eyes off the screen, glancing back at me and knocking my hand away from his hair. “She doesn’t need to worry.”

“Doesn’t she?”

He stared at me for a moment before sighing, glancing back at the screen one more time before closing out of the footage and pushing his chair back. “Fine.”

Stone rolled his eyes but gave me a nod, seeming thankful that I was getting Ander out of there, and I was surprised with how little convincing I had to do to get him to actually walk out the door.

He was on autopilot, his movements robotic and jerky as we headed outside towards his car.

“Are you okay to drive? You—” I barely finished my sentence before his keys hit my chest, falling to the ground at my feet. I’d driven his car before, but that was only because he’d been too damn drunk and I’d basically had to wrestle the keys away from him.

He really hated people driving his car.

I quickly grabbed the keys and moved towards the driver’s side, thankful when he silently climbed into the passenger seat without prompting.

We’d just pulled out onto the road when he spoke, his voice bitter. “She was always better off without me.”

“What nonsense are you saying now?” I grumbled, glancing at him as I drove.

“Raven. I should’ve just let her keep hating me.”

“What the hell has gotten into you? If this is you announcing you’re going to break up with her when we get to the house?—”

His eyes snapped to mine, and I was almost a little afraid that he’d shoot me. He really wasn’t acting like himself, his body and mind were too damn exhausted.

“I wouldn’t do that to her. I just mean if I hadn’t made her not hate me, she wouldn’t be stressing about me right now.”

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