Page 8 of Filthy Liar

I was a little curious myself, so I nodded and pulled my hoodie off, his eyes lingering on my pebbled nipples through my shirt for a second before he reached out to lift the bottom of it up enough to inspect my ribs and back.

“You’re bruising along here. There’s redness all over your back too,” he said softly as he trailed a finger carefully across my side to my lower back.

“The redness is probably carpet burn. That’s on Reid,” I said dryly. “The bruise is probably from when Dante shoved me against his car or into the trunk.”

He looked amused about the carpet burn, but he didn’t voice it.

“Does it hurt to breathe?”

“No, my ribs aren’t broken or anything. He mostly hit my face,” I grumbled, letting him look at my other side without argument.

Someone walked in and I looked over to find Reid in the doorway, his eyes already on the area that Logan was looking at.

“I shouldn’t have left you alone,” Reid said after a moment, not lifting his eyes from my ribs as Logan ran his fingers across them.

“I’m glad you did. What if he’d kicked the door down and killed you?” I asked as he shut the door and stepped closer, nudging Logan out of the way as he squatted in front of me and tugged my pants down without asking.

I swatted at him and tried to put them back in place, but he leaned forward and kissed a bruise on my thigh, stopping my protesting. When I didn’t say anything, he moved higher and kissed my hip.

“I’m sorry I haven’t been able to keep you safe,” he whispered against my stomach as he moved to his knees and hugged me. My fingers threaded through his hair affectionately, hating that he was blaming himself.

“It’s not your fault.”

“I promised you that I’d keep you safe a long time ago, and so far, I’ve done a shitty job at doing it. I know you want your space, but can we please live together again so I know you’re okay? This distance is killing me,” he replied as he looked up at me, and I glanced over at Logan, who was now sitting on the edge of the bed, waiting for my answer.

“I want to go home, but Dad?—”

“We’ll deal with him later. Right now, I think we need to find a temporary rental. Even if it’s a small one,” Reid suggested, and I nodded.

“All of us?”

“All of us,” he confirmed, getting to his feet and pulling me against him. “We stick together.”

My phone buzzed and Reid bent down to take it from my pocket to hand it to me as he fixed my pants.

Ander: Message me when you want to talk. Don’t go back to our house.

I frowned, showing the guys the message. “He doesn’t want me to go back?”

“Good,” Reid muttered under his breath, but Logan matched my frown.

“That’s weird. Why isn’t he begging you to go back?”

“I’m not sure, and right now, I don’t care to find out,” I sighed, pocketing my phone again so I could pretend he didn’t exist.

I had a quick shower while the guys waited in the bedroom for me, and then we headed back out to the kitchen together just as Rory showed up. I expected her to go off on a rant like Beckett had, but she had other conversations in mind.

“I’m sorry to throw more shit at you when it’s obvious you’re dealing with enough, but we think we might have found one of the men who killed your brother. I got a call on my way over from a connection of mine who was looking into things for me.”

I wanted to throw up. I couldn’t handle this on top of Ander’s bullshit, but this was what I’d been waiting for.

“Do you have a photo?” I asked slowly, and she studied me for a moment before pulling her phone from her pocket.

“You sure you want to do this right now? We can meet up tomorrow for this if it’s easier.”

“No, I want to know now.”

“Okay. It’s your call. Is this him?” she asked, turning her phone to face me and making me flinch back automatically as I recognized the man who’d killed my brother. “I take that as a yes?”

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