Page 124 of Nemesis

Reese punches the wall. He shakes out his fist and faces the street, giving us a clear view at his face. Someone moves out of the shadows behind him, and he catches sight a moment too late. The stranger raises a pipe and smashes him in the head.

Reese falls. The stranger picks him up.

I want to check Kade’s expression, but I’m too fixed on getting a better look at this guy. He’s not as big as Kade, that’s for sure. And if itwasKade, he wouldn’t have gotten us this video.

He crosses the street toward the bank, and recognition stabs at me.

I gasp and grab the edge of the counter, leaning forward.

He goes to a car and pops the trunk, folding Reese’s long limbs into it.

Slam.

There’s no audio, but I hear an echo of the trunk shutting nonetheless. He glances around, then straight at the camera.

Kade hits a button and freezes it.

The hood is up, obscuring his hair. Clearly male, though, just from the build and his face—which is uncovered.

I wet my lips. “I know that face.”

“Who is it?” Saint demands. “Someone from Sterling Falls?”

I meet his gaze, doing my best not to flinch. “Not really. He left town years ago… But I think I know why he came back.”

“Who is he?” Saint asks.

Just say it. Say where you know him. Say his name.

“His name is Gabriel.”

There’s so much more to it, though, because just speaking it out loud shoots a weird mix of guilt and fear straight down my spine. Gabriel was imprisoned in Terror for so much longer than me. Not weeks or months—years.

He was my first rescue from that web, and my biggest failure.

“How do you know him?” Kade asks.

“I got him out of Terror.” I face them, confused about their confusion. Or lack of horror. They haven’t heard of Terror? Or if they have, they couldn’t know the extent.

I wave them off, feigning indifference, and make up a lie about Terror just being a club.

When we were fifteen and sixteen—no big deal.I don’t mention our ages, or the innocence ripped away from both of us at different times. And in vastly different ways.

Kade still eyes me with suspicion, while Saint moves right along. I ignore the questioning expressions. Kade and I trade places, and I take the chair beside Saint, picking up one of the sandwiches.

They watch the video again. They ask me if I’m sure, to which I nod.

My thoughts turn to Gabriel. It’s been years since I last talked to him, although I assumed Antonio kept up contact. He’s better about that than I am. He likes to keep tabs on everyone and everything. It easeshisconscience.

Antonio was involved in Terror in a different way, and it’s caused him different scars than it left on me. But back to Gabriel—why would he take Reese?

Why is he back in Sterling Falls at all?

Sandwich polished off, I leave Kade and Saint squabbling over the best way to find Gabriel and Reese and retreat upstairs. There are no beds, which is peculiar. Kade has been here for over a month, hasn’t he?

There’s a cot in one of the rooms, though, with a nest of folded clothes around it. Only the essentials, I suppose. The room has balcony doors of glass thrown open wide, allowing the sunshine and salted air to sweep into the room. The cot is positioned in prime space right in the opening. It’s like sleeping outside, almost.

I drag the drapes across the opening, leaving the doors open. A breeze still slips past the heavy blackout fabric, but the room is now considerably darker.

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