Page 127 of Heart Sick Hate

I was five, and I thought I imagined it because it didn’t make sense he’d be happy to see her dead. Only someone truly sick and broken would.

That moment didn’t break him as it did me and Adam, it revealed something he was trying to hide.

“Just set the needle down, and we can talk.”

Rhett laughs. “You’re a shit liar. I know you too well for you to try and use your head games on me, Crew.”

He’s right, I am lying, but I’ll say and do anything to get him away from Echo right now.

“Where is this going to get you? Adam told Dad about what happened with Angelina. Ryan knows about the money. You can’t walk away and pretend nothing happened.”

“Then fuck them.” The unhinged crack in his tone makes Echo jump. “They still need to learn a lesson.”

I take a single step, but it causes him to flinch, so I’m forced to stop. At least I’m getting closer. Just not close enough.

This basement is too large. Too dark.

The family hasn’t used this property in years, and the house is falling apart on top of us. I should have guessed this is where he’d bring her since Adam uses it on occasion for some of his not-so-legal business. But when Dad confirmed my gut feeling, my stomach was in knots.

You don’t bring people to this house for them to walk away. And when I walked in and saw her chained up like an animal, my patience nearly snapped.

The last thing you do to a girl like Echo is chain her down. She’s wild. She burns so hot, she’s the sun inmy universe. You don’t bury her; you orbit to her gravity and pray she draws you in so you can dissipate into her oblivion.

She’s everything, and I’m not prepared to lose her for my brother’s sick revenge.

“What lesson do they need to learn, Rhett?” I keep him talking, like I did with Angelina, hoping it's enough to distract him until I figure out what to do to get Echo out of this.

“That women are a worthless distraction. No one learned after what happened with Mom, but maybe this will do the trick.”

“Mom?”

“Do you know she was leaving him?” Rhett’s fingers tighten their grip. “I heard them fighting. She said she was taking us away. That and half his fortune, and we both know which of those things is more important.”

“He would have made more.”

“That’s not the point. She tried to make him look like a fool after all he’d done for her. As evidenced by his pointless little rampage of revenge he dragged us on after she died. Women always get in the way. I tried to show you all back then, but you didn’t see it.”

My eyebrows pinch as his grip on the needle tightens so hard his knuckles are white.

“You tried to show who?” I’m not sure I like where this is going.

Or the sick smile, distilled by the darkness in the room, even if his evil still finds a way to shine through.

“Why do you think Dad never found who killed our mother?”

Echo’s eyes widen, and it’s like her realization is what offers me my own. My stomach turns, and I try to remember what I saw all those years ago. A foggy vision through five-year-old eyes. A scream that cut through the night.

Footsteps ran away, but then I heard something else. They ran back.

Whoever did it was in the room with her not once, but twice. Rhett killed her and then ran to stash the weapon before returning to the scene of his crime. He stood there basking in what he’d done like it was art. Our mother’s body, bleeding out in the living room.

“You killed her?” It’s nearly a growl that rips from my throat as I take two steps forward, momentarily forgetting the needle in his hand.

“Don’t.” He draws it to Echo’s throat, the needle barely poking her flesh, and she freezes.

“Crew, it’s okay,” Echo’s voice cuts through my darkened vision.

Her eyes are liquid gold they’re so dark. Melting me from the inside. Burning hot and saying all the things I don’t want them to right now. Because it’s not okay, none of this is. And she can’t give up on me like this.

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