Page 28 of Twisted Truths
Paige scoops Sawyer out of her highchair. “Don’t be silly. You’re our family, too. We’re fine. I’m only going to bath this little munchkin and put her to bed.” She leans down and kisses Levi. “Go, get out of here.”
He follows me to the door, pulling on his own running shoes. “Where are we headed?”
I shrug, simply needing to get out of my head. “The old track down by the creek?”
Levi arches his brow. “The one that runs beside the Circle property?”
“Does it?” I feign ignorance as I open the back door and step out into the brisk night air.
He sighs. “You’re only going to get yourself killed if you go poking around out there. Solomon’s the type to shoot first, ask questions later.”
“Or stab first,” I mutter, running through my stretches. “I want this over so I can bury my family, Lev. Every time I think of them rotting away in the morgue, I want to hurt someone.”
“You’ll be right there with them if you don’t leave the sleuthing to the professionals.” Pausing, he studies me carefully before asking, “Have you ever considered maybe the police closed the case because there is no other alternative?”
My jaw drops. He cannot be serious. “You honestly believe Zara is capable of murdering our family?”
“No,” he says quickly, running a hand through his hair. “Fuck, I don’t know. I don’t think so, but?—”
“But what?” I snap. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me, Lev. You know Ziggy. How can you think she could possibly do this?”
Levi holds his hands up in front of him. “You’re right. Sorry. I’m worried about you. You’re so focused on clearing her name, I feel like you haven’t even given yourself time to grieve properly.”
“I’ll grieve when we find the murderer. It wasn’t Ziggy.”
“Alright, but going out and sniffing around the Circle is only asking for trouble. You don’t even know they were involved.” He picks up a basketball and spins it around his finger. “Why don’t we go shoot some hoops across the road? Take your mind off this for a little while. We can look at it with fresh eyes in a couple of days, give you a chance to deal with your loss.”
I exhale slowly, trying to release the tension thrumming through my veins.
He’s right. I haven’t grieved my family, but it’s a bit hard to do when their bodies haven’t been released, and their murderer is still on the loose.
But if I’m honest with myself, my reasons for going out to the Sunfire Circle aren’t all to do with my family. It’s been four days since the market, and despite trying to remain focused on finding whoever murdered my family, I can’t get Hadley off my mind. Those soulful green eyes that drew me in like a moth to a flame. Eyes that widened when she found out my name.
She tried to lie and say she didn’t know Zara, but that’s the only explanation for the recognition, because I don’t believe she’s a massive basketball fan. Hadley knew Zara, and she’s close to Gabriel. I can’t shake the feeling she might have information about what happened to my sister.
Levi’s won’t approve of me sneaking onto the compound to talk to her, though. I’ll have to go out there when he’s not hovering around me like a bloody shadow.
Snatching the ball from his hand, I dribble it through my legs with a cocky smirk. “You sure you wanna go up against the newest point guard for the Boston Shamrocks?”
Annoyance flashes in his eyes before he scoffs out a laugh and steals the ball back. “You haven’t signed with them yet, little brother.”
I let him in on the secret. “Yeah, I did. I sent the contracts via Ryan’s firm yesterday.”
“Wow,” he says, his tone a little flat. “Congratulations.”
I nudge him with my shoulder as we exit the side gate. “Careful, Lev. Jealousy is a curse.”
“What’s to be jealous of? I married the woman of my dreams and have a beautiful baby girl. I’ve got everything I need in that house.”
“Truth,” I agree, grinning at him. “You got lucky, man. Paige is a real sweetheart, and it’s lucky my little niece looks likeher mum.” I dart away as he playfully jabs at my ribs. “Do you miss playing?”
He’s quiet as we cross the road to Barrenridge Park. The sun is setting, but the court is lit up by streetlamps. The methodical sound of the ball hitting the asphalt as we step onto it takes me back to shooting hoops with my mates when we were kids. Back when basketball was fun.
“Some days I miss it,” Levi admits, lining up his first shot. It hits the rim and bounces off, but I’m there to rebound it. “Sometimes I wonder what might’ve happened if I hadn’t thrown it in. But after Kaleb died … I don’t know, my heart wasn’t in it anymore. My priorities shifted.”
“Fair.” I bounce the ball a couple of times before putting up a jump shot that swishes through the net. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry for being such an arsehole back in high school. I was jealous, and I’m not proud of the way I handled it.”
The ball bounces in Levi’s direction, but he doesn’t bother retrieving it. Instead, he stares at me, an unreadable expression in those dark eyes we share, courtesy of our sperm donor.
