Page 2 of When You're Broken
Brendan swallowed, wishing he had a real answer.“He wants us to suffer,” he said hoarsely, because it was the only truth that made sense.He’d glimpsed enough madness in Wendell’s grin to know he wasn’t after money or typical ransom.This was about cruelty for its own sake.
The man's eyes brimmed with tears."I don't deserve this… I've never hurt anyone...I can't…" He inhaled sharply, burying a sob in the crook of his shoulder."He showed up when I was leaving the store, and next thing I knew… he knocked me out.I woke up in the boot of his car."His voice cracked.
Brendan felt a pang of empathy so strong it almost overcame his own terror.He nodded slowly.“He tricked me at my house… I let him in.”A bitter laugh threatened to escape his cracked lips.“I should have known better.”He coughed, the dryness in his throat making him grimace.“But he was convincing.”
A shaky hush settled again.They both stared at the tools glinting under the dim overhead light: the hammer’s metal head spattered with who-knew-what, the pliers’ jaws stained, the knife’s serrated edge that caught the light in a sinister flash, and the pungent, chemical reek from the bottle of white spirits.All the while, the knowledge that Wendell would return to use them pressed like a weight on their chests.
The man parted his lips.“Do you think anyone’s going to find us?Are we… going to die here?”His voice wavered, each word a thread of desperation.
Brendan let out a trembling breath.“I don’t know.I hope someone is out there looking,” he said softly, though the words felt tenuous.
The man gave a broken nod, eyes flicking to the bucket, then to the locked metal door.“We can’t just stay put and wait for him to… oh God.”He squeezed his eyes shut, tears carving fresh paths down the grime on his face.“We have to do something.”
Brendan tested his ankles again, wincing as the rope bit in.“We will.We have to keep trying to get out of these ropes.But if someone is looking for us, they’d better get here fast.”
CHAPTER ONE
Finn Wright gripped the leather steering wheel of his red Corvette and tried, with limited success, to keep his annoyance under control.The morning sun had only just begun to climb over the tops of the trees lining the rural highway, and the crisp golden light cast an almost ethereal gleam across the hood of the car.It should have been a perfect morning for a drive.But Amelia, next to him, was busy scanning through radio stations in a relentless quest to find what she called “something upbeat.”
He risked a sidelong glance at her.Amelia Winters, Inspector and partner—on more levels than one—sat with her shoulders tensed, jaw set, tapping the “Seek” button in a steady rhythm.Brief bursts of static, the shrill wail of pop, then a tinny commercial announcing a furniture sale all fizzled into existence before Amelia banished them again with a press of her fingertip.
He cleared his throat.“I’m telling you, you just passed a station playing The Rolling Stones.Couldn’t we let that run for a while?”
Amelia’s eyes remained on the small digital display.“I’m not in a Stones mood,” she replied, biting down on each word as if it pained her to say it.“I need something… lighter.”
“‘Lighter’ as in some harmless rock ballad, or—”
“As in 80s cheese,” she interrupted, lifting a brow in challenge.“I want something with a beat you can dance to, something that’s not gloom and doom.”
Finn forced himself to rein in a smirk.Arguing with Amelia over radio stations was a small, silly moment in a day he expected to be loaded with serious anxieties.He wanted to keep the mood from sinking too quickly.“You’re telling me that hair bands from the 80s are going to be your emotional comfort right now?”
“Maybe,” she shot back, a half-smile lingering on her lips in contradiction of her tense posture.
He angled the steering wheel, negotiating a gentle curve in the road.“Fine.Go ahead.If I hear something that reminds me of questionable perms and neon spandex, I reserve the right to deliberately crash the car.”
She snorted softly.“As if your precious 70s and 80s rock is any less questionable.It’s the same era, just a different brand of nostalgia.”
“How dare you,” Finn said with a laugh, drumming his fingers on the wheel.
Amelia finally settled on a station broadcasting some synthesizer-laced tune that indeed sounded like a leftover from a pastel-colored music video.She turned the volume down to a background hum.The strange tension between them broke a fraction, and they exchanged fleeting smiles.
Silence claimed the car for a minute, except for the steady, almost comforting purr of the engine.Finn noticed how Amelia’s shoulders slowly relaxed, though an undercurrent of worry never fully left her eyes.In the hush, he mulled over the next difficult conversation.We have to see Brendan Wilson’s adoptive parents,he reminded himself.We need to ask them about when they last saw him, anything that might lead us to Wendell Reed.
He cleared his throat again.“Listen, about this morning… Are you okay with meeting Brendan’s folks?You only recently found out you’re his biological sister.It’s a pretty big emotional bombshell.You sure you want to handle it so soon?”
Amelia’s gaze dropped to the gear shift.She brushed a few strands of dark hair behind her ear, that gesture he recognized as a sign of her collecting her thoughts.“I think so,” she said quietly.“I have to.I can’t just… stand back and do nothing.And besides, I don’t want them to feel alone.”
“You might need to brace yourself,” Finn said gently.“Talking about it might bring up old wounds.You once told me how tough it was bouncing between foster families when you were a kid.This might take you back there.”
She set one hand over the other, gripping them tightly in her lap.“It wasn’t just foster families, it was the constanthopethat my real parents would pull themselves together and get me back.People always told me, ‘Don’t worry, your mom and dad will fix it soon.’But it never felt soon enough.”
Finn glanced at her, reading the strain in her knuckles.“Did they ever mention Brendan back then?”
Amelia shook her head.“No.I was too young to remember him by the time they took me back.It was always about how they’d had… problems.Financial, personal.They struggled to keep the family afloat.No one said, ‘Oh, by the way, you have an older brother living somewhere else.’If I’d known—” Her voice trembled momentarily.She drew a slow breath to regain composure.“If I’d known, I’d have found him.I would’ve reached out, done something.Instead, I’m finding out like this, and he’s in danger.”
Finn pressed the accelerator slightly, the engine humming at a more urgent pitch.“We’ll get him back,” he said, voice firm.“Wendell took him for one reason: to lure you into his twisted revenge plan.It’s how that psycho operates.”
She nodded, biting her lip.“Killing him or using him as leverage… that’s exactly the sort of thing Wendell would do to punish me.Because I put him behind bars.Because I humiliated him during the trial.Because he’s a sadist who wants me to hurt the way he thinks I made him hurt.”
