Page 79 of Vicious Desire (Fallen Royals 4)

I shove the photograph at him. “Happy?”

He takes it and squints, then flips it over. Reads the note. “Um…”

I push at his chest. “I don’t know why you’re even here!”

He lets me batter him, withstanding my storm, and it just makes me angrier. “What did you do to him?” I yell. “Where is he? This stupid fucking blackmail—”

He grabs my wrists and spins me around, slamming me against the door. The room is completely silent.

“Stop. Hitting. Me.”

I spit at him.

Immediately, horror takes over. I’ve never been angry enough to want to strangle someone, but I felt it. And now it goes out, a drain being unplugged. Worse, a balloon popping. Bang, empty.

Blown apart.

He wipes at his cheek.

It wasn’t a glob of spit. More like a spray. But even still.

“I—”

“Save it,” he says softly. “Did it help?”

Did it?

I suck in a deep breath. “Yeah.”

He nods once and releases me. “I didn’t do this, and I don’t know where your brother is.”

The strange part is… I believe him.

19

Riley

Fourteen Months Ago

I climb into the car before Dad can stop me.

He eyes me, lips pursing for a second. In the end, he doesn’t say anything. He reverses out of the driveway and hands me his phone.

“Use that Find Friends app first,” Dad says.

I squash down the fear. Noah was gone all night, all morning, and now it’s evening again. The afternoon flew by while my parents called the whole soccer team Noah used to run with. Some moved away for college, but a few are still around.

They didn’t have anything substantial to say.

A few more didn’t answer.

“Nothing,” I report. There’s me, a tiny blue dot on the map. It updates periodically, moving down the road. Dad’s dot is almost on top of mine. “Where are we going?”

He grunts. “You should’ve stayed with your mother.”

I set down his phone and cross my arms. “And let you handle this alone? Not a chance.”

“I knew you’d say that, daughter of mine.” He spares me one tight-lipped smile before returning his attention to the road. “There are some places in Stone Ridge that… he might be.”

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