Page 108 of Sweet Sin

“Come on.” I shake Eagle. “Get it together, man. What the fuck have you done?”

My brother shivers in my arms. I see him as a child, as a toddler, just learning to walk, walking to me, his oldest brother, with pride in his eyes. And I take him in my arms, hug him, and tell him how proud I am.

He would smile, lighting up his big brown eyes—the ones that are wide as saucers now.

“Come on, brother. We’re going to fix this. We’re going to fix it. I promise.”

I’ve been making promises to my littlest brother for as long as I can remember.

When he accidentally knocked over one of Mom’s favorite vases, and I took the blame for it. She still thinks I broke it after all these years.

“Come on, I promise...”

He’s still shivers. And I still don’t know what to do.

Behind me, Hawk touches my shoulder. “We’ve got to get out of here.”

My brother’s right, of course.

“Come on,” Hawk says. “The sun is setting, and if we have to work after dark, we’ll need light.”

“We don’t have any tools,’ Hawk says. “We need shovels, at least. We can’t fucking dig with our hands.”

“Right, right.”

Eagle is still staring into space.

“We’ve got to get Eagle home.”

“We can’t take him home like this,” Hawk says. “We can’t let Mom and Dad see him like this. We can’t let the girls see him like this.”

“Robin and Raven would help,” I say.

“But Falcon, we can’t bring them in on this. You and I are already accessories. Do you want that for Robbie and Ray?”

I shake my head and close my eyes.

Think!

No, I don’t want that for my sisters.

Why, why, why did Hawk and I get rid of that powder? If we’d left it, none of this would be happening.

Except Eagle might be in more trouble. When you get in with these cartels, it’s damned near impossible to get out.

We’ve got to get Eagle somewhere safe. Somewhere they won’t find him.

Where the fuck is that?

Damn.

“We’ve got no choice,” I say. “We have to leave everything as is, get Eagle home, and keep watch over him until morning. Then you and I will come back and deal with this shit.”

“No,” Hawk says. “We do it tonight.”

My brother’s right. I’m thinking of Eagle, and he’s thinking of the big picture, which is where we need to be focused.

Eagle will have to stay here where we can keep an eye on him. I nod to Hawk. “I’ll stay here with him. You go back for supplies. Try not to be seen.”

---