Page 176 of Possession

“Give me that!” she cries. “I need to tell your father. He has to know. He thinks he’s going to be charged with murder.”

I freeze. “Murder?”

My mother pulls out of my hold and fights to get her phone back, but I manage to hold her off. “It’s bad enough they’re claiming distribution and money laundering. But that agent is a Cruz. It makes sense why he was targeting us to begin with. Your father thinks he instigated the deal for you to marry Damian just to get close to us.”

I shake my head. “No, that’s not the way it happened. Brax is the one who made sure Damian could never hurt me. He did the same when Nic Decker wanted to marry me after the bloodbath in the church.”

There’s no way I’m telling her what Brax really did to keep me safe. No one will know that he killed for me.

Twice.

“His brother, Landyn,” she bites.

The oxygen in my lungs evaporates at the mention of Brian. I whisper, “What about Brax’s brother?”

Her eyes are wide and panicked. “It all made sense when it came out in the news. His brother was the cop who was taken across the border and killed. Braxton Cruz doesn’t want you, Landyn. You were just a way to your father. It’s too coincidental. When we found out who he really is, your father’s attorney started preparing.”

Oh, God.

No.

No, no, no.

“Tell me … what’s coincidental?” I demand, needing to hear the words to make my brain believe them. This cannot be happening.

She shakes her head violently. “Give me my phone. I need to call our attorney so he can tell your father.”

She tries to get her phone back, but I shove it into my back pocket and rush her. She yelps in surprise when I grip her by the shoulders and give her a hard shake. “Did he do it? Tell me he didn’t do it.”

She struggles to get away from me, but I’m stronger. And I’m sober. Her hand connects with my face in a weak slap.

I brush it away as desperation fills me.

“Tell me!” I demand. “Did Dad kill Brian Cruz?”

When her nails sink into the skin at my shoulders, I push her. She topples to her back and tries to roll to her side to get away.

There’s no way I’m letting her go.

I grab her hair. Bending to get into her face when I crane her neck around to make her look at me, I repeat, “Tell me, dammit.” Mom cries out in pain when I give her head a shake. I’m not a violent person. I’ve never hit or attacked anyone.

I don’t recognize myself.

This is what desperation does.

I stare down at my own mother. I’m ashamed to share her DNA. “Brian Cruz was tortured,” I say. Tears well in my eyes, unlike any I’ve ever shed before. But these are tears of anger and disbelief of what’s unfolding before my own eyes. She howls as I pull her hair tighter. “He was kidnapped and tortured for days before they killed him and dumped his body. Are you telling me my own father did that just so he could run drugs for the Marinos?” I grip her jaw with my other hand and give her head a violent shake when I scream. “Tell me!”

“Landyn?”

Micah’s voice cuts through the house. I didn’t hear him come in.

I ignore him, ready to threaten my own mother until she tells me the truth. My fingers dig into her skin, but she’s had enough. Tears stream down her face, and she can barely get the one word out that will change my life forever.

“Yes!” she cries. “He killed him. They required it. He had to.”

I let her go instantly as if touching her singed me and take a step back. She falls to the floor and cradles her face in her hands. Mine shake and tremble, stained with her blood.

“What the hell?” Micah exclaims. He pulls me away from the woman who’s in a heap on the ground. “I was only on the phone with Brax for three minutes. What happened?”

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