Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 110273 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 551(@200wpm)___ 441(@250wpm)___ 368(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110273 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 551(@200wpm)___ 441(@250wpm)___ 368(@300wpm)
I raised an eyebrow. “How do you know?”
Her hand flexed over my arm, gripping me hard, but it was a reaction she hadn’t been able to hold back. “Because you wouldn’t tell us if you did.” Her head went forward again. “Let’s go.”
She jerked me after her.
They took me into a room, but it wasn’t a questioning room. It was a watching room, and inside the next room, which I could see through a two-way mirror, was my brother.
He was at the table, head bent, arms handcuffed flat to the table. He was wearing a T-shirt that’d been ripped at some point, and dried blood had seeped through it, mostly over his right shoulder.
I remembered how easily he got away from me. “Did he fight when you took the house?”
I was watching my twin. My gaze never wavered, but I noted two movements. One was Bright looking at me, seen from the corner of my eye, and the other was my twin lifting his head. Just slight. Just enough. And then he lowered it back down.
He knew I was here.
How I knew it, I didn’t know. But I knew it.
“He didn’t have time. We took them both by surprise. He was in the kitchen.”
“I doubt he had blood on him when you took him, all peaceful-like.” I should ask about Chrissy, but I didn’t. “What was he doing in there?”
“What?”
“What was he doing in there?”
The answer came from Wilson, who sounded as if he was leaning against the wall behind us. “He was cooking eggs.”
Eggs.
He was making food.
“Who else was in the house?”
Bright made a growling sound.
Wilson answered, almost sounding bored. “Him. The driver, who we’re still identifying. And Chrissy Hayes.”
This told me three more things. One: Wilson was not alarmed. He would’ve been, if their heads were on the chopping block. Two: that meant they were safe, but Bright was frustrated. She didn’t want me to ask these questions, and she didn’t want to give me the answers. And finally, Wilson was answering, so that meant either Wilson was doing a damn good job at playing the good cop or they were ordered to give me information.
They needed me.
That’s the only scenario that could be at play here.
That gave me cards to play. That gave me some power.
Now I asked, because I needed to, “Where’s Chrissy?”
Bright answered this one, her features softening. “She’s in medical. Once she’s cleared, and we get her statement, she can be reunited with her daughter.”
My teeth ground together.
Her pity told me she felt bad for Chrissy, which meant Chrissy hadn’t been in good shape when they found her.
“I’m assuming she’s been questioned.” I peered more directly at Bright. “What was her state?”
Bright hesitated. “She doesn’t remember a lot, and the psych doctor advised against pushing her. As for physical, she’d lost weight. She’d been traumatized, but she was coherent when we found her. She could walk and talk.” Another hesitation. Her eyebrows pinched. She flattened her lips together before she nodded at my twin. “She wasn’t scared of him.”
I looked toward him, and his head had raised. It wasn’t all the way up, but it was halfway up. He was listening.
He shouldn’t be able to hear us.
My eyes narrowed back at Bright. “How do you know?”
“There was an incident. We were taking him out and had to pause because a van was going down the street. We held him back. Word did not get communicated to her team and they brought her down the stairs from where they were keeping her. They looked at each other, and her handlers said she didn’t react.”
“Was she in shock? She didn’t know what she was seeing.”
“No. She said his name.”
His name?
I wanted to ask, but I didn’t.
“There was no fear. Her body didn’t lock up. One agent had been holding her pulse, it was just habit, and he said there was no spike. How she said his name, it was as if she was worried about him.”
I turned to inspect my twin once more.
His head was back down.
They wouldn’t get anything from him. He was good. Too good. And there were things happening I didn’t know, and I needed to know. So, weighing the pros and cons, I decided to pull my card.
“I want time with him.”
Both agents reacted. Bright’s head snapped around to me, her eyes wide and unbelieving. And I heard Wilson’s swift intake of breath.
“No.” Bright shook her head.
“Yes.” I leaned toward her. Before she could make more protests, I laid out my argument. “You will get nothing from him.” They didn’t know he could hear us, but I did, and so this message was twofold. I wanted him to know what I knew, and then I would go from there. “I had him before.”
Neither knew.
I felt the tension fill the air.
They were not happy to hear that.