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“We’ll be there,” Bane says.
“No,” the woman whispers. “Just you—you came for my sister once. Now I need you to do it again.”
The call ends, leaving the weight of her ominous call in the air. It tangles with Ma’s voicemail, churning over one another until nothing but strained tension remains around us.
I can’t fucking take it any longer.
“Who the fuck was that?” I grit out.
Bane shakes his head, tapping the end of his phone against his thigh.
“And before either one of you think about running your mouths about how I should know who that was, I fucking know that already. So spare me the lecture and remember who the fuck you’re talking to.” The words come out a little more heated than I meant them to, but I don’t take it back.
“Huh. Remind me. Who are we talking to?” Arrogance drips from him like water rolling over a cleaver. I’ve become more than familiar with his sharp edges over the last few months. Ever since she got here.
I clench my molars until I feel them ache, and I take the exit off the highway and get onto another one.
Nova tsks from the back seat. “That’s what I fucking thought.”
“Nah, I don’t think so, brother. That’s not what I meant, and you fucking know?—”
“Elizabeth Carter is Evangeline’s sister,” Bane says, wading in the middle of our shit like he’s been doing his whole life.
“Okay.” I nod a few times, glancing between the rearview mirror, my side mirror, and the windshield, making sure there are no threats coming for us. I’m riding a razor’s edge of paranoia, half-convinced this is part of their plan too. Another fucking trap.
I clear my throat and keep my gaze straight ahead. “I didn’t know she had a sister.”
Nova grunts, but he doesn't offer anything else.
“That’s it?” I arch a brow and glance pointedly at Bane.
He’s still tapping the edge of his phone against his thigh in a quick, steady rhythm. His face drawn, brows furrowed and mouth pressed into a thin line.
“Yeah,” Bane says with a sigh. “I think you need to get us to the fucking compound before we lose everything.”
I exhale through my nose and curb every instinct I have that’s telling me to snap at him. Now is not the time for fighting between us, even if it is the petty bullshit we’ve been slinging at one another our whole lives.
“If you have something else to say, now’s the time. We’ve got sixty miles before we even reach Rosewood city limits.”
My brows sink low over my forehead as I try to understand why the fuck Evangeline’s sister is calling my cousin. Does she play a part in this fucking mess, or are we about to be pulled into Carter family drama?
Bane stops tapping his phone against his thigh and leans back in his seat. “Elizabeth Carter is a fuckin’ snake.”
“Just like her asshole parents,” Nova chimes in.
Bane nods. “They’re a whole goddamn nest of vipers. And how our girl turned out as sweet as pie, like a fucking adorable little bunny in the middle of a snake pit, is a fucking miracle we should be thanking God for every day.”
My chin dips a few times, my thoughts tumbling over one another. But they keep snagging on one unimportant detail: Evie’s not a rabbit. She’s a butterfly. Soft and pretty and delicate. But if you get too close, if you try to consume her, she’ll flay your skin from the inside out with her poison.
The road stretches endlessly ahead, the only sound is the low hum of our truck on the asphalt.
“Well, we know how to kill a snake, don’t we, boys?”
I feel it then. A sort of grainy haze flows over me, molds around my muscles, and adheres to my skin like a sticky web.
Washed-out fragments of who I was before.
Before Evangeline, before Hunter. Before the tentative peace we fought so hard for.
