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“Hold up,” Duncan said. “Your brother is trying to frame you for aggravated assault? Why?”
Santee looked at the floor. “He’s abused me my whole life. Marvell can’t stand the fact that he doesn’t have control over me now. He clearly wants me back.”
Duncan snarled. “Not gonna happen.”
“There’s something else.” Santee swallowed roughly. If Marvell was willing to set Santee up, to make it seem like he had hurt Orion, then he wasn’t going to hold back any longer. “I think my brother is selling out shifters to those hunters. Making money off of them.”
When no one said anything, Santee looked up. Everyone was staring at him, but Santee couldn’t tell if they were mad or if their expressions were something else. “I’m sorry I didn’t say anything sooner. I was terrified of what Marvell would do to me.”
“No one blames you,” Beckett said. “The blame rests on your brother’s shoulders.”
“How is Orion?” Santee asked the sheriff.
“He’s in the hospital and still unconscious,” Sheriff Harper said. “As soon as he wakes up, he can tell us who attacked him.”
“Doesn’t that make him vulnerable?” Duncan asked. “If Marvell knows Orion survived, that he can say who jumped him, that makes him expendable.”
Santee felt like he was going to be sick. Orion was in danger because of him. Duncan was right. Orion was at risk now. If Marvell was heartless enough to sell out shifters, he wouldn’t think twice about killing Santee’s best friend.
“Way ahead of you,” Sheriff Harper said. “I have one of my deputies posted outside his hospital room.”
“One more thing,” Beckett said. “Which boss told you that Orion was last seen with Santee? How can he or she say that when Santee has been here with us?”
“I never said I believed them,” the sheriff said. “In fact, Deloris broke down right away, telling me that she was threatened into telling us that Santee was last seen with Orion. She said she’d never seen the guy before, so she couldn’t give me a name.”
“You have to find Marvell,” Santee said, panic rising inside of him. “He’s selling out shifters, trying to set me up, attacked Orion, and had my boss threatened.”
Although Santee had called the store and told his other supervisor that he needed some time off to take care of some personal matters, he doubted he still had a job. Not when Marvell was threatening the people Santee worked for.
“What exactly do you mean by selling out shifters?” Sheriff Harper asked.
“I followed Marvell one night.” Santee told them about the conversation he’d overheard when the hunters had asked for names in exchange for money.”
Sheriff Harper cursed. “I’ll have my deputies pick Marvell up. He wasn’t home when I stopped by to talk to Santee.”
Marvell was cunning. Santee doubted his brother would be found unless he wanted to be found. “Then he’s probably somewhere in the forest.”
“Can’t you get volunteers to help find him?” Duncan asked.
“Normally I would,” Sheriff Harper replied. “But since shifters are being hunted, I didn’t want to put anyone at risk. I’ll let my deputies know what’s going on.” The sheriff’s eyes softened. “I wish I’d known what was going on at home, Santee.”
No one had known. Marvell had always made sure not to bruise Santee where others could see. And Santee had been too ashamed to admit to anyone that his brother was a monster. The more Santee thought about it, the more he was certain his parents knew what Marvell was. If they did, why had they let Marvell hurt him? Why had they played things off as if their son wasn’t deranged? Surely, they’d known. There was no way they hadn’t at least suspected it.
“You’re safe here.” Beckett slid an arm around Santee. “He’s not getting to you.”
He just wished he felt as confident as Beckett sounded. Marvell was crafty. He wouldn’t let a family of cheetahs stand in his way when it came to getting his hands on Santee. In Marvell’s messed-up mind, his brother owned him.
The more Santee confided in Beckett, the more he believed this. In Marvell’s eyes, Santee was nothing more than property that his brother wanted returned to him.
“Keep a close eye on things around here.” Sheriff Harper headed for the door.
Santee shivered. All he wanted was for this to be over, for Marvell to rot in the underworld because putting him in a human prison wouldn’t be wise. Santee was a gentle person, wishing no one harm, but at the moment, he wanted his brother to suffer as much as he’d made Santee suffer.
To suffer for betraying his own kind and for hurting Orion.
To suffer for hurting anyone else Santee didn’t know about.
Because if Marvell wasn’t stopped, sooner or later he would find Santee and make him pay.
