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He just started shaking his head.

“Mr. Carter?”

“My son.”

“Which son?” Detective Baylor asked him, and we were all silent.

Conrad put his hands on my shoulders, squeezing tight.

“Daddy?” Jocelyn said.

He looked up at his daughter. “Brendan.”

“Brendan?” She squinted. “What are you—”

“Oh God,” Scott groaned, sounding like he was going to be sick.

“Brendan is your son?” Cece Carter asked her husband. The look on her face went from horrified to furious in a matter of seconds. “You told me I was seeing things! You told me—ohmygod!” she shrieked.

Once she started screaming, it quickly became a howl that wouldn’t stop. Scott went to her; Jocelyn got on her cell phone and called the doctor even as the wail went on and on. It was horrible to hear, and I watched Neil Carter’s life end right there in front of me.

“Mr. Carter!” Detective Baylor yelled, ordering the officers to take Mrs. Carter away. Jocelyn went with her, squeezing my hand before she left, making me promise to come to her mother’s room the minute I heard anything, the minute I knew the whole story.

“I promise,” I said without turning to look at her, my eyes locked on her father.

“Mr. Carter,” Detective Baylor barked again. “Tell me what happened now.”

“This wasn’t supposed to happen.”

“Where’s Landry?” I roared at him.

“I don’t know.” He looked up at me with broken eyes. “He took him, and he was supposed to give him back the minute the ransom got paid.”

“But there’s been no ransom demand,” the detective reminded him.

He turned his head to the policeman. “I know, and that’s troubling.”

Troubling?

I started to shake, the desire to tear the man to shreds coursing through my body.

Troubling, he said.

Detective Baylor grabbed a chair and put it down in front of Mr. Carter. “Explain this to me: you had your one son kidnap his brother?”

“Half brother,” Scott almost snarled. “Jesus Christ, Dad, what the fuck did you do?”

“I—”

“Please,” Detective Baylor almost yelled, hand up. “Any more outbursts from anyone and I will clear this room. Do you understand? If you can’t contain yourself, Scott, we will have you removed.” He turned and glared at me. “That goes for you as well, boyfriend, do you understand? Everybody shut the hell up.”

I nodded furiously and Scott seethed beside me, arms crossed, the energy just sparking off him.

“Now,” the detective began again, facing Mr. Carter. “Sir, what did you do?”

“I didn’t do anything.” He shook his head, and I saw his chin quiver with the control it was taking for him not to cry. “And that’s my crime.” His eyes lifted to Baylor. “He told me. My son told me what he was going to do, and I told him to wait. I didn’t want him to touch Scott or Christian because I was scared, but when Landry came home….”

I almost went down; my legs barely held me up. He wasn’t about to feed either of his good sons to the beast, but the prodigal, the prodigal could be led to the slaughter.