Page 93 of Cash

“I’m scared.”

“It’s okay to be scared.”

She had nothing to say to that.

“Safehouse?”

“Ellicott City. Once we put more distance between us and…” he trailed off, not that I needed him to finish explaining we needed distance between us and the dead bodies. “We can switch and you and Cara can get in the back. It’ll be safer.”

“No!” Cara shouted. “Don’t leave me.”

Direct hit to my heart. One more painful than if I’d taken another fifty lashings of my brother’s leather strap.

I shoved aside the hurt and all of my inadequacies and focused on what was important.

“Damion?” I asked hoping he’d understand my question.

“Unclear.”

The very painful death I had planned for my brother just turned into a long, drawn-out torture session. Days. I was going to start by slicing a thousand shallow cuts into his flesh. Just deep enough to hurt. He’d then know the sting of alcohol being poured over open wounds. Once the first course was over, I’d start peeling off layers of skin.

“Stella?”

Fingernails would be next.

“Stella,” Cash repeated.

I’d leave the teeth extraction until after he was seizing from the pain.

“Baby girl, breathe.”

“I am.”

“No, you’re plotting, which I fully support and will game day plan with you later. But right now, Stella, turn it off and breathe.”

I didn’t ask him how he knew what I was doing.

Not because I wasn’t interested in how he always seemed to know what I was thinking, but because I was too afraid of his answer.

Last night, Cash was absolutely correct when he said I was terrified.

But what he didn’t know was, I wasn’t only terrified of him, I was terrified of everything.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

I squeezed the back of my neck and stared into the dark shoebox-sized backyard in a neighborhood in the outskirts of Ellicott City. Non-descript, middle income, houses close together, nice cars in the driveways. Boring but safe.

A landing place to catch our breath.

My phone in my pocket vibrated.

Fucking finally.

I swiped the screen and answered, “What’d you find?”

Instead of answering, Zane asked, “Where’s your head?”

Not this shit again.