Page 109 of Sterling Heat

“I know you didn’t.” Stone’s voice drops, sympathetic, compassionate even.

“He died because of me,” Sebastian states. Anguish fills his voice and I stare at him. Grief and remorse are etched into his cheeks, marring his features. There’s no trace of his smile in lips that are almost white and tightly seamed.

My head aches as the words finally penetrate my skull, reverberating around my brain, like my heart didn’t want to process any of this.

He died because of me.

The man Sebastian killed was Seamus.

“You killed my brother.” I don’t understand. This had to be a bad dream.

I wasn’t close to Seamus when we were younger. He was five years older than me, but he was still my brother. I was still saddened by the torture he’d put my parents through and the failure they’d been to him. Sad for him, that he felt the need to turn to drugs to compensate for what was missing in his life.

“We don’t know that for certain,” Stone states.

“Well, my record says otherwise,” Sebastian spits, glaring at his brother. “You were there. You arrested me.”

I’ve never heard Sebastian so angry, so full of venom.

“You know why that was,” Stone adds. Still calm. Still holding firm with his brother while keeping his hands spread wide as if to ease Sebastian or capture him.

Sebastian shakes his head.

I’m so confused. There are so many pieces I can’t clink together.

Seamus. Sebastian.

He told me he killed someone in this house. He told me he was defending Vale.

His sister. My brother.

I might be sick.

Where did it happen? How? The blueprint of this house is different than ten years ago. The layout rearranged. I glance toward the dining room on the other side of the staircase. Then gaze toward the living room where Sebastian still clutches the couch, ready to use the furniture as a hurdle and sprint out of my home.

My home. Did I feel haunted here? Trudy Wallace told me the rumors about a ghost were unfounded. I’d never felt uncertain. I didn’t feel unsafe. A dead man did not break into my house.

“Sebastian?” The question in my voice has him glancing at me.

His eyes look glassy and his lips quiver. “I’m so sorry, sugar.”

Then he leaps over the couch and races to my front door. Stone takes a few steps but doesn’t actively chase his brother.

Instead, he stalls at the front door, staring out the screen as tires kick up gravel and peel onto the street.

“He just stole your car.”

Being that his truck is parked in front of my car in the driveway, and that he was in such a hurry to leave, it makes sense that he took my SUV.

I shrug. “I’m letting him borrow it.”

Just like he borrowed my heart for a little while.

+ + +

Adara has been an angel through most of this scene but she’s suddenly fussy. I prepare a bottle, so I don’t nurse in front of Stone. He makes us each a cup of tea and joins me on the couch when they are ready.

“When my sister had Hudson, I was kind of weirded out by the whole nursing thing. But it’s as natural as having a baby.”