Page 72 of Shadowed With Fear

“No. Nothing. If she hadn’t called and I hadn’t seen him on the camera by the treehouse I wouldn’t have known anything was out of the ordinary,” Brahm answers, taking a sip of his coffee.

“What are we going to do?” Adam asks from behind Henry. He shuffles past, coming over to get his own cup.

“Well, right now she’s staying here with Grays while I get the house upgraded with a security system and some more cameras. I’m going to get a copy of the footage and send it to you, Alex,” Brahm turns to him. “Maybe you can see if that guy your friends with in tech can give it a once over. We might have some luck with facial recognition if we can get the brightness up or something.

“And when D’s done showering, we’ll listen to her account of the evening. See if we can find anything to piece this shit together.” He sighs.

We all nod at the plans. I blow my coffee before taking a long gulp. And it’s not a second after I put my lips to the mug that Dahlia’s footsteps pounded down the hallway from my room.

“What. The. Fuck. Is. This?” she yells, punctuating each word before throwing my mask on top of the kitchen counter. I choke. Hot coffee spewed from my nose. It’s fucking excruciating, burning my nostrils and my throat.

“Fuck.” Brahm breathes, staring down at his sister who looks nearly ready to explode.

“Dahlia,” I gasp put, and her fiery gaze sets on me.

“I’ll deal with you in a second. You!” She turns to Brahm, fingers poking at his chest.

“You didn’t fucking tell me?”

“I—Tell you what, D?” He says innocently.

“Don’t play dumb, dickhead. I know. I fucking know. The papers, the files, the folders, all of that shit is because you’re out at night playing fucking Avengers, and you didn’t tell me?” Hurt peers beneath her anger.

“I know I should have told you, but I wanted you safe. We are always careful.” Brahm reasons.

Dahlia shakes her head sharply. “I don’t care about that shit. I’m fucking pissed— “

“I know. We’re breaking laws and— “

“No, dumbass. I’m pissed you didn’t think I would want to do it too!” She’s wide eyed, staring him down as if she was the one that was a foot taller and six years older, not him.

Brahm’s quiet. We’re all quiet. No one moves.

His brows raise. “Huh?”

“I wanna go out and kickass too. It’s fucking rude that after all these years you still won’t let me do stuff with you guys. I feel like I’m four years old all over again and y’all won’t let me come play pirates in the fucking treehouse. I’m pissed.”

I swallow, the action causing my throat to ache, and I blink rapidly. A laugh chokes out, broken, but in disbelief.

Brahm cracks a smile, looking over at me above her head. “You want to come with us?”

“Yes, like I haven’t been saying that this whole fucking conversation. I’m pissed you didn’t ask me to come with you.”

“I wanted to keep you safe.”

“Yeah, and I haven’t been a part of this and what’s happened, huh? I’ve been attacked three times and I’m not even fucking involved. Maybe if I had been then I’d have had some random ass knives or shit lying around that could’ve helped a lot.” She crosses her arms, tapping her foot, her fingers twitching.

“I— “

“That kinda makes a lot of sense,” Alex mumbles to Adam, and D turns to him.

“And you! You worked so hard to get into the academy. How are you doing this?” she asks him incredulously.

“Well, I started this because we stopped doing shit that mattered, D. When was the last time someone did something about the fucking criminals in this town, and not the asshole seventeen-year-olds speeding on the bridge to Beckettsville?”

“I see your point, moving on. I’m coming with you from now on,” she tells Brahm a sternness to her voice. Conviction.

“Okay.”