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He sighs, and his eyes dart back and forth between the wall and the image on the screen. “Maybe.”
“Did anyone see you do it?”
He nods.
“Who?”
“I think … it may have been her sister. But it was a long time ago.”
I close my eyes and let out a big sigh. God. This is so bad. What should we do?
Rubbing my forehead, I pace around the room to try to think, but nothing’s working. I’m agitated, our lives completely tilting off the axis because of this.
“I want to call,” Lock blurts out.
I stop in my tracks. “What? No!”
“Why not?”
“Because …” I hiss. “It could alert the police, and then they’d put you back into a cell again.”
“But what if this isn’t about that girl?” he says.
I scowl, but when I open my mouth to speak up, nothing comes out. I don’t know what to say. We don’t actually know for sure if this is about that girl.
“Right.” I bite my lip and gaze at the picture on the screen.
Lock’s hand snakes around my waist, and he pulls me close, pressing a kiss to my shoulder. “Trust me.”
I spin around in his arms. “But I don’t want you to be in danger.”
“I won’t. Just let me try,” he whispers, pressing another kiss to my cheek. “Whoever it is… they have a reason, and I need to make things right.”
I nod, sighing. Maybe he’s right. He needs to fight his own demons in order to feel good about himself again. I can’t do that for him, so maybe this is the only thing we can do.
“Want me to do it?” I ask.
He nods, so I grab my cell phone from my bag and dial the number.
The beeping on the other end of the line makes the sweat drip down my back.
When a voice rings in my ears, I suck in a breath.
“Hello?” It’s a man with a very, very deep voice.
“Hi …” I mumble. “This is Juliet Baker. I saw the picture on the news.”
“Have you seen him?” He sounds thrilled, to say the least.
“Can I ask … why you’re looking for him?” I swallow down the lump in my throat. It’s a gamble because I don’t know if he’ll answer. He might even put down the phone. But it’s worth the risk.
“Because he’s my brother.”
My eyes widen, and I lower the phone even though the man is still talking.
I can’t believe what I just heard.
Lock grabs my shoulders and lowers his head to look me in the eye. “What did he say? Is he looking for me because of the girl or not?”
I stammer, “He’s … your brother.”
Accompanying Song: “Hungry Faces” by Mogwai
Lock
“A brother? Me?” I point at myself because I honestly can’t believe she’s talking about me.
But she keeps nodding, keeps saying yes, even though it goes against every fiber of my being.
Why? Because it would mean all these years, my father lied to me.
He always told me I had no one else but him.
And all these years, I had a brother looking for me.
How is this possible?
It can’t be true because if it is, I wasted my life alone on an island when I could’ve spent them with him. Someone who shares my blood. Someone who knows what it’s like to live in pain.
Did Father lock him up the way he locked me up?
Did he fight for glory, and did he get a reward?
And how did he manage to escape?
So many questions run through my mind right now, but none of them can be answered because the conversation has already ended. Jules told him where we’d meet, and that was that. She didn’t tell him anything about me, and he didn’t tell her anything about himself.
“Why didn’t you let me talk to him?” I growl.
I don’t know what that thing was that she used, but it sure as hell gave her a direct connection to my brother. I want it back.
“Because if this is true, we need to do this in person. For real,” she replies.
“But he’s my brother. I want to ask him … things.” I swallow back the rage. I don’t want to be angry with her, but she makes things so difficult sometimes. And I don’t understand any of this.
She places a hand on my chest. “I know you have a lot of questions. He probably does too. It’s better if you ask them after meeting him.” She looks at the floor. “Besides, we don’t know if it’s safe. What if the phone was tapped?”
I have no clue what she means.
“Like what if people are listening to the conversations? Police? Who would take you to jail if you told them everything that happened to you. We can’t risk it,” she adds. “We have to stay safe. That’s why I chose a neutral place to meet at a park near my home. We’ll have to fly there first, of course.”
