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10
COLLINS
“You look like shit,” Kyle muttered, coming out of his room hours after Robbie had left. “In fact, you haven’t looked well since the other day when you wouldn’t eat.”
How perceptive of my little brother. “I’m fine. Just tired is all. Haven’t been sleeping well.” All of that was the truth. My brain had been stuck in anxiety mode for the last week. What should have been a fun night had reduced me to walking on eggshells.
“You’re worried.” He sat down beside me on the couch and exhaled. “This is the first stretch of time we haven’t had to worry about being found, and you’re antsy.”
Sure. Let’s go with that. “A little. Maybe. In the time we’ve been here, I haven’t even thought about finding mom and dad’s killer. I’ve been content to be Collins while you’re Lucas.” I frowned. “What does that say about me?”
Kyle shrugged. “That you want to forget? Can’t say I haven’t thought about the same. Are you worried if you dig or ask questions, Miceli would find out and then you’ll have to tell him the truth?”
Was I? No. I was more worried about him still firing me. I nibbled on my thumbnail. “I don’t know.”
“You’ve already been declared dead, Steph,” Kyle murmured. “So have I. We can’t get that life back without proof of who killed our parents.”
“Even then, we don’t know if anyone would believe us either,” I added.
“Exactly. We were the last two to see them alive.”
Indeed. My car was at the scene. Kyle was gone. So was I. If we came forward now, the police would think we killed them and went into hiding by faking our deaths. Not that we hadn’t faked them, in a weird sort of way. “We can’t keep running.”
“No. Here we can be Collins and Lucas. Out there,” he pointed outside, beyond the property, “we’re still Stephanie and Kyle Hollis.”
I knew that. Scrubbing my face, I groaned. “I don’t know what to do anymore. To our friends and family, we’re dead. That means our trust funds are gone. Any money we had in savings is gone. Everything about us is a clean slate. However, whoever killed our parents knows we’re alive because they keep sending men after us when we’re out there.”
“We stay here then,” he said, like my job was never ending.
“And when Rocca goes back to school?” I cocked a brow.
“You tell him you don’t want to leave and that you’ll take any other position, or maybe by then my arm’s better and I’ll decide to work for him here too. We can figure this out.” The determination etched into my brother’s features left my heart aching to lie to him and say sure, but I had a feeling once my job was over, we’d have to leave.
“Kyle, I...” I didn’t know what to say to him. I wouldn’t give him any false hope. We couldn’t afford to be optimistic after everything we’d been through. “Do you even think your arm is getting better?”
He nodded. “Every day. Since Benny and Antonio started helping me out, the strength is returning a little at a time. I can curl about twenty pounds now. Before I couldn’t even squeeze a stress ball.”
I guess I missed a lot while I’d been stuck in my world. “That’s amazing. How does your wound-site feel, though?”
“Sore.” He shrugged. “The scar tugs a little whenever I’m working out, but it’s because I haven’t used my arm for much over the last year-ish.”
“Yeah.” I frowned. “You know the anniversary is coming up next week.”
He inclined his chin. “What did you want to do?”
“Nothing.” My bottom lip trembled as hot tears rolled down my cheeks. “We can’t do anything. If we do—did we’d be found out? I won’t put us back in danger.”
“So, we’ll mourn here, together, like we have been.” Kyle hugged me tight as I let the anguish go and cried. I missed my mother and father so much. I knew Kyle did as well. Keeping this secret was the hardest part. Maybe in ten years it would be easier. But today, I wasn’t sure that would ever be possible for us.
“I shouldn’t be crying,” I whispered. “If someone saw us or heard us...”
“That’s on them. I’m tired of playing the what if game,” my brother muttered. “Our lies will catch up on us if we don’t learn to trust someone to help us.”
I thought I’d found the person to trust, but every time I turned around, I doubted myself and him. What if Miceli was in on the plot? If Miceli knew who I was all along, why was he waiting for the right moment to strike? What if we were in danger just being here? “Who do we trust when we know what our father did for a living?”
“Miceli,” Kyle said with a confidence I didn’t have at the moment.
“What if he’s the bad guy, too?” I wouldn’t meet Kyle’s gaze, especially after what happened between Miceli and me.
