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CHAPTER2
Tati
Complicated.
That word played over and over in my mind, taunting me for my mistake in thinking something could ever just be simple for me.
It never,everwas.
There was always thegotcha.
“Ay, I better start getting some answers out of some goddamn body real quick or I’m going to—”
“You’re going towhat?!” I snapped at Brandon, unfairly, but shit.
His anxious energy was only feeding my own anxiety and it was pissing me off. It wasn’t that I didn’t understand where it was coming from, but his fussing, his rage, was making it hard for me to even think.
Of course he’d been the first phone call I made.
Why wouldn’t he?
Even though we’d just gone through our little fussing and fighting, he was still my brother—still the person I trusted more than anybody else.
I needed him to be steady for me, but… this had him shook.
The news of Onyx pulling a sudden disappearing act had sent a fresh shockwave through the organization, putting us all on high alert. First order of business had been checking in with everybody who hadn’t chosen to stay at thePredatorscompound. A few people, including my mother, were pissed about the middle-of-the-night phone calls and knocks on the door, but we had to make sure this thing was isolated.
We had to be sure we weren’t under attack.
The secondary course of action was coordination with Alicia’s people; a step we were still in the middle of now, which was probably contributing to the stress. There were “former” killers all over my damn property, looking for any sign of what may have happened to Onyx. At this point, we were all skipping past the most obvious, but least desirable, option.
“I told his ass I was going to fuck him up if he left,” Brandon growled, fixing me with a glare.
Almostall of us were avoiding that possibility.
Brandon didn’t care.
Especially when the lack of information to the contrary was making a voluntary exit look more and more likely with each hour that passed.
“You’resureyou didn’t see anybody suspicious coming through here?” I called down the front steps to one of thePredatorsstanding there waiting. He’d been stationed at the end of my damn street, at the entrance to the cul-de-sac. There was no way for anybody to get past him without being noticed.
“Nobody came through here that made me raise an eyebrow,” he insisted, throwing his hands up. “I’m not sure what else to say.”
“Man, get outta here,” Brandon barked at him and I shot him a smile, to balance it out.
Brandon wasn’t mad at him for not seeing anything. That would be nuts. He was mad at the situation.
And I hadn’t even told himeverythingyet.
“Be straight with me, Tati,” Brandon said, arms crossed as he approached where I was seated on the wide porch swing. “We’re doing all this, calling the cavalry in… do you really think something happened?”
Pushing out a sigh, I glanced up, meeting Brandon’s gaze. I shrugged. “I don’t know. My exterior cameras were disabled, his phone was left here, hisclotheswere left. Depending on how you look at it, all those things could be evidence for multiple outcomes. The most compelling evidence that he didn’t leave on his own is the fact that Alicia was worried.”
He nodded. “So… nothing happened between y’all that you’re not telling me?”
With my elbows propped on my thighs, I dropped my forehead to my hands, pressing my fingers to my temples for a moment. “Come sit down,” I told him, without looking at him.
The swing shifted as he did as I asked, putting a subtle sway in motion.
