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She flicked on a light, but the state of the place was shocking enough to knock the air from my lungs. There was absolutelynothing,no furniture at all anywhere in the living room, and I looked around through wide eyes. Following her down a short hall, I almost thought it was a dream. The bedroom was furnished with just a bed, and there were no sheets, only two blankets folded at the foot.
“Did someone steal your stuff, or did you put it in storage or something after closing out?” Alarm rang in my voice as Katie dropped to her knees to reach under the bed, and she glanced up at me under raised brows. The low, long tote she pulled out was half packed with neatly folded clothes, but there weren’t enough to fill the entire thing. Two absolutely massive and well-used photo albums took up the rest of the space, and I covered my mouth to hide my frown.
“Uh, no? I didn’t have money to get anything other than kitchen supplies, and I just never did it. It was me or get stuff for my mom’s house.” My heart broke a little at how normal Katie’s tone sounded, and she hoisted one of the huge albums into her arms. “Can you carry this one for me, Brandon? I can get the other one. It’s not full like this one.”
ChapterTwenty-Three
KATERINA
“Does it really bother you that much?” Brandon jerked his head in a nod, and I couldn’t help but smile as my chest warmed. Holding the half-full album, I caressed the back with my fingers while he looked around like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “I just want to grab my Viking costume, and then we can go.”
“I’ll take that album. What’s in them?” Passing him my armful, I made my way to the closet to grab the big tote that housed my gift from Mat Sermon. The creak of plastic sheets echoed sharply in my ears, and I hoisted the green box up with a huff.
“Is this your dad?” Brandon’s voice trembled slightly, and I shuffled backward to find him staring into the album with his expression completely masked. “He looks happy.”
“That was when I was twelve and got my period for the first time.” Even though I couldn’t see which picture, I knew them all by heart, and Brandon grunted in acknowledgment. Fire licked my cheeks at the memory, but I cleared my throat before heading awkwardly for the door. “He took me out of school, and we went to the aquarium. I remember the car ride there being so awkward.”
“I can’t believe he was so devastated that this picture could turn into..." Trailing off wobblingly, he gingerly closed the album and a small, sad smile tilted my lips.
He doesn’t even know what my dad looked like.My heart ached at the thought, and I adjusted my grip on my box as my smile fell. Brandon closed his eyes briefly, his mask cracking to release a potent ripple of guilt and grief, and realization struck my chest.He doesn’t know because if he did, he’d be haunted. Suddenly, I’m really glad I took my mom’s maiden name.
“Brandon... my dad’s suicide isn’t your fault.” For the first time, those words left my head, and his eyes fluttered open to lock onto mine. Walking over, I couldn’t reach for him, but I rested my forehead against his arm to breathe in his smell. “There wasn’t anything you could do. Things only went so wrong after he died, and that’s not on you, Brandon. It’s on all the people who said they’d be there for us when they weren’t.”
“I’m so sorry, Katie. I–I don’t know what to say. It’s one thing to listen to you, but..." Leaning back, I couldn’t help but smile at the tortured lilt in his tone even as my chest tightened. I shook my head.
“I know, Brandon. Butlet’s get going. These three things are all I needed to grab. They’ll toss the rest when they clean out the place for the next renters. If there were more stuff, I’d do it myself, but... anyway, let’s go before the lights turn off.” Brandon cracked a small smile of his own as my tone wavered, and I scrunched up my face before turning to head off. A huge weight lifted off my shoulders, and I heaved a massive sigh as my fingers tingled to rub the sadness off my face.
Brandon wouldn’t be able to handle the guilt of knowing who my dad was. A man like him would never knowingly devastate anyone. His reaction only reaffirmed what I’d come to know was true.
My father’s suicide was someone else’s orchestration, and Brandon’s signature on a piece of paper didn’t make him a conspirator. It made him a victim.
“So, um, I wasn’t going to tell you this because of the day—well, evening—we’ve had, but I got a call from Mat Sermon today on my lunch break.” Carefully taking the stairs to the parking lot where Brandon’s car idled, I furrowed my brows as he spoke cautiously. “He said he’s got a script with a lot of potential. I guess it’s a sort of Victorian political drama, but he can’t get a bigger budget. I don’t really understand why, considering everything he’s worked on has been a huge hit. Anyway, he wanted to know if I wanted to finance it personally.”
“You guys are friends like that?” Surprise thickened my voice as we reached the concrete pad at the bottom of the steps, and I twisted to find Brandon shrugging absently. My arms burned, and I rolled my shoulders absently and stifled a groan. “Well, not friends, but like, confident enough with your relationship, I mean.”
“I guess it could be considered that, yeah. Mat’s a genius with his genre, so it wasn’t really a situation where I could say, ‘I’ll think about it.’ I mean, I do supply all of the technology for his studio, but they don’t give him a lot of slack. I think he’s been wanting to talk about it with me for a long time, actually. The last time we spoke—when I went to your last shots—he mentioned wanting to speak to me about it, too.” Nodding, I trudged awkwardly with my huge heavy tote, and my grip started to slip. Rushing to the car, I heaved a breath as I set it down on the ground, and I rubbed my hands together before he came up next to me. The trunk popped open, and I pushed it up high over my head to haul the tote in.
“Okay so, you agreed? I mean, I got lucky to work with him, but you guys have a professional relationship, you know? It must be nice to have a—” A faint trill echoed through the air, and I twisted away from Brandon to frown under furrowed brows. Weaving between pools of yellow light, some kid I vaguely recognized as living in Mason’s complex rode by on his bike. He flicked his bell again, riding along leisurely and sitting fully on the seat, and I licked my lips nervously as a cold sweat broke out on my back. Passing us by from across the road, he rode in slow-motion, and I watched through narrowed eyes when he suddenly picked up speed.
My heart thundered hard, and my eyelid twitched as I strained my ears. The faintest rustle from beyond the face of the complex sent adrenaline flooding my veins, and I whipped around just as Nathan stepped in front of us. A powerful, echoingpowrang through the air, and Brandon stumbled and ducked even though I couldn’t move a single muscle.
Fear and anger warred inside me, and I grabbed Nathan’s gun as another bullet whizzed past my head.Mason’s probably drunk to have such bad aim. Whipping around, Nathan glared hotly at me before a bullet tore through his back and chest. Tightening my grip on the gun, I blinked hard as he jostled forward to catch himself on the lip of the trunk.
And then, time snapped forward, things got faster, and I gotmad. My mind worked furiously, expertly calculating how far away Mason was, and where, and I aimed into the blackness to pull the trigger blindly.
“Katie! Oh, shit! Nathan! Nathan!” Not daring to look over, I ground my teeth as a strange calmness swept through me. Brandon’s voice became a hum, fading into the background, and my heart stabilized a little before Mason emerged into the lit parking lot. Blood soaked the left side of his shirt, and he held up a pistol with a madness in his eyes that was terrifying.
Or it would’ve been, if he weren’t so fucking sloshed that he could barely keep his eyelids apart.
“Put the gun down.” Forcing the command out through clenched teeth, I ducked reflexively when Mason’s only reply was to shoot at me. Fire raced up my spine, and I straightened to aim for Mason’s stupid, fat head. He couldn’t move fast enough, and he hit the pavement with a sickening crack to lie still for a long moment. Lowering my piece, my chest deflated, and my hands shook as I twisted to find Brandon already on the phone with the police.
“Katie! Katie... oh, God, Katie!” Tears streamed down Brandon’s cheeks as he crawled over to me, and I blinked in confusion. Only looking down when he reached trembling fingers for my abdomen did I notice the blood. My pupils blew, body swaying as I dumbly touched the hole that’d been torn into my side. The pain didn’t hit me even when I peeled back my shirt, and I hiccupped shallowly.
“Oh, no.” The bullet tore between my lowest two ribs, and I wheezed hoarsely as realization slammed into my gut.
I had a hole in my lung, and my spleen was probably torn to shreds.What does a spleen even do?
Black spots assaulted my vision, and I glanced over at where Mason had fallen only to find that he’d disappeared. A puddle of blood from his arm and smears from his clothes were all that remained, and I slumped forward. Brandon caught me sloppily, but I still couldn’t feel any pain even as his beautiful, tragic face flickered red and blue before fading away.
