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Caleb got antsy again. Whenever I asked questions about Callum, Caleb started to get upset. I couldn’t figure out if it was because of the questions or because Caleb was scared of his brother.
The relationship between Callum and Caleb was always odd. Caleb both idolized and feared his older brother.
“Why is Callum doing this?”
Caleb opened the door to the basement, and I cringed at the sound the metal made as it screeched, alerting Callum to our presence. I’d hoped to find a way to get the jump on him, but I knew that was now out of the question.
The feeling of Caleb’s hand on my back pressed me forward and down the stairs.
“He just wants to talk to you.”
The smell of mold hit me the moment I stepped down the stairs, and I felt a bead of sweat starting to pool around my neck. This was starting to feel like a terrible idea. I cursed myself for running out of the Blanchi house.
No one knew where I was, and I didn’t know if everyone was just as clueless as to Eli’s whereabouts.
I gulped audibly as I continued down the steps toward who knew what. The further I went down the steps, the more my mind raced. I wanted nothing more than to ask Caleb why he and his brother were doing this, but I kept my mouth sealed tightly.
Caleb wasn’t in his right mind. The drugs were clearly keeping him from thinking clearly, and when you added in his brother, I knew we were heading towards trouble.
When I came to the bottom of the steps, I held my breath slightly.
“Go down the hallway,” Caleb ordered. He pressed a hand to the lower part of my back. I flinched before I could stop myself.
Though I couldn’t see Caleb’s face clearly, from the way his fingers dug into the fabric of my dress, I knew that he felt it.
“Are you serious?”
“What?” Playing dumb felt like the best idea at the moment.
But Caleb knew me well. After all, we’d been together for a year. “You never used to flinch when I touched you.” His breath was hot in my ear, and I felt bile rise in my throat as Caleb’s hand ran from my lower back to the top of my ass. “You used to beg me to touch you.”
My mouth was dry. “That was a long time ago.”
Caleb’s fingers squeezed into my skin, and I knew he would leave bruises. I pulled away, no longer able to stand his hands on me. “I though Callum was waiting for us.”
I kept my eyes down the dark hall. There was light from a room at the end, and I suspected that was where I would find Eli and Callum. I was eager to get all of this over with.
“Go down the hall.”
A brief moment of relief overcame me, but as I started towards the last door at the end of the hallway, my heart starting thumping loudly against my chest.
“Things didn’t have to be like this.” Caleb’s tone nearly gave me pause. He sounded almost sad, and I wondered why. Was Caleb planning to do something to me? Sure, Callum had taken Eli, and I still didn’t understand how that happened, but did Caleb plan to harm me?
My spine stiffened, and for the first time, I looked at him directly. “I think things had to be exactly like this.”
The hallway was still too dark for me to make out his face, and I didn’t much care what he was feeling at this time. My first priority was making sure that Eli was alright, and after I did that, I needed to find a way to figure out how Caleb and Callum were involved in the death of my mother and brother.
As I got to the threshold of the room, I held my breath. The inside of the room was sparse with just a naked bulb hanging from the ceiling. There was a narrow, tall shelf just a foot or two from the door, filled with tools.
But what drew my attention was Eli.
“Eli!” I rushed towards him, eager to make sure he was alive. But Caleb’s hand reached out and grabbed my arm, squeezing the muscle so tightly that my knees nearly buckled.
“Bring her in.” Callum’s deep voice called out from the shadows. The sound of it made me jump slightly. Caleb dragged me further into the room, not letting me go until I was close to Eli.
Eli’s eyes were wide, and he struggled as he caught sight of me. I shouldn’t have been glad to see it, but I was. “Let me go, you fucker,” he grunted through clenched teeth. “Face me like a man.” He chuckled. The sound made me shiver. There was a bruise forming on Eli’s cheek, and a small amount of blood coated his bottom lip. Even though he was tied to a chair, he looked lethal. “I guess you only know how to be a big, bad man when you are trying to rape teenage girls.”
Caleb let me go and started towards Eli. He raised his fist and smashed it into his face. I screamed as Eli’s lip split further, spraying blood. I rushed towards Caleb, ready to grab his arm and stop him from beating Eli, who was tied helplessly to the chair.
