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If I found him, I was going to make sure he couldn’t hurt her or anyone else ever again.
Aspen passed me my phone, and I swiped it open seeing two alerts from her number—both videos. Gritting my teeth, I opened the one that was sent first, Reed and Aspen sliding in beside me so they could see.
Cassie appeared on the screen.
My hands clenched tightly around the phone, and Aspen flinched, reaching out and wrapping her hand around mine so I couldn’t toss it across the room. She made the right move because the second I saw Cassie sitting on some fucking couch, blood smeared through her hair and looking like she was struggling to even sit up straight, I was ready to make someone or something pay for it.
In that moment, my phone had been the one I was ready to sacrifice.
“I think I’ll hold it,” Aspen said, slipping it from my hand.
I didn’t protest.
It was probably the best option given how these videos, whatever they were, could help us find her.
Aspen took a breath and pushed play.
“My name is Cassidy Thomas, and I am to make an announcement about the recent news regarding my ex-boyfriend, Brian Santerson.” Her words were practiced, her eyes even moving like she was reading off a card or paper behind the camera. On top of that, everything sounded slightly slurred, like how you get sometimes when you’re really tired or drunk.
“She’s got a concussion,” Reed announced, his brow etched deep between his eyes as we watched Cassie ramble about how she was wrong about Brian and started to list all these things about him.
How he supported his parents.
How he donated to charities.
“Taking Brian’s life wasn’t my intention the day he came to my workplace,” Cassie said, her eyes welling while she cleared her throat, clearly fighting to get the words out. “He didn’t deserve to die that day, and I know now I need to take responsibility for what happened and any punishment that may come with that. Thank you for your time.”
I couldn’t stop shaking my head.
The whole video was fucking ridiculous.
“Even if his plan is to use that to get them to prosecute her, they never will,” Reed explained. “It’s clearly a forced confession, and on top of that, she was still within her rights to protect herself. What the hell is this guy doing?”
“He’s lost it,” I stated, flicking my hair back from my face. “The bastard has just completely lost it.”
“He was probably already a little on the not-all-there side,” Aspen said, scrunching her nose up. “But I think probably losing his brother has sent him over the edge and pushed him into this place that’s not quite connected to reality.”
He wanted to see Cassie suffer for what she’d done. And there was no doubt in my mind he was trying to make us suffer too for supporting and standing by her.
He was crazy.
But that scared me even more because he obviously thought he was in the right, and who the hell knew how far he’d go to punish her if he thought it was somehow justified?
“Are you ready to see the second video?”
No.
But I’d face whatever the fuck I had to right now, even at the possibility that it could bring her home.
I clenched my fists by my sides as Aspen pushed play.
This time, it was Emmett’s face that appeared on the screen, though you couldn’t see much of it because he was outside and it was dark. He was walking down some kind of path next to a building. “Well, as you’ve probably seen, Cassie admitted her wrongdoing,” Emmett announced proudly. “In the morning, I’ll be sending that video to every news agency and my lawyer so he can start the process to have my brother’s name cleared of defamation.”
“Bastard has no fucking idea how the system works,” Reed muttered under his breath.
“Now, I know how much you love Cassie, and I’m not completely heartless,” he taunted, the smug grin on his face growing wider as he pauses next to a black vehicle—Simon’s SUV. “We’re in Brighton, and I’m going to leave her here for you to pick up.”
He pulled the car door open, and there she was, blinking at the light.
