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Junior lets out a burst of laughter, and then his lips curve up into a smile and stay there. But I’m not smiling. We were used as bait. This asshole used not just me but Parker and even his own mother as bait.
What the hell is happening here?
“You left me and David with the ones you treasure most as a test?” he asks, his laughter filling the room. He obviously thinks this is as ridiculous as I do.
“You’ve been recorded this entire time,” Coleman says with a shrug, lifting his hand and extending a finger to point to the small camera in the corner of the room. I wouldn’t have even thought to look at it, or if I did see it, know what it is. It blends in with the paint perfectly.
“Where’s Allison?” Coleman asks.
Junior’s eyes widen, then David looks down at his shoes. He doesn’t say anything, though. Neither of them does. Instead, they just watch Coleman, appearing to wait for something, maybe their punishments.
I hear Bryson snort at the same time Shelby lets out a moan that strikes me as odd for the moment, but then I realize she’s trying to be sexy—it doesn’t work. Shifting my attention away from Coleman and Junior’s exchange, I look over to my siblings.
Andrew appears to be trying to hide, but it’s Bryson and Shelby who cause me to stare. Shelby’s lips are pouted, and she’s got her chest puffed up and sticking out far too much. She looks uncomfortable, really. Bryson is almost the same way, except he’s not pouting. His jaw is clenched, and he’s got his chest puffed as he squares his shoulders.
“So what now?” David asks, speaking out loud for the first time since he’s walked into the condo.
Coleman shrugs a shoulder, then moves toward Junior. Everything happens in slow motion, so I don’t realize what’s going on until Junior is on the floor, Coleman on top of him, his hands wrapped tightly around his throat.
David is on his back as well, Wells’s hands around his neck. Then there’s Hendrick. He’s got Bryson by the throat and on the floor along with the rest of the crew. I am frozen, staring, my lips parted and my eyes so wide that I’m afraid they might actually pop out of my head.
Brenda says nothing. In fact, if I didn’t know she was in the room watching this exchange, I would think she was just reading a book or something. She’s completely and totally expressionless and unaffected.
Parker’s hand is covering her mouth, little gasps escaping every few seconds. She is not expressionless. She looks like she’s scared and definitely worried about what is going on.
But me… I sit in silence, and I watch. I’m not sure what my reaction or my emotions are supposed to be, but I have an impression that I’m going to be getting karma for what I’m feeling right now. I know that Junior, David, and Bryson are going to die. Shelby will probably be sold off to the highest bidder, and Andrew… he may make it out of this alive. He may not.
ChapterThirty-Four
COLEMAN
Watchingthe light leave my cousin’s eyes should be a sobering moment, but all I can think is that this is the end of that line. There are no more children. They’re all gone. All of them. The Dean Hamilton line is now dead and gone.
When Junior is no longer breathing, I stand and look around the room. Bryson, David, and Junior are dead. Thank fuck. I’m sure I should feel some kind of remorse about that. We grew up together. We were practically raised as brothers, but my brothers would have never done what they did.
“Shall I call your father?” my mother asks.
“He doesn’t know you’re here?” Wells barks.
She laughs, then slides her tongue along her bottom lip. “Don’t you think that if he did, he would be here, ready to blow the whole building to the ground?”
Fuck.
She’s right.
He would. We were at my new house when we found out what had happened, and none of us called. My father also didn’t have a guard on my mother, assuming she was safe with the doors locked and the alarm set.
“How did they get you?” I ask. If she was locked in her house, she would have had to unlock the doors to leave.
She sucks in a breath and lets it out slowly before she speaks. She doesn’t move from her place on the couch, though she does turn around slightly more to face me.
“David called me. He said he had Parker and that he was going to kill her if I didn’t walk out to the driveway. Usually, I would tell someone who does that to fuck off. However, when I checked the driveway, I did see a car, and she was there. Knowing what I know about the family, I could not let anything happen to her. I also didn’t buy the threats. I’m just saying.”
I almost laugh. My mom probably figured she could talk them out of whatever they had planned. She couldn’t. Mainly because I wasn’t ever going to let her. But then again, as I continue to watch her, I realize she came to protect the women.
“You shouldn’t have put yourself in danger. Dad is going to lose his shit,” I inform her.
There is some movement around us, but I ignore it, knowing it’s probably my brothers getting some cleanup crews called in and dealing with three dead bodies and two bystanders. I can’t take my eyes off my mom, though.
