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He raked both hands over his head. “He told me, ‘This can be you next!’”
Wren fought to keep it together. Her brother had a way of dragging her into his world, where she did not belong.
As usual his presence brought drama to her life. Despite all she’d done to help Danny get clean, he always ended up back out there on the street. It broke her heart and frustrated her to the point where she had to force herself to stop thinking about it or go crazy.
He often showed up babbling. Usually nothing he said made sense until he asked for money. This had to be one of those times.
Then she dropped her gaze to his thin body…and saw it.
Blood splatter.
She grabbed him by the arms. “Danny, tell me what happened again!”
“The drug dealer killed a guy. Right in front of me!”
Ice filled her veins. What her brother was mixed up in was no joke. People died from his lifestyle all the time, and a lot of violence had been reported around the city lately.
“He told me that I could be next, Wren. You gotta help me!”
She had to do something. Hadn’t she made a silent promise to their late parents to always look after her younger brother? Some days were harder than others—Danny never made it easy on her—but he was the last of her family.
She steered him toward her bathroom. “Get in the shower. Clean up. I’ll lay out some clothes on my bed. Put those on when you’re done.”
He gave a wild nod. “All right. I’ll do that.”
“We’re going to talk, Danny.”
“Sure, Wren. Anything you say.”
Anything she said? That would mean checking himself in to a treatment facility.
She guided him into the bathroom and waited for a minute outside the door. When she heard the shower running, she rushed to her purse to find her phone.
In minutes she had a drug addiction rehab located and called the hotline. These places came with mediocre success rates and hefty price tags, but what choice did she have? She would find the money. She’d sell something.
Though her low-paying job left her with little money to spare, and she didn’t have much either.
She glanced around her apartment at the shabby, thrifted furniture she kept as nice as possible. Her car, then. She could sell her car. It might not be worth much, but it would be a start.
When Danny emerged from the bathroom wearing sweatpants and their father’s old University of Colorado T-shirt, her heart gave a hard squeeze. God, Danny looked so much like their dad.
“Better?” she asked.
He nodded and sank into the kitchen chair. When he bowed his head, her heart lurched. Danny wasn’t himself. Well, he wasn’t the person he’d become since drugs started controlling his life.
He really witnessed a murder and been standing close enough to be splattered with blood.
“I found a rehab for you.”
His head jerked up. All the other times she suggested that he enter a treatment center, he fought with her and took off again, gone for months.
But this time…he nodded. “I’ll go.”
Her heart froze in her chest at the look of terror in his eyes. “You’re serious.”
He bobbed his head. “I gotta get out of town before he kills me too.”
“Danny, did you tell this person you were coming here tonight? Does he know where I live?”
