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Aden
Knowing my brother was an assassin, and seeing it firsthand, are two entirely different things.
Brede looks murderous, driving like a maniac in the SUV that we stole. The DA’s neighbors shouldn’t have left the keys inside it.
“Head for the highway,” I tell him. “She’s a smart girl. She was probably trying to leave Davidson County.”
Brede doesn’t reply, which means he’s really upset. Otherwise, he’d probably be swearing up a storm.
We make it to the highway exit a few seconds later, and it doesn’t take us long to find the blue lights. There are at least three police cars but no ambulance yet, because that’s how fast Brede was driving.
“Let me handle this,” I tell him when we both jump out of the parked car and head toward the uniforms casually standing around. They’re not in a hurry, so that’s a good sign, right?
As we approach them, Brede’s cracking his knuckles like he’s gonna beat the shit out of someone. I quickly scan the area, looking for the stolen Audi but don’t see it. Maybe Blair wasn’t in a wreck...maybe it was someone else and we jumped to the wrong conclusion.
When Brede’s shoulders relax, I know he’s thinking the same thing. We overreacted and thought the worst. He still approaches the group of officers, intent on making sure she wasn’t involved.
“What the fuck’s going on?” he barks, stopping the uniformed men’s conversation in mid-sentence. I jump in front of Brede, pull out my badge and hold it up for the officers to see.
“FBI, Special Agent Aaron Burroughs,” I say trying to ignore Brede’s eyes burning into my skull after hearing the alias. “I’m looking for a young girl, dirty blonde hair –”
“Butterscotch,” Brede interrupts, now standing next to me.
I raise an eyebrow in question.
“Her hair’s butterscotch,” he mutters quietly before shoving his fingers through his own hair and giving it a tug.
“Right. Butterscotch hair. Tall and lean. Driving a red Audi. Have you gentlemen seen her?”
When the three men exchange silent but loud looks with each other, I, unfortunately, know that they have.
Fuck.
“Where is she?” Brede asks, trying to get closer to them. I throw my arm out in front of his chest to hold him back. If he beats them to death, we won’t get any answers.
“She’s gone,” one of the younger, light haired guys finally says.
Thank fuck, she got away. Brede exhales beside me, apparently thinking the same thing.
“We’re just waiting for the ambulance to remove her body,” he says, nodding to the right side of the shoulder. In the darkness it looks like a car is sitting at the bottom of the embankment, the front end caved in thanks to the rows of trees.
Ah, fuck.
“No!” Brede shouts before he hurdles over the guardrail and takes off running.
“Stop him!” one of the officers shouts, but I pull out my piece from the back of my pants and cock it, pointing it in a two-hand grip at the one giving the orders.
“You might want to reconsider that order,” I tell him. It’s stupid, I know, since I’m outnumbered three to one. “If any of you goes down there or tries to pull out your own weapon, I will shoot to kill.”
Jeez, Brede is a bad influence on me. We just reunited half an hour or so ago, and here I am ready to kill three uniforms for his dumbass.
“Hands up,” I tell them just to be safe when their twitching fingers linger near their holsters.
Fucking Brede. I can’t even spare a glance at him without giving these men a chance to take me down. My teeth grind together as I imagine him pulling Blair’s lifeless body from the car. I was wrong. He actually cares about her, and now he’s gonna be crushed...
“Where the fuck is she?” Brede suddenly bellows from less than five feet away, making my finger nearly twitch on the trigger.
So she’s not here? She’s not dead?
Thank fuck.
I lower my gun a smidge to look at Brede, who’s holding a big book or maybe a photo album underneath one of his arms.
“There wasn’t any blood. She’s alive...or was,” he tells me before attacking one of the uniforms, grabbing him up by the collar of his shirt. “Now tell me where she is!” My brother has balls, I’ll give him that.
“Um, on the way...to the hospital,” the cop tells him, right as the sirens of an ambulance can be heard off in the distance, coming this way.
“He’s lying,” I tell Brede. “We beat the ambulance.”
“I-I don’t know where she is!” the cop stammers when Brede shakes him. “We were told to make it look like she’s dead.”
“Who told you to do that?” I ask.
“Roger Lemons.”
“Fuck!” Brede shouts before pushing the cop away from him. “Let’s go,” he tells me, already on the way to the car.
“Ah, a little help here,” I say to him, still holding my gun on the cops as I start to walk backwards. Brede takes out his own gun and turns around, shooting one round after another, nearly making me jump out of my skin.
I let out an exhale and a thank you, Jesus, when I realize he blew out their tires and not their heads.
We both slip into the SUV; and after Brede tosses the book onto the floorboard beside my feet, he burns rubber out of there. Once we’re in the clear, I put my gun down and pull out my phone to load up the live audio feed from Roger’s house, hoping he hasn’t yet figured out he’s been bugged. He’s a known accomplice to the DA and a huge drug dealer for the entire state. It’s how I kept an eye on Brede and Blair without having to bust in to see if she needed help. I knew by the sounds she made that day with Brede that she was just fine. More than fine as he ate her out. My binoculars showed me that much, and with the sound accompaniment, well, I couldn’t wait to see her that night and get my hands on her.
Now, as the audio feeds through, hearing what’s going on is both a blessing and a curse. We at least know she’s alive.
“Good morning, sleeping beauty...no, you should rest,” Roger says.
“Brede?” Blair asks, sounding so small and delicate. My brother glances over at the phone in my hand when she says his name; then his grip tightens on the steering wheel.
“Now that he’s finished with you, it’s my turn.”
“W-what?” Blair asks.
“Brede had a job to do for your father. And since he didn’t do it, now I will.”
“A job?”
“To take care of you.”
“We’re gonna be too fucking late!” Brede exclaims before flooring the gas even harder. At least the road is mostly empty this time of night with no traffic to get in the way.
“Just a few more minutes and we’ll be there,” I assure him, hoping I’m right.
The longer we listen to the live feed, the more apparent it becomes that Blair is a smart girl. “She’s playing along, buying us more time.”
“She shouldn’t have to...no telling what he’s...” Brede can’t finish the sentence, and his knuckles are so white on the steering wheel it may break off soon.
“You love her,” I say in understanding and surprise.
“I’m gonna kill him,” he replies coolly as we take a sharp right, turning off for the empty highway that leads to Roger’s dirt road. No more than five minutes at this speed. Hang in there, Blair.
“Suck me good. Oh God, yes,” comes over the feed. Brede growls and drives even faster, maxing out the speed on the SUV.
“He definitely deserves to die,” I agree. In less than a minute, we’re pulling onto the final dirt road. “But slow down,” I warn my brother. “You’ll spin out on the gravel.”
“No, I won’t,” he grumbles, right as a scream comes over the feed. Brede even slows down a smidge when he glances over at the phone in my hands.
“I don’t think that was her,” I tell him proudly with a smile. “I’m pretty sure she just –”
“Fucking bitch! I’m bleeding! My cock...my cock’s bleeding!” Roger exclaims followed by a loud whomp.
Maybe hurting Roger did her more harm than good, especially when Blair yells out Stop! so agonizingly painful that Brede and I both wince. But then the house is in sight, getting closer and closer, until Brede slams on the brakes and throws the SUV into park.
He opens his car door and runs toward a window before I can get out. Not wasting time bothering to see if the front door is unlocked, his boot slams up through the glass. And then he’s climbing inside while I call for backup. I ask for two ambulances before I even hear the gunshot go off. I know one of the ambulances will be unnecessary. Roger is definitely dead. Now we just have to hope we were quick enough to save Blair.
