See No Evil (Brotherhood Trilogy #1)

by Jordan Ford

  I don’t know if I can read minds too, but in this moment, I feel like she’s telling me to take her daughter as far from all of this as possible. Protect her at all costs. She doesn’t just want me to save Chris’s body…she wants me to save her life. To give her a future.

  I nod. What else can I do?

  Her husband shoves her into the SUV and slams the door shut. They disappear behind the tinted glass and scream out of the dock, nearly running me over as they race past.

  “Trey!” Kade shouts, bringing everything back into focus.

  I jerk, my mind shifting into action. Lifting Chris into my arms, I run for the bed of the truck. She’s still breathing, still looking at me with tears in her eyes. But blood is soaking into her tank, warning me the clock is ticking. When I lay her down, she whimpers, her face a mask of pain. It breaks my heart.

  Riley jumps in the back with me, yanking off his sweater and bunching it against her stomach.

  She moans, tears breaking free and running down her cheeks.

  “Sorry.” Riley brushes the hair off her face. “But we’ve got to put pressure on the wound. Sounds like the cavalry’s coming though, okay? Everything’s going to be all right.”

  The sirens are gradually getting louder. The cavalry. Is that what they’ll really be?

  The guilt on Rybeck’s face fires through my brain, followed swiftly by the fact that her freaking father just aimed a gun at her head. Even if she somehow makes it to the witness stand, what’s to say she won’t get shot on the way out of the courthouse? The look of fear on her mother’s face. Her desperate cry.

  I can’t risk it.

  I won’t.

  “Kade, drive!” I shout, pounding the top of the truck.

  He whips the window back and gapes at me. “What?”

  “We gotta get out of here. I don’t trust those agents, and I’m not putting her in harm’s way.”

  “She needs a hospital!” Riley shouts at me.

  Chris closes her eyes, her waxy skin nearly changing my resolve.

  But then Kade starts gunning it out of the dock. We scream up the road and veer right, disappearing around the corner. By the sound of the sirens, they reach the turnoff just after we split. I don’t envy what they’ll find down there, but as long as they don’t find us, I really can’t care about it.

  Adrenaline is pumping through my body, holding off the act of actually processing all this shit.

  All I can focus on is saving Chris.

  “What the hell are we supposed to do now?” Riley snaps at me.

  “Yeah,” Kade hollers from the front. “Where am I going?”

  I close my eyes, scrambling for ideas when the perfect one hits me. My eyes snap open and I yell into the front. “You remember that time we broke into a liquor store and you smashed through that window? You wouldn’t let us take you to the hospital because you didn’t want to get busted, so we took you to that family friend. What was his name?”

  Riley groans and slumps down beside Chris. “The drug-dealing doctor?”

  “That was never officially proven!”

  “He lost his practicing license!”

  I shrug. “Yeah, but he’s still around, right?”

  “He can help us,” Kade hollers from the front.

  The wind whips my hair as he pushes the truck to its limit, speeding through the darkened roads with one headlight.

  Guilt thrashes me, asking me why I didn’t jump faster, turn quicker, make sure my body was in front of the bullet instead of hers.

  But she turned to save me. God, I love her.

  And I’m going to save her. She’s not dying in the back of this old pickup truck.

  I crouch down and rub my thumb across her cheek, bending low to whisper into her ear. “Stay with me, baby. I’m gonna get you out of this, and then I’m never gonna let anyone hurt you again. I promise.”

  #39:

  Keep Breathing

  Christiana

  I’m dying.

  As my body is jostled in the back of the old pickup, I can feel the life draining out of me.

  “Stay with me, baby. Please.” Trey’s voice is shaking, desperate.

  He’s kneeling over me, his wet cheek pressed to mine.

  Is he crying?

  The truck swerves left and I open my eyes. The night is clear and cold. Trey is cradling my head while Riley pushes his sweater into my belly.

  “Keep breathing, baby. Don’t give up, okay?” Trey leans back to look at my face.

  Our eyes connect just like they did the first time we saw each other.

  “Promise me,” he whispers. “Don’t stop fighting.”

  I give him a weak smile. It’s all I can manage.

  Running his fingers down my cheek, he brushes his thumb over my lips and then kisses me, a soft breath of life that urges me to stick around.

  He wants me to keep breathing. He wants me to stay with him.

  Closing my eyes again, I hold onto his request. It warms me, centers me…gives me something to focus on.

  The truck slows to a low rumble and we ease around the back of a quiet apartment block. Trey’s sitting straight now and I can see the sky. The glow of the stars is being dampened by streetlights. The constellations grow brighter as we park in the darkest corner of the lot.

  As soon as we jerk to a stop, Kade jumps out. His door slams shut and then he’s gripping the side of the pickup bed, looking down at me.

  “How’s she doing?”

  “Still breathing.” Riley scrambles out and disappears.

  Pounding feet.

  A cheap-sounding buzzer.

  Agitated tapping.

  A cheap-sounding buzzer again. Long and hard this time.

  Muffled voices. I can’t make out the words but I can hear frustration, urgency, arguing.

  Trey brushes his fingers over my forehead. If my hair were long, he’d tuck it behind my ear.

  Robbie did that on our date night. The gesture was so sweet, so pure.

  If Trey did it, my heart would melt.

  He’d own me for life.

  I think he already does.

  That’s why I jumped in front of him. I didn’t even think about it. I was turning to block that bullet before it even left the gun.

  I stare at his beautiful face—so strong and stoic.

  I’d do it again if I had to.

  “It’s gonna be okay.” He sniffs.

  He’s reassuring himself more than me.

  I open my mouth and feebly whisper, “I promise.”

  His smile is grateful, his soft snicker watery.

  Feet run back to the truck and it moves as a middle-aged man with wild hair and sleep in his eyes stares down at me.

  He shines a light in my eyes, then starts asking me questions—pain level, blood type, allergies…and plenty more.

  They’re too fast. I can’t answer them all.

  He’s not looking at me anymore. He’s assessing my wound.

  “I think the bullet’s still in there,” he mutters. “I can’t knock her out but I can make her sleepy, numb the whole area, remove the bullet, clean it and stop the bleeding.”

  “Do it.” Trey nods.

  “It’ll cost you three grand.”

  Trey grits his teeth. “Do it.”

  “Okay, let’s get her inside.” Wild Man disappears from sight.

  Trey cradles me against him, easing me out of the truck while I cling to his shirt. My grip is weak and pathetic.

  Wild Man snaps orders, telling Trey how to hold me, rushing beside him and staring at me as we go.

  He’s not asking how I got shot. I’m guessing he’s not that kind of doctor.

  I don’t know how Trey is going to pay for this. I don’t have the energy to ask.

  The door swings open and I’m carried up dimly lit stairs. It hurts. It didn’t hurt before, but now pain is spreading through my body like a virus.

  I grit my teeth against it. I promised Trey I’d survive.

 
“Put her there,” the doctor orders.

  The table is hard beneath me but it smells sterile. I look at the bright lights above me, then swivel my head and notice trays of wrapped equipment.

  “Who are you?” I whisper.

  “Don’t ask questions about me and I won’t ask any about you.” He winks, then brushes his hand over my forehead. “Just relax, honey. I’m gonna fix you up, good as new.”

  He disappears and Trey takes his place, standing vigil while I listen to the tinker of metal touching metal, the rip of packing being opened. Reappearing with a clear, liquid-filled bag, Doc asks Trey to hold it high while he inserts a needle into my arm.

  Trey winces. “Be careful.”

  Wild Man gives him a stern look to shut him up, then smiles at me. “This is gonna make you good and sleepy. You just close your eyes now, honey.”

  I look up at Trey, a ripple of fear coursing through me. His smile is soft and reassuring. Then he glides his fingers over my eyes and I decide to trust him.

  I have to.

  He wants me to live, to fight…and I will.

  The world starts getting tipsy, sleepy fingers dragging through my brain, pulling me into a place of languid dreams.

  I can still hear fuzzy noises around me, am vaguely aware of something poking into my belly. But then I’m numb, floating.

  My mind is lulled by waves of memory—Robbie’s smile, his soft lips, which soon become Trey’s. The kiss changes from sweet to passion, need, desire…love.

  It’s holding me strong.

  Keeping me breathing.

  Willing me to wake up from this nightmare.

  #40:

  Disappear

  Trey

  The bag’s on a hook.

  Doc doesn’t need me.

  I was too twitchy apparently, so Riley’s in there now—a mask covering his mouth, gloves on his hands while he passes the equipment like some surgical nurse.

  Gritting my teeth, I try to dodge the sound of the gunshot, the feel of Chris slumping against me. Her own father. I mean, he didn’t pull that particular trigger. He actually shot the guy who did, but he aimed a gun at his daughter.

  Her mother’s screams will haunt me forever…as will the look in her eyes when she begged me to save her daughter.

  I can’t take Chris back to the police.

  I can’t let her testify. What will stop her father from showing up in the courtroom and gunning her down for betraying the family?

  He’s obviously done it before. I don’t know when or how, but the guy’s a killer.

  Damn, I wonder if Chris knew?

  This is heavy shit.

  It should be too much, but I won’t walk away.

  I’m saving Chris. Because I can.

  Because I love her.

  When she was bleeding against me in that truck, I knew it for sure.

  I don’t want to live without her. I want to spend the rest of my life getting to know her, teaching her how to skate, listening to her laugh at me when I do something stupid. I want to see that smile every freaking day and I want to kiss every inch of her smooth skin.

  I’ve never felt this kind of need before, which just confirms that it’s right.

  We’re meant to be together.

  I’m meant to protect her.

  That’s why she was brought into my life.

  I let flames stop me from doing the right thing once. I won’t let bullets or the threat of death stop me again.

  The buzzer rings and I launch across the room, unlocking the door for Kade to come back in.

  It’s five o’clock. The sun will be rising soon. I’m glad he made it back in the darkness.

  He shuts the door behind him and brushes the hair off his face before handing me the cash.

  Resting his hands on his knees, he sucks in some air. He must have ditched the truck and run like a madman.

  “I left it at the back of a garage two miles away,” he puffs. Standing up straight, he points to the money in my hand. “That’s three thousand. I stopped at four ATMs on the way back here and emptied all our accounts.”

  “How much does that give us?”

  “I don’t know. Did you check the cash-stash Riley grabbed?”

  I dive for Riley’s bag and quickly unearth some serious wads of money. Kade gapes while I try to count with eyes bulging out of my head.

  “There’s twenty-five thousand here.”

  Kade’s eyebrows pop north,but then he tips his head.“Riley is loaded. That’s probably just the skimming off his trust fund.”

  “Yeah, I guess he gets that monthly deposit. I didn’t know he was hiding it at school though.”

  “It’s damn good he has been.” Kade sighs. “If we’re really doing this, if we’re taking her and going off-grid, he’s not going to be able to access that account again. Money trails are gonna lead them right to us.” He looks at his watch. “We’ve probably got about two hours before we need to be on the move again. Dean Cockhead will know we’re gone by now. The police were on their way to the dock when we took off. They’ll have a body. There’ll be a shit-ton of questions.” He rakes his fingers through his hair. “This is heavy duty, man.”

  “I know.” I nod. “But…I’ve got to protect her. We need to find somewhere quiet and remote for her to heal, and then we can make some decisions from there.”

  Kade huffs. “And how the hell are we supposed to find that?”

  “I know somewhere.” Riley walks into the room, drying his hands on a towel.

  I lurch towards him, trying to get into the room.

  He holds me back. “He’s just stitching her up.”

  “Is she okay?”

  Riley waits until I’m looking him in the eye. “She’s gonna be fine. He’s giving us painkillers, antibiotics, the works. He’s even shown me how to clean the wound. She got lucky. The bullet was easy to remove. It didn’t hit any of her vital organs. Blood loss was her greatest enemy, and he’s giving her some now.”

  I step back, my knees nearly buckling. “So, she’s gonna live. She’s okay.”

  “Yeah.” Riley grins.

  Squeezing my eyes shut, I pinch the bridge of my nose and sink into the chair beside me. “Thank God.”

  Someone squeezes my shoulder. I don’t know who it is and I don’t have the courage to look up and check. My eyes are stinging. Relief is making me want to blubber like a frickin’ baby.

  “So, you know a place?” Kade brings the conversation back on point.

  Riley sighs and I look up in time to see him lick his bottom lip. “When I was a kid, my mom would take me to visit my uncle. He was basically a hermit who lived up in the mountains. Middle of freaking nowhere. The closest town has a population of like eighty people.”

  “Sounds perfect,” Kade mumbles. “Unless your uncle’s a narc.”

  “Look, I don’t even know if he’s alive anymore. I haven’t heard from him since…”

  I sit up, jerked out of my seat by the look on his face. It’s been nearly a decade since his parents’ bodies were discovered, shot dead in their car on the side of a road. They were three miles from home.

  “It’s okay.” Riley clenches his jaw, then starts rubbing the back of his neck. “Sorry, tonight’s kind of thrown me.”

  Kade grabs his shoulder and gives it a squeeze. “It’s thrown all of us, man.”

  Riley swallows and clears his throat. “Look, if Uncle Rafe is still around, I’m pretty sure we can trust him. The guy’s a total hermit. From what I remember, he barely spoke to anyone but me and my mom. I think it’ll be a safe place for us.”

  “Where is it?” I ask.

  “Wyoming.”

  “Do you remember how to get there?”

  “We can use maps to get us to the little town of Legacy, and then I’m pretty sure I can work it out from there.”

  “We’ll need a car.”

  Doc appears in the doorway, sniffing loudly to get our attention. “I’ve got a spare. Been trying to sell the thing
for a couple of months. It’s a piece of shit but the engine still works.”

  “How much?” Riley asks.

  “Four thousand.”

  “For a piece of shit?” he argues. “We’ll give you four for the car and the surgery.”

  The man gives him a pointed glare.

  Riley scoffs. “Don’t tell me it costs three grand to do a forty-minute surgery. You didn’t even use full anesthesia.”

  “She’s gonna live because of me,” he barks.

  I lay my hand on Riley’s chest and whisper, “Just pay him. I don’t care how much it costs.”

  Doc sighs. “Give me five and we have a deal.”

  Riley nods. “Done.”

  Kade counts out another few thousand and we hand the cash over. The doc then gives us a rundown of how to look after my girl. He’s reluctant for us to move her but can obviously sense our need to get going. After a few huffs, he takes us down to his rust bucket and helps me set up a bed in the back.

  “You take shifts,” Doc instructs us as we load up the vehicle.

  Kade yawns, rubbing his eyes and then giving me a reassuring smile. I’m conscious of how little sleep we’ve all had, but we need to get moving before the sun comes up and the police cover the area with an even heavier search party.

  “Drive casual. Don’t draw attention to yourselves.” Doc hands Kade the keys, then turns to Riley. “Stick to the back roads I mapped out for you. It’s the safest way out of Wisconsin. You’ll need to be on full alert the whole time. Only use cash, and don’t stop driving until you reach where you’re going.”

  “Thanks for your help.” My voice is husky with emotion.

  He gives me an empathetic smile. “I know what this feels like. And I was a guilty son of a bitch. You kids aren’t throwing off that vibe to me. I’m helping you out now, and then I’m gonna forget I ever knew you. Got it?”

  “Got it.” Kade nods and hops into the driver’s seat. The engine ticks over before finally sputtering to life.

  I slip into the back, nestling Chris’s head on my lap. She’s pale and weak, but breathing.

  Doc pokes his head through the window to check her one more time. “Remember everything I told you.”

  I nod. “I’ll take care of her.”