Secret Obsession: Chapter 56

I can’t look at my brother.

Or anyone.

I just focus on directing Greyson to drive fucking faster.

When we realized where the brother had taken Willow, Greyson leapt up. He returned before the call even ended, holding a tracker that came from the front grill of Violet’s car. Just slipped in behind the license plate. The fucking brother knew as soon as we took a detour from our route home. He may have even been following us there.

Greyson’s pushing his speed, flying down back roads to get to Steele’s house. We opted against the highway in case it’s a trap. They monitor the highways, there’s video surveillance everywhere. Jacob advised Greyson on avoiding any major roads if we were going to do anything illegal.

When we get to the house, the garage door has been left open. I hop out of the car and fly inside, only to skid to a halt.

The freezer is gone.

The cut lock is on the floor, a pair of bolt cutters beside it. He showed me a padlock in the video call. A new one he’d brought with him. He meant to do this. He planned this all.

“Where the fuck did he take her?” I roar.

I go for the app on my phone, pulling it up. Her tracker is gone, same as when I checked it an hour ago. Last known location: here. The freezer must be blocking it or something.

Steele’s on the phone. He comes back with a frown and slight shake of his head. “Finch went back to Prime and talked to the bartender, who said a big guy came in the day after Willow was there, demanding to see footage. Gave the bartender a thousand bucks.”

“And?” I demand. “Did Finch see it?”

“Yeah. It’s got a good shot of them dancing, then you slipping in and stealing her away. It also shows him following you out of the nightclub—all in all, it doesn’t look too conspicuous to the plain observer. Just two guys vying for a girl’s attention.”

I grunt.

Obviously, that’s not how it happened.

He put something in her drink, and he was waiting for her to lose consciousness. And then he was going to fucking rape her.

But instead, I carried her out of the bar and brought her home.

Hell—I led him there.

I pull at my hair. There’s no way to find her, or him—she’s going to die in that freezer, wherever that is. Maybe buried in the woods or…

“Wait.” I jerk around. “He doesn’t just want to take her from me. He wants me to go down for his brother’s murder.”

Steele and Greyson nod slowly.

“The app,” Greyson reminds me. “You can access her camera and mic, can’t you?”

Fuck.

I open the spyware. It gives me her phone’s location.

Middle of nowhere. Like, a back road between Crown Point and here. But then that, too, blinks out of existence.

Phone offline, it says. SIM card unavailable.

I throw my phone.

It smashes off the wall and to the floor, the already cracked glass shattering on the concrete. I go over and stomp on it, over and over, until Steele and Greyson drag me off it.

“Okay,” one of them says. “Breathe.”

I don’t want to breathe.

I jerk out of their holds and round on my brother. “This is your fault.”

He’s in the corner, his expression absolutely fucking miserable. His hands are tucked into his pockets. There’s blood in one of his nostrils from my earlier hit, although I don’t think I broke his nose.

Pity.

I stop in front of him and grip the front of his shirt. I shake him, and he doesn’t even fight it.

“What makes you think she’s not worth ten of me?” I yell in his face. “What gives you the right to play God and trade our lives like that?”

He drags his eyes up to mine. “Miles, I—”

“It’s going to be a damn long time before I accept that you did this with any amount of kindness,” I spit. I shove him backward.

He should’ve kept her safe.

But why? He played with her heart—and fuck it, he played with mine—for a year. Of course he would push her into the arms of the guy who wanted to hurt both of us.

Knox’s phone rings.

I hold out my hand for it automatically, but he ignores me and answers it. His expression pinches, his mouth flattening. And then he offers the phone to me. A blocked number is calling him.

I snatch it. “Where is she?”

“What were you planning on doing with my brother? Cutting him up and tossing him in the lake? Burying him? Burning him?”

I stay silent, fear rattling through my chest that he’s going to do the same thing to Willow.

“Come on, Miles,” he croons. “Play the game with me. I’m going to drive the knife into you either way. See? I’ll kill you when I’m done. I promise. You just need to suffer a little first.”

“We were going to bury him,” I choke out. “And then burn his body—”

“I’m going to enjoy watching your blood run cold,” he promises. “Return to Crown Point and keep this phone on you. Poor Willow is running out of air, and I need you close.”

The line goes dead.

Knox comes for me, but I turn away sharply.

“We need to go back to Crown Point,” I tell my friends. I pick up the bolt cutters and take them with me, heading back to the truck.

“What else did he say?” Greyson asks, catching up to me.

Steele closes up the garage, and Knox follows slower. Dragging his feet.

“He said he wants to torture me before he kills me.”

The sad part is that I’d accept it, if it means Willow lives.