Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 93929 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 470(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 313(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93929 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 470(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 313(@300wpm)
“Pretty sure we can all agree with that.” I look over at Liam. “How long will he be in there?”
“Thirty minutes at most.”
“Do me a favor. Go see where the other brothers are. Come get us in a couple hours.”
Liam shrugs and puts his phone away. “You sure about that?”
“We’re going to tour the construction site. It’s fine, I’m with the family.”
He laughs and walks off. “Suit yourself. See you two in a bit. Don’t get in trouble.”
When he’s gone, I look back at the fence. The lights inside are bobbing and fading like Redmond’s walking a circuit. Caroline stands beside me, facing the opposite direction, arms crossed over her stomach like she’s hugging herself. She seems tense and we don’t talk. After a while, the flashlight gets stronger, until Redmond emerges from a side entrance. I watch him until he disappears around a corner. His truck pulls out a few minutes later.
I take Caroline by the hand and tug her along behind me. “Let’s see what we’re working with.”
It’s not hard getting inside. The fence is short on the west side and takes a second to scale. I help Caroline over and we drop down together. Nothing happens, no sirens, no flashing lights. She sticks close to me as we walk through the gloom, skirting around stacks of wood, piles of fiberboard, and pallets of insulation.
“Creepy this late,” she whispers, her hand finding mine. “Why does Redmond come here so late?”
“No chance anyone will bother him. I bet he doesn’t like when it’s crowded.”
She makes a little grunting sound as we get nearer the site itself. I’m watching everything closely, looking for opportunities. It’s a standard construction area with lots of mistakes and accidents waiting to happen.
“Red always was a loner,” she whispers as we move into the structure itself. There are materials and tools everywhere. Big generators are set up. They’re quiet now, but they must be loud during the day. We walk around the exposed beams and the support pillars.
“He was quiet back when I knew him too.”
“I remember thinking he was the nice one.” She laughs lightly. Her fingers dig into my arm and she suddenly stops, turning to face me. “You know what he did? The very first time?”
I shake my head, listening. Her eyes are shining. I think she’s crying at first, but it’s only the moonlight streaming through the struts and glittering off the naked steel.
“He took me like this—” She reaches up and cups my chin. It’s almost gentle and very intimate. “And he looked at me like this—” She gets close enough to kiss. “And he told me, ‘Caroline, you’re pathetic and I’m tired of being your brother.’ And then he slapped me in the face.” She squeezes and I step forward, catching her wrist. Her back bumps into a beam, her breath coming fast. Her gaze is far off in memory as I twist her arm down, pinning her back.
“What else did he do to you?”
“Red was the quiet one, but when he got going, he never shut up. He’d tear into me for an hour, always going on about how I’m weak, I don’t deserve the family, I’m not good enough for our father. He’d hit me sometimes, but mostly it was words.”
I tighten my grip on her. She’s wearing tight black jeans and a light sweater. Her chest rises and falls. “Words can hurt.”
“The hitting hurt more. He locked me in a closet one time. Barricaded it with a dresser. I was too small to move it. He said I had to learn self-reliance and left me in there for almost an entire day. Mom had to come let me out, and only after I screamed myself raw. I couldn’t talk right for a week.”
I lean in closer. Her back arches, her hips pressing forward. My other hand finds her ass and holds it tight, this time tugging her in.
“You know how I can’t lift my right arm up all the way?” I lean down and bite her lower lip. “Shane hit me with a hammer. Broke my collarbone, but they didn’t take me to the hospital. Why bother? A doctor had to reset it later when I got back home and my mom realized something was wrong. A day later, Redmond kicked me off a trampoline. Made the break even worse. Said I deserved it for showing off. I know you have a thousand stories just like that, don’t you?”
She meets my gaze. The construction site is empty and quiet all around us. Ideas swirl in my head.
“Tell me I’m fucked up,” she whispers. She touches my cheek, hand shaking. “Tell me you know who I am.”
My stomach twists with excitement. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
She nods slowly. “I’m a mess. I’m a wreck. I really wasn’t good enough.”