Harden had asked to meet in person, but when we got in touch, he said he needed more time. So that’s what we were doing; we were waiting.
I was getting sick of waiting.
“Still radio silence from Harden, but the other team called earlier. They found someone who got wind of your brother, but I gotta say…”
I stopped in my movements and looked at him.
He was grim. “Your brother’s like a ghost. He’s like you, maybe better.”
“He’s laying low. I was a ghost, standing next to Peter Francis. He was a ghost when no one knew to look for him.”
Josh stood from the bed as I was heading for the motel door. “You’re not worried about him?”
I reached for the doorknob, but paused and looked back. “I am, but so far he’s not going after the people I love.” Bailey. Matt. The Francis family. “When he said he hated our grandfather more than me, I felt it.”
Josh’s eyes narrowed. “And about Victoria?”
“Let me think on her.” I opened the door. “I’ll be back.”
We were in the middle of nowhere, a back section of woods in North Carolina. A perimeter was established, but I needed to move. I needed to exert myself.
I needed to punish myself.
I had to run, and like two days earlier, I just started.
It wasn’t enough. It never was.
I sparred at home. I swam to tire myself.
If those didn’t work, I would wake Bailey and bring her and myself to a climax over and over again. There was a drive in me, one I didn’t want, one I cursed, one that was a blessing, one that kept me going and going and going.
It’d always been there.
I had trained that drive into a thirst against my grandfather. He was always the target. He morphed my life, and I let him. I used his image, his threat, to mold me into who I was today. Bailey said I was half animal. Maybe. A half monster, too? Probably. Either way, I had to move and go, and I had to sweat until I wanted to collapse, and at the end of that, I would keep going, because I always had more in me.
Always.
And tonight, I was just starting.
TWENTY-SIX
Bailey
“You know what I was thinking about today?” Matt was sitting next to me on a bench, and we were getting attention. He didn’t care. He slumped down, almost looking bored.
Not me.
I was fully aware of how much attention was coming our way, but that was our plan.
We were sitting on a bench outside Quinn’s trial. It was closed and we weren’t allowed inside, on everyone’s request, but Matt wasn’t okay with that. Well, he wasn’t okay with anything when it came to Quinn, so here we were, sitting on a bench, getting cameras and phones pointed our way for pictures and recordings. People wanted to know why we were there, but mostly Matt wanted Quinn to know we were there.
Me, I had my own plan, and it was dumb. It was really, really dumb.
We were doing it anyway.
“Bailey. You’re supposed to ask, ‘No, my Genius Brother. What were you thinking today?’”
“Right.” I moved my head up and down in a clip. “No, my Genius Brother. What were you thinking?”