Always Crew

She smiled, and her eyes grew tender. “Guess you did. Brothers. Who knew we needed them until we got them?”

Or got them back, in her case.

I drew down, my lips to hers. “Come here.” She surged up, closing the distance, and she showed me her love in that kiss.

After that, I went and hung out with my brother. Voluntarily.

From: Tazsters

To: Brenners

Subject: I did a thing.

I might’ve totally lied and exaggerated about Cross’s injuries to Blaise.

Not sorry.

Like, at all.

But also, don’t tell him.

The Best Twin

We’re going back to FaceTiming again. It’s much more fun, but one last email.

BREN

“Talk about cryptic.”

Tabatha was half-laughing as she walked up behind me. I glanced back, not getting up from my position. I had called her here, and she sat down the next second.

“Seriously. Are we turning into stalkers now?”

I was at my new place, or my new place in Cain overlooking the houses.

I didn’t know the reason I came to stalk, just that it had something to do with my mom, but after my last realization talking with my dad and Maxwell Raith, I knew that was all bullshit.

I deserved a family. I had one, but I’d have one in the future complete with a husband and children. One day.

And happiness.

I’d have that, too, because I already did.

But to the reason I asked Tabatha to come find me here, I figured there was no reason to stall.

“You know, I couldn’t figure it out. It took me awhile, like a few days, but I kept thinking that Drake called me to tell me he knew the witness. We decided not to ask for the name and the next night, Tim Harper was kidnapped. In front of me. And I found out the next day that his dad was the witness against the Red Demons.” I turned to look at her.

I had my knees up, but she was sitting with her feet together in front of her, her knees angled out, and she was looking down at the ground. Her shoulders were hunched forward, her head down.

“It was you.”

I wasn’t asking. I already knew. I just didn’t know the how.

When she didn’t speak up, I added, “You’re my friend. That’s something I’ve been working at this whole year, since last year when you and Sunday informed me how I wasn’t being a good female friend. I’ve been trying this year. Maybe I’m messing up at it, I don’t know, but I think when I know that somehow you’re the connection, I feel like you should tell me how that came to be. It’s friend code.” A breath. “Or girl code? I’m sorry, I’m still trying to figure that out. I knew crew code and soulmate code, and I’m a fledgling for everything else.”

“Oh my God. Shut up.” Tabatha lifted her head, rolling her eyes, but she reached up and flicked away a tear. “You’re like a baby demon who’s all cuddly. I can’t take it, and yes, it was me. How you figured that out, I have no ide—”

“It was a guess.” That she just confirmed.

As if she realized this, too, her head went back down on a soft sigh. “Right.”

“Tell me why, Tab. Tell me how.”

Another soft sigh, but this one ended into a sob. “You know why. Harper was killing my mom. I mean,” at my look, she clarified, “the stress of him, what he was holding over my parents is what was killing her. I found out two things that day when I went home. I found out that Tim Harper, Sr. was threatening my dad if he didn’t pay his debts, and he had dangerous friends so he could follow through with any threats he was saying, and I found out that my mom has a heart condition. I didn’t know about either, and let me tell you, it rocked me. It rocked everything about me. The old Tabatha, gone. Done. She died that day, and when you hear a legitimate threat being made against your family and you’ve never been exposed to that world, everything looks different. You count up what weapons you have, what options you have, and when you come up seriously short, you reach a desperate level that you’ll never understand.” She looked over, another tear slipping from her eye, but they were hollow. And they were haunted, just like me, but I saw a bitterness underneath them.

Tab had changed, but it didn’t have to do with Harper, Jr. like we thought.

“What’d you do?”

“I had to, Bren. I know you guys were trying to help, and I know your brother was keeping tabs on my mom for me, but it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t going to be enough.” Her voice broke, trembling, before her face hardened again. She rasped out, “I didn’t know how to fix it, so I tried to figure out how to make it go away. That’s what I did.”