All Chapters of My stepbrother and his friends want me : Chapter 61 - Chapter 70

RHYSI had been staring at the same set of encrypted location pings for almost two hours. Victoria and her father had left the States. That much was clear.Every trail I’d followed turned into static the moment it crossed international borders. Their phones were dark. Their usual accounts were locked or wiped. Even the secondary numbers I’d flagged months ago had gone silent.It wasn’t random. It was deliberate. Thorough.The kind of disappearance that only people with real resources could pull off.I leaned back in my chair and rubbed my tired eyes. The office was quiet except for the low hum of the servers and the occasional click of my keyboard.Outside the reinforced windows, the safe-house grounds were completely dark.Somewhere down the hall, Emma was asleep or at least pretending to be. The thought of her still made something tight and restless twist beneath my ribs.I turned back to the screen and opened the internal network monitor, more out of habit than hope.Our systems we

CADEI didn’t stop dragging him until we reached the front gate. Tristan stumbled the entire way, blood still running from the split in his lip, but I didn’t care.My hand stayed locked around the back of his shirt, my fingers gripping the fabric so tightly they hurt. Every time he tried to slow down or dig his heels into the ground, I pulled harder. I could still feel the weight of my fist against his face, but the pain in my knuckles was nothing compared to the anger burning through my chest.The security lights kicked on as we reached the outer path, bathing us in harsh white light. I shoved the gate open with my free shoulder and threw him out onto the gravel.He hit the ground hard, his palms scraping against the stones. For a second, he stayed there, breathing heavily, before scrambling back onto his feet. His eyes were wild, almost desperate.“Cade please. Just listen to me. Five minutes. That’s all I’m asking.”I stepped forward and pushed him back again. He stumbled but staye

EMMAThe nightmare didn’t fade when I opened my eyes.I lay in the dark with my heart slamming against my ribs, the cell walls still pressed against the edges of my vision. For a few seconds, I couldn’t remember where I was. The darkness felt too much like that room, too close and too cold. Tristan’s voice kept overlapping with Victoria’s laugh and the sound of the door being kicked in. Every time I closed my eyes, I was back there. Every time I opened them, I expected to see concrete instead of my bedroom walls.I sat up, pushing the covers away before the next wave could pull me under again. My body felt heavy, but my mind wouldn’t slow down. I left the room without turning on the lights and made my way downstairs, needing somewhere that didn’t feel like it was closing in around me.The kitchen was empty and dimly lit. I filled a glass with water but didn’t drink it. Instead, I sat at the island with my elbows resting against the cold counter, staring at nothing. The silence should

TRISTANI woke to the smell of blood and whiskey.For a few seconds I stayed still, staring at the ceiling of the investigation room, trying to remember why my left arm felt like it was on fire. Then the night came back in pieces Cade’s fists, Emma’s face, the bottle against the wall, the glass in my hand. I pushed myself upright. A small, dark pool had dried on the floorboards beside the desk. My wrist was stiff and swollen, the cut crusted over.Shame hit me first. It was heavy and familiar.I had promised myself I would not go back to that place. Not after the last time. Not after I had sworn the worst of the grief was behind me. Yet here I was again, sitting in the same room surrounded by the same photographs, having opened the same door I thought I had locked for good.I cleaned the floor in silence, scrubbed the blood from the wood until only a faint stain remained, then went to the bathroom. The shower was so hot it hurt. I stood under it until the water ran clear and my skin

EMMAThe knock came in the late afternoon.I stared at the door for several seconds and somehow, I already knew who it was.Something inside me wanted to pretend I wasn’t there. Another part of me was tired of running from people simply because they reminded me of what I had lost.I pushed myself off the bed, crossed the room, and opened the door.Cade stood on the other side.For a moment, I barely recognized him.He looked exhausted. There were dark shadows beneath his eyes, his hair was messier than usual, and the hard confidence he normally carried seemed to have been stripped away. His shoulders were tense, but not with anger. They looked heavy, as though he had been carrying something for too long and was finally beginning to buckle beneath the weight of it.His eyes met mine.Whatever he saw on my face made something flicker across his.Pain.He looked away first and I stepped aside. He entered slowly and stopped near the middle of the room with me closing the door behind him a