Page 96 of Twisted Knight

It’s mine. It has to be mine. But I can’t remember making it.

I hold on to my little brother.

It feels like forever.

Murmurs around.

If I had a car, I could get him help faster.

Sirens in the distance.

If I hadn’t wanted a computer, we would have one.

Medics prying him from my arms.

If I hadn’t caved and told him to go outside.

The finality in the slam of the ambulance doors.

I had one job to do.

The sound of sirens again.

Keep my brother safe.

The silence as the sirens fade, and the crowd staring at me standing in my brother’s blood.

And I couldn’t even do that right.

THIRTY

Rowan

“I don’t understand.”

I look up from my laptop and the various maps spread all over the conference room table. My brother is standing on one side of the table, brow furrowed, face more than impassive … but fidgety.

“Nothing for you to understand,” I say and go back to the spreadsheet on my laptop. The last thing I owe Rhett is an explanation for anything.

“What is all of this?”

I shrug. “To be honest, I’m not one hundred percent sure. I came into the office today and Audrey had all of these on my desk. She said Holden wants me to look for property and land for sale in neighboring counties.”

“Why?” he snaps.

What’s your problem? I bite back the retort. The last thing I want right now is to fight with my brother.

“Like I already said once, I’m not really sure. All I was given was a set of maps, a blank spreadsheet to fill in, and some parameters around what to look for.”

“But that’s not your job.”

“Just like marketing isn’t your job but you stick your nose into it all the time.” My smile is insincere at best.

“I’m the CEO. I have the right to stick my nose in anything I want.” He crosses his arms over his chest and leans over to study the various maps.

“Sure. Yeah. Whatever. Why are you acting so weird?”

“I’m not acting any way. I just think it’s crap that Holden is asking you to do his grunt work for something that obviously has nothing to do with the company.”