Page 119 of Tragic (Lark Cove 3)

I shook my head. “I have to go after Kaine.”

“Is that safe?”

“He won’t hurt me. He just needs to calm down.”

This wasn’t like his panic attack, where Kaine had needed space to come to terms with the changes in our life. This was something else, something I’d seen time and time again when the fury from his past was taking over. He didn’t need space to get through this.

What he needed was me.

“Sean’s digging,” Logan said, joining us. “He’ll call you as soon as he finds out what’s happening.”

I nodded and grabbed my purse from the kitchen counter. “I’m going.”

“Piper—”

“He needs me.” I cut off Thea’s protest. “He’s going through so much. He needs me. And I need to be there to help him through this.”

“But—”

Logan placed a hand on his wife’s arm. “Call us if you need anything.”

“Thank you.” I went right down the hallway toward the garage where the Tahoe was parked. But before I could disappear from sight, a chilling thought settled in my mind. My heart plummeted.

“Logan?” I called over my shoulder.

“Yeah?”

“Did Kaine take off his gun?”

The collision was inevitable.

Things between Isaiah and me had been left unsettled for far too long.

A blind rage had sent me storming out of the house, and hours later as I sat behind the wheel of my truck, it hadn’t eased in the slightest.

My brother was supposed to get five years. Five. Years. I’d accepted his sentence. I’d accepted that five years of his life would be payment for taking the life of my baby. He’d lose five years for taking Shannon away from her family and friends.

Five years. Not three. He owed me two more years.

After the accident, Isaiah had been taken to the hospital too. While I’d been holding my daughter’s lifeless body, while Shannon’s parents had cried over her corpse, he’d been getting treated for some minor cuts and scrapes.

Then he’d been arrested.

Isaiah had sat in a jail cell as I’d arranged a funeral with Shannon’s mom and dad. My mother had pleaded with me to visit him, but I’d refused.

He needs to talk to you, Kaine.

It was an accident. He was barely over the legal limit.

He’s devastated.

I’d finally heard enough and left. I’d shut out the world, but not so completely that I hadn’t kept tabs on his case. Isaiah had pleaded guilty and been sentenced to three to five years in the state penitentiary.

How did a murderer get away with just the minimum sentence? Isaiah owed me two more years, and if the government wasn’t going to collect his punishment, then I would.

My foot pressed harder into the gas pedal. I was doing my best to stay close to the speed limit because I didn’t need a cop stopping me right now, not while I was this angry. But the miles were rolling by too slowly.

I wanted my retribution, then I wanted to forget I even had a brother.