Free The Past Came Hunting by Donnell Ann Bell Page B

all? When you shot and killed that clerk, you might as well have murdered our mother. That lawyer pled you down, all right. At the expense of our father’s reputation. Sexual abuse, Drake? A dead man can’t defend himself. People who Mother had known forever would cross the street rather than talk to her.”
    Rage and bile rose in unison. His lawyer had done what he had to do, and still Drake had been put away for fifteen years. What was wrong with his asshole brother? All Drake wanted was his inheritance and to forget these people ever existed. He was a fraction from ripping Adam to shreds. “I’ve had guilt shoved up my ass my entire life. It didn’t work then, and it’s sure not working now, so save it.” Drake moved toward the sofa. “My money, Adam, you’re out of time.”
    “And I told you, you don’t have any coming.” Shaking his head, he pushed down on the lever, opened the safe and withdrew a manila package.
    He tossed it to Drake, who caught it one handed. “What’s this?”
    “My emergency fund. You won’t work for it, so it’s fifty thousand dollars to get out of our lives. Permanently. And there’s no point in contacting Krissy. We’re both in agreement. We hoped you’d changed, but clearly you haven’t. We don’t owe you a dime, and I’m telling you, once and for all, there’s nothing for you here.”
    Drake snapped. His vision blurred. Blindly, he sideswiped a crystal lamp on an end table. As it shattered on the floor, he roared, “I’ll kill every last one of you!”
    Rounding the sofa to get to his brother, Drake suddenly skidded to a stop. In a million years, he’d never seen this coming. Where had the pacifist Adam Maxwell come up with a gun?
    Heart ramming inside his chest, Drake drew his hands up.
    “Do you think I haven’t dreaded this scene every day for the past fifteen years?” Adam said, the small-caliber weapon trembling in his hand. “Or that I would leave my family defenseless? Look over the door.”
    With sweat clinging to his brow, Drake glanced back, still almost missing the tiny surveillance camera built in to the ceiling. It had never occurred to him to check. Locating them in the joint had been second nature, but in a construction company?
    “We’re also being recorded,” Adam said. He trained the gun on Drake, watched him warily and moved back toward the desk. “And with the threat you just made and the damage done to my office, I could have you arrested. Then my emergency fund stays in my vault.”
    “You built this company using my money,” Drake said, from between his teeth, all while taking small steps in Adam’s direction. “And you and I both know you don’t have the balls to pull that trigger.”
    Adam cocked the hammer, then moved his free hand down the side of his desk. “You’re partially right. I wouldn’t ever want another human being’s death on my conscience. But I will defend myself and my family. I’ve pushed the panic alarm, Drake. You have two choices. Stay here, come any closer and I will kill you. Or leave now with the only money I have to give you, because the police are on their way.”
    “This isn’t over,” Drake said. But rather than face the cops, he headed to the door.
    “Oh, yes, it is,” Adam called after him. “For once in your life, accept that you alone are responsible for your actions!”
    Scrambling down the hallway and out into the bright sunshine, Drake stashed the measly payoff into his gym bag. He didn’t stop running until he’d dropped into a seat on a city bus. One way or another, he would get what was coming to him. And every morning when Adam Maxwell looked in the mirror, he’d be wise to picture a dead man.
    Not only Adam, but Kristina―she was in on this, too. No matter what, those two suck-ups would pay. Drake had hated his parents ramming their perfection down his throat. They’d called him lazy and unfocused, when the plain truth was, he just didn’t give a damn. At first he’d been