Free Twisted Lines (Blurred Lines Volume 6) by Breena Wilde

 
     
     
     
     

     
     
    I watch her suffer from a distance. I can see the uncertainty on her face, the fear and sadness combined with a hint of anger. She’s pissed at me and I can’t help the smile that forms on my lips.
    Cadence is an amazing woman.
    I have no doubt she’ll be fine, but I can’t bring myself to leave her, knowing her brother is dead and she has no one to turn to for comfort. Well, except John fucking Cruze. But he won’t understand what’s really going on. If I’ve learned one thing about Cadence, it's that she won’t burden others with her problems. She’s tough. 
    “We should go,” Lincoln says, walking up behind me.
    “I know. I’m just…” I trail off. Weakness isn’t a trait I can show, even to my most trusted friend. Not in my line of work. “I want to make sure she’s okay,” I say harshly, demanding he leave it at that. “I’ll leave when I’m damned good and ready.”
    “Yes, Mr. Zane.”
    The worst part is that the police took everything but my letter and the phone, so she doesn’t even have the means to bury her brother. That knowledge tears at my heart. I can make a call to the institution where he died and ask them to hold him until the check is cleared. Or better yet…
    I pull out my phone and dial the chief of police. “Chief Graham,” I say when he answers.
    “Now isn’t a good time to be calling. You know that.”
    “Shut the fuck up.”
    I hear him take a deep breath. “What do you want?”
    “Your officers have just been to my house. They took a bunch of papers and a check I left for Cadence Norton into custody as evidence. I want that stuff released within forty-eight hours. No more.”
    “Look, Mr. Zane. That’s imposs—”
    “You want to know what’ll be impossible? You keeping your job after I’ve released evidence that points to our working together, photos of you killing an undercover police officer, and a tape of you fucking one of your officer's wives.”
    “Fine. Forty-eight hours.” He hangs up and I smile. Lincoln chuckles.
    “That tape should be on National Geographic, the sounds he makes.”
    I laugh harder. “I know, right?”
    There’s movement near the front of my house and I turn. Rita is walking through the front door.
    Cadence will be fine. “Let’s go, Lincoln.”

 
     
     
     
     

     
     
    After I give a minimal explanation to Cruze over the phone, he tells me he’s going to come and get me. I sit on the stairs and wait. Thick sadness pushes at my heart.
    My brother. Travis. It’s weird that I’m sad, but in a way relieved, too. He isn’t in any more pain. Hopefully he’s gone somewhere good and can be happy.
    Heaven?
    Is it a place or just a made up word to make the mourners feel better? I hope it’s real and beautiful and that my brother is there having an amazing time.
    And then Zane. What the fuck? He leaves just as I start to believe my feelings for him might be growing into something other than hate. I grab my hair and pull.
    God, I miss him. Already. More than I thought I would. Probably more than I should. But my body aches for his touch and longs for his kisses.
    And I suddenly don’t want to leave. This is Zane’s home, his secret place. He shared it with me. He left me money, this house, his business… everything. I can’t help but wonder why—where he is, what’s happened to him. “What the fuck did you do?” I put my face in my hands.
    According to the police I’m not allowed to stay in Zane’s house until they say so. I told them about Rita, that I wasn’t sure what her relationship to Zane was. They asked for a way to contact her. I told them I didn’t know, but I guessed she’d come here. They told me to have her call them.
    Even as I’m thinking about her, she walks in the door. When she sees me she closes the door and locks it behind her.
    “What is it?”
    I hand her the letter. “Zane,” I whisper.
    Her eyes scan the page and her features harden. When she’s done she hands