Free Blindsight: Part Two by Adriane Leigh Page A

Brant, Hunter, or anyone else. My mother had taught me many things in her own special brand of parenting, but at least she’d shown me by example how to be independent. Be strong. Be clever. Survive.  
    “Want to order out from Gino's?” I sang out, affecting the normal melodic tone my voice carried. It was my turn to play the cards I’d been dealt. And the game was survival.

eleven
    I watched her all fucking day and she didn't move. As if she were hobbled by the gravity of bullshit she found herself in. I wasn't really sure how much she knew about his side of things, but I could only hope she was innocent or all of this bullshit would be blown.
    My jaw twitched when I saw him come in the room. I raised the binoculars to get a better view of the hardened face and dark eyes that played games and fucked minds. I wondered if he had any inkling the world he'd created was about to be shot to shit. Handcuffs or body bag? Which would it be?
    I grunted with the intel I'd dug up on him. The stacks and stacks of files, the photos, a petty criminal record, and complaints of domestic abuse. His secrets weren't buried as deep as he thought.  
    I watched her toss and turn in bed before I crawled out of the car and slid into the narrow alleyway and into their backyard. My eyes found the window he worked by, lit by a single lamp, hunched over his laptop. He was sipping something strong from a crystal tumbler and sweating over the mistakes. He knew something was wrong all right.  
    “Welcome to the shit list, motherfucker,” I mumbled, confident he wasn't going anywhere tonight. In a matter of hours, their world would be turned upside down and front-page news for all of Chicago to dissect.
    I'd watched her Googling the names earlier tonight, trying to piece together the facts in her own fogged mind. She was smart, but I had a feeling she only had half the clues, one side of the story.  
    I had the other piece of vital information that connected the entire intricate web. It'd been hard to find, taken me days of digging, but then one irrefutable piece of evidence had shown itself. One whisper thin piece of paper that had been buried for decades and brought the entire game into focus. I just wasn't sure what would destroy her more, him or the secret.

twelve
    Saturday night I sat wrapped in a warm cashmere blanket on the cool leather couch reading a book while Brant worked away diligently on his computer. He’d been at it all day to the soundtrack of frustrated grunts with constant glances at his phone. All of it seemed like evidence in hindsight. I no longer wavered in my belief; I knew down to my toes that the man I’d shared my life with the last four years had a darker side, something criminal that lived deep, he just dressed it up in a white collar and tie.  
    I trained my eyes on his bent head his brow furrowed deeper than it'd been all day. Thoughts swirled in my mind as I tried to remember acquaintances from dinner parties or even people he may have met back in college that had brought JW and Brant together. 
    "Something on your mind, Erin?" Brant's hollow voice pulled me from my thoughts. My eyes focused, and I saw his eyes pin me with some dark mix of fear and hate. I swallowed the lump in my throat and felt the pit in my stomach turn into cold cement. Brant shot from his chair and stalked across the room and yanked me from my place on the couch to stand with him. I squirmed in his tight grip.  
    "That hurts, Brant," I mumbled as I tried to pull my elbow from his hand. 
    "You'd better keep your fucking mouth shut, Erin. Whatever you think you know," he snarled in my face with his hot breath washing across my skin in a sickening wave. "It's in your best interest to keep your mouth shut."  
    I nodded with quietly contained fear, unwilling to see the end of his rope tonight. "I don't know what you're talking about, Brant," I whispered before his palm loosened and his eyes flicked to mine, a wild lost look burning bright