Redeemed (The Dark Redemption Series Book 2) by Lane Hart Page B

then split us up…
    “I was really fucking angry too,” I tell him. “He never even got a chance to say goodbye or assure us that he didn’t do it.” The police took him into custody while we were in school, and by the time the bus dropped us off, social services was waiting for us.
    “Yeah, those first few days felt like living in a nightmare that I couldn’t wake up from,” Brede says with a shake of his head.
    “Those days were nothing compared to the next few years,” I tell him.
    “So why did you change your name?” He glances over at me, and then quickly puts his eyes back on the road. “I tried to find you, but Aden Rawls was nowhere to be found.”
    “Aden Rawls died in that shithole of a house when I left it,” I mutter, tugging on my seatbelt that suddenly feels like it’s choking me. “After I ran away and turned them in, I ended up working with the feds for several months, helping them set up for the sting. They gave me room and board, kept me up at a hotel near their offices. Watching them, I knew that’s what I wanted to do too, be one of the guys who help innocent people like Dad and other kids in the same situation, you know? I thought it would be easier to help Dad’s case if we didn’t have the same last name. So I changed it, twice, hoping to bury my real one.”
    “Oh,” Brede replies. “That explains why I couldn’t find you. But did you ever try to find me?”
    “Yes, but there were no license or voter registrations on file for you until you were seventeen, and then a few weeks later you were on active duty in the military. I even hung out around Louisville after you came back, thinking you would show up back in town,” I admit. “When you didn’t, I tapped into your foster parents’ phone and traced you by your cell phone location for a few weeks. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that wherever you went, a man was soon found dead.”
    “So you’ve been following me around but didn’t bother to reach out to me?”
    “You were killing people, Brede!” I exclaim. “I was doing what I could to try and save dad, and you were doing everything you could to end up right there in prison with him.”
    “It wasn’t like I was killing innocent people,” he grumbles, to which I remain silent. “What?” he asks. When he glances over at me, I nod to the back where Blair’s sleeping. “That was desperation,” he replies. “Do you really think I would’ve ever pulled the trigger on her? Because I don’t. I always take the first clear shot, and I had plenty with her.”
    “If you had killed her, I would’ve finally turned you in,” I admit to him.
    “If I had killed someone as innocent as her, I would’ve deserved nothing less than lethal injection,” he agrees. “But Dad would probably have killed me first. Can you believe she was supposed to be our sister?”
    “Yeah, then Dad would’ve killed us for even thinking about touching her,” I snort.
    “We used to swim with her. On Saturdays at the pool,” he tells me.
    “That was her?” I reply, looking over my shoulder at her sleeping form again. “She was the skinny little girl that the wind could’ve blown away?”
    “Yeah, thinking back, Dad always wanted to go to the pool to spend time with her mom.” Brede clears his throat and squirms in his seat, as if he’s uncomfortable before he says, “Blair thinks her mom was pregnant with Dad’s baby when she was killed,” he tells me softly.
    “Jesus. Dad’s never mentioned that to me, but I know he’s still really torn up about losing her.”
    “Do you think he blames himself, you know, for the DA finding out?” Brede asks.
    “Of course he blames himself! That’s why he’s always thought that he belongs in prison, for putting her and Blair in danger and not saving them.”
    “Man, we’re gonna end that. We’ll get him out, and then everything can go back to normal,” Brede says.
    Right, things may go back to normal for him and Blair. Maybe