Chapter 4

The door swung open.

Marcus disappeared inside.

Seconds of dead silence.

Then his voice cracked through the house.

"Jesus —"

Bash's furious shout followed.

"Don't just stand there yelling! Goddammit, what a mess—"

"This bitch is insane!"

"Threw herself at the wall — I couldn't stop her!"

"Almost got her blood all over me!"

Downstairs, Donna flinched.

Coffee spilled down her dress.

She shot up from the sofa.

"What happened? Oh my God, is someone dead?"

She ran for the stairs.

Chloe's face went pale.

She hiked up her dress and chased after her. "Marcus! What's going on?"

The living room emptied.

Only me.

I dragged myself off the floor and lunged for the front door.

Locked tight.

I grabbed a crystal vase and hurled it at the window.

Glass shattered.

But wrought iron bars sat on the other side.

I turned and stared at the stairs.

Five minutes passed.

Then heavy footsteps came down.

Marcus led the way. His face was the color of paper. Sweat ran down his temples.

Donna gripped the banister, her legs shaking.

Chloe followed, hand over her mouth.

Bash came last. Shirtless. His chest and hands dotted with blood.

The victim was not with them.

Marcus collapsed onto the sofa.

His hands shook so badly he couldn't light his cigarette.

Three tries before the flame held.

Bash shrugged the shirt back on, still cursing under his breath.

"Marcus, your sister is unhinged."

"I barely touched her, and she went ballistic."

"Started slamming her own head into the wall. Nothing I could do."

"If word gets out, people are going to think I have some kind of problem."

I grabbed Marcus by the collar.

"Where is she? What did you do to her?"

"I'm calling an ambulance!"

He shoved me off, his eyes bloodshot.

"Shut up! No ambulance!"

"She's upstairs. She just passed out, that's all."

"Nobody goes up there!"

Chloe patted her chest, relieved.

"God, that scared me."

"Her face is so swollen I couldn't even tell who it was."

"She did that on purpose, didn't she? Wants to bleed Bash dry."

Donna narrowed her eyes.

"Exactly. It's a shakedown. Classic gold-digger move."

"Trying to worm her way into the Zane family with that sob act."

"Bash, don't worry. It was an accident. We all saw it."

"She slipped. The whole family will swear to it."

Bash dropped a bloody tissue onto the floor.

He opened his wallet and tossed a black card onto the coffee table.

"There's half a mil on that."

"Clean this up. If this leaks, I'll make your whole family disappear."

Marcus's fear turned to greed in real time.

He snatched the card.

"You got it. We'll clean it up. A family matter. That's all."

"You'll never hear about it again."

I scrambled for the landline in the corner.

"It's a human life! She needs a hospital!"

Marcus seized the heavy crystal ashtray and brought it down on the phone.

Crack.

He turned on me, finger inches from my face.

"Yara. Are you trying to put us all in prison?"

"Bash is running for Chamber president. This can't come out."

"We handle it here. We'll bring in a private doctor."

"Until that doctor walks through that door — nobody opens the one upstairs."

A thin, scraping sound drifted down from the second floor.

Like fingernails dragging across hardwood.

In the dead quiet of the living room, it was hideous.

Donna jumped.

Her coffee cup fell.

"That girl… she's still alive up there?"

"After all that blood — she's still moving?"