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I glance from one to the other. Liam looks away as our eyes meet. “Where is he?”
Ethan shrugs. “I don’t care, to be honest.”
My mouth gapes. “What?” I shake my head, confused. “Isn’t he at home?”
“The word home no longer exists for him!”
“You threw him out,” I whisper, shaken. I feel like something is breaking inside me but I don’t know what. Panic gathers in my stomach. “He just finished school. How can you just kick him out?”
“He chose to leave,” Ethan replies sharply.
The strange sense of alienation increases as I eye my eldest brother. Suddenly, there seems to be a wall between us. “Did you hit him too?” I ask softly.
“This isn’t about Jay, and the sooner you realize that, the better. We’re here to discuss what’s best for you.”
“Oh, yes, what’s best for me! We did that last year, too. And do you recall what the outcome was? I had to go camping with you guys and Brendan kidnapped me! That was the result of what’s best for me, according to you! Now what will be the consequence of your actions? Will a tank roll over me or a terrorist blow me up?” I narrow my eyes at him. “Why are we here? Why didn’t we go straight home?”
Liam lights a hand-rolled cigarette. “Our car broke down and we had it towed to a garage,” he explains calmly as if we were merely discussing the weather. “We have to wait until it’s repaired.”
I nod and he takes a long drag, tilting his head back before blissfully blowing out the smoke. Unlike Ethan and Avery, he doesn’t seem angry. Okay, he’s younger, twenty-three, Bren’s age. Maybe he sees the whole thing from a different perspective, if that’s even possible.
“How did you know where I was?”
“Ethan has Jay’s cell phone,” Avery simply states.
“You’ve read my messages to him?” Not only that, he even answered them! I grow even more indignant. That means Ethan pretended to be Jay, texted me, and was already on the way to Seattle. That’s why they got here so quickly.
Now I understand why Jay, aka Ethan, never wrote anything about his reaction to the letter. “How long have you had it?”
Ethan doesn’t answer. Suddenly, he seems tired and the fine lines around his eyes look like furrows in a plowed field.
“You posted the picture of you and this guy with Seattle and the Space Needle in the background. It wasn’t difficult to figure out which hotel you must be in.”
“But they’re not allowed to give you any information at reception about which room we’re in.”
“I told them the truth. Namely that you’re underage and ran away from home. I showed them a photo of you and threatened to call the police if they were not forthcoming. You may not want to believe it, but something like that is convincing.”
I say nothing else. Naturally, he has every right to do this, at least legally. Still, I feel betrayed, even though I’m the one who has been lying all the time lately. It’s logical that Ethan is angry, which is what I expected. But I didn’t think he’d be so unapproachable.
“Eth, I love Bren,” I say quietly. “That is real.”
“He lied to us, Lou. Without batting an eye. That day you disappeared. Did he tell you that too?”
I stare at him blankly. “He lied to you?”
“Liam and I were walking down the road searching for you and saw him and his damn RV parked by the side of the road. He said his wife just put the kid to bed and we shouldn’t be shouting. Can you imagine that? I recognized him immediately from the pictures you sent Jay. Care to know why?”
“No.” I’m shocked. Imagining Brendan talking to them is incredible. Why didn’t he ever mention this to me?
“Because at the time, I had a very bad feeling! I just didn’t know why. Something about the guy struck me as odd.”
“Then you should have recognized him from Hero of the Week, too!” I say defensively. He must be lying.
“I didn’t know about the kidnapping at the time and I didn’t put those two faces together.”
“It’s true, Lou,” Liam confirms without being asked.
I look at Ethan thoughtfully. “You never mentioned that you spoke to someone at the campground.”
