Sam looks over at Travis and Scott. “Give them fifteen minutes, and then head over there. If you can, take him down without killing him. I want to watch this son of a bitch rot.”

Parker looks around the room at everyone and gets a sinking feeling in her stomach. Without question, she heads to the door.

“Where are you going?” Paige calls after her.

“I have a bad feeling,” she says and refuses to turn around. No one was going to stop her.

“Wait!” Mason calls as Paige runs after her.

Ryder and Mack run silently up to the house after parking down the street. Ryder signals for Mack to head around back while Ryder goes to the front. Causing a distraction, Mack bangs on the side of the house while Ryder bursts through the door with his flashlight ready to blind Kane. But he’s not there.

Mack slinks in the back door, ready to shoot, but Kane’s not there either. He heads into the basement while Ryder glides up the stairs two at a time and into Parker’s room.

Based on the food, garbage, and pictures of everyone Ryder has ever come into contact with taped on the walls, he knows this is where Kane has been living. With all of his sister’s things. He heads back downstairs when he’s searched all of the rooms and finds no one.

“You are so predictable,” Kane says. He aims Mack’s gun at Ryder. “This was easier than I thought.”

“Where’s Mack?”

“Where’s Mack?” Kane mocks. “You should be concerned about you right now, big boy. I didn’t bring a knife to a gunfight this time.”

“You believe you can outshoot me?”

Kane shoots at Ryder, grazing his knuckle, causing him to drop his gun.

“Kind of, yeah.”

“I don’t need a gun to take you down,” he says shaking his injured hand, dropping blood on the ground. “That won’t be a problem.”

“But, it is. You see, you can’t wrestle a bullet. Here’s what’s actually going to happen. I’m going to shoot you. I’m not going to kill you. Yet. I’ll just immobilize you. Then I’m going to lure Parker here and kill her. Right here. In front of you. Not only will you watch, you’ll be unable to help her.”

“Not. Gonna. Happen.”

“Do you even love her?” Kane asks.

“What?”

“Parker. Do you love her? I mean, all you do is treat her like shit.”

“Why does it matter to you?”

“Maybe it does. Maybe it doesn’t. Then again, what kind of big brother would I be if I just let someone treat her that way?”

“What kind of big brother tries to kill his sister?”

“You’re right. It doesn’t matter. I’m just curious.”

“You won’t kill your sister.”

“Won’t I?” Kane laughs. “You’ve turned her into a whore. I have two options. I can kill you and watch it kill her from the inside out. Or I can kill her and watch it kill you from the inside out. Either way works for me.”

“You have had plenty of opportunities to kill her, and you haven’t. You won’t kill her. If it came right down to it, you can’t do it.”

“I’m not sure that’s a bet you want to take.” Kane laughs and points the gun at Ryder. “Now, which one do I want to watch die slowly?”

“Killing me won’t cause problems for Ryder,” Parker says from the doorway. “He wishes you’d killed me already.”

“Parker, get out of here,” Ryder hisses.

“You don’t get to tell me what to do. Not after what you said.” She turns to Kane. “You win, Kane. What is it you want? Do you want your sister? Or do you want to be alone?”

“Ryder,” Kane says.

“What?”

“You never answered my question.”

“What question?” Parker asks.

“Ryder, do you love Parker? Can you live without her?”

“No, he doesn’t love me. And he’s proven his ability to live without me, Kane. You know this.”

“I want to hear him say it.”

“Kill me,” she says, getting his attention. “I don’t think I can hurt anymore than I do right now. I never thought he could hurt me worse than he did before, but he did. He doesn’t love me.”

“Parker,” Ryder hisses. “What are you doing?”

“What you want,” she says back. “Kane, kill me. End it, please.”

“I know what you’re trying to do. You’re trying to save him. But I just realized something, sis.”

“What’s that?”

“I want to hurt you more than I want to hurt him.” He takes his aim at Ryder, and Parker pushes him to the ground as a gunshot rings out.

“Mother fucker!” Mack yells as he tackles Kane to the ground and wrestles the gun away.

Sam, Travis, and Scott burst in and help subdue Kane. “You guys good?”

“Yeah,” Ryder says to Sam as he dusts himself off. Apparently a house sitting for five years gathers quite a bit of dust. “Parker was an idiot. That was the dumbest thing you’ve ever done.” He waits for a reaction, but she hasn’t moved.

“Parker?” Sam asks as he walks toward her. Rolling her slightly, he sees the blood pooling beside her. “Get a bus! Now!”

“What’s wrong?” Mack asks.

Sam rolls her onto her back and checks for a pulse. Blood as soaked the entire left side of her body from shoulder to waist.

“No!” Ryder cries out.

“What did I do?” Kane asks. He’s paled to the point of almost transparent as he sees Parker lying unconscious on the ground in a pool of her own blood.

Ryder rushes to her and strokes her hair. “Baby, wake up. Please wake up.”

Sam applies pressure to her shoulder as Kane fights against Travis and Mack who try to lead him out. “Did I kill her?”

“Shut up before I kill you,” Mack snarls.

“You wouldn’t dare,” Kane snaps back.

Mack hits him with the butt of his gun, and Kane drops to the ground in a heap. “Hurts, don’t it?”

EMTs rush into the room and move Ryder and Sam out of the way.

“She can’t die,” Ryder says as Mason and Paige rush in. Sam ordered them to stay behind, but the ambulance caused them to abandon them.

“Oh my God,” Paige gasps as she takes in Parker. “Oh my God.” Mason pulls her to him and moves them out of the way.

“Ryder,” Sam says.

“No, she can’t die. The last thing she thought was that I didn’t love her and blamed her. It’s not true. I was hurt. It’s not true. That’s not true, baby! Not even close. Fuck!”

“Her pulse is weak. We have to go,” one paramedic says to the other. Loading her into the ambulance, she’s closed off from view of the others.

“Ryder,” Mason says still hugging a sobbing Paige to his side. “Let’s go.”

“This is my fault. All of this is my fault. Everything is fucked up.”

“No, it’s not. No one thinks that.”

“Dude, head to the hospital and be with your girl,” Mack says.

“What happened to your face, man?” Travis asks Mack.

“Got smacked with the butt of my gun in the by basement by a psychopath. What’s your story?”

“Let’s get to the hospital,” Mason says again.

“What if she dies?” Ryder says quietly. His world feels like it’s starting to crumble, and he has no one to blame but himself.

“The bigger question is ‘what if she lives?’ You have a lot of making up to do.”

“She hates me. Kane was right. I treat her like shit. I treat her worse than I treated Vanessa.”

“She loves you,” Paige says. Her sobs have calmed down.

“She shouldn’t.”

“She shouldn’t love half of us, but she does. I fucked her boyfriend, and she’s still there for me through everything. She forgave me. Sam lied to her about Kane her entire life, and she still loves him. And she forgave him. She is the most forgiving and loving person any of us have ever met, and we’re all better people for knowing her.”

“You guys go. I gotta clear my head for a bit.”

“Ryder,” Mason calls after him as he rushes out the door.

“Let him go,” Sam says putting a hand on Mason’s shoulder. “We need to get to the hospital.”