When Devils Sing(97)

“It changes everything.” Neera crossed the room, putting more distance between herself and Grant. “So what, you knocked up my mom and bailed just like that?”

“It’s complicated,” Grant insisted. “I was young. I didn’t know any better.”

“You were young?” Neera questioned. “What about my mom? She was barely eighteen, raising a kid all on her own.” Grant began to reply, but she cut him off. “And what about all the years since then, huh? You couldn’t at least write us a fucking check?”

“No, I couldn’t.” Grant shook his head, his easygoing facade beginning to crack. “I had a reputation to protect, a family name, a legacy.”

Neera went still. “A bloodline, you mean.”

“If anyone had found out about you…” Grant’s gaze fell to the floor. “Being a Langley carries weight, kid. It means something. There are rules in my world—consequences you can’t even imagine.”

Neera scoffed. “Not owning up to being a father is one thing, but did it mean you had to screw over Ajay in the process? I thought he was your friend.”

Something dark and cruel flashed in Grant’s eyes. “There was nothing friendly between us once it was all said and done. We each had our part to play—I can promise you that.”

“What the hell does that even mean?” Neera wound her fingers through her hair, pulling at her roots. “Just tell me the truth, Grant. I’m owed that, at least.”

“The truth?” Grant repeated.

Neera could only nod.

Grant sighed heavily. “When Ajay found out about me and your mom, we fought.” He held up his fretting hand for Neera to see. Wiggling his fingers, he said, “In that fight, he broke my hand in three places. Severed the nerve endings in my fingers. Since that day, I’ve not been able to play guitar the same.”

Shame warmed Neera’s cheeks. “I don’t believe you.” She couldn’t imagine a world in which Ajay would’ve done something so cruel to another person.

“It’s true, whether you want to believe it or not,” Grant said evenly.

Neera swallowed back the bile in her throat. “That’s it, then? He nearly ruined your music career, so you destroyed him in return?”

Grant was still. “Ajay nearly took everything from me.”

Neera glanced around the room again, laughing bitterly. “And now I’m living in your goddamn pool house.”

Quietly, Grant mused, “Fate is funny that way, isn’t it?”

“This is sick,” Neera breathed. I want to go home, she thought, even though home was now a fleeting and fragile thing. “I—I need to get out of here.”

Grant held out his hand, blocking Neera’s path to the door. “Where’re you gonna go?”

“For a walk,” Neera said. “You wanna try and stop me?”

“I won’t bother.” Grant eyed her for a long moment, then relented, stepping aside. “I know you’ll be back.”

Neera sneered as she moved past him and into the hallway. She thought she heard his footsteps trailing after her, but she was gone before he could try and stop her.

With angry tears welling up in her eyes, Neera ran off the property, and absently followed the sidewalk through Lake Clearwater’s winding neighborhoods in the pouring rain. After a day spent ignoring the world, she stabbed her phone’s power button. To her surprise, she was bombarded with dozens of missed calls and texts from Sam and Isaiah. She held the phone to her drenched face, struggling to hear Sam’s voicemail over the storm.

I think your mom’s in danger.

The world faded around Neera as Sam’s words settled within her.

It was happening again. First with Ajay. And now her mom. Were her grandparents next? Was this part of Grant’s plan? Was he coming after Neera, too? She broke into a sprint, desperate to be far away from Grant’s home, desperate to get the hell out of Lake Clearwater. But how could she leave? The community was a gilded, gated prison for someone on foot.

After a few minutes of running, a car pulled up beside her. She flipped it off, assuming it was Grant, and picked up her pace.

“Neera, it’s me!”

Neera turned to find Isaiah leaning out the driver’s window of his car. “Isaiah? What the hell?”

“Get in!” Isaiah yelled over the torrential rain.





CHAPTER 41ISAIAH




24 HOURS


The car was silent as Neera held Isaiah’s laptop, watching the video of her mother and Sam being taken. They were parked outside a plastic surgeon’s office in Lake Clearwater, undecided on their next move.

Neera shut the screen. In a small voice, she asked, “Where are they taking them?”

Isaiah frowned deeply. “We don’t know, Neera.”

“Sam knew something was off,” Neera whispered. “She tried to warn me. God—I fucked up. I could’ve called my mom. I could’ve saved her.” She hit the back of Reid’s seat in a fit of anger before going still.

Isaiah exchanged a pained glance with Reid, before he asked, “Should we go to the address Dawson had on his pay stub? There’s still a chance that can lead us somewhere.”

Neera shook her head. “What if it’s not safe?”