Chapter 10: The Driveway

Quinton's POV

I told Sabina to lock the doors and stay in the car.

She said, "I'm not hiding in a rental."

Then she locked the doors anyway and watched through the windshield, which was the sensible thing.

I got out.

My brother stood at the foot of Renee's driveway in the yellow glare of the porch light.

He had a duffel bag at his feet and a half-empty bottle of whiskey in his hand.

His suit was creased. His tie was gone.

On the porch, Renee's husband had come out holding an aluminum baseball bat he clearly did not know how to use.

Two neighbors had stepped onto their lawns.

"Hey, big brother," Bryce said. "You drove her home. How sweet."

"Go back to your hotel, Bryce."

"I got us a room. Sabina and me. We'll talk about it like adults."

"She doesn't want to talk."

"She wants to. She just doesn't know it." He took a swallow and winced. "She never knows what she wants. That's why she needs me."

"She's been in your life seven years and you've been telling her what she wants for all seven."

"Somebody had to."

"No," I said. "Nobody had to."

He laughed, and it came out wet.

He looked past me at the windshield and waved at Sabina with two fingers.

Then he looked back at me, and there was nothing left of the salesman.

"You know what you are, Quinton? You're a guy who got a down payment and never asked where it came from."

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