“Fine. A few ibuprofen and I’ll be good.” A lie of course. I knew nothing would be the same again.
“I think you should stay with us for a little while.” Anstice felt my forehead with the back of her hand.
She glanced over at Keir and he shook his head, scowling. They were still hiding shit from me. So much for friendship.
Anstice sighed. “Keir thinks we should take you to the hospital. They’ll do some tests and—”
Like hell I was going to the hospital. “Balen. The guy from my painting.” I sat up, clutching the blanket to my chest. “He was with me. He was there, Anstice. We were in cages and he was tortured. Ryszard . . . That’s who kidnapped me. We have to go to the police.”
Anstice jerked away as if she’d been burned. “Oh, God.”
My eyes narrowed, watching her. What the hell? Why was she so freaked over finally getting some answers?
“I’ll carry you to the car.” Keir approached the bed and Anstice got up, avoiding my eyes.
“No. I don’t need a hospital. I need Balen. He came to see me and—”
“No,” Keir interrupted.
“I need you to find him.”
“No, sweetie,” Anstice said. “Balen’s in Spain. Let’s get the doctors to check you—”
What the fuck? “You know him? You know Balen? The man in my paintings?” It all made sense. Anstice hating the paintings. Never wanting to talk about the ‘episode.’ Balen finding me at Anstice’s the other night. How did Anstice know him? Did she know Balen had been kidnapped with me?
Anstice drew back from the bed, hand covering her mouth.
“Abby and now Balen? How do you know him?” I asked between clenched teeth. “Anstice, I swear if you don’t tell me, you’re no longer my friend.”
Silence.
I grabbed my lamp, ready to throw it at her, when Anstice said, “Balen’s my brother.”
“Fuck.” Keir turned away and stalked over to the window then back again.
Anstice ignored him and continued. “I couldn’t tell you. I . . . Danni, I thought I’d never see him again. I swear, I wanted to tell you, but Waleron—”
“Your goddamn brother? You let me wallow in hell for two goddamn years, looking at my paintings, and he’s your fuckin’ brother?” I threw the lamp across the room. The bulb busted and shattered on the hardwood floors. “Get out. Do you hear me, Anstice? Leave. I don’t know who the hell you are anymore.”
Anstice closed her eyes, staggering backward. Keir hooked his arm around her waist. I felt so betrayed that the pain in my head was nothing compared to the treachery. Her brother? No wonder Anstice always turned away from the paintings. Why she’d urged me to forget him. He was her fuckin’ brother. Why the hell hadn’t she said anything? Where had he been all these years? We’d known each other since grade school and I had no knowledge of Anstice having a brother. Why keep it a secret?
I wanted answers, yet I was so furious I couldn’t even speak to her. My friend could say nothing that could ever repair the damage that was done.
Keir’s voice was low and quiet. “You’re angry and in pain. But she did it to protect you. She warned you to forget him.”
“Fuck you, Keir. My guess, all this is your fault. So, our busted friendship . . . yeah, that’s on you.” I looked at Anstice. “Your mystery brother was there. In the cages. He was tortured. Shit, the sick bastard slammed a sledgehammer down on his leg numerous times. Did you know that, Anstice? Did you know that not once did he scream in agony?”
Anstice’s complexion paled as she leaned back on Keir for support.
Yeah, well, I hope you’re horrified. “Why is he in Spain? Why did he leave?”
Anstice said, “He went there for . . . work. It was decided—”
“Love, don’t.”
She looked up at Keir and glared. “No, Keir, she needs to know.”
Keir’s eyes narrowed and his body stiffened, but he nodded.
My hands curled into the comforter. “It was decided? Who decided? Does he work with you, Keir?” Was Keir involved with drugs? With weapons? Shit, he and his friends all looked like they were in some motorcycle gang, maybe they were? Keir had a bike, I’d seen it last summer and Anstice mentioned riding on it. Fuck. This wasn’t good.
“Balen broke the law,” Keir said. “Yes, he had to leave. Now—”
“What law? Your own law? Like a club law or something? What the hell kind of work do you do?” I grabbed the closest thing to me, my pillow, and flung it across the room. I was so pissed off with them. With myself for not seeing this sooner. God, when did the lies end? “He wanted to stay. Balen didn’t want to leave. Was he running from you? Were you going to kill him for fucking something up? Hadn’t he been through enough? He was tortured for fuck’s sake. Tortured.”
“You have no idea what you’re talking about,” Keir said.
“No fuck. Guess whose fault that is. But I saw the part where Balen’s leg was mangled from a sledgehammer. Yeah, that part I saw firsthand.”
Anstice stepped out of Keir’s embrace and came toward the bed. “Danni, please. It’s their way. He broke their trust.”
Un-fucking-believable. I looked away. “He lived in a cage with water dripping down on him. Beaten to a pulp by some psycho. Do you get it? Whatever he’s done can be forgiven. He shouldn’t have to leave.”