The Gilded Cage by Lauren Smith Read Free Book Online Page B

man in the photo was him and it was all part of some elaborate joke his friends were playing.
    “This is Emery. Your younger brother by two minutes. He’s been looking for you.”
    Icy claws dragged their tips through his brain.
    The fireflies danced in dizzying circles as he tried to capture them in a glass jar. A warm summer breeze blanketed him as he ran up the stairs toward a distant room with two beds. A name on the tip of his tongue, a name as familiar as his own, but he only had to think it in his head. A sense of safety, a total, all-consuming protection, like a magic spell cast over a castle by a benevolent wizard.
    When had he ever felt that safe? He couldn’t remember ever feeling that way, but he had, hadn’t he? The fireflies, the glowing Japanese lanterns, the woman in the dress that unfurled at her legs like flower petals. Bell-like laughter, the sweet scent of perfume…home. Not Colorado.
    “No!” He shouted and leapt from the bed.
    There was no air. He couldn’t breathe. Had to get out of there…He stumbled to the door of the trailer and down the steps where he collapsed on his hands and knees and retched violently. Tears stung like flint knives as his entire body heaved and every muscle clenched with anxiety. Rough dirt and rocks scraped his palms as he clawed at the earth.
    A cool hand covered his forehead and a soft shushing sound filled his ears.
    “Hey…it’s okay.” Hayden was kneeling by his shoulder and rubbing one hand over his back. “I’m sorry there wasn’t an easier way to tell you. But it’s important. Someone is trying to kill your brother and now you.”
    It took a few minutes of her quiet words and gentle touches before his body relaxed and he regained control of himself.
    Fenn sat back on his heels and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. He didn’t feel better, but at least he wasn’t going to throw up again. This woman seemed to have a knack for seeing him at his worst.
    “I’m not saying I believe you.” He glared at her, even angrier at the way full moonlight pooled in her eyes and shimmered on the loose waves of her hair. She was everything a man like him wanted to take to bed, but she didn’t want sex. She wanted to ruin his life. To change everything he knew about himself. This woman had no right to do that.
    “You don’t have to believe me. I’m sure Emery will be happy to do a DNA test. Your parents are still alive. Do you know what this will mean? You are alive! For twenty-five years everyone thought you were dead. Only Emery had survived. This changes everything .” The echo of his own words on her lips made him suddenly weary. It felt as though he’d been fighting his entire life to understand who he was and why he felt like he’d never belonged here at Walnut Springs and now…now he didn’t know anything.
    It wasn’t true. He refused to believe it. Maybe it was a crazy coincidence and he just looked like some rich guy’s brother. That could be it. He and his father had lived here forever; he had never belonged to any other family, or any other place.
    “Why is someone trying to kill…” He paused, the name sounded foreign on his tongue. “Emery?” He didn’t want to care, shouldn’t care about a man he didn’t know. That didn’t change the fact that his chest tightened at just the thought of this unknown man being in danger.
    Hayden got to her feet and helped him stand. His ankle burned like the devil and he hated that he needed any help to get up. Even in pain, he’d always been able to control himself. Showing weakness in front of this woman turned everything within him inside out.
    “We don’t know why, not yet. But the man that kidnapped you and Emery when you were eight is now dead. Emery shot him.”
    They’d been walking back toward his trailer but he jerked to a halt. A cold laugh, bullets, an awful screaming in his head .
    “Dead?”
    “Yes.” She was watching him with a worried expression knitting her brow, as