That’s not what he has in mind. Instead, he thrusts a finger in my face, his own face beet red. “Now, you listen to me. You can leave as soon as this week is over. But you have to go through with this. You need to cooperate.”

I shouldn’t believe him. He’s never done anything but lie to me. But dammit, I want to hope. I still need to hope. “You mean to say you’re going to actually let me go? For real?”

“For real,” Colt confirms, nodding slowly. “And the week’s almost over. You don’t have much longer to go through this.”

“We won’t stop you from leaving. But he has to get what he wants first. That’s just how it is.” Nix is still breathing heavy, still angry, but at least he takes his finger out of my face. I have half a mind to bite it off. He’ll never stick it up anybody’s asshole again.

I turn my back on both of them since the sight of their faces disgusts me. “Leave me alone. I don’t want to see either of you.”

But instead of leaving, somebody touches my ass. Before I can swat his hand away, Nix asks, “What is this?”

I realize the picture must have slithered out of my pocket a little when I was struggling.

“Leave it!” It’s too late. He already has it, and now Colt is grabbing me, pinning my arms to my sides before reaching into my pocket to pull out the other half of the photo.

They stand next to each other, holding the two halves up and putting the picture back together the way I did when I first found it. “Where the fuck did you get this?” Nix whispers, his eyes almost bulging. Meanwhile, Colt doesn’t say a word. The muscles in his jaw jump and twitch, though. The intensity coming off him is overwhelming.

“I found it downstairs.” I leave it there since I’m not exactly in the mood to be punished for snooping.

I don’t know why it took me so long to figure it out. Probably because I was too busy worrying about how I was going to get away. There wasn’t much room for anything else in my overheated mind, but now? “Was she your mom?” I whisper.

Neither of them says anything at first, and their silence is enough of a response. If she wasn’t, they would say so right away. From what I remember, I heard their mother died in a car accident before the family came to town to start over again. I don’t know how long ago that was, but it clearly wasn’t long enough for the sight of her photo to keep a rush of emotion from blindsiding them.