TEASE ( A Stepbrother Romance ) By Caitlin Daire

18

Chapter Eighteen

Cade

The hours after the wedding shooting crawled by like some sort of slow-motion horror film, but the days soon began to fly by, and before I knew it, two weeks had passed, and the worst of it was over. Evan was fine; the bullet had only grazed his arm a bit. It was enough to make him bleed a fair amount and also necessitate a small skin graft, but other than that, he was A-Okay. He was still in the hospital now, because the doctors were keeping an eye on the skin graft to make sure it didn't become infected, but he was due out pretty soon, and Charlotte and I were currently on our way into his room to visit him.

"Hey, little bro," I said, stepping inside.

He waved. "Hey guys," he replied. "How's things in the outside world?"

"I tell you what, you're lucky you're still shut up in here," I said, ruffling his hair. "It's fucking crazy out there."

That was no exaggeration. Seeing as Dad and Emilia's wedding had been so high-profile with many attendees from the political world, the shooting incident had made the news within minutes of it happening, and within hours it had gone viral. Some of the guests with zero morals had filmed parts of the incident-some had filmed the beginning with the shooter's objection rant, and others had managed to capture the shooting and aftermath-and those parts had been pieced together by the money-hungry media vultures in order to sell more newspapers and increase online subscriptions. It was disgusting that people were profiting off my brother's injury, but I was still at least grateful that he had survived the incident.

I was also damn proud of my father. The way he'd jumped right at the shooter and tackled him was nothing short of heroic, and I'd never seen such genuine emotion in his face as he carried Evan out of the hotel that morning. I wasn't the only one who was proud of him, either. The media had gone crazy over him, writing up several pieces about the 'Hero Senator' and what an amazing guy he was. The video of him tackling the shooter was also all over the internet, along with footage of him carrying an unconscious, bleeding Evan in his arms.

He more than deserved his hero status, and the whole thing had brought us closer together as a family, as awful as it had been.

The attacker had been identified as Felix Adamson, and his story had quickly been unveiled by the media. While I felt zero sympathy for the man after what he'd done, I now somewhat understood his actions. He was very mentally unstable-apparently he had been for years, according to his psychiatric medical records-and he was an avid believer in conspiracy theories, especially those concerning the government. He was genuinely convinced that all members of the government, including my father, were out to harm the general public, and some of his ramblings on online forums suggested that he even believed all the members of Congress were lizards disguised as humans, hell-bent on controlling humanity.

Apparently, he'd thought that shooting up an event where several politicians were in attendance would be a good way to draw attention to all the supposed 'truths' he believed in. He was an avid hunter and had even completed marksmanship courses, so it was a wonder he hadn't critically injured or killed anyone at the wedding. One psychiatrist who'd been interviewed on TV claimed that she thought he was in the midst of a psychotic break, and that was possibly why his usual shooting skills had been compromised-basically, he was so wired that day that he couldn't even shoot straight.

Thank god for that.

Mental illness was an awful thing, but I guess it had saved us all in this particular case. I couldn't even bear to think what would've happened if the man was completely lucid and had shot exactly where he aimed. My father could be dead, Evan could be dead, Emilia could be dead....Charlotte could be gone.