The story cuts out and I remain staring at my phone as though it’s going to magically continue telling me every little detail.
“Ummmm … what the fuck?” Colton grunts, looking up at me in surprise. “Did you know about this?”
“Kinda,” I say with a cringe. “I was done. You said I could handle it however I wanted to handle it and all I wanted was to move on and be happy. With him in the wine cellar, it was always sitting on my mind so I called Nic and had him handle it. I figured he’d just put a bullet between his eyes but I think Nic knew that the guilt would eat at me so they must have had him hand himself over.”
“Fuck me,” Colton says with an impressed smirk. He rubs his hand over his face. “They must have done a fucking number on him to get him to voluntarily walk in there and admit to what he did.”
“Well, what can I say?” I grin. “The Widows certainly have a few impressive … skills.”
“I can imagine,” he says, still a little in shock. He shakes his head and a faraway look enters his hazel eyes. “He really did kill that girl.”
“Yeah, sounds like it,” I whisper, reaching over and taking his hand, hating the guilt that spreads across his handsome features. He links his fingers with mine. “There’s nothing you could have done, Colton. You couldn’t have known that he was going to hurt that girl again. You were only a kid yourself.”
His features fall and I have a feeling that a few lousy words from me isn’t going to do the trick this time. This is just one of those things that are going to sit heavy on his heart until the day he takes his final breath.
“Come on,” he finally says, squeezing my hand and lifting his chin toward the road. “Let’s get home. There’s bound to be a mountain of press waiting outside the gates wanting a statement from me.”
“Okay,” I say, releasing his hand. “But as soon as you’re done with that, you’re all mine.”
A soft smile lifts the corner of his lips. “Deal.”Chapter 25Mom’s heavy glare settles on me as she passes by the massive dining table that seats at least a hundred business partners and their families. It’s freaking huge but all that matters right now is not breaking and smiling at my mother.
Just the smallest little grin from me will have her storming through the room and removing me from the table by my ear before dragging me back to the pool house to curse me out. With the business dinner being a lot bigger than we anticipated, Mom has spent the whole day preparing and hasn’t had a chance to tell me and Drix exactly what she thought of our sneaky little plan, but whatever she has to say about it, it doesn’t matter.
There have been at least twenty times today when I’ve caught her smiling to herself. It’s almost as though she’s floating. I don’t think I've ever seen her like this. It’s like she’s a teenage girl again, experiencing the attention of a boy for the very first time. Her cheeks have been flushed all day and if there were music playing, I’m sure she’d be dancing around as though she stepped right out of a musical.
I absolutely love it. Her happiness is contagious. Hell, she can come and yell at me all she wants because, in the end, it will always be worth it. Unless Roman turns out to be some psychotic serial killer, only then will I admit that I might have been wrong.
Mom disappears through the service entrance with her arms full of plates and guilt soars through me. Under any other circumstances, I’d be out there helping her but instead, I’m sitting at the table as a guest while my mother slaves away. It’s wrong.
I insisted on helping but Colton wanted me with him while Mom also insisted that she was fine. She has a whole kitchen full of staff helping her with about twenty hired waitresses. I’d probably just be in the way but I can’t help the guilt that fills me. Maybe one of these days I might even get used to it. Who knows? With Roman digging his claws in and making her all shades of happy, she might be the one to have waitresses serving her one of these days.
The table is filled with bodies and I can’t help but scan my way around. The Bryant family is here, sitting just across the table, while Charlie does everything in his power not to look directly at us.
Milo sits with his parents just down from them, making rude gestures to me and Colton while Spencer sits with his father who I don’t think I've actually met. Judging by everyone else’s parents, I don't really care to get to know him either.