Worry and frustration coated his words. “You’ve been gettin’ reckless, man. You want to stay hidden, yet you’re strutting around in the limelight like you don’t have a damned care. You knew it was gonna come down to this. But maybe this is exactly what it needed to come down to.”
“What did she say?” I bit out.
That she wanted me dead, too? Reiterate her loyalty to Krane?
No fucking thank you.
He hesitated. Like he had something different to say. “She’s claimin’ she’s worried about you. That she wants you to come back. That the two of you need to talk, lay it all out.”
Loathing left me on a hard laugh. “She wants me, she can come and get me. Besides, what could she possibly have to say? What could she possibly do that would bring back my family?”
The betrayal sliced through me so deep that I was pretty sure my guts spilled out onto the floor. Mess on the ground nothing but a snarl of venom and discord.
Could feel the conflict halting his answer. “She said if I talked to you, to tell you that she would never have hurt them, and that she sure as hell would never hurt you. That she misses you.”
“Bullshit.”
“Is it though, man?” He sighed, paused, wary before he continued, “She said half a shipment has gone missing. Same as before, and she sure doesn’t sound like she’s on his side.”
Rage slithered beneath the surface of my skin. Hatred lashing with every violent pulse.
“He’s back at it, brother,” Braxton said, voice grim.
“Then it’s time to end him.”
And if that meant my mother going down with him? So be it.
“We need to rethink how we do this. Think about it, Leif. It doesn’t fuckin’ add, your mother and Keeton. And my gut doesn’t lie. She was telling the truth.”
Rejection of his statement battered my insides.
As fierce as the wind that battered the window outside.
Her betrayal vile.
“Just . . . think about it, Leif, before you do something you can’t take back.”
Ruthless laughter tumbled off my tongue. “Too late for that.”
“It’s never too late if the deed isn’t done. Don’t mistake that.” He huffed out a sigh. “You’ve been living for revenge for a long, long time. I get it. I want it. But don’t let it fuckin’ blind you.”
“It’s the only thing I’ve ever been able to see.”
Until the only thing I could see was her. The angel in the attic.
Guilt spiraled.
Cut and slashed.
Unable to say anything else, I ended the call and pressed my hands to the flat-plate glass, phone pinned to the window. Sucking for a breath.
I glanced up just as lightning flashed.
Torrential rain poured from the sky and pummeled the ground.
Pool a riot of aggression that toiled and churned.
But it was the dark figure standing on the opposite side of it staring back at me that ripped my heart from my chest.
Vengeance filled the bleeding void.
The memory of his face something I would never forget.
Lightning flashed again a second later.
Shadow was gone.
I blinked.
Narrowed my eyes as I focused to see through the blear of the rain.
Motherfucker.
Nothing.
Now I was seeing things.
Karma, that bitch, playing tricks.
And I knew, without a doubt, I had lost my mind.
That the threads I’d been clinging to had snapped.
I jumped when I felt the movement from behind, and I whirled around.
Penny stood in the doorway, her eyes squinted with sleep and her hair matted to a mess.
“Penny . . . what are you doing awake?” Words were gruff. Barely breaking free.
“I think I had a bad dream.”
Heart still thundering somewhere outside of my body, I looked back over my shoulder, letting my eyes scan the yard.
Nothing.
Reluctantly, I turned away from the scene of my own nightmare, the ghosts so close to catching up. “Let’s get you back into bed.”
She nodded, and I tried not to feel like some kind of trespasser when I followed her into her room, not to feel like an intruder as I lifted her covers and resituated them over her when she lay back down.
And I tried with all of me not to feel like I belonged right there when I gently brushed my fingers through her hair, stared down at her cherub face, the small girl nothing but trust.
“I’m sorry that you had a bad dream.”
“Do you have them, too?” she whispered into the night.
My nod was slow. “Sometimes, Penny. Sometimes I do.”
Every fucking day and every fucking night.
“You make it better when you’re here.” Her eyes watched me like she knew—the child with the ability to see all the way down into who I was.
I just don’t want to make it worse.
My soul screamed it. A prayer. A petition.
I ran the pad of my thumb across the dent in her brow. “You make it better for me, too.”
A smile played around her mouth. “That’s good. You make my mom happy, Leif, and I think she might make you happy, too.”