Sully took my hand and led me over to him. “How did it all shake out? Who owns my father’s legacy?”
Montgomery smiled wider. “I do.”
Sully took a step back, and I could see by his face he was not happy. “I didn’t take you for a back-stabbing son of a—”
Montgomery rolled his eyes. “I bought it so I could manage it and hold it in trust for your sister until she comes of age, dipshit.”
Sully’s tense body immediately relaxed. He let go of my hand only so he could throw his arms around his friend in a violent hug. It was brief, but by the look in both of the men’s eyes when they came apart, I could tell it was meaningful to both of them.
“Thank you, brother,” Sully said.
Montgomery nodded. “Always.”
“So that’s it?” Sully said. “I just get to walk away scot free?”
“Well, you don’t get to be a member if that’s what you’re asking.”
Sully laughed bitterly. “Oh no, I don’t get to run around in a cloak and scare poor women who are being chased down like dogs and thrown in coffins? Sorry, pal, that’s your gig, not mine. I’ll be happy to put this fucking manor in my rearview and never look back.”
Montgomery visibly cringed at that bit, but Sully didn’t take it back. I knew Sully was still plenty pissed about all the cruel things I’d had to suffer while under that roof and on these grounds. Really, I couldn't imagine Sully as part of the Order.
Montgomery leaned in, a furrow in his brow. “That’s too bad because I’m trying to change the Order from the inside, and I could have used a good man like you.”
But Sully just shook his head. “I don’t have the patience for that bullshit. I see something fucked up, I want to break it, not remake it.”
Montgomery nodded, probably wisely choosing not to pursue this battle any further.
But then Sully hugged him again hard and I faintly heard his words whispered in Montgomery’s ear. “But thank you, brother. You’ll always have my gratitude for what you’ve done today. Nothing will ever change that.”
When they broke apart, I could tell Montgomery was moved but trying to hide it. He cleared his throat again but then jammed a thumb over his shoulder back at the manor. “Well, I better get back. They’re drawing up the paperwork as we speak.”
“And the kidney?” I piped up, needing the extra assurance. “It’s really on its way to Reba?”
Montgomery smiled. “They’re prepping her for surgery now.”
I grabbed Sully’s hand. “Oh my God, we have to go! We’ll barely be able to make it back in time!”
Sully called goodbye to Montgomery over his shoulder as I dragged him back towards Sully’s truck for the twenty-minute drive back to the hospital.
He kept a soothing hand on my knee, rubbing small circles of comfort the entire way there.
The End