Dread slammed me, hard as a rock to the side of the head.
I struggled to keep my feet planted.
My mama whimpered and squirmed.
Wanted to go to her. Wrap her up. Promise I wouldn’t ever let anythin’ happen to her. That I would never fail her again.
One arm for her and one for my Maggie.
Still, I held fast. Sweat beaded on my temples as that confusion swarmed. Somethin’ sinister coating my flesh with the way he dealt the words.
Noah had been there.
The bastard had been there.
Flashes of memories struck me. Genny’s panic. The way she’d fled. Way I’d thought she’d been scared of me.
Fuck.
I nearly buckled in two when I realized she hadn’t been runnin’ from me at all.
“But your father…” He might as well have stabbed me in the gut with the way I lurched forward when he said it. His voice turned to feigned sympathy. He grinned, a fuckin’ sadist feeding from the pain.
“Yeah,” he taunted as I swallowed and twitched and struggled to keep from fracturing apart. “He didn’t take too kindly of my being there. Not very welcoming, if you ask me.”
Around her gag, my mama yelped, and Genny, she let go of a sob, the sludge of words comin’ from her nothing but whimpers, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for it to happen. I should have told you. I should have told you. I didn’t mean for it to happen.”
Sorrow pressed down.
That old agony so intense I couldn’t see.
It got all mixed up with the rage.
Rage that gathered and grew.
Shivering as it came alive.
“I’m sorry, Rhys. When we got there…all the ambulances and police were there, and I knew. I knew it.” Genny’s words started to tumble, and she was stumbling forward. “I knew it…and…and I ran. At the hospital, Noah was there, and I made him promise, Rhys, made him promise that he wouldn’t go after you, too. My father agreed he couldn’t touch you.” She started coming for me like what she was sayin’ made up for it. “I made him promise.”
But it was the despair that had me shaking. What had me stunned. Body just moving her direction, already sure doin’ it would drag me to the deepest pit in Hell.
“What did you know?” Didn’t give a fuck about the hospital. About any promise she had made. I wanted to know. Had to know.
My mama moaned from across the space, and Maggie’s spirit wailed.
“What did you know?” I screamed it when she just fidgeted, her head shakin’ as she wheezed, “I’m sorry.”
“Shut up, Genny, and do what we came here to do. It’s time to prove your loyalty. Take your rightful spot in this family.”
“What did you know?” I screamed it that time, not even able to process the threats that Noah was tossing.
Fucker cocked a smirk, and I guessed it was that expression that finally sent my spirit crumblin’ apart.
“What is it you want to know?” he goaded. “That I was the one who killed your father? That it was so easy to turn the gun he had on me on him? That I wrapped my hand around his and pulled the trigger? Is that what you want to know?”
A wail tore from my spirit.
My daddy.
My daddy.
Torment burned my throat and moisture filled my eyes.
I staggered forward.
Misplaced anger filled his face. “Only job I had was to get her back safe, and we could reclaim our spot in the family.” He gestured a crazed hand at Genny, and I was seein’ it then. That she’d run because she was actually truly terrified. That she’d been runnin’ for her life. That again, she was being held against her will.
That this bastard destroyed and destroyed.
Fuck.
I couldn’t see.
Couldn’t see.
My daddy.
“Bitch ran and got into that accident. I was demoted like some kinda nobody, nothing but a fucking dog who got charged with watching over her. No longer her husband, my rank stripped, demoted to watching her night and day. You have any idea how much money that cost me? Your fault. Never would have happened had you not come riding in. A fool who had no idea what he was doing.”
Genny whimpered. “Please, Noah. Let’s just go. I’ll stay with you. I’ll stay. I promise.”
He didn’t spare her a glance when he took another step my direction. “Now, your time has finally come due. I’ve sat aside for seven fucking years, actin’ as her glorified babysitter while you came time and again. Filling her head with all your make believe. Turning her against me. Begging her to leave and ruining my chances all over again. Warned you if you came again, it would be the last time. That I was going to destroy you.”
His expression turned cruel. “Finally got rid of her daddy, so now Genny is going to prove her worth by getting rid of your mother and that whimpering bitch, and you’re going to watch her do it. And I’m going to relish in every second of it. Then she’s going to watch me end you…like I’ve been dying to do for seven years, or else she’s gonna die, too. Her choice. Seven years you stole. Promised you, you’d only begun to pay.”