Jase
It’s always quiet out here. Although it was quiet last time as well, and that’s when everything fell apart.
Rows and rows of stones. Centuries have passed and nothing’s changed. I think that’s why I come here. It doesn’t matter what happened before or after, the stones stay in familiar rows like silent sentinels.
I’ve lived with many regrets and many failures. It’s not often that I can see them the moment they happen. I shouldn’t have told her to marry me. Now that it’s done though, I can’t stop from wanting to tell her again and again until she agrees.
I can make that right.
Unlike so many other things I can’t fix. The gust of breeze blows dried flower petals across the gravestone before me. With the petals clear of it, it’s easy to read my brother’s name etched in stone.
I’ll make it right with her. There’s only so much I can make right, and she deserves it. Not many do.
If I had to pinpoint a time when everything changed, a single moment when everything went wrong, I’d be forced to choose between two.
The first is the moment Romano hired a hit on me that went awry and resulted in a funeral for my closest brother. An old soul at such a young age, he never did anything to anyone. Tragedy changes a man forever.
If fate had ended its interference there, I don’t think my brothers and I would have a normal life, but it wouldn’t be one so cruel. Maybe one more empty though.
“I figured I’d find you here,” Seth calls out from a distance. Shoving his hands into his black windbreaker he makes his way to me. I’m not ready to leave though.
The second moment is when Carter was taken by Nicholas Talvery, beaten, and changed into a broken boy hell-bent on fighting the men who lived to destroy us. He blazed the path for us, viciously and mercilessly. Because of him we stayed. We didn’t have to run; we were more than capable of fighting together.
Two old men, men who ruled ruthlessly, they’re the ones so easy to blame.
Since then, everyone has left us and no one could be trusted. Pillars of life crumbled to insignificant dust in favor of simply surviving and adapting to be more like them. To dedicate our lives to destroying them before they could do the same to us.
I hate what we’ve become, but I can’t let go of how it all started and what still needs to be done.
Talvery is dead; Romano is close to gone, but Marcus is still here. Still giving orders, still deciding everyone’s fate as if it’s his right. They may be the root cause of it all, but Marcus planted the seeds, Marcus knew.
“I’ll make them all pay.” The promise to my brother drifts away in the bitter wind.
“What’s that?” Seth asks and then braces against the harsh chill, zipping his jacket before glancing at the stone on the ground. I can see the question written on his face, but he doesn’t voice it. Instead he tells me, “I didn’t hear what you said.”
He’s taller than me, just barely. But on the hill of the grave he looks taller still.
“You found me,” I comment and huff a sarcastic laugh. “Should have gone somewhere else.”
“I have good news and bad. I didn’t think you’d want to wait for either,” Seth tells me, and the way he lowers his voice suggests an apologetic tone.
“Let’s have the good news first,” I tell him, staring off into the distance past the rows of gravestones to the green grass, waiting to be filled.
“There are patterns in the movements of the men we’ve been watching.” Seth takes a half step closer and adds, “Marcus’s men.”
I focus all my attention back to Seth. “Patterns?” He nods and says, “Between the ferry and the trains. They’re transporting something.”
The smell of fresh dirt and sod blow by us as he adds, “They’re spending a lot of time at each location. Declan thinks there are holding points.”
“And what about Marcus? Where is he?”
“We don’t know yet.”
“Find him.” My answer is clipped, but easy enough. It’s progress in this slow game of chess and we’re carefully moving pieces on the board.
“Bethany still doesn’t know about Jenny?”
“No. I’m not telling her until I know where she is and that she’s alive still.”
“Right,” he says. The single word brings defeat to the air and I can’t place my finger as to why. “I don’t know that we’d be able to sneak up on him or set something up without him knowing. He has eyes everywhere. The more people we follow, the more are involved–”
I cut him off, knowing the risk involved, knowing Marcus will more than likely know when we come for him. “Just find him.”
“Of course. I’m on it.”
“And the bad news?”