Chapter Thirty-Eight
Ana
We bring The Ranch into view and I swear I feel it like a punch in the chest, the way I did right after Kurt died. Everything feels unsettling where Kurt comes into play. Everything I thought I knew I no longer believe I know at all. Nothing is as it seems. Who knew just how real those words would become. Luke and I are not over, for starters. In fact, we’re engaged again. That alone is one of the wonders of the world.
If only everything I thought I knew, but didn’t know, translated to something as wonderful as finding Luke again.
But it doesn’t and outside of the Darius revelations, there are more coming. Soon. Really soon. I feel it in my bones.
Luke drives us through the gate openings to the property which is miles and miles of land, all of which is a mock battlefield, complete with hidden tunnels, booby traps, and mind games. Kurt was always so good at mind games. He played them with me from the time I was a young girl. I know first-hand that this is a place that makes boys into men and men into warriors and in some cases, monsters. They also made a little girl who loved Barbie dolls into an FBI agent.
The central property, which was Kurt’s home, allows for public entry. A necessity considering the training operation this place housed.
“We won’t have garage access,” I tell him.
“I’ll pull to the rear and after we ensure the house is clear, we’ll pull it into the garage out of sight.”
I nod, that twisty feeling in my belly tightening a bit more. I hate being here today, when this place should be empowering. I know it as I know my own name. Intimately, automatically, perfectly. Luke pulls us to the rear of the house, as the rental doesn’t have a connection to the garage, with plans to hide our presence by moving the vehicle later.
Luke’s phone rings and he answers with, “Where are you?” then glances in his rearview.
I turn to find another SUV headed our way. The rest of our team, I think.
“Pull to the rear,” Luke informs them, confirming their identity.
Once we’re parked, Luke and I head to the door. I unlock it and we step inside and my gut goes wild. I instantly know something is wrong. Or maybe this place just feels wrong to me now, because I don’t know the man who once lived here. He had secrets. I’m not sure what to think about just how deeply they seemed to run. Luke walks toward the kitchen to clear the property. I am drawn to Kurt’s office, almost as if a magnetic field drags me in that direction. I step to the center of the double doors and my breath hitches.
Kurt is sitting at the desk.
He stands up, tall, and healthy looking, his body fit, his face full, but still chiseled. Almost as if he’s been on a really good vacation.
“Ana,” he says. “It’s been too long.” He rounds the desk and steps in front of me, and I can see the green of his eyes, with the little orange flecks that reminded the sixteen-year-old me of the fires of hell when he was screaming training commands at me.
I stand there, stunned, unable to move, my feet planted to the ground as if the carpet were cement. “How are you here? What is this?”
“What the fuck, Kurt?” Luke demands, stepping to my side.
I’m remotely aware of a door opening. Of footsteps behind the three of us, and I want to shout for them to leave, to allow us time to process and claim the answers we deserve. That I deserve.
“Everything is not what it seems,” Kurt says. “It’s a lot worse, Ana.”
“What does that mean?” I demand, my voice trembling, while Luke’s possessive, protective energy pops beside me.
“Start talking, Kurt,” Luke demands tightly, and it’s really not a shock when he draws on him, aiming his weapon at him, “because I haven’t decided if I should be celebrating right now or shooting you.”
Suddenly the dynamic changes. Another person enters the picture. “Kurt, you bastard. You really need to just die already, but at least I can finally make you pay properly for your stupidity.”
I whirl around to find Parker holding a gun over my head, pointing it at Kurt. Adam and Savage are not here, at least not in this moment, and I don’t know why. I can barely process what is happening. Why is Parker here and they are not? I never get a chance to ask. The next thing I know I’m grabbed from behind and Kurt has a hold of me, with a gun pointed at my head.
He eyes Luke and issues a command. “Kill him.”
I’m his shelter because he fears Luke will kill him. And I think he might have to.
My fiancé was forced to kill my brother. Now I think he might be forced to kill the only man I’ve ever really looked at as a father.
THE END…FOR NOW
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