“Drive them out of town,” he says. “That’s the only way it can begin to heal.”
“Okay,” I say, slowly chewing an olive. He doesn’t get the little black kind that comes on pizza, or even the green ones with a red center. No, his are fancy purple and brown ones coated in oil. “If we wanted to make them leave, we need to know what makes them stay.”
“Revenge,” he says immediately.
“Right,” I say. “Revenge on you, on your family, because they blame you for their sister’s death.”
“Disappearance.”
“Okay, her disappearance,” I say. “Which means they need closure, and I’m guessing if all your millions and their millions can’t find them, then I can’t, either.”
Preston sips his wine and doesn’t answer.
I slosh some more into my glass and go on. “What if we got rid of everything here that reminds them of her, everything that ties them to Faulkner.”
“You want to burn the bridge to my grandpa’s house? That’s the only way in or out.”
“Would that be a bad thing?”
He clears some food from the side of his mouth with his tongue before answering. “No.”
“What if… What if getting revenge on him is the only way to give the Dolces closure?” I ask. “He’s the patriarch of your family, like Tony is theirs. If getting rid of him is the only way to get rid of Tony…”
“Then I’d do it,” Preston says.
“Really?”
“In a heartbeat.”
“You don’t like your grandfather very much, do you?”
He shrugs. “You’re right. He’s as much at fault as Tony Dolce. They may have started this, but he deepened it. He made it worse, and he wouldn’t let it go when the rest of our family was willing to walk away.”
I nod, finishing off my wine. I’m definitely feeling it now. I wish I hadn’t drunk so much, but it’s been a long time since I was drunk, since I trusted someone enough to let myself drop my guard and not have to be the one on alert, looking out for myself. Tonight, Preston’s looking out for me.
“Would you help me if I wanted to get him to Royal somehow, so Royal could get revenge?”
“Trust me, Royal’s gotten revenge,” Preston says. “If he wanted to kill Grandpa Darling, he would have. But he’d rather see him cut down to nothing so he can gloat. He literally castrated the old man.”
“What?”
“Oh, your boyfriend didn’t tell you that?” Preston says, shaking his head. “Yeah. That’s their M.O. Grandpa Darling isn’t the only one to face that particular dismemberment, either.”
“Shit,” I say, leaning my head back and closing my eyes. “No wonder you don’t want them knowing where you live.”
I believe him, though. Royal doesn’t kill—not usually. He likes to let people live to suffer. Even if I brought him Preston’s grandfather, he wouldn’t kill him. He’s already gotten revenge, and it didn’t help.
“They destroyed or drove away everyone in my family,” Preston says. “And it’s still not enough. Look at my face, Harper. You’d think that would be enough for them, but their thirst for revenge only grows the more they try to quench it. The only way it will ever end is if we end them.”
“Or make peace with them,” I mutter aloud. There has to be some way, something that can bring these families together. Maybe there’s too much bad blood to ever have friendship between them, but peace must be possible. An end to the feud, a truce between them.
“There’s no making peace,” Preston says. “We were willing—at least some of us. We tried to reason with them after the disappearance, but they just went apeshit. It’s been three years, Harper. They’re not going to let it go. And now Tony wants to build this casino. Seems like it’s out of spite alone, to ruin the town as we know it.”
“So he’s the problem,” I say, nodding. “There has to be a way to make him leave, or at least make him call off his sons.”
“I don’t think he controls Royal,” Preston says. “Royal’s the one looking for revenge. Tony’s just looking for an opportunity to exploit the place.”
“Do you know what Royal wants revenge for?” I ask, my heart suddenly hammering when I think of what Royal told me on Gideon’s back porch.