“Why are you giving me a gun?”
“I told you this morning.”
“Uh, I wouldn’t mind knowing the answer to that question, too,” Duke says. “What the fuck, man?”
“If she wants to shoot you, you’ll shut up and take it,” I snap at him. “She has a right to feel safe.”
“What the fuck is going on?” he asks. “Why are you keeping shit from us?”
“Because I don’t know what you’re keeping from me.” I fucking hate that I can’t trust my own brothers, but that’s something I’ll never do again after this summer. I am the only fucking person in the world I can trust. Not them, not the rest of my family, not Harper. That’s something she had right all along, relying on only herself and never letting anyone else in.
Only Mr. D got to know the real Harper, got to hear her secrets and know what she really thought. I’d rather it had been a Darling than my own brother.
Duke doesn’t say anything. He fucked up, and he knows better than to defend himself.
Baron approaches, tosses his bag into his car, and then climbs into the back of the Rover without a word. Duke likes to be up front, to be part of things, to have the attention. Baron likes to sit back and watch. I glance at him in the rearview as we pull out of the lot. He’s taking in everything, putting the pieces together as he takes out a sucker and slowly begins to unwrap it.
Harper’s holding the gun now, pointing it at the floor between her feet. So she doesn’t trust me—not entirely. Not when she’s in the car with me and my brothers. She’s ready to shoot, probably running through the different scenarios in her mind, deciding which one she’d take out first.
It’s good to see her ready to defend herself instead of offering to let us kill her this time.
“What are we doing?” Baron asks when I turn onto the road to the bridge.
“Are you going to shoot us?” Duke asks.
“If you give me a reason,” Harper says.
“We’re going to talk first,” I say. “Then we’ll see.”
“Talk about what?” Baron asks.
“That’s a good question,” I say. “Since you’ll be doing the talking.”
I pull onto the shoulder and shut off the car before turning to face my brothers in the back seat. Duke still looks lost, but Baron might be catching on. It’s hard to tell with him.
“Why here, though?” Duke asks. “This place, man…”
“Get out of the car,” I order.
Harper gets out first. My brothers hesitate, probably remembering the last time we came here with a friend. Just like that time, they know there’s no use in fighting. After a pause, they glance at each other and then slowly climb out of the car. I get out, too.
I go around the front and stand next to Harper, facing my brothers. She holds the gun in both hands, pointed at the ground.
Baron takes the sucker out of his mouth. “What’s this about?”
He’s not one to waste time.
“Let’s do this on the bridge,” I say.
No one argues. We walk onto the bridge, my brothers in front of us. With the gun in Harper’s hand, it strikes me that they’re probably fucking terrified right now. If I don’t know them, they don’t know me. They don’t know what the monster will do. Even I don’t know that. He’s under control right now, but they don’t know that.
I give the order, and we stop in the middle of the bridge. Baron watches us, his eyes bright with curiosity. Maybe he’s not scared. Nothing scares the psycho.
“We know you’re Mr. D,” I say.
Baron hesitates, his gaze moving back and forth between us. Then he nods slightly.
“Okay.”