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“Hendrick,” she whimpers.
“It’s the fucking truth, sunshine. You have always been the one. The moment I saw you, I knew. You fucking blew my world into a million pieces, and I’ve loved every second. I should have never fought it. I hate myself for it, and I plan on doing everything I can to make it up to you, even if it takes a lifetime.”
“It won’t,” she says.
“What?”
“Take a lifetime.”
And with that, I touch my mouth to hers before I release her, unfold from the front seat, and make my way to her side. Opening the door, I wait for her to unfold as well. She stands, her hands in front of her as she wrings them together.
I have no doubt she’s likely nervous about meeting my mother in a more social setting since I know she’s been seeing her professionally. But she shouldn’t be. My mom is probably three sheets to the wind on a bottle of wine and either asleep or ready to talk her ear off. Either way, at least she will be safe and won’t be alone.
Taking her hands, I separate them, taking one in mine before I guide her toward the front door. I don’t even have to lift my hand to knock. The door swings open, and my mother stands in front of me with a smile and a glass of wine.
“Well, your father called. He said you’d probably come by.”
I don’t ask how she knew that we would be by, or how my father knew, because I didn’t tell him dick. “You got this, Mom?” I ask,
She shifts her attention to me, slowly, and that’s when I know she is definitely three sheets to the fucking wind. I can’t help but chuckle. And that’s when my mom lets the cat out of the bag that my father has already informed her of everything, which makes me laugh even harder.
“I got this. Plus, your father texted me that there was going to be a wedding tomorrow still, but not with Harlow, with your true intended bride instead. So we need to work on a few things.”
Allison moves into the house, and my mother begins to close the door behind her, but before she does, her eyes connect with mine. “You made the right choice, son.”
She closes the front door, I hear it lock, then I hear the alarm being set, and I know they are tucked in safely. Turning, I jog toward the car and stop after I open the door. I can feel someone watching me. Shifting my attention to where I sense the sensation coming from, I find one of my cousins.
He jerks his chin in my direction, and I let out a heavy sigh. I feel very safe now. My father has one of the corps watching the house, watching my mother and my woman. Good. All is as it should be.
I fold into the front seat of the car and drive straight for my father and brothers. We have some shit to do, and I’m not going to be left out of the action the way I usually am. This feels extremely important to me.
To my future.
It doesn’t take me long to get there. I see their cars parked in their spots and pull in beside Wells’s. Hurrying into the building, I am let past by the men guarding both the front door and the door where all the action is going to take place.
There, on their knees, are Tait and Tatum, their chins are lifted and their gazes focus down their noses. They are the two lone survivors. Makes me wonder, are they strong, or are they being defiant?
“Oh good, you’re just in time,” my father calls out, but he’s not even looking at me. His focus and attention are on the boys. “Tait was just telling me how he was in on the skimming from the top but drew the line at women.”
We knew this. However, having it confirmed is still difficult to hear for anyone, I’m sure. My father doesn’t move. His gaze doesn’t waver either. His chin is tipped down as he looks between the two boys.
It’s a shame, really, that Samson was such a stupid fucking idiot. He had it made. Two smart boys, a couple of pretty daughters, and a wife. He fucking had that shit made, and the family had been taking care of all of them for decades. He took home plenty of money and had a free house to live in.
Now the family can take that house away. They can take everything because they fucking bought everything.
“You’re not going to hurt our mother, are you?” Tait asks.
My father tilts his head to the side, his attention never wavering. “I could end the whole fucking bunch. Tell me why I shouldn’t.”
Fuck, if this isn’t a loaded question, I don’t know what is, and this is why he asks it. He wants to know everything, every little insignificant detail before he decides who lives and dies. And he will decide.
“Because our mother and sisters have done nothing wrong. Neither has Tatum. I knew what my father was doing, but I didn’t say anything about it. Just me, nobody else in the family,” he says, his words coming out in a scrambled, jumbled mess.
“Are you sacrificing yourself to save your brother, sisters, and mother?” my father asks.
Tait shakes his head, tipping it backward as he looks up into my father’s face. “I don’t have to sacrifice myself. They knew nothing. And I only knew a little of what my father was doing anyway, at least until he tried to unload more shit on me that I refused to be part of.”
He’s not wrong on that. I heard him deny being part of the whole thing once he learned what some of it was. I want to defend him, but I decide against it. My father knows everything anyway. There’s no sense in me saying a fucking thing.
