“Vega.”My tongue hates the taste of it.
“Saved us,” Eagle whispers.“Saved the ranch.Saved the family.We all owe our lives to the devil.”
“The devil who threatened to kill you,” I say.“The devil who you killed, and we buried.”
The heart monitor again.
Fuck!I didn’t need to bring that up.Not now, anyway.
“Easy,” I say.“It’s okay, E.I’m not sure it was actually Vega that day anyway.”
Eagle breathes in, out, in again.The monitors return to normal.
Why?Why would Vega rescue Dad and then flood our lives with poison later?Why play banker here and butcher there?
Why would a man with the resources to save a billion-dollar ranch lower himself to hawking drugs?
None of this makes any sense at all.
Eagle swallows.“Maybe he didn’t die that night.Maybe it was theater.Maybe it was the kind of show a man puts on when he needs the world to believe he’s gone.”
“Falcon and I buried him,” I whisper.
I squeeze the armrest until my knuckles ache.In my mind, Vega falls in slow motion.
Vega.
Or someone pretending to be Vega.
“What were you doing at my house the other night?”I ask, even though I know.Even though it hurts to hear it.
“Coming to you,” Eagle says simply.“Like always.You’re the compass.I called.You didn’t answer.Your truck was there, so I figured you were inside the house.I knocked.”He frowns.“Three times, I think.Then a pinch.Like a wasp sting on the back of my neck.Lights out.Next thing I know—nurses and fluorescent halos.”
I force my hands to unclench.“You asked for me.”
“Of course I did.”He looks at me like I’m an idiot.“You’ve always been there.”
“And you didn’t use the coke in the truck,” I say.It isn’t a question, but itisan offering.An I-choose-you over the part of my brain that catalogs every relapse like a mug shot.
“Of course not,” he says.“I’ve screwed up enough to write a book, but I was done with that poison.Amdone.I know I have to go back to rehab, so save your lecture.I’ll go.But I didn’t use.”
“I believe you,” I say, and mean it.“And I’m sorry I didn’t answer when you called.”
His mouth quirks.“You were busy.”
Busy fucking Daniela.Busy having one night just forme.
And I’ve paid for it.
“What else did you see?”I ask.“In Dad’s office.On the forums.”
“Mentions,” he says.“Hushed ones.A line about leverage, like that man never moved a single muscle without it.About Bellamys who preach right and wrong until someone tilts the table.About turning backs when the bill comes due.”
Reyes’s voice muscles into my skull.Funny how easy it is to get Bellamys to turn their backs on their morals with just a little leverage.
I stand too fast and the room lists.I pace once, twice, to burn off the electricity crawling under my skin.
“Ease up, Hawk,” Eagle says.
