Before Van could say anything, and Gentry could do any explaining, Dean came into the room looking bright-eyed and bushy tailed.
He walked right up to me and leaned into my chest.
I smiled and hugged him tight. “Hey, buddy. There’s someone I think you should meet.”
Van’s eyes were laser-focused on the boy.
“Dean,” Gentry said. “I’d like you to meet your father. My brother, Van.”
Van didn’t move.
Didn’t speak.
Only stared.
Dean turned around and stared at his father with the same gray eyes as his own.
Then he smiled. “Hi.”
Van dropped down to one knee, creasing his perfectly starched uniform and said, “Hi.”
Twenty-Nine
Don’t follow in my footsteps. Sometimes I run into walls.
—Sage to Gentry
Gentry
Today had been…cathartic.
I pressed on my jaw where Van’s fist had met it earlier and said, “You got that out of your system?”
Van angrily started to march across the yard, every once in a while looking at me over his shoulder as he did.
Neo, however, didn’t like Van and his punches, and came to stand by my side.
Every time Van got close to me, Neo would growl, warning him off.
I dropped my hand down to Neo’s head and prayed he didn’t leave.
He didn’t and leaned into my touch.
I smiled.
“Don’t fucking smile. There’s nothing to smile about.”
I continued to smile. “A few months ago, Neo was stolen from Sage’s RV,” I jerked my head in the RV’s direction. “And forced into dog fighting. We didn’t think that he’d ever be back to this point again.”
Van stopped. “Is there anything else that happened? You’re married. That I knew. You’re alive when you were supposed to have died. You knew I had a kid. You knew that kid died. You knew that the kid wasn’t actually dead.”
I held up my hand. “Until a few days ago, I thought that Dean was dead. I also thought that Dean was mine.”
His shoulders slumped. “Fuck.”
I crossed my arms over my chest and glared. “And from the text messages that I read, Nadine told you that she was going to come after me.”
Van pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes. “She threatened that all the fucking time.”
