“Tell her why we stopped talking to you.” Walker doesn't move. “You owe her that.”
Grant laughs bitterly. “I don’t owe anybody a damn thing.”
Walker’s voice booms, reverberating off of the worn walls. “You owe the little girl you abandoned.”
The words land like a slap.
Grant’s face twists, and he loses control. “Fine!” He shoves the barrel of his pistol into my face. “You want the truth?” He laughs again. “I knew.”
Everything inside me stills, and I turn my head to look at him, his gun now trained on my forehead. “Knew what?”
He shrugs. “When you were little, I walked in one night.”
I stop breathing.
“I saw enough.”
Walker closes his eyes. Santiago’s nostrils flare out. Levi’s eyes glow with a deadly fire.
Grant keeps going. “I needed Landon. We were buying land together." He points toward the window. “That stupid fucking resort?”
My stomach drops. “Silver Pines?”
“That was our idea.” His breathing grows heavier. “Landon had the connections, the financing, the bank.”
Walker quietly finishes the sentence. “And you decided Blake wasn't worth losing the deal.”
Grant doesn't deny it. “You don't throw away millions of dollars because a kid gets hurt.”
“Is that why you killed Neil?” Levi questions.
“Neil, the reverend, Derek.” Grant holds out his arm, gesturing to the cabin. “Right in this very room.”
Walker blinks. “The cleaner smell.”
“Bingo!” Grant smiles widely. “Man, you’re on a roll.”
My mind is still stuck on his earlier statement.
A kid gets hurt.
The room disappears.
I don't hear anyone breathing anymore.
“You knew,” I breathe out, my eyes trained on the way the flames dance in the fireplace.
Grant shrugs. “Yeah, and I looked the other way.”
“You knew,” I repeat in a deeper tone.
“It wasn't my business,” Grant snaps back.
My vision blurs.
My fingers brush against my back pocket.
The tiny handcuff key.
