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I’ll crush your damned skull.
I moved my arm from her touch. “Say that again.”
“What? Alex didn’t have any patience.”
“No. The last thing. She said she wanted to crush your skull?”
This time Joe took note as well, his brow rising.
“Yeah. I think those are the words she used. Big deal. She thought she was tougher than she was.”
“It is a big deal,” I said. “Joe and I used to use that phrase when we were kids, didn’t we?”
Joe nodded. “And we must have heard it somewhere.”
“Not from here,” Talon said. “I don’t remember Dad ever saying it, and I didn’t even hear that in the military—and believe me, I heard a lot of shit there I don’t want to repeat.”
I cleared my throat. “I don’t remember”—true—“but we must have heard it from my father.”
“And Alex probably heard it from Cade,” Joe said, “who probably heard it from…”
“My father,” I mumbled.
Marjorie lifted her hand to touch my forearm once more, but I moved it away from her. I didn’t want comfort at the moment.
I didn’t deserve it.
“Not your fault,” she mouthed.
She was right.
I’d been nine years old. Nine fucking years old.
“You guys are missing something really important here,” Jade was saying. “Cade may have been abused, but he got away.”
“He’s a mess, though,” Ryan said.
“But he’s alive. He didn’t die there, wherever there was. He just needs help.”
“He’s not the one who kidnapped Mom and me,” Marjorie said. “That was his half brother and sister.” She held up her hand. “I know. You’re going to say—if Dominic is to be believed—that he did it for our protection. Protection from Cade. But the reality of the situation is that Cade didn’t do anything to us.”
“He did to Bryce and me,” Joe said. “My eyes still don’t feel quite right.”
“We were holding him at gunpoint,” I interjected.
“Assault with a deadly weapon,” Jade said.
“We didn’t assault him,” Joe said.
“Doesn’t matter. Assault doesn’t actually require anything physical. The legal definition is simply the threat of physical violence. Technically you both did assault him.”
“Are you kidding me?” Joe said.
“Easy,” Talon said.
“Maybe we did,” I said. “He had it coming. I’m sorry for whatever he endured at the hands of my father or anyone else, but he’s been fucking with us for a long time now. We know that.”
“What?” Ryan said. “A long time now?”
