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CHAPTER14
Daniel
Maybe it was the knowing that changed something inside of me, pushing the darkness so close to the edge that I could taste desire sliding across my tongue. I watched as Cassie’s eyes opened in fear as well as desperation. She’d taken the journey of seeking retaliation upon herself, incapable of understanding what her proposed murderous plans would do to her psyche, let alone the haunting sadness that was nothing more than an anchor of steel wrapping around her slender neck.
Maybe the way she glanced from one to the other of us, her lower lip quivering was her method of asking for clemency for crimes she’d wanted nothing to do with in the first place. Something broke inside of me, the thin glass that had been wrapped around all of us since hearing about Garrison’s death cracking around the edges. Soon, it would shatter completely, spilling not only the ugliness of what we’d hidden away for years but the same boosted level of anxiety weighing heavily on her heart.
Her personal vendetta was barely any different than the one I’d had furrowing in the back of my mind for years. I’d tried to blame Alexander for every dark sin the four of us had committed, but the truth was never far behind. All three of us were to blame for what had happened to Garrison. The deceit had threatened to destroy us all.
Garrison had filled her young mind with stories, glorifying the duties of the Wild Boys. A single ugly memory flashed in my mind, a terrible day so long ago. I don’t know why I’d blocked out the single experience, but it came rushing to the forefront of my brain, digging into portions I’d locked away.
I walked closer, studying her lavender eyes. I should have known before. My God. Oh, my God.
“I remember you,” I said in a whispered voice. “Alexander threatened your mother one dark and gray morning.” I turned my head toward Alexander, who opened his eyes wide.
“What are you talking about?” Brogan asked.
“Yes,” she whispered.
“Garrison wanted to see Cassie before we left for New York, but her mother stopped him. It was just before we left for the meeting,” I snarled, another wave of anger returning. How the hell hadn’t any of us remembered that day? “He’d insisted he needed to give you something.”
Alexander walked closer. “That’s right. Your mother didn’t want Garrison to see her daughter ever again. She called us delinquents, screaming that if any of us ever stepped foot on the property that she’d call the police. Then she forced you inside the house. That’s when I lost it, threatening her.” He looked directly into Cassie’s eyes, his filled with remorse, but I could swear he was looking through her into his own soul as he remembered. “I didn’t understand who you were, and he never told us anything about you. That much I swear. After that meeting, he didn’t have a chance. By that night, Garrison was in jail. And all because of me.”
Cassie had been there to witness an atrocity, her mother being threatened when Alexander had no idea what the hell was going on. My God. We’d been uncaring monsters then. What did that make us now? Cassie had wanted us to suffer as her brother had. She had no understanding that that’s all I’d felt for years.
Cassie almost crumpled to the floor and would have if Brogan hadn’t been standing behind her. He gathered her in his arms, holding her against his chest even though she fought his hold. She was not as fragile as any of us believed her to be, her strong resolve to do right by her brother admirable. She’d managed to bypass methods of security, hiding her identity for longer than dozens of professional assassins I’d chased over the years.
The need for revenge had the capabilities of creating an entirely different kind of monster.
“Just let me go,” she said, only a slight tremor in her voice.
“He was your half-brother,” I stated, even though the answer was obvious.
“Yes. My mother hated our father so much that she took it out on anyone who had his blood, including Garrison. I didn’t really understand until later. By then, I didn’t have any time to get to know him. He worshipped all of you. I’d blocked that from my memory. I was stupid. Just stupid.”
“You weren’t stupid about anything, Cassie. What Alexander did that morning was wrong, but your mother was adamant. I’m so sorry you had to witness that.” Brogan’s whisper was husky, the tone comforting, but I wasn’t certain anything we said would ever matter. There was too much bad blood.
When Alexander started to walk toward her, I snapped my hand around his arm. For likely the first time since I’d met him, he heeded my control. After a deep breath, I moved closer by a few feet, still keeping my distance. In this moment, she was fragile, uncertain what her punishment would be. While a part of me loathed the fact that I craved the woman standing in front of me, my cock throbbed to the point that every part of me longed for relief. And the other part?
I was horrified a tragedy had come to this.
“Why?” I asked. “Why come after us now?”
She looked away briefly. “My father certainly didn’t care about what happened to Garrison. I went to him in his big office, forced to make an appointment. I asked him point blank to find out who murdered my brother. He laughed at me. He laughed and said Garrison had gotten what he deserved. The man had turned his back on his own son, acting as if he’d never been born. I knew how that felt since I’d seen the great senator maybe six times in my life. But the real reason has been with me since the day Garrison was sentenced for a crime he didn’t commit. Because not one of you tried to get him out of prison. Not one of you. And you didn’t come to the funeral either. That told me you didn’t care about him and never had. I lost it after that. I was so angry that I couldn’t think about anything but adhering to the vow Garrison and I had made to each other. To always have each other’s back. I failed him.”
The crackling of electricity in the room was thick with current. I’d never felt so alive or on edge before in my life. “You didn’t fail him, Cassie. You loved him and Garrison knew that. What I can tell you was that it was impossible to get him released.” My words sounded hollow, even to me.
“Why?” she asked, laughing bitterly. “Alexander, your father has how many attorneys and judges in his pocket? You could have at minimum gotten his sentence reduced. And Daniel, your father could have intervened at any time. I saw the police reports. There was no way Garrison was responsible for gunning down those men. He wasn’t like any of you. And Brogan, you were closest to my brother. He used to tell me everything about you and what the two of you did, at least the good stories. He’d tried to make me a part of his life and everyone else tore him away from me.”
Tried.
The word held another defining statement altogether. Her mother hadn’t wanted Cassie to spend any time with her brother. The reason was clear. He was a bad seed because of Alexander’s… No, because of our influence. Jesus.
“I’m sorry, Cassie. Garrison was supposed to be protected inside that wretched prison. Somehow someone got to him,” Alexander said in an entirely different tone of voice than I’d heard before. Conciliatory. Haunted. “You’re right. I should have pushed my father. Sadly, Garrison admitted to the crime before I could stop him. I never asked him to take the blame.”
“That means he didn’t kill those men,” she insisted.
Alexander looked from me to Brogan, finally shaking his head. “No, he was there, but his gun wasn’t fired. The truth is we got into a physical altercation with four of my family’s enemies. Things got out of hand. Two gunshots went off during the scuffle, one of them from my gun.”
