AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“No!” I hadn’t really wanted to keep those two things from her, but her parents had insisted they would be great surprises for her. My gut had told me to just go ahead and talk to Doe about everything, but Marissa was so damn convincing at the time. Her blue eyes, so like her daughter’s, had stared up at me in a way that had me caving in no time.
“But you didn’t talk to her about taking the job? And the house…?” My silence was answer enough, and she jumped to her feet, pacing in front of me. “Okay, the job thing is iffy. That was your choice, but still, you should have at least talked to her about it. But the house? Why would you not include her in something that ginormous? She has to live there too. A woman wants to be a part of choosing her home. The location, the layout, all of those are important factors that anyone would want to have a say in.”
“I guess, but she said it was more to do with the neighbors.”
She stopped midstep and shot around to face me, her hands going to her tiny hips. “What about the neighbors?”
I gripped the back of my neck and squeezed as hard as I could, my stomach churning. “They were mean to her. Are still mean to her, from what I’ve put together.”
“What?” she whispered, her eyes blazing.
“Apparently almost everyone in this town has been, or still is, cruel to her.” I didn’t understand that. How could anyone mistreat Doe? She was so sweet. My precious little lamb was the most selfless person I knew. She’d decided to give a piece of herself to Pixie before she even knew her. Without Doe’s sacrifice, my sister most likely wouldn’t have been standing in front of me right then.
Doe’s heart was bigger than the moon, and yet, the citizens of this small town got off on bullying her?
“You told me you took care of her bullies.” Pixie went back to pacing. “You said that you and her brothers destroyed them all.”
“Obviously, there were more that she didn’t tell anyone about.” No one in that fucked-up town deserved to breathe the same air as Doe, but I hadn’t even realized it. And now I was just as unworthy as those motherfuckers.
“What did they do to her?” Pixie was getting all worked up. A feral older sister, ready to take on anyone and everything that caused harm to someone she loved.
“I don’t know all of it,” I told her honestly, my own temper rising as I remembered what Doe had told me earlier. “But she said they would call her inbred and Godzilla.”
“Marissa and Wroth knew about this?”
“Do you really think if her parents knew about it, they would have talked me into buying a house right between those two evil bitches?” I raked my hands through my short hair. “I have to sell the house. The sooner, the better. Maybe I can find us a place closer to Nashville. Anywhere besides this goddamn town.”
“But she’s happy here,” Pixie said as she chewed on her bottom lip. “I mean, she’s always seemed happy here. I never got the impression she was unhappy.”
“Because she’s an angel,” I whispered. “She tries to see the good in everyone, even when they’ve done nothing but treat her like dirt. And it’s not like she would do anything to upset her family. If she even hinted that anyone caused her pain, her brothers would murder everyone in their wake. For their sake, she never said anything, to keep them out of trouble.”
“Unacceptable!” Pixie snapped. “I want names. Every single person who ever treated Doe as anything other than the most precious person on this messed-up planet. They will all pay for hurting her.”
“I couldn’t agree more,” a deep voice said from the open doorway, causing us both to turn to find Doe’s three brothers and Aspen standing in the doorway. Jackson stepped inside without bothering to wait to be invited. “And I think we’ll start with you, dickhead.”
Pixie jumped in front of me, using her small, fragile body as a human shield between me and the four angry guys stomping toward me. Grasping her by the waist, I lifted her and set her beside me before facing them again. “Where is she?”
“I think you gave up the chance to be worthy of caring about anything concerning my sister when you stopped including her in your life choices,” Bryant answered, while LJ and Aspen walked behind the couch. Each of them grabbed a box that was labeled with Doe’s name, and my vision dimmed.
“Wh-what are you doing?” I choked out, ignoring Bryant and Jackson so I could grab the box of books from LJ.
“We told Doe we would get her things,” Aspen answered.
“Where is she?” I asked again, my voice rising.
“Not in West Bridge,” LJ said with a shrug as he picked up another box with his sister’s name labeled on it in her pretty handwriting. “Guys, grab a box. We should only have to make a few trips to the truck.”
“She’s not at the farm?” Pixie attempted to ask, getting in their way when they would have walked to the door.
Bryant sighed heavily when she kept stepping in his path. “Pixie, we don’t have time to play these games. Doe is alone and hurting. The quicker we grab her things, the sooner we can get back to her.”
“So, that’s a no?” She stubbornly continued to block his way to the door. “Does that mean she’s in Nashville?”
“Pixie, I need you to move.”
“Which hotel?” she asked, grasping his arm. “She and Jenner need to talk this out.”
Bryant shot me a scathing look from across the room. “He had his chance, and he blew it.”
