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“He fucked up!” Pixie stomped her foot. “But he deserves to know if she’s okay and where she is. All of this was a misunderstanding that can be sorted out if Doe will just meet him halfway.”
“And what is halfway?” Bryant demanded. “Why is it that she has to be the one to compromise on anything to do with her future? Everyone wants her to move in the direction they want her to. Wear the clothes they want her to wear, live where they want her to live, be the person they think she should be. Everyone has done that to her all her life, and sadly, even we have been stupid enough to do it a time or two to get our own ways. But she’s a grown-ass woman now, and she can do whatever the fuck she wants. It’s her life, and no one is going to make her do anything she doesn’t feel comfortable doing.”
“I’m selling the house,” I broke in. “And I’ll tell the mayor first thing tomorrow to find someone else for the job.”
“Yeah, she said you already made that offer,” Jackson said as he stacked two boxes on top of each other and lifted them with ease. “I doubt she’s any more interested in you making that sacrifice now than she was then.”
“I’m trying here, guys,” I told them, feeling defeat inching its way into my soul. “But I have no idea how to fix any of this.”
LJ came back into the living room after having taken his first load of boxes out. “What happened to the guy who told us he foresaw Doe smiling until you two took your last breaths? My sister in a wedding dress. A house with all the horses she wants, and as many babies as she was willing to give you.” He cocked his head at me. “Were those just words you spewed to get us to back off and welcome you to the family, or did you mean any of that shit? Because my sister sure as fuck isn’t smiling now, and that wedding dress? She doesn’t appear to want it anymore.”
“And how the fuck did you plan on giving her as many horses as she wanted in a house in the middle of town?” Bryant spoke up.
“Your parents thought it would make a good starter house,” I tried to explain. Frustrated, I raked my fingers through the short hairs of my beard. “It wasn’t supposed to be our forever home. Just a place to call our own for a little while.”
“Until when?” LJ asked, putting his hands on the back of the couch and leaning forward. “A year? Two? Five? When would she have gotten the horses—or the babies?”
“I don’t know!” I shouted. “I was only focused on right now. On making her my wife. The rest of the details would come later.”
“What he means is that he would give them to her when Mom and Dad decided it was time,” Jackson said. “Just like they thought it was time for Jenner to settle down with a local job. In a house within driving distance.”
The other three men inhaled sharply. “Of course it fucking was,” Bryant and LJ muttered angrily. I hated when they spoke at the same time. They were the identical ones of the quads, and Doe had once jokingly said that they shared the same brain as well as the same face. But when they spoke in unison, it was like a weird movie sound effect. The same, yet not.
“They were losing control,” Jackson explained when I just stood there, staring at him in confusion. “No doubt they sensed you were about to propose, and they wanted to control what happened with Doe when that finally happened.”
“Your parents are the least controlling people I know,” Pixie argued, getting defensive. She and Marissa were close. Doe’s mom was the first real parental figure she’d ever had, and she was loyal to everyone in her heart.
“Sure,” Jackson agreed. “When it comes to us boys. They couldn’t care less. As long as we’re happy and staying out of trouble, they don’t have a care in the world. But with Doe, it’s always been different. Especially with Dad. Doe is our mother’s replica. If she’s not close by, then he gets twitchy. It isn’t as bad as it is with Mom, but still, he has to be in control of certain aspects, or he goes dark.”
“That’s not how it was…” My voice trailed off, my argument fading as I rethought everything. “Was it?”
“Think about it, man,” Jackson said, his anger with me fading. “Who came to you regarding the job?”
“Marissa and Wroth,” I answered honestly as the realization of how badly I’d been played fully hit me. “The mayor and the chief of police knew my background in the marines, and—”
“They knew, all right. Probably after Dad talked to them about your credentials. And let’s be honest, you probably are a better fit for the police chief position than the rest of those idiots on the payroll. But no way Mayor Teller came up with your name on his own. He’s too full of himself to notice anything unless it will get him votes. It was probably the other way around. Mom and Dad went to him and put that little bug in his ear. And because no one wants to say no to my mother—and they’re too scared of Dad—the mayor decided you were the best man for the job.”
“Makes sense.” Bryant nodded. “Jenner wouldn’t be traveling so much with Violet, which means Doe wouldn’t get the idea in her head to start traveling with him. Something that Vi would be all for, because she adores Doe. And then there’s Love Bug. Doe has babysat for her in the past. Even Luca is comfortable with her taking care of his little princess. What’s to say she wouldn’t become their traveling nanny?”
“Yeah, a stable local job was needed to make Dad feel at ease,” LJ put in.
“And the house?” Pixie asked curiously, her voice wobbling ever so slightly with the realization that the brothers were onto something. Marissa and Wroth had used me to control Doe.
Fuck!
“With Jenner no longer Vi’s bodyguard, the replacement would need a place to stay, so Doe would be shopping for a new place to live. And if Jenner is right about the fine citizens of West Bridge treating her like shit, then she would want something outside of town. Mom and Dad couldn’t risk the happy couple finding a place too far away. My guess is they needed something in a hurry and just picked whatever house was big enough to suit Doe and Jenner’s needs for the moment.” Jackson cocked his head. “Did they tell you to keep it hush-hush, or was that your idea?”
“I…” It was their suggestion, but I was stumbling, trying to figure out how I’d been stupid enough to listen to them when they had insisted I keep everything quiet.
“Poor idiot doesn’t know,” LJ said with a sad shake of his head. “That means it was Mom who got into his head. Convinced him it was his own idea.”
“She said Doe would be happy for us to have our own place, that it would be the perfect surprise after proposing,” I recalled, feeling gut-punched.
“They played you, man.” Bryant had already set his boxes down on the floor and slapped me on the back. “Through you, they controlled Doe.”
“Ya know, we were going to kick your ass after we got all of Doe’s boxes,” Jackson informed me, his face completely serious. “But since we see that this mostly wasn’t your fault—mostly, not completely, you still went along with all their shit—we’re not going to beat on you.”
Chapter 6
