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Into the main hall we went. I wore my uniform, but I was there alone. No backup. No one else to see the truth of the crime.
“It was an accident,” Alistair told me, sounding much the same as he had the day he’d told me he wanted me to become a sheriff in Eastcreek. “A terrible, terrible accident. I need this handled correctly, Rick.”
I could hardly hear him. The blood pumped so fast through my veins I could practically hear my own heart beating in my chest. Veronica was dead. Gareth had killed her. I wanted to fucking kill that kid… but he was her son, so I couldn’t. A whole ugly mixture of feelings mingled inside me, and I didn’t know what to think.
“Rick,” Alistair spoke my name harsher, which pulled me back into reality.
“Yeah, yeah,” I was quick to say, setting a hand on my holster, on my gun, wishing I could do something that I’d surely regret the moment I pulled the trigger. Kill Gareth, kill Alistair, kill myself. Get rid of our stains on this world.
But I wasn’t ready to die, and I sure as hell couldn’t kill that kid, not when he had half of Veronica’s genes in him.
In the end, I did what I had to. I helped Alistair cover up the truth, even though it pained me to do so. Alistair became Gareth’s guardian, and in return, he helped me move up the ladder in the department. I got a tattoo to remember Veronica, an all-knowing eye, because I knew the truth, and it could never be brought out into the light of day.
It wasn’t the last time I helped them cover up a murder. The older Gareth grew, the more people around Eastcreek went missing. It became a routine, hiding and destroying evidence. I became an empty shell of what I used to be, a man full of regret, something I’d never felt before in my life.
My parents moved away after Veronica died. Eastcreek had changed too much for their liking, and even their grandchild couldn’t get them to stay. I only spoke to them on the phone at the holidays, and I assumed Gareth did, too.
The years went by, and I checked out. I didn’t pay attention to whatever it was Gareth and Alistair did, but I was there when they needed me. I was numb, and I think that numbness had started the day I saw Veronica in a pool of her own blood.
It wasn’t until I got an official invitation to Alistair’s wedding that I felt something again. Alistair was marrying some woman, Nicole Dent, and I was invited to come.
I didn’t want to go, of course, but I also knew I had to. Not because I was his ex-brother-in-law, not because I was in his pocket, but because I owed it to the old me. I had to see just who had finally caught Alistair’s eye—the man had been a bachelor ever since I’d known him. I didn’t think I’d ever seen him with a woman.
I was curious, curious if this woman could fill the hole in Alistair’s heart that Veronica had left. If, perhaps, she was reminiscent of Veronica, she could fill the void inside me.
So I went, not knowing what to expect.
It was an extravagant affair. I didn’t know many people at the wedding, so I stuck to myself. I’d packed a small flask, knowing I’d need some strong stuff, depending on how the wedding went.
I sat in the back, near the aisle. Alistair stood up near the minister, looking quite devilish in all black—though that wasn’t anything unusual when it came to him. When the music started to play and Gareth strolled in, I barely glanced at him as I fought the way I still hated him for what he did all those years ago.
My parents said I felt things deeply. I guess hatred was one of those feelings.
It didn’t even occur to me that Gareth was walking down the aisle with someone, but when they reached the altar and split apart, Gareth moving to stand near Alistair while the girl stood on the opposite side, holding a pretty bouquet before her, I spotted the face of a young girl who looked as though she’d rather be anywhere but here.
Her hair was up, but that didn’t hide the colors in it. Even from the back, I could see the blue and pink streaks. Indeed, no one here would be caught dead with hair like that, and it made me wonder just who Alistair was marrying, if that girl was the maid of honor. She was near Gareth’s age, best I could tell—and I immediately noticed the way Gareth glared at her all the while.
Hmm. It would seem Gareth wasn’t too thrilled with this turn of events.
The music on the piano switched, and we were instructed to stand for the bride. As she strolled in, accompanied by no one—not her father, not any other man in her life—I saw a woman who was, in all honesty, unremarkable in every way. Pretty enough, sure, but nothing at all like Veronica. Nothing that gave me any clues as to why Alistair had chosen to marry her, out of all people.
Alistair had the money. He was a good-looking guy. He could’ve had any woman at all, and this was the one he picked? Please. There had to be a reason Nicole Dent was becoming Nicole Montgomery today.
We were told to sit, and the ceremony went on. Try as I might to pay attention to Nicole and Alistair’s body language toward her, I kept finding my gaze drifting to the girl. Something about her, I couldn’t say what, kept forcing me to look at her.
I wasn’t the only one. Gareth, I think, glared at her the entire ceremony, and when it was time to make the return walk down the aisle, I could tell the girl didn’t want to be so close to him. But she had to, so she plastered on a smile and hooked her arm through his.
It was only during the reception that I found out who she was. Brianna Dent, Alistair’s new stepdaughter. He wasn’t just getting a wife today, he was also getting a stepdaughter. Two for one. And that meant Gareth was getting a stepsister.
That girl was in trouble. She had no idea how much trouble she was in. The moment she stepped foot in that house, she was as good as gone. That didn’t sit right with me; she was a stranger to me, but she didn’t deserve whatever horrors Gareth would throw her way and Alistair would then either cover it up himself or use me to do it. I had to find a way to warn her without outright telling her who I was or why she should keep her guard up.
There were speeches. We ate. Alistair and his new bride danced. Brianna and Gareth danced too, though it looked to be due to both Nicole’s and Alistair’s insistence. I hung around the back of the wide reception hall, waiting for the perfect time to speak with her.
Nicole was already too far gone. You could see it in her eyes. It was the same expression everyone wore when they were enamored with money and all the power and perks it brought. People like that didn’t care what they had to live through or what they had to do in order to get that wealth on their side and keep it there. No, she was a lost cause. And other than that, I wouldn’t be able to get her alone, away from Alistair.
So it had to be Brianna.
Eventually she excused herself, I assumed to go to the restroom. I took that as my opportunity to leave as well, intent on finding her. What I didn’t count on, however, was the fact that this place had a few different restroom areas, and after waiting for five minutes outside of one, I realized she might’ve gone to a different one.
