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Those I can’t kill.
Those could kill me.
“Mr. Van de May.” Gentry gives his full attention to Silas. What a dick. He knows where power resides. “Thank you for inviting us to this lovely gathering. My crew is enjoying themselves.”
“I won’t take the credit.” Silas stands beside me, his arm brushing mine while he faces my enemy. “I didn’t invite you. All the racers and their crews are here.”
“Indeed, let me introduce you to some of mine…”
And Gentry drones on with names. He won’t miss this opportunity. To be seen with the Van de May heir? To act like he has Silas’s full support, it’s a deft and dick political move, and I’m seething inside while Cade reaches for my hand.
She stands on the other side of me, closer to Gentry’s wife, and Cade’s rage is palpable. I know when it’s itching through her veins. She can feel the twitch in my hand, too, the way it sweats, and that’s all it takes.
“Gentlemen.” Her voice drips like honey. “Just how do y’all have the fine pleasure of knowing our state Senator because Gentry and I go way back. He’s got quite the past, you know.”
Don’t do it, Cade. Just walk away.
She promised me she’d follow the rules this time and use the law.
“That was just a little mischief among kids.” Gentry laughs, and his cronies chuckle with him.
I don’t need to know the dickhead crowd he must run in. Do they all find humor in an assault?
“Mischief is a lie, Senator.” Cade squeezes my hand, stepping toward Gentry’s taunt.
Fuck, why? Why can’t we ever escape this?
“You sure do keep mischievous company,” she says. “Criminal, in fact.” Because she won’t let it, Cade won’t stop fighting. “I bet all these fine, traditional southern men would be well served to know the company you keep. On record.”
I don’t want to go back. I need to move on.
I don’t want to be tied to Gentry like a prison sentence. I fought too hard to free myself. To find the good in all the bad we survived.
Why is Cade so obsessed? Why can’t she leave it alone?
“Mere speculation.” Gentry sounds delighted. Like this is a sport for him, too. “Such accusations, they’re par for the powerful course.”
“Which course?”
“Sea Oaks and more. We do serious business, and it’s what we expect. Men in our positions are targeted all the time.”
“Your position?”
Cade’s pulling the trigger. Silas is a witness. Gentry’s wife, I can smell her perfume; she’s not peeping a word.
And I know I look odd, standing like a stone, staring at the horizon, but fuck you, World, I’ve fought enough.
“Your position, Senator,”—but Cade will never stop—“ is that you’re cousins, golf buddies, and a business associate with a man wanted in three states for rape. Derek Baucom. There’s a warrant for his arrest, and he’s been spotted in your district.”
Cade keeps firing. “Your position, Senator, is that you have a close association with a known drug felon we went to high school with. Taylor John. He’s been in trouble with the Sheriff’s office so much so his recent disappearance from your district is odd.”
Damn, she’s ruthless. TJ’s dead because of her. But she’ll implicate Gentry just to take him down. And the seethe in her voice? No one can deny the truth in it.
“How do those scandals score on your political course, Senator?”
She’s too damn smart.
And that peace I felt for just a few minutes? It’s like the perfect week Cade and I shared. It was our dream. It was all I wanted.
