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“Do you think I should warn him that it’s coming? Should I call him, or should this be a surprise?” he asks.
I still don’t answer. I can’t. My throat doesn’t work. My brain is gone. Every muscle in my body is completely frozen. All I can do is imagine everything he’s described, and I’m horrified. I bite the inside of my cheek even harder. I can’t stop the metallic taste of blood from touching my tongue.
“Not yet,” Ray rasps. “I want you to imagine it all tonight. They’ll stay here until I give them the order.”
Without another word, he takes a step backward, then turns, his fingers still tangled in my hair as he drags me down the hallway and back toward the room. He tosses me inside, and I land hard on my side. I don’t bother attempting to brace myself. It doesn’t matter.
Nothing matters.
“Don’t get too comfortable. Twelve hours and that body will be fucked so hard it will be ripped to pieces.”
The door slams and locks, and then there is silence. I try not to cry. I try hard to be brave, but the moment I hear the door lock into place, everything inside of me breaks. Tears roll down my cheeks as my entire body trembles. This is it.
My last hours of peace before I am tortured and ripped to shreds.
My last hours of being whole before I am no more.
My last hours of being Wells’s.
My last hours.
WELLS
“You didn’t tellyour mother why,” my dad murmurs after the family meeting.
We’re sitting outside, me, my brothers, and my dad, enjoying a whiskey and a cigar. Though I passed on the cigar, choosing only the whiskey. Hendrick doesn’t chime in. He knows that if he does, he’ll be dismissed because he doesn’t know exactly why I’m marrying Parker yet, and he wants to.
Sucking in a breath, I look across the firepit at him. It’s a gas one, but it still puts off enough heat that I’m ready to kill it. As much as I like the ambience, Texas is too fucking hot for this shit. Leaning forward, I place my forearms on my knees and turn my head to look at my father.
“I didn’t tell her because she didn’t need to know. It’s family business, and family business is where it stays. All she needs to know is that I’ve chosen Parker because that’s what I’ve done.”
My dad jerks his chin. “I did something right with you boys. Even if it wasn’t everything.”
“Nobody does everything right,” Coleman murmurs.
We all snort, although more because we all know what Coleman is referring to. Shiloh. She’ll never be spoken of again, but that doesn’t mean we have forgotten that he not only fucked his first cousin but that there was a push for them to be married.
“What happens now?” I ask.
Dad shrugs his shoulder, takes a puff from his cigar, then brings his glass to his lips and takes a pull. He lets out a heavy sigh, looking up at the stars, and grunts before he turns to face me. His gaze searches mine before he speaks.
“Now we work,” he rasps. “We work our asses off, and we reap the rewards. A life for a life,” he calls out.
“A life for a life,” my brothers and I repeat, holding out our glasses.
We all take a drink before I hear Hendrick’s phone ring. He picks it up, then in a tone that I’ve never heard from him before, he asks. “What? You’re where? For how long? I’ll be right there.We’llbe right there.”
Turning my head, I look over at him. “All good, brother?” I ask.
His gaze finds mine, and it feels like it does it so slowly that my entire body stands on the edge of a cliff, teetering. When he speaks, that teetering stops, and I fall completely over, rolling down the rocky canyon until I land, boneless and sweaty, at the bottom.
“Parker is missing,” he announces.
I frown. “What do you mean?” I demand.
“Allison. She was supposed to go over today. She hasn’t been able to get hold of her all day long.”
“And she’s just now saying that?” I roar.
