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“Yes, we were out for a drive and got lost.”
He notices the bandage on Liam’s leg and the blood stain. “I’m going to have to ask both of you to exit your vehicle now.” He pulls his gun, aiming it at us.
I hold my hands up. “Of course, officer. No problem.”
Liam pulls the gun he’s hidden beneath the dash as he fumbles to get out, limping around.
My heart is hammering so hard I think I’m going to pass out any minute.
Before I can so much as gasp, a gunshot pierces the night, the sound resonating through the once-tranquil forest. Time slows, and the stars above witness the chaos below.
Liam stumbles as he tries to shoot the officer. The officer is too quick and returns fire, the bullet finding its home in his chest. He collapses with a thud that seems to silence the world.
Ash leaps from the other truck, moving with reckless fury, the barrel of his gun pointed at the officer. A sharp shot shatters the fraught silence, and the officer crumples to the forest floor, a life extinguished in the blink of an eye.
He sprints to his dad’s side. “Fuck!” he bellows, falling to his knees and placing a hand over the bleeding wound in his chest. “There’s no patching that up,” he murmurs.
Liam nods, jaw clenching. “It’s okay,” he mutters, shaking his head. “At least you can get out of here. You’re almost there.”
Ash watches as his dad’s breaths are shallow and ragged. There’s little emotion detectable in his eyes. After all, he doesn’t really know the man before him.
“Ash,” Liam chokes out. “I’m sorry for everything,” he gasps, his hand feebly searching for Ash’s. “I wasn’t there, but I...”
With bitterness in his eyes and a quiver in his lip, Ash seems locked in a tumultuous inner battle as he holds his father’s gaze. It’s a dance of anger and yearning. The final moments of a bond that could’ve been urging them toward an unreachable peace.
Ash’s fingers entwine with Liam’s, the grip far from the tender clasp of familial affection. It’s the clasp of a son betrayed. “Save your breath,” he says through clenched teeth.
His father’s eyes plead for the mercy of absolution.
“You missed your chance,” Ash spits out, the words cutting through the silence sharper than the cold air against their skin.
The man before him coughs, pleading at him with his eyes. But the chasm between them is too vast, the years too heavy, theanger too deep. Liam’s last breath is heavy, laden with unsaid words and apologies that came too late.
And my heart aches for them both. It’s a tragedy for Ash to lose his father so soon after finding out he’s still alive and for his father, who dies, never getting the forgiveness he craved from his son.
But perhaps, in their final moments together, there’s a glimmer of understanding. And maybe, just maybe, this can be the start of the healing process for Ash to help him move forward from a life full of darkness and destruction.
21
ASH
Achill wind sweeps through the woods, tousling my hair as I stand over the freshly turned earth. I lean on the shovel, the tool now an extension of the darkness growing within me. Beside me, Lila trembles, whether from cold or emotion, I can’t tell.
We stand under the waning moonlight. My father is buried beneath the earth. All I feel is anger. A cold ember that glows within the darkness I embody. There’s no room for the luxury of sorrow or the softness of grief. My mind is wired differently, programmed to prioritize survival over sentiment.
“I’m sorry,” Lila whispers, breaking the silence.
I turn to look at her. “Save it,” I reply, my voice devoid of warmth.
Lila bristles but says nothing more, and I can see the confusion and conflict dancing in her vibrant blue eyes. I’m all too aware of what her agreeing to come with me means. She’s mine forever, and that’s what I want, but I don’t deserve it. She deserves a man better than me.
Lila’s presence is a constant source of unwanted emotion, carving fissures in my resolve and in the walls I built to keep such distractions at bay.
Lila’s hand reaches for mine.
I pull away as if scorched by the air she breathes. I’ve been out of control since the day I forced her to come with me on the side of the road.
Fuck.
