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My father didn’t care if I stayed with him . . . other than he could watch me more carefully. And somehow he knew I enjoyed the place I had with my brother. In his eyes, that couldn’t stand.
Control. Heartless control.
He was taking me away from my brother and my best friend. Like I was a prisoner and happiness was my crime.
I swallowed past the lump in my throat. The motion sent a twinge through my jaw.You’re not brave. If you were, you’d stand up to him.
And then he’d do something to my family. Myrealfamily.
I still had time to figure out a way to keep from marrying Alex. But the window was growing smaller.
Maybe the answer wasn’t for me to find a solution.
Maybe I needed to get rid of the problem.
Chapter Thirty
Cal
“I’d hityou upside the head, but my guess is yours already hurts like mad.”
Joe groaned when I shook him.
“I’m busting you out. Let’s get a move on.”
Egan and McCreedie had released Joe from custody after he’d slept off some of the alcohol and given me “friends and family” privilege to get Joe out of his cell at the station.
It was almost dawn. At least one of us had slept.
We’d had an emergency meeting of brothers. Getting Ma to calm down had taken up a lot of our efforts.
When Egan called for me to come pick Joe up, all five of us loaded up in my truck. Didn’t matter some of my brothers had shifts that started in a couple hours. We were in crisis.
And the Calhouns stood together.
“Leave me alone, Cal,” Joe groaned.
I shook him again. “Can’t do that.”
He tried to roll over on the tiny mattress, but there wasn’t room.
“You gonna make me carry you out of here like a baby?” I shrugged. “Fine. Have it your way.”
I slid my arms under him.
“Stop it.” He flailed about. “I’ll get up.”
I stepped back to give him the space to sit up. When he did, he grabbed his head. But after a second, he collected himself and stood.
Without a word, we followed Egan out of the back. He gave Joe a bag of his things, and we moved to the lobby where our brothers were waiting.
“You asshole.”
“What were you thinking?”
“Ma’s gonna kill you.”
“You look like crap.”
