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“You got us,” I tell him. “And right now I know that don’t seem like much of a consolation, but it’s all I got. If Aubrey was watchin’ you right now, d’ya think she’d need to see you kill him and make him suffer? D’ya think she’d want you wallowing in misery and pushin’ everyone away? ‘Cause I don’t. I think she’d wanna see you fightin’, but not with your fists and your anger. She’d want ya to fight with your heart. She’d want ya to try and be happy.”
“And how am I supposed to do that?” He looks at me like I got all the answers.
“I don’t know, but I won’t give up on figuring it out, and right now we got something more pressing to figure out. We got a dead fuckin’ mayor and a whole lotta mess that we ain’t gonna be able to clean up. Even if we could, Harvey’s gonna be all over this. You know Wade ain’t ever gonna let him find out it was Leia that did it. He’ll take the blame for it.” I look at the body on the floor and wish I could have made him suffer the way I wanted to. I’ve spent nights thinking about it. This isn’t how it was supposed to go down, disposing of him when we were done would have been thought out and planned. Harvey made it clear that there could be no backlash. Right now, I gotta figure out how we’re gonna hide this from him, and the law.
“Tell him I did it.” Cole raises his eyes from the body with a deadly serious look on his face.
“That ain’t happenin’. Harvey will have ya killed.”
“Better than him killin’ us all.” He shrugs.
“There’s another way to fix this, we’ll figure it out.” I refuse to even consider that as an option.
“It’s time to be realistic, Garrett, Harvey gave an order and that order has been disobeyed. I can tell him I went over your head, that I lost my temper. It’s hardly unbelievable.”
“No, there's a way out of this,” I tell him, searching hard around my head to find it.
“You both got too much to lose, Garrett, I got nothin’.”
“Stop talkin’ like what you’re suggestin’ is even an option, and let me fuckin’ think.” I stare at the body on the floor and the letter opener Leia must have used to kill him. I may be mad at her for taking our vengeance away from us, but not mad enough not to feel sorry for her. What she did here today will be with her for the rest of her life, and there ain’t no way Wade’s gonna let her go back to her husband, not now that there’s no need for her to.
“We can’t hide this, Garrett. Even if Harvey wasn’t the problem, the law is gonna be all over this.” Cole keeps on pecking away at me. “We can’t clean this up, there’s blood everywhere. You heard what Leia said. Mason pushed her down the fuckin’ stairs, d’ya honestly think that once Wade’s calmed her down he’s gonna let that go unpunished? Garrett, you have to admit defeat and let me take this one.Youcan’t get us out of this butIcan.”
“You're right,” I admit, and Cole nods his head bravely as I step toward him.
“We ain’t ever gonna clean this up,” I admit, taking him by surprise when I jab my fist hard into his stomach and fold him over.
“What the fuck was that for?” he asks, still winded as he stretches himself back up and stares at me in shock.
“That was for you thinkin’ I would ever let ya do somethin’ so fuckin’ stupid,” I tell him, making my way to the door.
“Where ya goin’?”
“I figured out what we’re gonna do,” I tell him, reaching behind me and pulling out the work gloves that are hanging from my back pocket.
“Where’s Maisie?” I ask when we get back to the ranch. Mom and Savannah are in the living room with the babies, and both look shocked when they see the state Leia’s in.
“She’s taking a nap. What the hell happened to you?” Savannah asks, and we both ignore her as I drag Leia through the house and up the stairs to my room. I shut the door like I’m shutting the whole world out, and when I turn back around and see how vulnerable she looks, I feel helpless.
“Take off your clothes,” I order, unable to bear seeing her like it a second longer. I grab her a tee from my clean laundry pile, and when I turn back around and see her wincing as she tries to get the top she’s wearing off her shoulders, the bruises on her body flick a switch on inside my head.
“He pushed you down the stairs,” I say my thoughts out loud, trying to figure when the fuck that became irrelevant.
“Yeah, but I’m fine, they’re just bruises. Nothing’s broken,” she assures me.
“He thought you were pregnant and he pushed you down the stairs. Leia, youarepregnant!” I feel the heat coarse through my body at a rate that makes me dizzy.
“Wade, listen to me.” She must sense it, because she comes toward me, taking my hands in hers and trying to calm me. “The baby’s fine, the doctor checked everything out.”
“Hepushedyou down the stairs,” I say the words again, this time slower.
“Wade—”
“He could’ve killed ya,” I interrupt her, staring at the marks on her skin, and letting that rage keep on building.
“But he didn’t.” Her eyes plead for me not to react, but it’s not enough to stop me.
“I’m gonna kill him.” I pull my hands out of hers and back away from her. She can’t see me like this, I won’t let her. I have to get rid of this anger and I have to make Caleb Mason pay for what he could have taken from me.
