Total pages in book: 180
Estimated words: 176012 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 880(@200wpm)___ 704(@250wpm)___ 587(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 176012 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 880(@200wpm)___ 704(@250wpm)___ 587(@300wpm)
Shit, part of me even thought I’d been suffocating him and he just needed space. I wasn’t his dad, and I started to wonder if he was sick of us.
“Jared, Jax…” I spit out at myself in the mirror. “Their kids are no trouble. Why don’t mine just fucking talk to me?”
Tears spring up, and I bow my head, gripping the sink. Shame replaces the fear. I’m not built for self-pity. I clear my throat and grab some paper towels, wiping my face clean.
“James is definitely going to fuck with Jared someday.” I fix my hair, being more realistic now. “Dylan already nearly gave him a heart attack. That was funny. And Hawke is a late bloomer. There’s still time for him to be a hassle to Jax.”
I won’t be the only one trying to wrangle my damn kids.
Balling up the paper towel, I stuff it into the basket and whip open the door. Fallon turns, her arms crossed over her chest, as Tate, Jared, Jax, and Juliet all look up at me. Bypassing them, I head to the counter and pick up Lucas’s statement, continuing where I left off.
He made friends…they started Green Street as a social club…Drew Reeves took over and moved in a direction Lucas and Lance couldn’t follow…Lucas refused to give him the building…wanted it shut down…
And I get to the part where Lucas gave him a dare that backfired. Reeves hid a half-alive man in the trunk, and Lucas sank the car, not realizing someone was in there.
I skim over why Lucas felt he couldn’t come forward. Reeves, with his position in Shelburne Falls, could hurt Lucas and those he loved.
Tracing my memories, I can’t figure out what was going on in my life at that time. What was I doing the night this all happened? What the fuck was so important all the months later as he struggled to keep his head above water with the guilt and I didn’t notice?
Hands touch my shoulders, and I turn, Fallon’s arms circling my neck.
Barry and two other officers are in Weston, questioning Green Street and…collecting the remains.
“Should we call Grace?” Fallon asks in my ear.
“No.”
I pull back. Lucas’s mother needs to know what the plan is before she hears about the problem. Grace can handle it, but she’ll panic. Just like I am now. One thing at a time.
“I need to go talk to him first.”
She nods and backs away, and I gesture to Sam Barnes, the officer on duty. She tips her head for me to follow.
I start after her, but Jax stops me. “He’s a better man than me,” he says as if I need assurances. “They’ll never find the bodies I buried in the woods.”
I swallow at the reminder of Jax’s justice back in the day. It’s not even remotely the same thing. For him, it was self-defense, and he didn’t owe anyone a proper burial.
I follow Sam back to the cells and pass an empty one before getting to Lucas standing alone in the far corner. Barry hasn’t formally charged him. Just holding him until he can question witnesses. Lucas is cooperating.
Sam leaves, closing the door behind her, and I look at the kid I’ve known for well over half our lives.
Standing tall, his arms crossed over his chest.
Just like Fallon, he doesn’t look away.
I close the distance between me and the bars. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
He hesitates as he gazes at me. “Because you would’ve tried to fix it and put yourself in the line of fire instead.”
Reeves had his thugs crash my son’s party a couple of years ago, looking for my laptop. His enterprise must’ve been getting massive, and he wanted to ensure he could blackmail me if—when—it spilled over into the Falls and I tried to stop him.
There was nothing to hide, but I’m sure he would’ve found something to twist to his benefit.
“And when Hawke sent Reeves running from Shelburne Falls two years ago?” I charge. “You must’ve heard. Why didn’t you come back then?”
Lucas flexes his jaw, and I don’t know if he’s struggling to tell me something, or just doesn’t have an answer.
My nose nearly brushes the bars. “You’re my family,” I huff. “Whether you think of me as yours or not.”
He looks away for a moment.
“You’re my family,” I state again, “and we would’ve gotten through it. Running is never the answer—”
He squares his shoulders, blurting it out. “I didn’t want you to know.”
What?
Why? He knew what Jax had done. He knew about mine and Jared’s mistakes. Did he think we weren’t up for it?
I narrow my eyes. “Lucas—”
“Look, I know, okay?” he cuts me off. “‘I was never a job and you never expected me to be perfect…’ I know everything you would’ve said, but you would’ve said it because you cared about me.” The tendon in his neck flexes, and I can tell he’s trying to steady his voice. “It wouldn’t have changed the fact that dealing with my mistakes could’ve hurt you, and me not being able to own up to it buried two miles away in the woods was killing me. So I left.”