Liam sucked in a breath. “For real?”
I could see my father’s dead body lying at my feet as clear as the day it had happened. “I was a minor. And I had clear signs of abuse. Everybody knew my old man was a violent, abusive fuck. When they saw the condition of my mother and my siblings, nobody fought too hard for me to go down for it.”
“Fucking hell.”
“So I do know. I know that place you’re at. I know exactly what it’s like to feel worthless and helpless and to have to live with a man who thinks nothing of destroying the people he’s supposed to love.” I stared Liam right in the eyes. “But I also know what it feels like to be the person who takes another life. There’s no coming back from that. None. Even if they deserve it, even if the world is better without them in it. It changes you. You don’t ever forget. And the darkness creeps up until it consumes you or you find a way to bury it. I don’t want to have to watch you do that. It’s too hard. It doesn’t make that feeling of wanting to die go away. There’s no relief in it. It only makes it worse.”
Liam leaned forward, resting his arms on his knees, a sob breaking free. And with it came all the pain and hurt he’d been bottling up. I didn’t try to stop him. Just clapped a hand to the back of his neck so he knew I was there. His shoulders shook silently until I was battling back tears myself.
After a minute, his sobs became hiccups, and then eventually he sat straight. He blew out a long breath that lifted hair off his forehead. He turned to me and let out a half laugh. “Fucking hell. I held a gun to my grandfather’s head.”
I grinned and shrugged. “Eh. The old prick deserved it.”
Liam burst into laughter, the kind that was half embarrassed and half relief. His eyes were red-rimmed, which accentuated the dark circles beneath. “I don’t know how to deal with any of this.”
“You go home to your family.” I glanced over at him. “Home to Mae.”
I was relieved when he nodded. I turned the car back on and got us back on the road to Rowe’s cabin. “Ain’t neither of us spending the rest of our lives in jail.”
But with Liam’s grandfather recognizing me, and my prints all over Rowe’s bike, left at the scene of a crime, I doubted that was true.
21
Rowe
The sun was getting low, and though I kept a wide smile on my face for Ripley’s sake, I kept staring down the drive, waiting for the others to return.
All of them should have been back by now. And yet not one car, nor my dirt bike, had appeared. I was also an idiot because I’d sent Heath off with my phone. There was a landline here, but I hadn’t thought to write down anybody’s number before he’d left. I definitely didn’t know any of them by heart, except my own, and Heath wasn’t answering it.
I dragged my gaze away from the drive and let it glide back to where Ripley had been playing with some sticks in the dirt. I frowned when he wasn’t there, the sticks lying abandoned on the grass. I stood, quickly scanning the rest of the clearing. “Ripley!”
Nothing.
My heartbeat became a pound, and I jogged down the porch steps, running to the end of the clearing and peering into the woods. “Ripley!” I fought to keep the panic out of my voice. “If you want to play hide-and-seek, you need to come out first so I can count to ten.”
Why the hell had I taken my eyes off him? He couldn’t swim that well yet. I staggered toward the lake, fear rushing my body. If he’d wandered down there…
“Hi, Rowe!”
I spun around, relief washing over me at Ripley’s voice. He waved from some long grass by the shed, and I ran over to him, scooping him up into my arms. “Hey, buddy. You scared me for a second there. What were you doing?”
He paused, then said, “Nothing.”
He had the distinctly guilty look of a kid who’d gotten his hand caught in a cookie jar, but I was so relieved I didn’t even care. I squeezed him tighter. “How about a piggyback up to the house? I think there’s a shower with your name on it.”
“Okay.”
I slung him over my shoulder and let him hang upside down. He giggled. “Byeeeeeee.”
“Bye dirt, and leaves, and stinky little boy!” I jostled him so he bounced around. Laughing, I got him into the bathroom and lathered him up with soap until voices sounded on the porch. I left him filling up a cup to splash it against the glass walls and stuck my head out into the hall. Mae, Rowe, and Liam all traipsed in the door.
“Where have you guys been? It’s been hours.”
“Long story,” Mae replied.
“Even longer for us,” Heath said. He squinted at me. “Might have lost your bike, by the way. Sorry.”
I widened my eyes at him. “How the hell did that happen?”
Heath glanced at Liam, who looked so emotionally drained he couldn’t even stand. He’d slumped into a camping chair with the air of a man who needed to sleep for a week. “I’ll get it back.”
“Family meeting when we get home tonight, I think.” Mae glanced between all of us.
I frowned. “Are we going somewhere?”
She scraped her long blonde hair up in her fingers and fitted an elastic band to hold her ponytail. “You and I have gotta go to work before we lose our jobs.”
I shook my head. “I’m not leaving Ripley—”
“He’ll be with me,” Heath said. “Go.”
There was no hesitation in leaving Ripley with Heath. I knew he’d protect Ripley just as fiercely as I would. And even though Liam was like death warmed over, he’d be here, too. Ripley would be in good hands. I just didn’t want to let the real world back in.
I got Ripley out of the shower and wrapped him in a towel while I explained to him that I needed to go to work.
Heath was waiting in the hall and reached for Ripley with a grin. “Let’s get dressed then you can help me cook dinner.”