“She got our unit bumped up for deployment long before it was our turn,” I remind him. “She pulled some strings and got down on her knees for whatever politician she had in her back pocket just to get me away from her daughter and uncover the truth about my parents. Don’t you think it’s a little coincidental that on the day we’re rescued, they say shit like that?”
I’ll never forget those final moments for the rest of my life. Closing my eyes, knowing our time was up and ready to feel the sharp sting of a bullet in the middle of my forehead before I finally felt nothing at all. No one will ever understand what it’s like, knowing you’re about to die and coming to terms with it. Mentally saying good-bye to everyone you love, knowing you’ll never see them again, and forcing yourself not to be afraid and be okay with letting go. I remember the walls shaking against my back, I remember the gunshots rat-a-tat-tatting all around us, and I remember our captors, standing right in front of us, their eyes finally filled with fear while in between their rapid shouting at each other in their language, those words were spit out, clear as day.
The money will stop if we don’t do as we were ordered.
The money will stop if we don’t do as we were ordered.
The money will stop if we don’t do as we were ordered.
Georgia Eubanks is the only person I can think of with enough money and power to make something like that happen. The woman never gave a rat’s ass about her own daughter’s happiness. She only cared about the embarrassment it would bring if anyone found out her little girl had been having an affair with the stable boy. The same stable boy whose parents were killed in a drunk driving accident that might not have been an accident after all. It didn’t matter that I was a damn good Marine who’d received hundreds of recommendations and accolades while working part-time at the plantation to put my sister through college. It didn’t matter that I proudly served our country. Nothing mattered but her precious reputation in this town and not letting anything interfere with that. Her only daughter, refusing to date any of the filthy rich, pedigreed men she paraded in front of her, as well as putting her foot down about following in Georgia’s socialite footsteps, were interferences she wouldn’t tolerate. Having the poor, lowly stable boy her daughter had been sleeping with all summer put two and two together and confront her with it, and then find himself on a plane out of the country a few hours later, followed by all the shit that happened over the next six years, only to end with something like that on those asshole’s lips, wasn’t a coincidence.
I walked away when it came down to a choice between Shelby’s future and my own, my sister’s security over mine, and it’s a choice I would make a hundred times over again for both of them, but especially for Shelby now that I know my sister found her own security by way of Daniel. Just knowing Shelby was happy and doing what she’d always dreamed and her mother would finally let her be to live her life was all I needed.
Maybe I should leave it alone. Maybe I should just find Shelby, get down on my knees, and beg her to love me again, but I know it’s not that simple and I know I’ll never be able to move on until I find out the truth, once and for all, about the night my parents died. It was one thing when it was just a year of deployment I agreed to. It’s a whole other thing to suspect the darling of Charleston of conspiring with the enemy to make sure I never stepped foot on U.S. soil again to protect her reputation and wrongdoings.
Pushing myself up from the couch, I head over to the small table in the foyer and grab the set of keys out of the bowl on top.
“Where you going, man?” Rylan asks, getting up from the couch and following me to the door.
“I need to get out of here, go for a drive and clear my head.”
I twist the ring of keys to Kat’s SUV in my hands nervously, thinking about the one place I want to be right now, but knowing it’s probably the worst idea in the world considering where it’s located.
“You’re going to the fucking stables, aren’t you?” Rylan asks with a shake of his head, reading my mind with just one look at me. “If Mrs. Eubanks sees you out there, she’ll have you arrested for trespassing. I still don’t know how the fuck we managed to get them beyond that traitor bullshit they tried to pin on us again and I don’t like how fast they switched their tune five minutes after we got to D.C. You walking onto her turf is the equivalent of poking a hibernating bear. One look at you and she’ll chew our heads off and make sure our asses fry.”
I chuckle, twisting the handle on the front door and pulling it open, a blast of heat from outside hitting me in the face.
“Like Georgia Eubanks would ever get her feet dirty by stepping foot out in those stables,” I tell him with a smile and a shake of my head. “I’m just going to pop in and pop out. See how the horses are and see if any of the same guys still work there.” Especially one man in particular, who I know had something to do with the anonymous police report I received just days before I was deployed.
And hopefully one of them know Shelby’s whereabouts so I don’t have to bang my head against the wall trying to find her.
I know I made the decision to walk away from her, and I’ll regret it for the rest of my life. I’ve had nothing but time to think of her since I was rescued, and now that I’ve been given a second chance at life, I’m not going to fuck it up. I’ve spent the last three months getting my body and my mind stronger, with thoughts of Shelby and getting her back spurring me on through the pain of rehabilitation and the shock and fear of learning how to be a civilian again after so many years in captivity. I know I have a long way to go and I’m nowhere near back to normal, if that’s even possible at this point. But I’ve waited long enough. Shelby is the main reason I’m still here, alive and kicking, and it’s time she knows that. It’s time for me to take back what was always meant to be mine.
Chapter 5
Shelby