Total pages in book: 171
Estimated words: 162003 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 810(@200wpm)___ 648(@250wpm)___ 540(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 162003 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 810(@200wpm)___ 648(@250wpm)___ 540(@300wpm)
I wasn’t going to argue with him because that was still his grief talking. It was clear as day in his voice, and I wondered if it would ever lessen over time. Frankie did deserve what he got, but Ryland wasn’t a murderer, as much as he told himself he could be. He was nothing like Frankie.
“A few more months passed, and I felt… lost. I was twenty-four years old, and I had everything. And then one day it was just fucking gone. My dad was still around, but his guilt ate him alive. I couldn’t look him in the eye anymore- I’d lost all respect for him. He was cowering in fear, trying to keep them from getting to me. He was so afraid they would, so I told him to let them come. It made no difference to me.”
More tears squeezed from my eyes, and I buried my face in Ryland’s thigh. I didn’t want him to see how much it hurt to hear this. How much my heart ached for him.
“The next week, he was gone too. He’d sold the house in Chicago and everything else he could to pay them off and leave me an inheritance. And then he ate the barrel of a gun as penance.”
“I’m so sorry, Ryland.”
“I didn’t feel anything when he died,” he said. “I placed sole responsibility for what happened on his shoulders, and he knew it. Perhaps I should have regretted that, but I didn’t. Still don’t, in fact. He was weak. A coward. And I refused to be like him. I refused to forget what happened to my family and who was at fault. That night played through my mind on repeat, Brighton. And there was only one face that I could see. One place for that rage to go.”
He didn’t have to tell me. I already knew it was Brayden. My family. We were guilty by association, just like his family had been. A cruel sort of justice to fit the crime. But there was someone else too. A man at the top of the food chain that I hadn’t given much thought to before. Now that Ryland was talking about it, I had to wonder how he fit into this puzzle.
“What about Frankie’s boss?” I asked. “What about Alfredo?”
“I was well aware that Alfredo gave the order,” he said. “But he was untouchable for someone like me. I was nothing back then, and to him, I was a loose end. Men like Alfredo- they don’t like loose ends. So he was amused as hell when I walked right into his den. It was a big risk. He could have killed me without a second thought, and we both knew it. Instead, I made him a proposition that day.”
“What kind of proposition?” I asked nervously.
“He wanted you and Brayden dead,” he replied in a rough voice. “I asked him to hold off in exchange for some heavy compensation. For seven years- enough time to do what was necessary. To get the resources I needed and to make my plan work.”
His words felt like a lead weight on my chest, and Ryland pulled me up into his arms and stared into my eyes. “I didn’t know you back then,” he said. “I’d never even met you when I made that agreement. I wasn’t thinking straight, Brighton.”
“So he’s going to come after me and Brayden,” I swallowed. “It’s true then.”
“I’m working it out with him.” He clasped my face in his hands and pleaded for me to believe him. “I will never let anything harm you, baby girl.”
“But what about Brayden?” I swallowed. “He’s there. He’s right in the middle of it. Does he know?”
Ryland looked away, his jaw clenching. “I tried to tell him. He doesn’t want to fucking listen. He thinks he can talk Alfredo out of it. That he can go to work with him.”
“What the hell is wrong with him?” I asked.
Ryland didn’t answer, and I was grateful. I knew he hated Brayden, and this was only going to make it worse. But I believed him when he said he was trying to do the right thing.
“I don’t understand how he came to be this way,” I said. “He isn’t the brother that I knew. He isn’t the one I grew up with. I don’t know why he’s trying to follow in Frankie’s footsteps.”
Ryland stroked my back and smoothed my hair away from my face, searching my eyes before he spoke again. “I’m going to protect you, Brighton. No matter what. But there isn’t anything else I can do for Brayden. Not when he’s willingly walking right into the middle of it.”
His words cut me, but it wasn’t his fault. He was right. The same thing I’d learned with Norma. You could only help those who wanted to help themselves.