Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 87367 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 437(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87367 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 437(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
With Brody O’Ralley.
I’d never been in love before.
I was in love with the guy my family stole a legacy from.
I took the letter out of the box and handed it to him. “And that’s why…that’s why I have to tell you the truth.” Because if there was ever any chance of this working, I had to be honest. If not, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself. “You were right. Almost everything you said about the Mitchells was right. My dad…he didn’t try and use my mom against you. He just fell in love with her. That’s all. But we were criminals. The rest of my family was everything you said they were. But my dad wasn’t. He tried to fix it. He tried to make things better. That doesn’t change what my family has done, though.” I paused, took a deep breath, ignored the voice in my head that told me not to do this. “It doesn’t change the fact that a hundred years ago, my great-grandfather stole the recipe for the Buckridge Deluxe Scotch from your family. Everything that we have should be yours.”
It felt like an eternity before Big Daddy said, “You sonofabitch. What are you playin’ at tellin’ me that?”
“Nothing. I just want to tell the truth because it’s the right thing and because of Brody.”
He shook his head. I could see the thoughts forming in his brain. “No, you want to use this by lookin’ like the good guy. You wanna get your claws into us even more. I know how you Mitchells work. Every Mitchell has somehow hurt an O’Ralley. If you cared a lick about Brody, you’d walk away and leave him be. He’s got a big heart, that one, and he’s always wondered what was out there. He’ll fall for you, and he’ll hurt his family because of it, which will do nothing but hurt him. If you love him like you say you do, you’ll leave him alone. You owe us that.”
Without another word, Big Daddy turned and walked away.
I stood there, trying to tell myself he wasn’t right.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Brody
I ran a brush through the fine hairs along Elliecomb’s neck. Spending time with her was always soothing, even more so since I’d started pulling away from my siblings. I was still having a hard time overcoming my pride.
The door to the stable opened, and Walker came in, his gaze shifting about uneasily.
“What broke?” I asked, though going by his expression, I figured this didn’t have anything to do with work.
As he approached, I was tempted to be a smartass but stopped myself, since it seemed important, given his hesitation. I might have been mad, but I knew Walker better than anyone, and I knew when something weighed on his mind.
“I don’t know how to tell you this, Brodes…”
I wanted to tell him to stop using a name he was only allowed to have for me when we were on better terms, but I bit my tongue, realizing how petty that would be.
“I’m having a hard time believing it, really,” he added, “but Isaac just sent me a text. Cohen’s packing up over at the Mitchell place.”
“Where’s he heading?”
Walker’s downturned gaze and tense jaw told me everything I needed to know.
“What the hell happened?”
“Sounds like he had a change of heart.”
I knew he meant about the distillery, but that wasn’t the change of heart that concerned me.
“It sounds like he’s planning to leave…very soon.”
Fuck.
I didn’t even remember I had a damn brush in my hand, dropped it right in Elliecomb’s stall, and rushed past him toward the door, stopping myself as soon as I reached it.
“Walker…thank you for coming to tell me that.”
At the end of the day, stubborn as I could be, he was still my brother. We could be at each other’s throats, but we were on the same side. Deep down, I could never forget that.
I fetched Elliecomb from her stall, disregarding a saddle in my hurry to get to Cohen, fearing I might be too late. I rode through our woods, then slipped through a familiar spot in the fence between our land and the Mitchells’, where a tree branch had made space for one rebellious O’Ralley to get to his Mitchell in a hurry.
By the time I was heading from the woods to the house, I had to practically recall how I ended up there, it all happened so goddamn fast.
I thought back on the time I’d spent with Cohen. We’d had so much fun…more than fun…and he was taking to the place like an old pro. What in God’s name would have possessed him to pick up and leave now? And why hadn’t he even mentioned it to me first?
When I reached the house, Isaac opened the front door like he’d been anticipating my arrival. “He’s in his room,” he told me as I passed him at the door. He looked as concerned about his friend as I was.