Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 141255 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 706(@200wpm)___ 565(@250wpm)___ 471(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 141255 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 706(@200wpm)___ 565(@250wpm)___ 471(@300wpm)
“I get it. Thanks, Leese.”
And I did get it. The way she’d acted when she was afraid or stressed, she looked to me as her protector. She’d done that probably both because I was her “Master” and because I’d taken her away from there.
Dare came back after work with a pizza. We ate on one of the couches together while watching the news and then I hesitantly asked if he wanted to take a walk as he was coming back from putting our paper plates in the garbage.
“I need to talk to you first,” he said as he pulled me onto his lap. “My brother Tommy’s coming home tomorrow and staying for a bit. He’s got stuff to handle plus he’s gonna help me sort out some business shit our pop left us with. And while he’s here we’ll strategize on what to do about our Kruna shares. They’re having a partner summit in a couple weeks and he and I have gotta talk about how to play things. See, I’d been hoping that within a few months from now I’d be totally out of most of the business my Pop dealt in. I had plans to start fresh, get my pilot’s license, decide whether or not to fly commercial, be a bush pilot, something. Something different for a while.”
I nodded, feeling a little pang of fear. I was trying to listen to what he was saying but I was stuck on the partner summit bit. I hoped he wouldn’t go to Kruna. I hoped he wouldn’t take me back there. Before the panic had a chance to set in he continued talking.
“Tommy’s new bride, Tia, I want you to know a bit about her. I also wanna tell you about something else.”
He had my attention again. I shifted on his lap and put my arm around his shoulder.
“Tia’s father was an enemy of my father. Tia’s mother was Pop’s first love. Pop went on a revenge spree and screwed Tia’s father over a period of two decades in order to break the man because Tia’s mother chose him over Pop. His last-ditch effort was forcing the guy to give Tia to my brother as a payment for his debts. Tia and Tommy are happily married, newlyweds. It didn’t start out happy, especially not for her. I told you I delivered her to him. I never let myself think deep on it, but from the start didn’t think it was okay to pay a debt with flesh unless it was your flesh, you know, not deciding that for your kid. Anyway, I went along with what Pop said because that’s what I did. I was loyal to him even when I didn’t agree with all the things he did. It’s how we were raised. Pop was demanding and loyalty to him was first. My brother and I had plans to take the company legit once Pop retired, so I was biding my time. I went through the motions and tried not to overthink things. We knew we were in gray areas and Tommy and I were fully entrenched in a lot of it. I’m no choir boy. I’ve done shit I’m not proud of. Turned a blind eye to shit I knew was wrong more often than I can count. But we were planning on transitioning it to something cleaner when we found out Pop was playing way dirtier in the world than we’d ever realized. Through a series of events after a shit storm that put the whole family in danger we decided to break away from Pop. His actions cost Tess her husband and my nephews their father, made Luc go into early labor and almost cost us baby Nicky, and my father’s actions almost cost Tommy and Tia everything”
He paused.
I nodded.
He continued, “We’re talking kidnappings, shootings, a lot of bad shit. Most of the world doesn’t know that at the end, just before Pop died, me and Tommy forced his hand. He pushed back because he saw our mutiny as the ultimate betrayal, and it didn’t end well.”
I listened without saying anything. I wasn’t sure if he was telling me he killed his father or his brother did it or someone else on their orders, but he was, in essence, telling me that he and his brother were responsible.
Dare seemed to be studying me and the effect of his words.
“This is something that’s not talked about. Ever. There are people in my family that suspect why Pop really died but it’s not discussed. Don’t bring it up. Don’t ask questions. It will never, ever be discussed. You’re going to be around my family, so you need a little of the backstory.”
My heart lifted. Maybe it should’ve dropped because of the secrets he was revealing. But it lifted because this meant he saw himself with me long-term. That’s what it had to mean. He was telling me his secrets and hoping I could handle them. Could he handle my secrets? Could I bring myself to tell them to him? I didn’t think I could.