“When we get back, I’m leaving with both my sisters. Got it?” Richter stares me down, and I can tell the smile I’m holding is bothering him.
“Absolutely.” Gesturing to Casey, I tilt my head toward the door. “Casey, come talk to me real quick. You’ll be in charge while we’re gone.”
“Mind if I drive?” I call out, watching Richter as he speaks to Skylar. Based on the look on her face, and his hold on her arm, I can imagine he’s threatening her, but that stops when he turns to look at me.
“No one drives the truck except me,” he calls back, and I chuckle, leaning against the driver’s side of the truck.
“You’ve got bad tires, don’t know where we’re going, and don’t know the roads to get there.” Shrugging, I point in the direction of town. “It’s a pretty long drive, Richter, and I know where the ice likes to build up. We’ll get there faster, and safer, if I drive.”
Skylar says something to her brother, and he rounds on her, but I can’t hear what he says—I just hate how he’s touching her. It’s not loving. Not kind. It’s cruel, possessive, and unwarranted.
“Of course, if you insist on driving and wreck your truck, you’ll be stuck here with us longer than you’d like.” I smile, tilting my face up toward the sun. “But, as I keep saying, you’re all welcome to stay here as long as you like.”
“Fuck that,” Richter growls, stomping toward me, but I don’t turn my gaze to him until he stops a few feet away. He’s holding his keys out toward me, and I take them with a wide grin.
“Good choice.”
“You’re only driving because the idea of my sisters being trapped here one more fucking day is worse than letting you drive my truck.”
“Noted,” I reply, pushing off the truck to open the driver’s side door. Waving goodbye to Casey on the porch, I know I don’t have to worry about anything. He’ll do exactly as I asked.
He’s always been a good boy.
Twenty-Eight
Skylar
I’m standing on the porch watching Bryden turn the truck around as Richter watches me with stony eyes from the passenger seat. He never lets anyone drive that damn truck besides him, but I know he couldn’t argue with Bryden’s logic no matter how angry he still is.
I sigh when the truck moves slowly out of sight, wondering if Richter will ever come back for me again, but the thought is torn away from me by the young man that stayed behind with the rest of us.
Casey comes over and rests a hand on my forearm. “You should probably get showered up before they get back,” he tells me softly.
“Yeah,” I agree with a nod as I wipe a tear away from my face. The taste of Sierra lingers on my lips and the feeling of Casey’s seed on my inner thighs makes me realize that there’s more than just the physical body that needs to be cleaned.
I have to find a way to purge myself of the atrocities I’ve committed in the name of a love I haven’t earned nor deserve.
Dad always had one simple rule when it came to whoever shared his bed and that was to never betray his heart. While sometimes I honestly don’t think he had one, I realize now that it’s more than likely what drove him to be the man he was.
Our grandmother betrayed him—she must have, even if we never knew how. Mom’s betrayal came the day she tried to push him into the oubliette, though we never got the exact story. I know that he must have embellished it to suit his own agenda because I never do recall Mom being a mean or angry person.
Only when she was trying to protect us from Dad, I think sullenly as I finally turn on my heel and walk into the house. Casey follows, but not too closely—I know he doesn’t understand the damage he’s caused to my family because this is how he was raised, but I know it’s irreparable in Richter’s eyes and I can’t fault him for it.
Luke Greene was a man with his own rules that were set forth in stone and etched in fire.
I’ve broken one of his cardinal sins by bedding a man that wasn’t his son, and I know that I’ll have to atone for that one day soon.
“Come on,” a small voice says to me. I glance up and see Xoe holding a hand out toward me.
If I betrayed Richter, then he betrayed me too and his sin is standing in front of me.
I don’t know exactly what—if anything—happened between the two of them, but she’s a jezebel ready to tempt him away from me at a moment’s notice.
Maybe I should let her, I think as I shake my head at her hand. She shrugs and leads the way to the bathroom where Moira has already laid out clean clothes and underwear for me. As I close the door behind me to have some privacy, it makes me wonder how many times this could have happened before to make everyone seem so goddamn prepared for the fallout that was bound to happen.
I lean into the shower and turn the knobs, holding a hand under the torrent of water until I find a temperature I’m comfortable with, then remove my clothes. I can’t look at my reflection in the mirror even though it’s right beside me because the girl that will look back at me isn’t the same one that I was yesterday or the day before that.
I’m not ready to come to terms with the new Skylar until I’ve had the chance to talk this out with Richter. I’ll apologize more sincerely than I ever have, and he’ll forgive me.
He has to.
We’re family.
“Looks like you’re feeling better, Skylar,” Xoe says politely when I join her and Casey in the kitchen.
“Mm,” I grumble
