The Wiyot were the only ones that had a reason, but was one of them worth losing others? Only they could decide that. One thing was sure. No one would get out of this unscathed.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Karma was a bitch. It was the perfect payback. Martha Riker would finally get what was coming to her and he didn’t have to lift a damn finger. As for Dan, well, he’d warned him. He’d been given lots of chances to stand by the Stricklands and do what was right for the family, but he’d refused. He’d dug his heels in the ground, turned up his nose, and given him that whole self-righteous spiel. Well, now he would get his comeuppance. Hank scoffed and relished this moment. “No, and that is my final word on the matter,” he said to Nina who hadn’t stopped pleading since she’d arrived yesterday.
It was quite pitiful actually.
“I wish I was never associated with the Strickland family.”
“Yeah, well you are and consider yourself lucky.”
“Give us a moment,” Samuel said. His brother gestured for Nina to leave the room. Unfortunately, her father had sided with her on this matter. It wasn’t that he liked the Rikers, as he hated them as much as Hank did, but it was Dan. He had close ties to Dan, and he believed that no matter what, family was still family.
“Don’t waste your breath, Samuel. I’ve said my piece.”
“Yeah, well now I will say mine.” He closed the door behind Nina and turned. “You’re my brother. Nothing will ever change that. I have always done what is right by this family to the extent of losing my daughter’s faith in me.”
“Oh please. Dear Lord, spare me the drama. That child inside Nina was an abomination. It would have undermined everything we have done to date as a family.”
Samuel nodded. “I’m not disagreeing with you, brother. And we must live with that transgression.”
“Oh don’t you dare bring religion into this.”
Samuel was a religious man. More so than anyone else in the family. He’d found God in prison. That’s why it had struck Hank as odd that he agreed to the abortion. He was pro-life but only when it served his purpose. In Hank’s eyes, all religious people were like that. Cherry-picking whatever the hell and twisting words to support their decisions. Not him. He was a straight shooter.
“What I’m saying, Hank, is that Dan is not a mixed breed. He has no ties to the Rikers. He’s one of us.”
Hank exploded on him, stabbing a finger in the direction of the town. “He WAS one of us. Not anymore. And as for ties to the Rikers. Of course, he has. He shielded Alby and refused me my right to justice. Now if that isn’t showing preference I don’t know what is.”
“He’s a lawman. What do you expect him to do? They have rules.”
“As do we!” Hank shouted.
“You are not above the law.”
Hank laughed as he wandered out into the kitchen and collected a beer. He cracked it open and drank half of it in one gulp as Samuel continued his tirade of nonsense. “You know, Samuel. That’s why I like you. You are a walking contradiction. One minute you say you are following the laws of God, and the next tossing them to the wind and aborting children.” He laughed again. “You religious folks are a fucking mystery.”
“Don’t mock God.”
“I’m not. I’m mocking you. You are an embarrassment to your faith. So get off your high horse, step down from your podium and keep your religious crap out of this house. Because until you can demonstrate you walk what you talk, you might as well shut your mouth. You’re a joke and an embarrassment to this family.”
He walked past him, knowing he would do nothing. Samuel had always been the black sheep of the family. The odd one out. And now he had run to God and used religion as a crutch. He wouldn’t have minded had he done it one hundred percent of the way. But he had one foot in God’s laws, and the other in theirs. Nothing burned him more than hypocrisy, and Samuel was ripe with it.
“I’m not perfect. I know that. I don’t understand all that is required of me but I have tried. I don’t see you trying.”
“That’s because I don’t, brother,” Hank said. “I mean why would I? Look at you. Guilt-ridden. Drenched in self-loathing for your sins. Living in terror that you might say the wrong thing, do the wrong thing, be the wrong thing. Who the heck wants to carry that kind of baggage around? No. The good Lord knows what he gets with me. It’s not a mystery. Hell, in many ways I’m following the words of the good book more than you.”
Samuel shifted from one foot to the next. “Really? How so?”
Hank paraphrased it but quoted some scripture that he barely knew, something about being hot or cold but not lukewarm or God would spit him out of his mouth. “I don’t lie. I know what side of the fence I’m on. Do you, brother?”
Samuel looked despondent. No doubt he would go home, fall on his knees and offer up a tearful cry. If he could flagellate himself he would. He had to wonder if he had already done that like the ancient monks. No doubt he was torturing himself for allowing the doctor to abort his daughter’s child. Not him. It was the right thing to do. He wouldn’t lose a second of sleep over it. “Now I am done having this conversation.”
“Then his blood will be on your hands,” Samuel said.
Hank lost it. Although he didn’t live in regret, he despised anyone that tried to pin someone else’s bad choices on him. He lashed out, striking Samuel across the jaw with a right hook. Samuel hit the floor and he
