Chapter 43
43
[Judd]
A s Genie returns to the house alone, I take another moment to survey the surrounding dock. If the ring fell into the water, all might not be lost. I have a metal detector, but I also need help.
I’m numb as I retrace my steps to the house, recalling how I’d just seen the ring on her finger.
It had been there, right?
Genie looked devastated but I had no words. The ring had become my focus. I felt like fucking Golem. My precious .
So much was tied to that ring. My mother. My history. Genie herself.
I had to get it back.
Once inside, I put on some real clothes, and text in the family chat. Might be the first time I’ve initiated contact.
Emergency. Lost mom’s ring. Need help searching.
I don’t know who would show or when or how.
Genie is packed and standing in the great room when Vale arrives first.
“I don’t want to go,” Genie says, her voice hesitant, as she peers out at the lake.
I didn’t want her to leave either, but her meeting is important. She’ll be gone only one night, maybe two. “I’ll be right here.”
She steps up to me and leans against me, but I’m granite. To be anything otherwise would cause me to collapse.
I must find the ring.
It represents everything I’ve been through to become the man I am today.
No family member ever complained that I wore the rings around my neck. In many ways, I felt like the keeper of the rings. The last shreds of our parents, representing the good and bad in them. The yin and yang of the lightheartedness of our mother and the darkness of our father.
The loss feels irresponsible, and I feel responsible to right the loss.
As Vale enters my place, she says, “What can I do?” Her eyes search mine knowing what this means for me.
“Take Genie to the airport?”
“What?” Vale and Genie say in unison, glancing at each other and then back to me.
“Genie’s meeting with Greetings Ambassador was moved up. I need you to take her to the airport. Someone else can help me look for the ring.”
Vale steps closer to me. “Judd, it’s only a ring.”
“It’s our mother’s ring,” I state loudly, feeling the edges of my composure begin to fray.
Vale briefly looks at Genie who has stepped away from us. “Some things are more important, Judd.”
My heart hears her. Genie is the most precious person in my life. She is important to me. But my head, my thoughts, take over.
Vale looks between Genie and me once more, but Genie is no longer looking at me. Her eyes are aimed toward the open front door.
“Just go,” I whisper to Vale, nodding at Genie.
Vale takes Genie’s rolling suitcase by the handle and struts forward while Genie gives me a final glance. “Good luck, Judd.” Then she’s shutting the door with a soft click.
The words hold finality. Goodbye .
The soft nick of the door nearly echoes but it sounds like the metal clang of an iron gate closing around my heart.
She didn’t kiss me. The thought hits me too late, like a sucker punch to the gut.
Couple goals dissolved.
“How’s it going?” Knox calls out as he storms across the grass toward me, where I’m waving the metal detector I own back and forth over the lawn.
“Where’s Genie?” Sebastian asks next as he accompanies Knox.
“She left.” I don’t bother glancing up at them, but I sense Sebastian stumbling to a stop.
Knox whistles low. “What happened?”
“Greetings Ambassador moved up their meeting to tomorrow.”
“Why didn’t you go with her?” Knox asks and I finally glance up.
“Because she . . . we lost the ring.” I can’t fault her. In my heart, I know she didn’t do it intentionally. But I still cannot reconcile that it’s gone. The last talisman of my mom. Vanished.
“You idiot.” Sebastian seethes and my blood begins to boil. The twitching of a beast rumbles inside me. I hate being called names.
“Your most valuable thing . . . no, person . . . just left.” He points toward the house. “And you let her go.”
I could argue that I was going to lose Genie anyway, but it no longer felt true. She said she loved me. She’ll come back to me.
Slowly, panic mingles with the loss boiling in my veins. She’ll come back, right?
Sebastian is suddenly glaring at his phone and then it rings in his hand. He glances up at me while answering it and listens to someone speaking to him.
“Yeah, Vale,” Sebastian states, still staring at me. “I just told him he was stupid.”
The grief rumbling through me becomes anger. I drop the metal detector and rush my youngest brother. Knox catches me within inches of taking him down.
“I said not to call me that.”
To his credit, my brother Knox is strong. Bricklaying does that to a man, and he holds me back as best he can but I’m still trying to reach around him and get at Sebastian.
“Fuck you, man,” Sebastian yells at me.
“No, fuck you,” I scream but it’s not really my brother I feel like hollering at.
“What the fuck?” Ford’s voice carries over the yard and Clay is suddenly standing next to Sebastian.
“He started it,” Sebastian states pointing at me.
“Are we twelve again?” Ford turns on Sebastian.
“Everyone just calm the fuck down,” Clay warns while Knox is still holding me back and anticipating every move I make as I try to break right and then left to dodge him.
I’m better than this. In the ring, I’m more alert, more perceptive of my opponent’s intended moves. But these men are not my opposition. My brothers are not my enemy.
Eventually, I sag and then I’m folding down to the ground.
I fucking lost the ring . And now I’m losing Genie.
“What’s really the issue here?” Clay squats before me.
“I lost the ring,” I state again.
Clay shakes his head. “It’s not the ring. The ring is a thing, Judd.”
“It was Mom’s.”
“Yes, it was, and you’ve been wearing it as a way to keep her close.” Clay sighs, glancing up at my brothers behind me, before staring back at me. “But Mom is in here.” He taps his temple. “And here.” He pats his chest.
He lowers his voice. “And Genie, someone you can actually hold on to, just left without you.”
“I know.” I cover my face as I sit on the grass. My heart conflicted.
“You don’t need the ring, Judd. You have Genie instead.”
My mouth falls open ready to argue but Clay holds up his hand. “I know you have it in your head that Mom’s ring was meant for you. And maybe it was. Maybe it was her way of watching over you. But you don’t need it anymore. You’re where you belong. With someone who is right for you.”
Genie. It’s always been for Genie.
“But you all trusted me to hold onto it,” I whisper, glancing at my brother like the eight-year-old kid who’d just lost his mother.
“And now, we’re trusting you to love Genie.”
“Fuck,” I grumble. I scramble from the grass. As I stand and face the house, Stone is crossing the lawn next.
“What’d I miss?”
“He tried to rush me,” Sebastian states, still sounding petulant. Stone’s brows lift in surprise as he glances at me.
“This about the ring?”
I don’t need to repeat that it’s lost.
Clay is already shaking his head. “We already covered everything.”
How it’s a symbol of Dad’s love for our mother but it was also a reminder of his demise. A reminder that he lost his shit when I took it and nearly beat me to death.
Stone would never say I deserved the beating I got. Never . But he’s staring at me like I should understand. When you lose something precious belonging to someone you love, it can make you go a little crazy. I certainly feel out of my head with this loss.
I feel like . . . my dad. Like I’m coming unhinged. The ring is gone. So is Genie .
I need to get her back, because I can win her back.
“You are not him.” Stone steps closer to me, like I’m a caged animal about to pounce. He cups the back of my neck and squeezes like he does when he wants your attention and repeats himself. He brings his forehead forward, close enough to touch, but we don’t meet. “You are not him.”
Knowing I lunged for Sebastian, I might be more like my father than I thought, and that frightens me more than anything else.
No, losing Genie scares me the most.
“I messed up.”
“Nothing you can’t fix,” Stone says.
“I lost the ring.”
“I’m talking about the girl,” Stone chuckles.
There’s always a girl , Genie once said. And I don’t want to lose mine.