Chapter 22
Weston can’t let his anger at his sister derail the plan, but the same goes for me.
Stay calm.
I should have anticipated Wendy would try to get under my skin. She’s exactly the kind of person who would use my love and loyalty to Dad to get a rise out of me and attempt to leverage his safety to get me to help her.
She knows she can’t get Weston on board without my assistance, and she’ll use everything in her arsenal to do just that. If our plan succeeds, her threats won’t matter. Everything she says will be moot, but it still stings to hear them anyway. If we fail, she’s very likely to follow through.
My hands shake, and I tuck them under my legs on the chair, trying to conceal how truly terrified I am by the thought of anything happening to him. Though, maybe I should allow her to see it.
Because there’s only one way this works, and it has to be believable.
She has to think that I can convince him to do this willingly, and from the looks of the way they’re glaring at each other, the start of this conversation hasn’t gone well.
Maybe he hasn’t been able to separate his true feelings from the ones he needs to express in order for all of us to make it out of this alive. So, I need to act as the “voice of reason” she mentioned earlier, and I need to convince The Beast to become it again.
And I can’t be a blubbering mess to do that.
Settling back in the chair, I try to appear relaxed even though I’m far from it because demonstrating fear in front of this woman would be worse than doing it in front of The Beast.
She seems more vicious, more volatile than he ever was, even that first night. It seems obvious watching her now. The set of her shoulders. The icy-cold, steely look in her eyes.
I don’t know how no one else has ever seen it, how she manages to go on television and claim to support law and order when she’s the one running the biggest criminal empire in the state.
There have always been rumors of Barker family members pulling strings in government, acting behind the scenes, but everyone assumed she wasn’t involved. That she was the one who had escaped the family and was now using her position to help bring it down.
How fucking wrong they all were.
But she isn’t going to escape tonight.
Not if I have anything to say about it.
Which means it’s time to play my role.
“My father made a mistake, a very human one. One any of us might have if we didn’t realize what we were walking into. It was stupid; I won’t deny that. But he doesn’t deserve what’s happening to him. He doesn’t deserve to live in constant terror for the rest of his life.”
Wendy appears unmoved by my plea. “I could end it.”
Her simple statement is enough to stiffen my spine, and Weston’s large hand slides to the back of my neck, the rough callouses brushing against my skin. He squeezes gently, offering me support so that I don’t fall apart when he needs me to be strong.
Swallowing my fear and anger, I attempt to match her look so she knows that what I’m about to say will be a determining factor in our negotiations. “If Weston considers your offer—”
A little snarl sounds behind me, and I bite my tongue to stop myself from chastising him.
I may have been afraid of how I would do when cast in this spotlight, but maybe I should have been concerned more about him.
Wendy ignores his outburst, though, waiting for me to continue.
“If he considers your offer, there would be conditions. Ones that are non-negotiable.”
One of Wendy’s slim, dark brows rises. “Who do you think you are to be making demands of me?”
I glance back at Weston, the hard set of his jaw so different from the soft way he looks at me. “I’m the one he listens to.”
And appealing to her need to get through to him is what will give us the upper hand tonight.
Her lips twitch. “Fair enough. So, what are your conditions?”
“My father is out of it, completely, one hundred percent free of any obligations you may have laid on him or would try to in the future. The Rosewoods have been repaid anything that they lost and then some. He bankrupted himself to do that, and they have been made whole. The Barkers will leave him alone. Period.”
Wendy’s gray eyes flick up to meet Weston’s behind me. “That will be up to my brother, since he would be the one here locally.”
Weston tightens his grip on me. “And what exactly would my role be then, sister? You say that would be my decision. Does that mean you wouldn’t be calling the shots anymore? Are you stepping down?”
She gives a little half grin, then turns to look at the fire. “I’ve always loved this fireplace, you know. It’s so beautiful, inviting, and warm. Really the only warm thing in this entire house.” She peers over her shoulder at him, and for a split second, I see a crack in her mask. “Except you.”
My chest tightens as I’m sure Weston’s is at this moment.
I’d love to believe her emotion is true, but this manipulative bitch will use anything to get what she wants.
“I always thought you’d do quite well in Dad’s role. When he chose Ray”—she shakes her head and returns to looking into the flames, shaking her head—“that was his first major misstep.”
Weston growls. “And what was his second?”
“Overlooking me before he died.”
The way she says it sends a chill through my blood.
Leather creaks behind me again as Weston shifts. “And just how did father die, Wendy? I seem to recall you being the only one here at the house with him when it happened. I was far out in the woods taking care of family business.”
I’ll give the woman credit. She remains relaxed, doesn’t react to the question or the accusation underlying it at all.
She turns back to us, her face a completely neutral mask of indifference. “You know he had an accident, fell down the stairs.”
I squeeze my eyes closed and suck in a sharp breath.
An accident, my ass.
All three of us in this room know what she means.
She killed him.
“Why don’t you just say it, Wendy?” Weston sneers. “You killed Ray and then you killed Father. Because you wanted all the power to yourself, and you weren’t going to wait for it.”
Her eyes flash that same onyx that Weston’s do when he’s angry. “You’re damn right I did because I deserved it. After everything I suffered in this house at the hands of that man—”
“I suffered, too, Wendy.”
“Yes, but you let it break you. You let it turn you into the sniveling mess you are now. Why couldn’t you have just stayed strong, done what you were asked and were damn good at?”
“Continue killing people?”
One of her slender shoulders rises and falls. “What’s one more?”
“What do you think would’ve happened if I killed Ray? I would’ve lost Eliza and myself.”
“You lost both anyway.”
Her words strike me as if they were directed at me because I can feel Weston’s pain bone-deep, even from behind me.
The way these two needle at each other, it’s apparent they’re siblings, but this isn’t getting us anywhere. If I don’t redirect the conversation, this could go wildly off the rails.
“You haven’t answered Weston’s question. What would the arrangement be? Who would be calling the shots? Who would be in power?”
She seems to rein her anger back in. “Of course, I would remain in my role as the head of the family. I’ve worked too hard to get here to let it go. Weston would simply be taking the public one everyone already believes he holds. Quick, daily decisions would be his, but ultimately, I’ll remain the shot caller.”
I glance up at him, making sure my eyes meet his. “Give me until tomorrow night to talk to him to make a decision.”
Wendy offers a sardonic snort. “You really think you can break through to my brother where I failed?”
His hand tightens on the back of my neck again, and I fight the grin that wants to spread across my face.
“Don’t worry, Wendy, your brother and I are very much on the same page.”
We most certainly are.
And Callista played her role beautifully.
From the moment she stepped out onto that landing and met Wendy’s intimidating gaze for the first time, she was sheer perfection. Every bit the woman I knew she was and the partner she would be during all this.
As Wendy stares us down now, waiting to make her final decision, I hold my breath, knowing that even the slightest flinch from either of us would be enough to unravel our entire plan. If she sends those men in the woods in here after us, all bets are off, and what’s waiting for them at the bottom of the mountain won’t matter.
We won’t get another opportunity at this, another shot at her.
Wendy takes a few steps closer, those heels of hers clicking. “You have until noon, and my men stay until I have an answer.”
Of course, her men stay—I wouldn’t have expected anything less.
But I have to continue to stay angry, continue to act as though it will take some convincing to get me to comply with her request. If I bow down to her now and agree, she will know something is up, that something isn’t right, and this elaborate plan would go to shit.
I scowl at her. “They’re welcome to stay, but you know how inhospitable the woods can be, especially in the dark.”
It’s the only warning I offer her, knowing full well that Gray is already on the hunt, that he probably smelled and heard each one of her men as they advanced up the mountain, miles before they reached him. He’s moving like a wraith now, hunting each down, one by one, tearing them limb from limb and ripping out their throats.
Wendy may know the mountain, but it still has its secrets.
As I have mine.
Her lips twitch as she examines me. “It is good to see you, big brother. Until tomorrow.” She starts to walk out of the room but pauses next to the chair, staring down at Callista. “And Ms. Fox…”
Callista turns her head to look at my sister, her green eyes steady, despite the fact that I know she’s trembling.
“I do hope you can get through to my brother and get him on board for everyone’s sake. I know what he’s capable of, and to see him wasted up here on this mountain for thirty years has been painful for me.”
Bitch.
Painful for her?
She’s a soulless, conniving, miserable human being who has never felt anything but greed in her life, who has never wanted anything but power and more of it. She’s never loved anything except the rush it gives her, and that will be what brings her to her knees and finally buries her, even though I wish it could be me.
I’d give anything to be able to grab her arm and drag her out to the gorge to show her the cliff she’s made me throw so many people off. To watch her face when she knows she’s about to suffer the same fate, to see the terror in her eyes.
But it will be there all the same in an hour when she reaches the bottom of the mountain and finds the surprise I have for her there.
She gives me a sharp nod. “Until tomorrow.”
I follow her to ensure that she actually leaves, that she isn’t going to try to double-cross me the way that seems to be part of her nature.
Wendy opens the front door and steps out onto the porch, inhaling deeply while I lean against the jamb. “I’ve missed it, you know, the smell up here.”
“Of decaying bodies?”
She turns back and looks at me. “If anyone can smell the decaying bodies, you’re not doing your job right.”
She isn’t wrong about that.
My comment was meant in jest—a horrible joke about a situation that holds zero humor.
“You know no one will ever find anything up here, Wendy. I’m the only one who knows where they’re buried.”
She gives me a hard smile. “Let’s keep it that way.”
If she only knew…
That smug look would disappear in a second.
Balancing on her stilettos, she crosses the porch and makes her way down the steps into the waiting SUV. She doesn’t look back as she pulls the door open and climbs in, nor does she bother glancing this way before her driver pulls away and takes her down the mountain.
Soft footsteps cross the pine floors before Callista’s arms wrap around me from behind. She buries her face in the middle of my back. “She’s gone?”
Giving a sharp nod, I thread my fingers through hers over my chest. “Yes.”
She squeezes me tightly. “Did I do okay?”
I wait until the taillights disappear between the trees, then turn to face Callista and pull her in my arms, urging her back into the foyer so I can close the door before we speak further.
Capturing her face in my hands, I tilt it up to me. Nothing but love stares at me, reflecting my own. Gone is the terror I saw in her eyes that first night. And after what we just accomplished, I’ll never see it again.
“You did incredible. Absolute perfection, Beauty.”
I dropped my lips to hers and kiss her deeply, needing that connection, that acknowledgment that it worked. She sinks into me, aligning her body with mine, losing herself in it the same way I hope to.
The world melts away for a moment until it’s only the two of us, the need already simmering. My body responds to her eagerness, my cock hardening and pressing against her belly.
She releases a little moan of approval, but then she tears her mouth from mine, panting slightly. “We can’t. We have a phone call to make…”
Fuck.
We do.
And it can’t wait, even though I’d give anything to bury myself inside her right now.
I release her and pull my phone out of my pocket, dialing the number quickly.
He answers almost immediately. “Mr. Barker?”
“She’s on her way and will be there in about an hour.”
“Did you get it?”
I glance at Callista, knowing full well I might not have without her help. “I did. She confessed everything. Admitted killing Raymond Rosewood, admitted being the one in control of the Barker organization for the last thirty years, and even admitted she killed our father to seize power.”
“Jesus, you got all that?”
Not easily.
It took both Callista and me baiting her for Wendy to walk directly into the well-crafted trap.
“I did, all on camera and audio set up in the room with us, not to mention video evidence of the hit squad she brought with her.”
“Do I need to send a unit up there to handle them?”
I tug the door open again and pull Callista into my side as I step out onto the porch. Staring out into the pitch-black woods, I listen to the familiar sounds, searching for one specific one.
A sharp snarl cuts through the night air.
Callista shudders and snuggles closer against me.
I wrap my arm around her. “No, they’re being taken care of…”
An exasperated sigh slides through the line. “You know our deal, Mr. Barker, immunity for all the information you have on the Barker family dealings and your sister. That does not include you getting your hands dirty tonight.”
“Don’t worry, Agent Dean, my hands are clean, and you’ll have all the evidence you could possibly need.”
Between the confession I got tonight and the journals and ledgers I’ve kept for the last several decades secured upstairs, Wendy won’t be leaving a jail cell for a very long time, if ever.
She’ll die there.
And when it comes time to bury her body, she won’t be getting a place in the family cemetery.
They can bury her in a pauper’s grave, for all I care.
It’s what she deserves and far more than she ever gave any of her victims.
“Good. I’ll call you when we have her in custody, and we’ll be up at first light to start work on the property as we agreed.”
“I’ll see you then, Agent Dean.”
I end the call and slip my phone back into my pocket, wrapping both arms around Callista.
She tips her head up, concern furrowing her brow. “Everything all right?”
I nod as I stare out at the dark night, the occasional sound of something purely animal and aggressive cutting through the air. “I will be. We will be. It worked.”
Her grin lights up her face, and I smile down at her.
For the first time in my life, I actually believe the words I just said.
It will be all right because I can finally put the curse and The Beast to rest and just be content here with my Beauty.