Branded

Chapter Twenty-One The Dark Stallion #2

Last night, after I found out the truth and she passed out, I gave Rad another call and told him everything.

He was just as shocked as I was. Apparently, both girls look alike, and since they’re always together, it never occurred to him, or to me, that there was a chance of mistaken identity.

Not to mention, when I called Rad about the Turner girl, I gave him some pointers, and all of them were based on the letters.

How she loves books more than people. How she spends most of her time at the library.

How her best friend has a habit of falling for the wrong guys.

So, like me, he assumed Reverie was the Turner girl.

But that’s not the worst part. The worst fucking part is that when I did suspect something, I didn’t immediately follow through. What the fuck was I thinking?

I wasn’t thinking, though, was I. I got distracted.

I got fucking stupid the moment I saw her at the café and heard her voice.

That was the moment I started thinking with my dick.

There are no two ways about it. Something about her, something that I can’t put my finger on, does it for me.

Maybe it’s that face, all beautiful and innocent; those blue eyes full of wonder and fire; maybe those lips that tremble with shyness even as they sass me; or maybe it’s her abundant curves that I want to lose myself in.

Or it could be the very fact that despite being at my mercy, she managed to get one up on me.

She managed to fool me good.

I may have made a mistake in kidnapping her, but she’s the one who stood strong.

Who stood firm and determined without cracking despite every ordeal I put her through.

Without once wavering and confessing the truth.

While most men I know would’ve crumbled, she took it all and she did it with dignity.

And fuck, I respect that.

I’m attracted to that. I’m attracted to my wife.

Well, not my wife after all, like she claims.

The thought somehow pisses me off more than the fact that she ruined my plans.

And that is exactly why I need to focus.

Because I want her too much. I want her with an intensity that I have never felt before.

Not even with Annie. The girl I thought I loved.

The girl who loved me but lost her life because of me.

Coming back to the moment, I reply, “What can I say, she fooled me. She was tryin’ to protect her friend and I was too stupid to notice.”

“Yeah, you were,” Mars snaps before turning toward Ax. “You. You’re gonna stay on her. If she puts a toe outta line, it’s your hide I’m tannin’.”

Before Ax can reply back, I say, “No, he’s not.”

Mars snaps his eyes over to me. “You brought a Turner into our home. Doesn’t matter if she ain’t really a Turner as long as she’s loyal to them. What do you, in your infinite fuckin’ wisdom, suggest we do with her?”

I ignore his sarcasm and take a long breath. “Haven can watch her.”

“My wife,” he bites out, “doesn’t work for you anymore. She’s not gonna do your bidding.”

“And my wife won’t be chased around by a fuckin’ horndog who’ll be more inclined to look up her skirt than watch her.”

“Hey, I’m sittin’ right here,” Ax interjects.

“She’s not your wife now, is she?” Mars reminds me.

I let a few moments pass so his dig won’t sting me too much, before I can respond calmly.

“I brought her here. She’s my responsibility.

And yes, I fucked up and I fucked up big.

But she’s already been through a fuck of a lot because of me.

She doesn’t need a fuckin’ watchdog following her twenty-four seven.

She doesn’t need to feel more unsafe than she already probably does, given she’s from the Turner clan and we’re the Graysons. Haven’s a better option.”

Mars’s jaw pulses as he stares at me for a few seconds. “Fine, Haven can be with her. But I want him”—he tips his head toward Ax—“close by. We ain’t taking any chances.”

I don’t like it. But I know my brother won’t budge until I give in. So I shoot him a short nod before turning to Ax. “Close but not too close, yeah?”

Ax watches me with a smirk. “You’re awful jealous about a girl who ain’t your wife.”

I give him a dark look. “You’re awful amused for someone who’s this close to gettin’ his ass kicked.”

Not that it fazes him. He’s still a little shithead like he was eight years ago as he goes, “I’ll treat her like my hot adopted sister; ya happy?” Then, “On the other hand, doin’ your adopted sister does have a very strange taboo appeal, so—”

“Son, stop,” Mars commands.

He quiets down, but that fucking smirk still lingers on his face.

“I’m assuming you have a plan to fix your mistake,” Mars prods, and I shift my focus away from the thoughts of punching my younger brother on the first night I’m back from prison after eight years.

“Rad’s already on it. He should be here tomorrow,” I tell Mars.

He wasn’t happy about it. About what I told him to do.

Not only about my mistake—which he thinks is his, too, and in his typical good-boy way, which he feels guilty for—but also about the fact that the girl he fell for is the real Turner girl.

And hence belongs to the family that took almost everything from him including his speech.

But I didn’t give him a choice. I should feel guilty about it as well—and I do—but I’m an asshole.

I’m selfish and I’m fucking determined to see it through.

“First,” Mars begins, “I don’t like the way you keep draggin’ my foreman into your shit; and second, then what? What the fuck is your mysterious plan?”

“They did it for the land,” I tell him. “So I’m gonna take it away.”

“You are,” he goes, his expression barely changing.

“Thought you’d be happy about it. You’ve been vyin’ for that land for years.”

He has been. Even though we all grew up on the same stories about the feud, I always had a hard time understanding Mars’s drive to follow the same path as our father.

Especially because I never wanted that for myself.

Yes, I was loyal to the ranch and to the cause, but I was always going to move away.

I was always going to buy my own land one day, land that was far away from all this Grayson-Turner bullshit, and chart my own path.

But then it occurred to me. My older brother doesn’t want to follow in our daddy’s footsteps, yet he is like our daddy, which makes sense because Mars was closest to him.

He also was very close to our granddaddy.

Both of whom I knew very little about because they passed when I was too young.

So I know this is a dream come true for Mars.

“And I’m givin’ it to you on a silver platter,” I finish.

“Are you?”

I look him in the eyes and lie, “I am.”

I may be taking away their land, but no, I’m not giving it to Mars. But these things are for later. “Now, if I’ve answered all your questions, I’m gonna go.”

With that, I stand up from my seat, ready to walk out. I’m at the door when I hear him call out to my back: “This won’t bring her back. Nothing ever will. You know that, don’t you?”

My chest is so tight that it feels like it’s about to split open. “I’m not tryin’ to bring her back. I’m tryin’ to avenge her.”

“You’ve done enough.”

“No, I haven’t.”

“You send them money every month.” At this, I turn back to face him, and he goes on, “I know you do. I know you told Rad not to say anything, but eight years is a long time. I figured it out when money started disappearin’ from your account. Same amount, same time.”

“You think money makes up for everythin’?”

Before she died, Annie was the one her family depended on.

Her family being her sick mother and her younger brother.

And yes, I told Rad to make sure they’re covered.

She gave up college to work full-time so she could look after them, so me depositing some money into their account monthly was the least I could do when I was the one responsible for her being gone.

“No,” Mars says. “But you never wondered, did you?”

I stiffen then. “Wondered about what?”

He watches me a beat. “She was new in town. No one knew where she came from. You met her once at the town fair and took up with her.”

“And?”

Again, Mars takes his time with it before saying, “So did it never occur to you that maybe, just maybe, she was takin’ advantage of you? Of who you are.”

It’s true that when I met her Annie was new in town.

She’d just graduated high school and moved two towns over with her sick mother and her younger brother to start a new job as the wrangler at one of the ranches.

So when I met her at the local fair, she had no idea who I was or where I came from.

Other girls wanted to tie me down and take advantage of me being a Grayson.

So even though she was the one to pursue me, I found her ignorance refreshing.

Whatever the case, though, my brother has no business talking about things he’ll never understand.

I clench my jaw for a few seconds before somehow gathering myself and my anger and clipping, “Don’t talk about what you know nothin’ about.”

He shoots me a grave look. “I may know more than you think.”

I study him for a few moments. “Eight years is a long time, ain’t it?

Maybe that’s why you don’t remember. That you’re responsible for her death too.

Turners have always wanted our land but they never stood a chance.

Not until you. Not until you took over and started that little program.

I told you to shut it down. We all told you to shut it down before it was too late, before they came for it and used it to take your precious fuckin’ land.

But you wouldn’t listen. And Annie paid the price for it.

So let me remind you: You don’t know anything about her.

You don’t know anything about my relationship with her.

But like me and the fuckin’ Turners, you killed her too.

Which means it doesn’t matter if she was takin’ advantage of me or not, her death is on all our heads.

And I’m gonna do everything I can to avenge her.

The only reason I’m lettin’ your little program survive is because we’re blood and you weren’t the one who rigged the barn that night.

So I want you to remember that or the next thing I’m comin’ for is you. ”

I don’t wait to find out what his reaction is because I don’t give a fuck. Besides, I’ve been inside this house long enough and I need to get out. But once again I’m waylaid.

“Hey,” Haven greets me as she comes up the hallway.

I jerk my chin up at her.

“I got her settled,” she tells me.

Again, I let the current pass through me. “Thanks.”

“In your room.”

“What?”

She raises her hands in surrender. “She insisted. I offered her another room but she wouldn’t go.”

For a few seconds, I tamp down the urge to go in search of her myself.

To bust down the door of my old room and demand to know what the fuck she was thinking.

Why the fuck would she stay in a place that belongs to me?

To the man who kidnapped her. Who forced her to marry him.

Who then dragged her through the woods, put her through the kind of trauma that she’ll have nightmares about for the better part of her life.

She should be running away from me, from all reminders of me.

She should be trying to find a way to call the cops, or the Turners.

I wouldn’t blame her.

But then it occurs to me that maybe she’s trying to cling to the familiar.

This is the ranch she grew up hating and dreading.

She doesn’t know anyone here except me. And I may be the devil, but it’s better to stick with the devil you know than the devil you don’t.

Besides, even if she wanted to contact the outside world, I wouldn’t let her.

Turner or not, she’s still the enemy.

“Fine,” I say. “If that’s—”

“Although,” she continues, “she wants you to stay away from her. So you’re going to have to find somewhere else to sleep.”

Fantastic.

At least she’s thinking straight. That makes one of us, because despite just getting all worked up over the fact that she still must want to be close to me, I now feel a piercing pain in my chest knowing that she doesn’t want me around.

That tonight, I won’t get to smell her buttercup scent or watch moonlight hit her velvet skin and make it sparkle.

Fuck.

I’m losing my fucking mind, and once again, that’s the last thing I want. “Wasn’t plannin’ on goin’ anywhere near her anyway.”

“What did you do to her?” she asks.

“What do you think I did to her?”

She leans closer and lowers her voice. “You came here with no shirt on because she was wearing it. Did you—”

“Jesus, fuck, why’s everyone so concerned about that?” I burst out. “What I do with my wife is none of your fucking business.”

“From what I hear, she’s not your wife.”

I scrub a hand down my face. “Yeah, people keep remindin’ me of that.” Then, sighing, “Just do me a favor; keep your nose out of my business and look out for her, yeah?”

She frowns and folds her arms across her chest. “Why can’t you do that?”

“Because like you said, she ain’t my wife,” I retort. “And she doesn’t want me around her.”

“Does that bother you?”

“Does what bother me?”

“That she doesn’t want you around.”

I clench my jaw. “This ain’t keepin’ your nose out of my business.”

She isn’t deterred, though. “I think you should be nice to her.”

I give her a look. Then, sighing, I turn my back to her and get on my way.

“Hey, I was talking to you!” she calls out.

“I wasn’t,” I call out.

“You know I’m right. You know you need to be nice to her,” she calls out again, but I choose to ignore her and keep walking.

I don’t need to be anything to her. In fact, for all intents and purposes, our association is over.

She should forget about me, and I sure as fuck will try to forget about her.

But first I’ll kill her daddy, her real daddy.

It won’t erase the years of abuse and her mother’s death, but the world will be a safer place for her.

And then, I’ll do whatever I can to forget about her.