Chapter 19 #2
“Boy?” Merrick chuckled, his lips curling into a sneer.
“You can’t order your daughter or me around anymore.
Hell, the only reason I even put up with either of you back then was purely for Giana.
I could’ve beaten you into the ground even as a ‘boy’, and now I can have your body disposed of before it even got cold. ”
“Oh, the things I wish I could do to the two of you.” Spade cackled, his maniacal grin stretching across his lips as Greg and Pam eyed him warily. Pam saw what he could do when we took down the men trying to shake them down after all.
The same fear I glimpsed in Pam’s eyes that night shone there now as she finally met my gaze.
Her hands trembled, but she clasped them together, trying to hide the nervous tell.
It took every ounce of strength I had not to rub a hand over my cheek as rage roiled in my stomach.
The echo of her slap the day after my eighteenth birthday niggled at the back of my mind like it would every time I laid eyes on her.
“Look, we don’t want to fight.” She held her hands up before her in a placating gesture. “We just want to talk.”
“You had six years to do that.” I shrugged. “And then when you did finally see me again, you had the audacity to ask for money.”
They both grimaced at the reminder. Pam eyed my outfit, her lips pursing as though she was about to tell me off like she had so many times before, but to my surprise, she didn’t comment. Her throat bobbed as she swallowed down her opinions, her eyes pleading.
I glanced away, unable to look at her any longer, not when her eyes were just like mine.
I could see myself in her, and that was the worst part.
The familiar excuses ran through my mind, but I blocked them out.
I couldn’t think about what I would be like if I were vacant of hope just like her.
At our core we were two different people.
I fought for the life I wanted, and she crumbled.
“We’re leaving town.” Greg’s words cut through the tense silence. “We got the money from the insurance payout, and we’re going to leave, find somewhere nice and normal to settle down.”
“You’re just leaving your house?” I frowned. The parents I knew wouldn’t leave anything they owned behind.
“We have enough to put a down payment on a place, and we’ll sell the house once everything settles down here.” Greg ran a hand through his thinning hair, glancing around the bar.
I scoffed. “Settles down? These aren’t some unruly teenagers vandalizing businesses. They are trying to bury this whole town alive right now; don’t you understand that? Or have you been too lost in a bottle to even see what’s right in front of you?”
“That’s not us, Giana. We were never going to be the ones fighting back.
” Pam’s attention was on her feet, like she was too ashamed to meet my eyes.
“You’re the fighter. You were determined to get out, and you did.
I know you’ll make it through this. You’re the only one who can.
I just hope you don’t give up your dreams for them. ”
I shook my head, anger, and disbelief twisting into a tornado of rage in my chest. I wasn’t sure why I was so upset.
I didn’t expect anything different from them.
I never had. “My only dream before was getting out of here, and I did. I left, and New York was no better for me. The place doesn’t matter, but the people do, and my home is anywhere these guys are. ”
Kellan stepped up behind me, his hand resting on my shoulder, lending me his solid support.
I could feel the love radiating from my guys as they silently supported me, their expressions softened, eyes twinkling with a love and devotion I never thought I’d have.
They would always be my home. My family.
“We just wanted to see you before we left.” Pam licked her lips, dragging her gaze up to meet mine like it took every ounce of her willpower.
“It took us far too long to see the errors we’ve made along the way—and trust me, we know we’ve made many.
We don’t want the next six years to look like the last. We want to know the brave, powerful woman you’ve become. ”
I frowned, letting her words sink in. It wasn’t truly an apology, but rather an acknowledgment that they weren’t perfect—a fact I already knew.
“That’s not something I can give you, at least not now. I can’t say I haven’t always wondered what you’d be like outside of this town, but after everything, I don’t know how we could possibly move on from all of this.”
“That’s fair.” Greg nodded. “We know what we’ve done is unforgivable, but we had to give it a shot. It wouldn’t feel right leaving this town behind and you along with it.”
“I’ll think about it.” I hid any sign of emotion from my expression, not wanting them to prey on the sorrow burgeoning inside me like a tidal wave readying to wash me away.
I always wanted this on some level. But after that morning Tommaso showed up on our doorstep, when Pam crossed the line from verbal to physical abuse, I don’t think I could ever turn back the clock and see her without that hatred piercing through her amber gaze.
“We also wanted to give you this.” Pam reached into her purse, and my guys stiffened, only relaxing when she pulled a stack of papers from her bag rather than a weapon. “It’s the deed for the diner, or I guess the land that it’s on, now that it’s destroyed.”
I frowned as I took the papers, seeing my name listed as the owner. “What am I supposed to do with it?”
“Whatever you want.” Pam gave me a sad smile, and Greg placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. They were actually acting like they liked each other for once, which was a surprise in itself. “I’m sure you’ll do something more meaningful with the space than we ever did.”