Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
FALLON
Family
Why did I push? She’s not ready. I don’t know if she’ll ever be ready. It doesn’t matter anyway because I’m not the man she wants. I’ve never been that man.
Devils and angels, and the devil always loses.
Wanting to punch something, I fold my arms over my chest, lean my head back against the rest, and shut my eyes. Block out the world and try to think of anything other than the panicked look on Elizabeth’s face.
“When is Aurora getting back?”
She, JD, and their kids went to Utah for their annual summer vacation trip to visit Arches and Canyonlands. It’s a thing with her. She wants to visit every national park in the US before she’s sixty.
Knox doesn’t take his eyes off the road. “Good to see you, too.”
I crack an eye open, not in the mood.
I can feel his eyes roll. “Next weekend.” He seems to think something over before saying, “Want to talk about it?”
“No.”
Knox is one of the boys Elizabeth and I met at the women’s shelter in New York.
He’s the only one who has stuck around. He and Aurora dated for a while before JD came back.
Competed in motocross until his body couldn’t handle it anymore.
Now, he works alongside Marcus at the garage, managing their motocross team.
I’m proud of all the boys. Him, Devon, Trevaughn, and Butch.
They’re good men who have made great lives for themselves, despite the shitty hand they were dealt when they were born.
“Just a heads-up. Trevor is pissed about something. You may want to steer clear,” Knox informs me.
And I know why. Great. Just what I need as soon as I walk inside the house.
“Even Austin is tiptoeing on eggshells around him,” Knox adds.
Talk about a twist of fate. Austin is Marshall’s younger brother. Luckily, he didn’t travel down the same path his older brother did. Austin and Aurora got tight in high school. He saved my sister from…I don’t want to go there. That part of her life is over. I made sure of it.
Austin started working for me right out of college.
It was the least I could do for what he did for Aurora.
He and Trevor have been together for about seven or eight years now.
Every one of my siblings has found happiness and love.
They have their own families and are living beautiful lives.
I’m the outlier. There is no happily ever after for me.
And that’s okay. I’ve accepted it. Some people are destined to walk alone in this world.
After several minutes of silence, Knox says, “I know you don’t want to talk, but can I say one thing?”
“No.”
He does anyway.
“It’s about time you got your head out of your ass and went after her.”
Fuck you is on the tip of my tongue, but I hold it in.
Engaging the blinker, he turns onto the private road and waits for the guard stationed at the guardhouse to open the gates. The Montgomery estate comes into view as soon as we crest the hill, its limestone exterior like a beacon under the moonlight.
Knox parks the car on the circle drive in front of the house, and I get out.
“Hey,” Knox says, coming around the hood. He takes me in a back-slapping hug. “Glad you’re back.”
With that, he saunters over to his bike, unhooks the helmet hanging off the handlebar, and puts it on. Throwing his leg over the saddle, he starts it up, torquing the gas. The reverberating engine revs shake the window glass on the Porsche.
“Come by the house sometime this week and visit your godson,” he says and takes off.
Shoving my hands deep inside my trouser pockets, I stand on the paver stone driveway and stare up at the monstrous house.
Evil used to lurk inside its walls. Growing up, there had been countless times I wanted to douse it with gasoline and light a match just to watch it burn to the ground, along with my father.
Instead of entering the house through the massive double front doors, I take the stone walkway that leads around to the back gardens.
Plucking a piece of climbing jasmine off the vine on the trellis, I twirl it between my fingers and look out over the Montgomery land that spans as far as the eye can see.
Past the gardens is too dark to make out anything, but I know the forest and the small pond lie beyond.
The pool and tennis court take up the east side of the property, the horse stables and helipad on the west.
The perfectly manicured estate, the luxury of the mansion that sits in the middle of it all like a decrepit king on his throne—I’d give it all up in a heartbeat. But I can’t because it’s not my legacy anymore. Pieces of it belong to my four brothers and three sisters…and the rest…
The rest I placed in Elizabeth’s name to do with how she wishes.
She can pass it on to her children or sell everything to the highest bidder.
I don’t fucking care. I never wanted this life and all its trappings.
I just wanted normalcy. A place in this world where no one would hurt me anymore.
I found it with Ry and his family. But they weren’t mine. Just like Elizabeth isn’t mine.
Walking to one of the chaise lounges on the back patio, I drop down onto it and kick my feet up.
“What in the hell do you think you’re doing?”
For fuck’s sake. I just want one second of peace.
“Christ, Trevor. Can’t it wait until tomorrow?”
He shoves my feet out of the way and takes a seat on the end of the lounge. I don’t feel sorry one bit when I kick him off the edge, and he lands on his ass.
Picking himself up off the ground, he wipes the backs of his shorts off and sits down next to me.
“I forgot how juvenile you can be.”
“You started it.”
“And you just made my point.” The legs of the lounge scrape across the travertine stone when he drags it closer. “Elizabeth doesn’t need another disappointment.”
“Thanks,” I reply sardonically, but I can’t be mad at him for wanting to protect her. My threats would be much worse if our roles were reversed.
His hand finds my shoulder and squeezes. “Don’t give her hope if you’re not sticking around. You weren’t here to watch her fall apart.” His voice breaks, and the desolate sound cracks my heart wide open. “It was bad, Fal.”
I push his hand away. “ I know .”
Just because I wasn’t here doesn’t mean that I wasn’t aware of what was going on. He fucking knows that, so I don’t appreciate him acting like I’m an oblivious idiot.
Trevor rubs the scruff of his short beard and releases a weary sigh.
“How much do you love her?”
With everything I have in me.
Needing him to understand, I reveal a truth that no one else knows. “Trev, I haven’t touched another woman since the day Ry and I saw her in the student union at CU.”
His eyes flare wide for good reason. I had a reputation growing up, and the number of women I’ve fucked would make the pope blush.
“But that was…”
Over twenty years ago. But when you find your soulmate, being with anyone else just isn’t an option. And when you love someone as much as I love her, the thought of touching another woman isn’t even a consideration.
“Holy shit,” he wheezes.
Accordioning my fingers behind my neck, I gaze up at Elizabeth’s snow globe of stars. I love how she sees the world. Even after all the horror she has survived—her attack, the loss of her family, the loss of her daughter, the loss of her husband—she still sees beauty in the world.
“Catch me up.”
Trevor props his elbows to his knees and sits forward. “Not much to tell since the last time we spoke. Second quarter profits were good. The FDA approved our IND application, so we’ll start clinical trials soon. Austin and I are getting married.”
I catch the last thing he says. “If I’m the last person you told, I’m going to beat your ass.”
He laughs, his cheeks blushing under his beard. “You’re the first. Austin wants to wait for Aurora to get back, so until then, keep it quiet.”
I jackknife upright and hug the shit out of him. “So happy for you, brother. Austin is a good man.”
He wipes tears from under his eyes. “The best. I’m a very lucky guy.”
I take his face and touch our foreheads together. “I know he counts himself just as lucky. Congrats, man.”
Trevor and I started our relationship as enemies, not brothers. Back then, every interaction felt like a battle. I thought we’d never be anything more than rivals forced to share a father who didn’t want either of us.
Elizabeth changed that. Because of her, Trevor and I became true brothers, the bond we now share unbreakable—something I never thought possible when we were standing on opposite sides of the battlefield.
“He’s inside if you want to come say hi.”
We stand up at the same time, and I hook an arm around his shoulders as we walk toward the house.
“Word of advice,” he says. “Fight like hell for her and those kids.”
I plan to.