Chapter 16 #2
His eyes narrow in on Keller, and I can tell he wants to refuse her request, but instead he takes a step back from the two of them, storming back through the house.
I’m not sure I have ever seen him so furious before.
My dad is normally the voice of reason, calm and rational.
Even though he went right by me, he was too angry to even see me watching.
“Have you told him yet?” Keller asks her.
“I need more time,” my mum whispers.
Keller takes a step closer, the way the two of them look at each other making no sense to me. It’s like they are familiar in each other’s space. Comfortable. “You’ve had plenty of time. Get it done, sweetheart.” Keller’s voice is softer now.
Sweetheart? What the hell?
My mum stares up at him, a clear sadness washing over her. “It’s not that simple and you know it. I received more mail today.”
“Even more reason to end this madness. Tell him the truth and they lose all their power.”
Her head drops, and she lets out a defeated breath.
I thought she hated this man, but the way they’re talking with each other, it’s funny but she looks almost comfortable in his presence.
“I’ll get it done tonight when Dove’s in bed.
I don’t want to cause a scene in front of her, she’s too young to understand what is really going on here. ”
“You need to keep that girl on a tighter leash. She’s trouble for my boys, and we both know that means a problem for us as well.”
My mum’s back stiffens. “I think we both know who the trouble is and it’s not my little girl. Those boys have her sneaking out of the house at all hours. Her grades have never been so low because she’s distracted by them.”
“Have you looked into the boarding school I suggested? She would benefit from some time abroad in an institution like that. For her protection, of course. Once the news gets out, who knows how out of hand this might become. What we have created is going to make us enemies.” He closes the gap between them.
He oozes control over her I haven’t noticed before.
I’m used to my mum being the most powerful person in a room, but Keller has something over her.
“I need my sons focused right now, and you need Dove safely locked away from them.”
My mother sighs. “She’s enrolled for next semester.”
I want to vomit or pass out or scream. What the hell am I hearing? I’m being sent away from my family, my friends?
Keller’s lips twist into a horrible smirk.
One that makes me feel sick to the stomach.
What the actual hell am I hearing? This man has convinced my mum to send me off to some boarding school?
He’s getting me out of the way. What did I ever do to him?
Keller’s dark and evil eyes lock with mum’s, and they share a look I don’t understand, but I know one thing, it’s not hate.
“You know it’s for the best.” Then his ice-cold gaze lands on me.
I’m frozen to the spot. Too scared to move. His sons might be my best friends, but the man has made it clear on more than one occasion he doesn’t like me. And right now, I’m snooping on their private conversation.
Next thing I know he grabs my mum by the back of the neck and forces her into the solid wall behind, kissing her with more passion than I have ever witnessed in real life.
I can’t help the gasp that escapes my lips. What am I seeing? I close my door with a click, leaning my back against it as my heart races like mad in my chest. Why is my mum letting that man kiss her? He has a wife, she has a husband, and Keller Throne is her mortal enemy.
What the fuck. That couldn’t have been real, could it?
I glance back at the photo, the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end because I know it was.
Is this why someone was blackmailing her?
It looks really bad when you’re the mayor and you’re…
doing whatever it is she was doing with Keller Throne.
For one, he had a family, they both did.
I can’t believe she would do this to us, to my dad.
To our town. But it’s pretty clear this wasn’t just about their relationship.
If my mum was with Keller romantically, what else was going on behind the scenes.
Corruption? Was my mum part of his shady underworld dealings to destroy our town when it looked like she was the one fighting against him?
If that’s the case, she would have had so many enemies it would be near impossible to find who was blackmailing her and eventually killed her.
A fresh wave of nausea rolls through me, telling me it’s too close to the message I received in my back pocket.
This is like crazy stalker territory and could explain why my dad got us out of this town and made us change our identities in the first place.
He knew and didn’t want us to end up trapped in this web.
All this time I thought Keller had something to do with her death because he was at our house that night.
But this is much more twisted than I ever could have imagined.
It doesn’t mean he didn’t have something to do with it, but the pretty picture I have painted in my head of my perfect mum has warped quite substantially since opening this box.
No one bothers to blackmail an innocent woman.
I’ve seen enough over the last few years to know that.
My fingers tremble as I place the images back in the safe and shove it in a drawer.
I can’t look at any more of it right now or maybe ever again.
How badly do I really want to know, when the truth might be too awful to live with?
A knock sounds at my door, making me jump out of my skin. I pop it open to see one of the girls I met earlier, Shea and Carla.
“Hey, girl, a few of us were going to ride a few waves then have a BBQ down the beach if you wanna join?” the pretty brunette Carla asks.
I suck in a slow breath, trying to get my heart under control. For a second I thought it was going to be one of the boys having changed their mind or some shit. But these nice girls have me smiling already. “I’d love to, but I didn’t bring my board.”
Shea grins at me, flicking a long braid over her shoulder. “I can find a spare for you, I always carry a few.”
“Really? Thanks.” I grab my towel and close up the van.
This is what I need, an escape from it all.
From how intense the boys are and the general shitshow that is my life.
I follow the girls over to their van and take the spare board from Shea, slinging it under my arm.
It’s been so long since I got on an actual board, I can hardly wait to test it out.
“You traveling up the coast or down?” Carla asks.
“Not sure yet, what do you recommend?”
“You don’t know? Don’t tell me you’ve escaped some horrible boyfriend and you’re traveling to ease a broken heart.” Shea laughs.
I look at her horrified. “Absolutely not.”
“Oh, thank the Lord.”
“We met this chick about an hour that way and she was a mess. Apparently, her boyfriend of ten years was having an affair with a much younger woman, like it was going on for a long time. They had separate houses because she had been hurt before, but this day she went around to his place to get something she left behind, I think it was a dress or something she needed for work, and get this.” She grabs my arm. “He wouldn’t let her in the house.”
My eyes widen. “Uh, why?”
Shea raises a brow. “He obviously had another chick in there.”
I cover my mouth. “Oh shit, what did she do?”
Her lips twist into an all-out grin. “She pushed right past him and went on in.”
“She had her suspicions for a while. She found weird stuff like lingerie she knew she didn’t buy and even a dildo. It’s just so crazy.” Carla shakes her head.
“What happened when she went inside?” I ask, not sure I need to know details, but also kind of dying to know it’s just that scandalous.
“There was his mistress on all fours with a butt plug in just waiting to be fucked.”
My eyes widen, and I can’t help but laugh. “No.”
Shea nods, biting into her bottom lip. “Yes. How mortifying. She had to skip town. Anyway, it kind of has a happy ending because she grabbed the keys to his camper van and took off. She hasn’t been back, and I think it’s been like six months or something.”
“Shea taught her how to meditate.”
“Hopefully it will help, but really, how do you get over life changing stuff like that?”
“Yeah, I’m not sure you do. Wait, are you like a meditation teacher or something?” I ask, curious. I have always wanted to learn how to meditate. Talon talked about it in one of our earlier sessions, but I just thought I wasn’t the right type of person for it.
Shea shrugs. “Meditation, yoga, reiki, I can do it all, girl. I’ll give you some lessons if you stick around long enough.”
“Might just take you up on that offer.” I smile back. These girls are so nice and normal. So opposite from what I have been dealing with lately that I think this is just what I need.
We run down into the water and dive under a wave.
I catch a few then take my board out back to where it’s not breaking and float.
I could get used to this life. New friends, surfing, meditation, sounds like the life.
I mean, I’m going to run out of money by the end of the week and die of starvation, but at least I will be running my own life, not one dictated by some bikers I owe money to or the Thrones.