25. Talon
twenty-five
Talon
T he woman knew how to get under my skin. We’d laid here in the silence for hours, neither wanting to concede. The issue was that she was right and I didn’t want to admit it. I’d been suffering through the same inner battle from the moment Milo took off.
I didn’t want to go after him just to drag him back; I had no desire to fuck up whatever outside life he’d created for himself. We could go round and round in circles about family and loyalty forever and it still wouldn’t change the fact that this illusion of family we’d created was a sham. We didn’t mean anything to Kyle outside of how we could serve him. Hell, I couldn’t say if we even meant anything to our own sister.
So, what was the point of all this? Being trapped under some douche bag who’d never given a fuck about us to begin with. Not so much as asking ‘how high’ when he says jump. I had created something for myself—I’d opened a garage, and it was a damn successful business because of my hard work. But Kyle was in trouble now, thanks to Milo, so I was supposed to stop everything I was doing? Up and leave my shop and employees and life to do Kyle’s bidding? Just another sacrifice in the never-ending loop of my life.
Because he demanded it, and if I didn’t obey, the consequence would be on a kid. A fucking child. As if he hadn’t done enough to destroy the lives of my siblings and me, he had to infect another innocent childhood with the poison that is Kyle MacArthur.
Misely’s breathing leveled out to a soft snore, the only sound in the darkening van. The storm still raged on outside, matching the chaos inside my mind. Would it ever fucking stop? I shifted, staring at the ceiling above me, reaching out to whatever higher power there was for some damn clarity.
She was right about everything; of course she was. It’d been damn near twenty years since we were forced into Kyle’s care, but I’d had fifteen years to get out of this. Fifteen years I’d spent wallowing in my own self-pity. Fifteen years I’d spent letting the motherfucker win.
Milo, the little shit, was taking back his power. He was doing something to better his situation, and despite that lingering feeling of betrayal I couldn’t quite shake, I was proud of him. I even envied him for doing what he had to do to get what he wanted. I glanced to the woman who was snoring lightly beside me. I thought of Leo and the father he’d gotten in someone else because I had been too cowardly to strike out on my own and fail. All the sacrifices made because I was too afraid of losing the fragile image of control I’d created in my life.
I didn’t want to make any more sacrifices. Not for Kyle. Not for the bullshit lie he’d framed as familial loyalty.
When Misely woke I had been driving for around an hour. She’d slept through the rest of the storm and the plow trucks and road crews that had cleared the highway. One of the plow drivers had knocked on the window and guided me as I maneuvered the van off the snow packed shoulder and onto the freshly cleared road. Apparently, we weren't the only ones who’d had to pull over to wait out the worst of the storm, and the crew had been out there for hours getting people moving again.
Sleep had never found me, and my eyes felt heavy as I double checked the GPS that we were moving in the right direction. The sun was rising over the horizon, the first orange rays touching the dashboard as Misely shimmied up into her seat.
She hadn’t bothered to put on her own clothes and the sight of my worn-out t-shirt sliding up her thighs while she buckled in had my throat bobbing. Several long moments passed in silence, the air between us tight with tension. But the glorious sight of the orange and purple sunrise had Misely gasping in awe, the small sound sending a rush of dopamine directly through my system.
“It’s beautiful,” I said, but it sounded wrong coming from me. I didn’t know how to do this. How to act with a girl after I’d done or said something stupid and genuinely felt bad about it. I’d never cared to, and fuck, I knew I wasn’t supposed to care with her either.
Misely continued to stare ahead for another long moment before finally sighing, the sound almost content. “It is.”
I risked another glance her way, taking in how she sat with one bare foot up on the seat, her knee tucked to her chest and her head resting on the support behind it. She was a disheveled mess—her makeup from the day before smeared below her lashes, her hair tangled and out of sorts. So unlike her usual well-kept, highly fashionable self. Still, she was the most stunning person I’d ever seen.
Again she sighed, her eyes pinching shut. “I’m sorry for pushing you last night.”
Her apology caught me off guard, making me choke. After everything I’d put her through, she was apologizing to me? It felt wrong. A sick sense of shame washed over me and I couldn’t stand it. Couldn’t take another moment of it.
“Don’t.”
“Talon, really, I—”
“No, Misely, don’t. You have nothing to apologize for.”
Her jaw snapped shut, her teeth clicking together sharply.
“It should be me. I’m…You were right about me from the start.”
I felt her gaze narrow in on the side of my face but I made no move to meet it. After another long pause, she said quietly. “I’m beginning to wonder about that. I’m beginning to think I was wrong.”
“You weren’t.” I cleared my throat. “I am just a puppet for Kyle and his scheming. Everything I’ve done…I can’t take any of it back. I’m sorry I roped you into it.”
“He’s threatening Leo isn’t he?” It didn’t surprise me that she’d been able to piece the picture together. She was intuitive and paid attention to everything. Not that I’d done a very good job of hiding the truth from her.
I nodded. “I tried to keep him hidden from Kyle and…well, everyone. For his safety. I knew if I didn’t, my uncle would pull something, and I was right. Apparently, I didn’t cover my ass enough because five months ago Kyle waltzed into my garage and slapped down a photo of my son.”
The fury in my voice grew with every word, my grip on the steering wheel nearly painful. Misely’s small hand slid over my thigh and squeezed with gentle encouragement, not saying a word.
“He gave me six months to find Milo and bring him back, dead or alive.”
“The trial,” she said, connecting the dots. Of course she was following the case. “He doesn’t want Milo to testify.”
“Ding, ding, ding,” I said sardonically. “But I think there’s more to it. Kyle’s always been secretive. He keeps a lot of the details of his business close to his chest.”
“And he thinks Milo knows something?”
“No, it wouldn’t be Milo. My guess is it would be the detectives that Milo has been working with. Some of the shit that they had on Kyle to begin with was way above my brother’s pay grade. Milo gave them a means to get the ball rolling; search warrants, probable cause, blah blah blah—but there’s got to be something else that they’re keeping quiet until the trial starts.”
“But if Milo doesn’t show up to testify…”
“Then there’s a chance any evidence he’d brought in as an informant will be canned.”
“And what if it isn’t?”
“It seems that’s a chance that Kyle is willing to take. Not that this will come as any surprise, but Kyle’s losing it. Every time I talk to him, he’s more and more unhinged. And if it’s gotten to the point that Kenna has noticed him, he’s really slipping up.”
It was oddly freeing to talk so openly about everything with somebody. Even with my siblings, I’d had to keep up the illusion of the asshole, gives-no-fucks hard ass. Unless it was anger, I revealed nothing to them. It was remarkable how easy it was to let go of the violence and just be myself with Misely.
“Why don’t you help Milo?”
I scoffed, “And risk Leo? How do I make that choice? My brother or my son?”
“Who said you have to choose? Tell the DEA what Kyle has you doing, about his threats.” She sounded so earnest, straightening in her seat with barely restrained eagerness. I couldn’t sit there and call her naive, not after watching her with her foster cases. She’d been exposed to some dark shit, she knew the horrors in the world.
My mind raced. “I just…there’s a lot on the line, Blondie.”
“Don’t you think I realize that?” she snapped, her demeanor changing in the blink of an eye. It was remarkable how quickly she could switch gears. “I know what’s on the line. It’s not just you, and it’s not just your son. It’s Birdie and Milo, my family, my life. All of us dragged into Kyle’s orbit whether we wanted to be or not.”
Taking a steadying breath, she centered herself. “I can’t stand it. I can’t stand that this one, scrawny piece of shit can have such an impact on so many lives and just get away with it. I want him to pay, Talon. For all the harm he has caused, I want him to suffer .”
Her last sentence sat with me for several miles. She’d said it so softly but with such conviction there was no mistaking her sincerity. Saying nothing else, she leaned her head back, facing out the window to the snowy fields we passed.