Chapter 46
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
LOLA
After the bath and getting changed, I’ve laid my wedding dress on the bed, ready for later when Hunter is home.
I’ve got to get Wyatt from school in half an hour, but I’m hoping Hunter comes with me. I’ve never been a mom-like figure to anyone; I don’t want to mess this up with Wyatt.
While I wait, Violet is about to get the surprise of her life.
I’ve got her location on my phone. She’s at the guest house. Five-minute walk. Easy.
I pull on my sneakers and step out onto the porch, taking a moment to just breathe. The afternoon sun hits my face, and I close my eyes. Listen to the rustle of the animals. The distant whicker of horses.
It’s peaceful here. Genuinely, bone-deep peaceful. The kind I’ve been chasing my whole life.
I jog down the steps, and I’m halfway across the yard when I stop.
My eyes drift left. Toward the barn. I can’t help it, and my feet change direction before my brain gives permission.
I pause when I hear it, a guttural, animal scream coming from behind the closed doors. I tiptoe closer. Curiosity pulls me forward even as instinct tells me to turn around. I hold my breath, press myself against the wall, and peer through the grimy window.
I gasp.
I should look away. I should be disgusted. I should turn around, walk to Violet’s, and pretend I never saw this.
I’m not disgusted. And I don’t look away.
There’s a man roped up to a beam on the ceiling by his wrists.
Shirt stripped off, suit pants still on, his body hanging limp like a piece of meat in a butcher’s shop.
Blood is running in dark lines down his chest and dripping off his ribs onto the dirt below.
And Hunter is whipping him, still in the white shirt he married me in. Over and over. Each crack of whatever he’s using lands in the same zone, and each time the man’s screams grow louder and more ragged until they don’t even sound human anymore.
His brothers stand around the edges. Watching.
Does this make me want to run?
No. It makes me wonder what this man did to deserve it.
They cut the rope and let him drop to the floor. He crumples into the dirt like a puppet with no strings. I keep watching, breath fogging the glass, trying to read lips through the grime on the window.
I can’t make out what they’re asking him, but I can see Hunter’s face. The set of his jaw. The calm behind his eyes. He’s not angry. He’s not out of control. He’s working. This is his job. The other half of the man I married earlier.
And then he turns, and his eyes find the window. Then they find me.
My heart stops. I’m caught. A deer in headlights with her face pressed against the barn glass on her wedding day. He doesn’t flinch. He doesn’t even look angry that I’m here watching him. Instead, he blows me a kiss and winks at me.
My stomach flips. I press my fingers to my lips, return it, and step away from the window.
My hands are shaking. But not from fear.
I married that man.
And I’d do it again.
Taking a breath, I run back to the house and grab the keys to Hunter's truck. There is no way he’s going to be ready in time for the school run with everything going on in that barn. So I’m just going to go ahead and make my way there.