Chapter 24
CHAPTER 24
WILDER
W ilder floated on the edge of sleep, the tablet turned off and resting on his thigh, when the door opened to a flurry of activity. He raised his head, wincing at the pain in his neck, as Mary-Beth was wheeled into the room and settled into place exactly where she’d left it, pale and groggy but smiling. Emily swanned into the room behind the nurses, going to Mary-Beth’s side and fussing with her blankets.
“Hey, how’d it go?” he croaked.
She nodded. “Great. The babies are in the nursery. They let me see them in the recovery room, said they’ll bring them in soon after they check them over. How’s Annie been?”
“The bravest trooper of us all, I think. She finally tuckered out during Doc McStuffins.”
Mary-Beth huffed out a laugh. “She loves that show.”
“I know. She made me watch it.”
“Lain?” she asked hopefully.
“On his way. We talked to him—Annalise and I. They were already on the road and headed this way. Shouldn’t be long now.”
She relaxed. “Good. I can’t wait for him to meet the boys.”
Emily’s face soured at Mary-Beth’s shoulder, but she didn’t seem to notice.
Under his arm, Annalise stirred.
“Hey, wild thing, your mom’s back,” Wilder murmured.
She raised her head. “Momma?”
“Yeah, baby girl. I’m here.”
“Oh, Momma!” She flew from Wilder’s side, boots clomping across the tile until she was at her mother’s side, gripping her hand tight and beaming up at her. “My brothers?”
“They’ll be here soon. The nurses are taking good care of them.”
“Yay!” Annalise gently reached out and patted Mary-Beth’s stomach. “Your belly is gone.”
Mary-Beth chuckled. “For the most part, yeah.”
“Be gentle, now,” Emily chided.
“I am,” Annalise said with a pout.
“Yes, she’s fine, Mother,” Mary-Beth said. “Did you have fun with Grandpa and Uncle Wilder?”
“Yes!” She launched into a tale about her honeybun and the phone call with Lain and teaching Wilder about Doc McStuffins.
Mary-Beth’s eyes flickered between Wilder and Robert. “And did Grandpa and Uncle Wilder get along?”
Robert harrumphed, and Wilder shot her a rakish smile. “We’re the best of friends.”
Mary-Beth’s eyes twinkled with weary mirth. She opened her mouth to reply when the door opened, and they all turned expectantly. As though summoned, Lain stepped into the room, his gaze bouncing around the small space before landing on his wife. His smile was one of immense relief, and he rushed toward her, gathering Annalise into a hug and then leaning over to kiss Mary-Beth gently.
“I’m so sorry, we came as quickly as we could. How are you? How are the babies? Did everything go okay?”
“Yes, I’m fine, they’re fine, everybody’s fine.”
Wilder stood, shoving his hands in his pockets. He had no idea what to do now.
An arm caught the door before it could swing shut, and Cash stepped into the room, tipping his hat at Mary-Beth. Relief shook through Wilder, and maybe Cash noticed, because he stepped the rest of the way into the room, clapping a hand on Wilder’s shoulder and pulling him against his side in a way that looked friendly but felt like much more.
While Mary-Beth regaled Lain with the night’s events, interspersed with exclamations from Annalise, Cash leaned his head in close to Wilder.
“How are you doing?”
He sagged. “I was not cut out for being the supportive, responsible one. I’m glad you guys are here.”
Cash smiled, his eyes tracing the lines of Wilder’s face like he could read his stress there. “Seems like you’ve done just fine.”
It didn’t really feel that way, but they all made it through. That was the important thing.
Robert cleared his throat and drew himself up to his full height. “Lain, we need to have a talk.”
Lain blinked at his father-in-law, his smile fading. “About what?”
“Dad, please, not right now,” Mary-Beth said. “They’re going to bring the boys any minute?—”
“All the more reason to do this now,” Robert said, pinning Lain with a glare. “I always knew your priorities were skewed, but I never thought you’d endanger my daughter and granddaughter like this .”
Lain shook his head in confusion. “What are you talking about? Endanger them how?”
“I can’t believe you’d even let this man back on your property, let alone leave him in charge of helping our Mary-Beth get to the hospital while she was vulnerable!” He jabbed a finger at Wilder, who somehow wanted to disappear and hit something at the same time, leaving him with hunched shoulders and a ticking jaw.
“Dad,” Mary-Beth tried again.
Lain’s face twisted in disbelief. “What? That’s what you’re mad about?”
“Why’s Grandpa mad at Uncle Wilder?” Annalise asked.
Emily patted Mary-Beth’s shoulder and then reached for Annalise’s hand. “He’s not mad, sweetie, just worried. Come on, let’s go see what else that vending machine had. I could use a snack.”
Lain waited, lips pursed, until Annalise was out of the room. Then he calmly took a breath and said, “I didn’t ‘leave him in charge’ of them?—”
“You should have been here!” Robert interrupted. “You’re her husband! You’re supposed to be here when she needs you! Not your white trash, murdering brother!”
Wilder couldn’t hide the shock on his own face, and Mary-Beth’s mouth opened in offense. Cash’s hand tightened on his shoulder.
“Dad!”
“We thought we had more time!” Lain said.
Wilder tried not to be offended by Lain’s lack of denial at the ‘white trash, murdering brother’ part.
“She was scheduled for a C-section six weeks from now. I was only supposed to be gone for one night. We thought?—”
“They recommend pregnant women don’t travel for two months before their due date just in case they go into labor early. It never occurred to you that that was possible?”
“Of course it occurred to me,” Lain said, running a hand down his face. “We were just hoping for the best. Both of us.”
“That’s true, Daddy, I told him to go,” Mary-Beth added.
Robert ignored her. “You’re a father and a husband, Lain. You have to do more than hope. You have to be there. It shouldn’t have been him driving them here and holding her hand and keeping Annalise entertained. It should’ve been you!”
“He’s here now,” Wilder said begrudgingly. Maybe Lain wouldn’t defend him, but Wilder wasn’t just going to stand there and let Robert walk all over him. He’d never been good at letting Lain take the punches, after all. Some things never changed.
Robert’s lip curled. “What?”
“I said he’s here now! That’s what counts, right? He turned around and came right back as soon as he got my message.”
“He missed the birth of his sons,” Robert said. “And I told you to leave when he got here. What are you still doing standing there?”
Drawing himself up, he stepped away from Cash and snapped, “Hey, asshole, this is my family, too!”
“You murdered your father!” Robert roared. “Brutally, too, if I recall correctly. What do you know about family ? Take a look at yourself! You’re wearing prison tattoos like what you did is some kind of badge of honor. You’re a monster!” He whirled on Lain. “You let a monster into your home with my girls, Lain, and that is unforgivable. Men like him don’t change, and you’re a fool if you think you can let that snake around anything you care about.”
“Daddy, that’s enough,” Mary-Beth said sternly. She was still groggy and pale, and Wilder cast her a wan look. She shouldn’t be having to deal with any of this so soon after giving birth.
But Lain, looking weary and almost gaunt, like the years had aged him twice as fast, looked at Wilder and said, “You should just go.”
It felt like a sucker punch straight to the solar plexus. He couldn’t suck in enough air. Mary-Beth gaped at his back, and Robert straightened, looking triumphant.
“Lain,” he started, casting about for something, anything, to say.
Lain shook his head, carding his fingers roughly through his hair. “Just go! Okay? I can’t—I can’t deal with this right now. I’m here now, so you don’t need to stay. You being here is just making everything worse. Just get out of here.”
Wilder was rooted to the spot, his breaths harsh and his chest aching. He thought shivs hurt. They were nothing compared to Lain’s careless dismissal. The worst part was that he couldn’t even deny Lain’s words. This whole argument was because of him. If he was gone, the drama would be, too. His presence was making things harder for Mary-Beth, who deserved to rest.
That didn’t mean it didn’t hurt, though.
“You heard him,” Robert said coolly.
“Dad, that is enough ,” Mary-Beth said poisonously.
“Wilder,” Cash said gently, and the sound of his voice knocked Wilder back to the present.
He gathered all the steel he had left, using it to straighten his spine, and nodded. “Fine. Consider me gone.”
“Wilder,” Mary-Beth said plaintively, “you don’t have to?—”
Wilder shook his head and turned on his heel, because Lain wouldn’t even look at him now, and he wasn’t going to stick around where he wasn’t wanted.
Cash reached for him. “Wilder.”
He dodged around Cash’s seeking hand, because if he touched him, Wilder would fall apart. He’d rather rip off his own arm that let these people see him break. He wrenched the door open and strode out.
The minute he was away from them, he broke into a run.
They’d never wanted him here, had they? Lain endured his presence because… Wilder didn’t know. Maybe he felt sorry for Wilder having nowhere else to go. Maybe he felt like he couldn’t say no. The ranch had grown and flourished, and maybe Robert was right. Maybe he was a plague on the whole place. Maybe it had outgrown him completely. Mary-Beth was probably just trying to be nice by letting him feel included. If Lain didn’t want him there, why would she? He was nothing to her. And Annalise… She was seven. Her opinions clearly couldn’t be trusted. She liked her grandpa, after all, and he was a heinous old man. Maybe Wilder was really no better.
A part of him had always known his time at the ranch was temporary. He just hadn’t expected it all to unravel quite like this.
He mindlessly strode across the parking lot to the truck—Lain’s truck, technically, but there was another truck at the back of the parking lot with a Blackwood Ranch trailer hitched to it, so it wasn’t like he was leaving them stranded.
He drove on autopilot, his mind racing. He was loath to leave. Blackwood Ranch was the only home he’d ever known. Leaving it would mean leaving Cash, leaving Blaze. He would have to completely start over, but at least if he left Roselake he wouldn’t ever have to listen to anyone call him a monster again.
Dad was the monster. He’d fought the monster and lived to tell the tale, but no one wanted to listen. They condemned him for not enduring the abuse until he could escape.
When the ranch came into view, it was like looking through time. He could see it as it once was, a palimpsest of the neglected home he once knew and the lovingly restored family home he barely recognized.
He’d never felt more like a stranger in the place where he grew up.
He parked crookedly in front of his door and got out, stomping across the grass and jamming the key into the lock. He slammed the door hard and got to work, laying his worn duffel on the bed and opening one drawer after another. Not all of his clothes would fit, but he made sure he had enough, then put on a pair of jeans, grabbed his jacket and his bag, and returned to the door.
Cash would just have to understand. One person wanting him here wasn’t enough to undo the whole damn town wishing he’d disappear. It would hurt to leave him, but at least this way they would have a clean break. Cash deserved better than him, anyway.
Or that was what he kept telling himself, dashing the tears away as they fell. His eyes snagged on the e-reader on his bedside table, and he sniffled hard.
“Fuck,” he said wetly.
“What’s going on?” a familiar voice said behind him.
Wilder turned, shutting his door decisively as he met Billy’s eyes. “I’m leaving.”
Billy’s expression sharpened as he took in Wilder’s watery eyes and packed duffel.
“I’m sure you’re heartbroken about the decision,” Wilder dismissed, moving past him.
“Let me give you a ride.”
Wilder stopped, shooting him a skeptical look. “What? Why?”
Billy shrugged. “You’re right, I never wanted you here. I’m not sad to see you go. But driving you myself will save us a trip into town later to pick up the truck. I mean, I assume you’re taking the bus or something out of town, right? Not just stealing the truck?”
Wilder bristled. “Yeah, I’d leave it somewhere. I’m not a total asshole.”
Billy smiled lopsidedly, but there was little humor in it. “Sure. So?”
He sighed. “Fine. Let’s get a move on.” He tossed his bag in the backseat and climbed into the passenger seat.
Billy didn’t say a word as he put the truck in gear and guided it around the circular drive, which was just as well. Wilder dropped his head in his hands and stared at his boots. He’d get a room at the motel until morning and then take the first bus out of Roselake. After that… who knew.