Chapter 46
FORTY-SIX
Ramsey
When we open the door to her room, Amelia’s already furiously packing up her things. It’d only taken us a few minutes to look through Curtis’s phone, after Hazel explained her suspicions, to figure out that she must have been his accomplice. She was keeping her eyes on the ranch and on Hazel whenever he was gone.
Amelia must have put together that something happened to Curtis when he didn’t answer her calls and she didn’t see Hazel. Whether she thought they ran off together or believed he was hurt, I don’t know. But everything is starting to make sense.
“Don’t panic. We just need you to come talk to us,” Lev says as he walks slowly into her room, trying not to startle her. But she’s worse than the horses.
Her eyes flash to us, panic searing across her face, and she reaches for her gun. Thank fuck, Levi’s quicker than she is, though, and he tackles her to the ground before she can get a shot off. He pins her arm down, and Grant takes the gun, dispensing with the ammunition and putting the empty weapon in the back of his pants. His foot stomps on her fingers, squishing them as Lev squeezes her throat until she passes out from the lack of oxygen and collapses, going limp on the carpet, her cheeks ruddy from the exertion, and her perfectly coifed hair in tangles.
We have to move quickly. Hazel gave us a path to get back down the servants’ stairs without being seen. Luckily, no one else is staying on this floor in this wing, and no one is in the room below. Amelia had always requested a quiet room with no neighbors, Hazel said, claiming she was a light sleeper. But that lie will give us what we need to get her out of here.
We move her the same way we did Curtis, navigating the back stairs and getting her into the truck with a blanket tossed over her as Lev holds his hands around her throat—ready to take her out again if she comes to before we’re ready.
This time, though, we move her to a barn on the far side of the property. One where no one can hear her if she screams. One where the neighbors are miles away. I’m just hoping she cooperates and gives us what we want, that somehow, we can come to an agreement that stops the bloodshed today.
“Tell us who you are and who you work for,” Levi demands of her.
“Like you don’t know.” She rolls her eyes, a manufactured smirk appearing and disappearing from her lips.
“Maybe I just want to hear you say it.” He shrugs, sitting back in the chair across from her. Amelia gives a false little smile as her eyes drift over Levi.
“I won’t say a word until I know Curtis is safe.”
“Who is Curtis to you?”
“Why don’t you ask the dark-haired bitch.” Amelia looks at Hazel who insisted on being present, despite me begging her to stay at the ranch house. My heart can’t take her having to be part of any more hard decisions today.
“The dark-haired bitch? After everything, that’s what you call me?” There are tears in Hazel’s eyes, and somehow, this seems to be hitting her worse than the Curtis news. “You were like a mother to me.”
“I would have been. But you had to choose him. You’re such a disappointment. Years I invested in you. All for what? So you could spread your legs for this piece of shit again? I’m embarrassed for you. You could have had everything.”
“What do you mean would have been? Are you his mother?”
“So there are brains in there after all. Impressive.” Amelia’s eyes glide over Hazel and find her wanting.
“You knew he was lying to me, and yet you talked him up. Over and over again, you encouraged me and the relationship. All that talk about women making better decisions for themselves, and you were just luring me into a trap.”
“Of course I did, sweetheart. That was the whole point. He needed to marry you to get this ranch, get back some semblance of the money that was stolen from us. We both had to help you make the right choice.”
“It’s disgusting. Completely disgusting that you would manipulate someone in that way. I thought you were my friend.”
“Oh please. I don’t know how anyone could tolerate you. I don’t know how my son tolerated you all this time. So crass and opinionated all the time. Always thinking you know better than everyone else. At least he’s free of you now.”
Hazel shakes her head, tears forming in her eyes, and I reach out for her, but she swats me away, charging toward Amelia.
“You’re right. At least he’s free of me.” Hazel’s grin turns cruel, and Amelia’s eyes grow wider; she blinks, and then looks around at the rest of us.
“If you don’t bring my son in here this instant, I will scream. And then I will bring down hell on this ranch. You’ll wish you were all dead by the time we’re done with you,” she threatens, and Grant just grins and shakes his head, staring down at his phone like her lack of compliance is a temporary inconvenience to his evening.
“That won’t be happening,” Levi says as he nods for me to take Hazel.
I close the distance between us, taking her hand and pulling her close. She buries her face in my chest, and I wrap my arms around her.
“It’s okay,” I whisper into the raven-colored hair at her crown. Pressing a kiss to the silky strands while I work to comfort her. “It’s okay, darlin. Don’t listen to a word she says.”
“Yes. Don’t listen to me. Keep making the same stupid mistakes you’ve been making. It keeps turning out so well for you,” Amelia taunts her.
“You sure you don’t want to go back in?” I ask Haze when she looks up at me with tear-stained cheeks.
“I’m sure. I want to get to the bottom of this,” she says quietly.
I can’t hear what Lev says to Amelia next; he whispers it softly into her ear, smiling as he pulls back and takes her horrified look in. Amelia screams a moment later—a crystal rattling, blistering scream that echoes off the walls.
“Give me my fucking son!” She rattles against the binds that hold her in place, tugging on them like she’s possessed and screams again, her voice too hoarse for it to be as effective this time.
“No one can hear you out here.” I shake my head.
“Not a single soul. It’s just us, and we don’t give a fuck about you or your son.” Grant leans back against one of the large wooden beams that holds up the center of the barn.
“She does though. She cares about my son. The way she fawned and obsessed over him. The way she planned every detail of the wedding. She said she loved him more than she ever loved anyone.” Amelia attempts to get in Haze’s head and mine, and I feel her hug me tighter.
“Leave her out of this.” Grant steps in front of us, like he’s worried one of us might snap on her. “And tell me what you’re here for.”
“You know what I’m here for. You’re the smart one, right? He’s your muscle. The other one ran away to play games with grown men every weekend. You must be the brains.” Amelia looks between Levi and me and then back at Grant. “I’m sure if you think really hard, you’ll know what we want. I just thought all these years you’d have kept it in the casino. Shame it wasn’t there, and we had to come bother the poor defenseless ex-wife.”
I feel a swirl of anxiety in my chest as it tightens. Grant doesn’t flinch when she makes the accusation. He just continues to stare. No surprise or confusion on his face when she insists that we have something of hers.
“Huh. Looks like the big sporty one doesn’t know what I’m talking about. You keep secrets from each other too? That’s a dangerous business when it’s your family on the line.” Amelia’s saccharine smile returns, and my heart drops with it. But I can’t let it show on my face. The three of us can discuss this later. Hazel picks up on my anxiety, and her hand runs gently down my spine.
“It’s odd that you’d say that since Curtis kept secrets from you.” Hazel whirls around. “He was insisting on getting me out of here before you changed your mind. Confessing to everything just for a chance to get me to leave with him.”
Amelia’s fake lashes flutter for a second, her rosy-red cheeks blushing just a little more at that information, giving away that she doesn’t like it one bit. Then her eyes narrow, and she looks around the room before focusing back in on Hazel.
“So where is he? Seems like he took off without you.” Amelia’s tone turns dark.
“And without you.” Hazel mimics the smile Amelia gave her. “But I’m sure you’ll see him soon enough.” Hazel squeezes my hand tightly, and Amelia doesn’t miss the motion.
“Did you kill him? You jealous little prick!” Amelia rages at me, and Levi’s hands press down on her shoulders.
“Calm down.”
“I won’t be calm until I see my son.”
“Tell us what we need to know, and you can see him,” Grant says calmly, looking like he’s barely bothered by the scene unfolding. I worry for my brothers and what they’ve done in the last five years that this seems like a boring night to them.
“Bring him to me. Then we can talk.”
“Listen to me.” Levi comes around to the front of her chair, standing next to me as he takes her chin in his hand. “We have his cell phone. It’s how we confirmed it was you that was stalking Hazel around, keeping an eye on her when Curtis was gone. It won’t take us long to get the rest of what we need. If you tell us, though, and make all of our lives easier… we can go easier on you.”
“If you have his cell phone, then I know everything I need to know. I won’t tell you shit.” Amelia spits in Levi’s face, and he blows out a breath as he wipes it off his cheek.
“Have it your way.” Levi stands and moves back to her side where he keeps an eye on the ropes that secure her in place. She’s given up fighting them now, though, leaning into her fate. I can tell in the way she looks off into the distance that somehow the knowledge of his cell phone confirms his death to her; a thing I’m fairly certain she already knew when we brought her here but was unwilling to admit to herself.
Amelia’s eyes glitter in the dull light of the barn, almost like she might cry, but she swallows hard and chokes it back. However much she might disgust me, I have to give her credit for having that kind of strength. She blinks what’s left of the tears away and then looks up at me, a smile at first that melts into a sneer as she looks me over.
“I regret feeling sorry for your bitch of a mother.” Amelia spits at my feet. “She begged for your lives. As a mother, I felt for her. Let her pathetic little sobs worm their way into my heart and spread their poison. I spared you and your brothers, pretended like I didn’t know where your sister was, instead of making sure they destroyed the whole family tree. It was the biggest mistake of my life. If I could go back, I would have put a bullet in every single one of your heads myself, starting with your sister and taking my time with you.” Amelia’s eyes land hard on me.
My world stops, and the color fades at the edges of my vision. All I can see is her in front of me and flashes of my mother and father soaked in their own blood.
“You were there that night?” My throat is raw, and I can barely get the words out.
“There? Who do you think shot that cunt in the face?” Amelia smiles like she enjoyed every moment of my mother’s death. Like she doesn’t have a single regret in her body. “She deserved it for—”
The gunshot rings out in the night, and the spray of blood against the barn wall is brilliant red. Splattering against the wood and the bull’s head that’s mounted on the beam above her. Dripping slowly down the bony face until it threatens to return to its owner again.
“Holy fuck!” Bo shouts, finally making himself known again from the corner of the barn as Amelia’s body slumps forward in her chair.
The rope binds are the only thing keeping her from sliding to the floor at my feet where she belongs as Lev stares down from her side. I want to see her skull as mutilated as my mother’s was when I found her, pieces of it everywhere on the porch and embedded in the furniture. Nearly unrecognizable if it hadn’t been that she was wearing the same apron she always did when she made us dinner, and her tortoise shell hair clip still neatly holding her hair back from her caved-in face.
I raise the gun to shoot again. To make sure she suffers the same fate. I want her wandering hell faceless, her jaw hanging from her skull while she tries to explain how she could have been so coldblooded and cruel.
“Ramsey…” Hazel says softly, her hand on my forearm as she looks up at me. “She’s dead.”
“I want her more than dead. I want her in fucking pieces.” The gun is shaking in my hand, and I realize I’m crying, sobs racking my body. I feel sick. Like I might throw up. I can imagine my mom seeing someone like Amelia at the door, smiling at her. Inviting her in to get her out of the heat of the day. Offering her a cold drink and a comfortable chair. Letting her sit at the dining room table and serving her a piece of pie. And she killed her. She fucking murdered her in cold blood. Over what? Money? Greed? An endless cycle of hate between these families that never ends.
“Let me have the gun, please.” Hazel’s pleading with me, and I look down and see there are tears in her eyes. I take in a sharp breath, trying to assess why she’s crying, and then I see the blood that’s splattered across her shirt and arms.
“Oh fuck…” I mutter, turning to her. My hands searching over her body and trying to wipe the smears off her skin. She takes the gun from me gently and hands it off to Bo. His eyes drift over both of us and, for the second time today, I can tell he’s worried. The reality of it sets in. That I’ve made my poor innocent wife who loved horses and taking old ladies bird-watching an accessory to two murders in one day. Fucked up her whole life so fucking quickly she barely had time to process it before I was making it worse. “Oh fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Darlin’, I’m so sorry. I didn’t think. I didn’t think… I’m sorry.” I hit my knees and press my face to her stomach. We’d spent so much time trying to make sure we’d cleaned her up and kept her safe after Curtis, only for me to fuck it up again. All I can seem to do is fuck up her life. She takes pity on me despite it, and her fingers run through my hair, and she wraps her other around my neck.
“It’s okay. Shh. It’s okay, baby. It’s okay.” She presses closer and rubs small circles over my back. “I’ve got you.”
I lean into Hazel’s warmth. Her touch is the only thing keeping me grounded right now when the whole world feels like it might slip out from under me. I turn my head and stare across the barn, watching as several more drips of blood tumble off the bull skull to the ground at Amelia’s feet.
“Tell Anson it’s a two-point safety now,” I hear Grant mutter to Bo; the three of them exchange looks, watching me like I need the vigilance.
I can’t make sense of much in this moment, but I do know one thing—my mother and father’s killer is finally dead. I’ve made sure of it. Too long and too late for it to serve any real good. It couldn’t bring her back to me. My kids will never know her through anything but stories and old photographs. My dad will never get to see me play pro. But at least I’ve managed to do the thing law enforcement never cared enough to bother with—I’ve gotten them both the justice they deserve.