Chapter 25
TWENTY-FIVE
Bristol
“What’s the plan?” Ramsey looks between Anson, Bishop, and Levi.
“What do you mean, ‘the plan’?” I look between the three of them and then down at Chris. “We need to call the cops so they can come get him.”
“Is that what you want?” Ramsey glances at me but turns his attention back to Anson.
Anson’s mouth is a flat line, and the fury on his face is apparent even through the haze lingering in this room. I look at Hazel in confusion and frustration. I feel like everyone is in on some secret that I’m not.
“What’s the alternative? We actually help him escape?” I ask, confounded that I have to even press the issue.
A choked laugh leaves Levi’s chest, and Ramsey shifts on his feet when Hazel shoots him a look. Anson still doesn’t look at me, and Bishop seems to be trying to look anywhere else.
“She’s right. It’s not the same situation as Curtis. They’ll be looking for him. Don’t even think it.” Hazel gives her brothers and her husband a fiery look that might melt lesser men.
“Curtis?” I look between her and them. “Did you help him disappear? I thought he hurt you?”
“In a manner of speaking,” Levi answers my question with more vagueness, and I open my mouth to ask what the hell he’s talking about when it suddenly comes together.
“Did you kill him?” I look between the men and see Ramsey and Hazel locked in a silent exchange. I have to assume by the silence that they did. “You can’t kill Chris. You need to send him back where he came from.”
“We definitely didn’t call the cops for help,” Ramsey explains.
“Then give me the phone, and I will,” I answer him. “I’ll say I hit him over the head.”
“They won’t believe that.” Anson finally looks up at me.
“Then we’ll make them believe it. Or I’ll tell the truth. You all rescued me, and then we called the authorities as soon as we could.”
“Our uncle’s not the sheriff anymore,” Levi adds. “And his replacement is a lot less friendly about vigilante shit.”
“It wasn’t vigilante shit. You rescued me. I’ll tell that to anyone who’ll listen. And Chris will tell the truth. He’ll be too scared about even more added time if he lies. One of the guards helped him escape, so he’ll have leverage that could help him. He won’t want to make things worse.”
“Or the guard will just off him,” Levi states bluntly.
“Then let that be between him and the guard.” I look at Anson. “Anson, please, be the reasonable voice here.”
There’s another choked laugh from Levi, and Ramsey elbows him in the side, hard and fast enough to knock him back a step.
Bishop glares at both of them, and Anson shakes his head.
The quiet conversation they all seem to be having without me heats my skin with frustration.
I feel like an outsider with my own friends and family.
“She’s right,” Anson agrees with me. “Let’s just have them come get him.
It’s not worth it. And they’ll have him on watch now that he made an attempt at escaping.
He might even try to run when they get here, and we know how that’ll end.
” The person talking doesn’t sound like the Anson I’ve known for years, or the one I’ve finally been getting to know better these last few weeks.
This version of him is one I’ve never met.
Cold. Calculated. Only agreeing with me because he thinks it’s the path of least resistance.
Not because it’s the ethical thing to do. The right thing.
My stomach churns as I realize he’s having to convince the rest of the group.
Everyone besides Hazel seems skeptical, and I get the impression I’m the only real reason she’s on this side of the discussion.
She’s as loyal as I am to my friends, and I’d argue the sky wasn’t blue if it meant holding ground with them when they needed me.
I always knew there were complicated dynamics in the Stockton family. Things people whisper and gossip over in equal measure. I’ve seen enough of it over time to know some of it is real. I just never realized how heavily it bled over into the Briggs family too.
“I’ll call,” Hazel announces, pulling her cell phone out.
It’s as much a declaration as it is a request for any last words from everyone.
But none of the men argue with her. I watch her call 911 with at least some temporary relief in my gut.
Unfortunately, it only lasts until the ambulance and the police are pulling away from the scene a couple of hours later, having taken my statement after my refusal of treatment.
Hazel tries to get me to stay the night. Dakota appears out of the ether and insists I can’t drive, and she’ll drive me herself if she has to until I insist I’m fine and they go home. Marlowe just lets me lean on her shoulder as I try not to cry when the silence finally swallows up the ranch again.
Anson reappears, having given his own statement to the police and then answering to Grant and Ramsey Stockton about their concerns.
He approaches us slowly, taking his time walking up the pathway to the porch at the back of the ranch house where I’m sitting with Marlowe. She stands when she sees him draw near.
“I’ll talk to you tomorrow?” Marlowe gives my hand a squeeze.
“Sounds good.” I nod.
“I’ll make some of your favorites, and you can pick them up from Hotcakes. Okay? Let me do that for you.” She gets ahead of me, knowing full well I won’t want her fussing over me, but wanting to be the good friend she is.
“Thank you,” I offer up half a smile before she waves goodnight and heads off home.
“You ready to get out of here?” Anson asks, hands in his pockets as he leans against the railing around the deck.
“I guess I’d better get back to Mom. I don’t want her to be alone much longer.”
“She went over to stay at her friend’s house. Guess she was too creeped out to stay there with the idea of Chris still wandering around. I told her the police had him, but she said they already lost him once. Couldn’t argue with that. Said she’d call you tomorrow.”
I shake my head, heaving a little sigh as I stand up. My mother is nothing if not dramatic. Of course she’d think it’s all right for me, the target of his ire, to be alone. I’m not Fannie or Ford. I don’t need protection. I can do all right all on my own.
I can. Of course I can. But sometimes I wish I didn’t have to. I thought Anson was the answer to that. That he had been all along. I thought we had each other, and now it feels like I don’t know him at all.
My heart aches at the thought of him not being next to me.
Especially tonight. But I need time alone.
Time to think and sort through all my emotions.
Space to figure out how I feel about Anson now that I’ve seen a side of him I never knew existed.
I need to decide what I want before I can try to understand how we move forward.
“That’s fine. I could use some time alone.”
“I promised everyone you were staying with me.”
“With Ford there? Aren’t you worried?”
“Chris isn’t gonna get up out of the hospital bed and come find us tonight, whatever your mom thinks. But he’s staying with Bo so I can keep all my focus on you. Promised you’d call him when you got home.”
“That’s considerate of you,” I admit as he holds the door to his truck open and helps me in. It’s sweet of Ford to be worried too.
“I try.”
He rounds the front and hops in the driver’s side, starting the engine as I put my seatbelt on.
The cab feels smaller than usual. The air buzzing with the unspoken feelings we desperately need to work through.
I stay quiet most of the ride home. I don’t want to distract him from driving, and I wasn’t lying when I said I needed time to think.
The ride back to his house isn’t really long enough, but it’ll have to do because when we get inside, I can tell he wants to talk. For better or worse.
“I’m sorry tonight happened. That I missed him coming onto the property and the news. I should have seen it and had time to warn you.” Anson apologizes for things he can’t control.
“You couldn’t have known. I don’t blame you for that.” I shake my head, wrapping my arms around my middle. Anson has become such a safe harbor for me that the idea of arguing with him makes me feel sick. But I can feel it brewing.
“But there’s something you do blame me for?”
“Were you planning to kill him?” I ask bluntly.
“The thought crossed my mind.”
“Pretty easily it seems.”
“I handle a situation however it’ll best protect the people I love. That love doesn’t know limits. Especially when it comes to you.”
We sit in silence for a long moment after he confesses.
Under different circumstances, it might be the most romantic thing anyone’s ever said to me.
Hell, it might still be under these. But I can’t let him distract me from getting the answers I need.
I won’t know peace until I feel like I’m not on the outside looking in with my closest friends and family.
“What happened to Curtis?”
“The consequences of his own actions.” I can imagine he means Hazel. There was enough in her eyes in that discussion after they captured Chris to know I’ve missed out on so much.
“And after those consequences?”
“I made sure no one could discover who played judge and jury.”
“Is that a regular part of your life?” I feel a chill run down my spine that a man who is so calm and collected, so careful and loving, could also be the kind of person who makes problems like Curtis disappear for good.
Anson nods.
“For the Stocktons?”
“The Stocktons and the Briggs.” He confirms my theory about Hazel.
Now I have questions about Bo and Cade. If I’ve really been the naive ingenue all this time.
Clueless to what was going on around her.
I feel the flush of embarrassment. No one thought I could handle the truth.
Maybe I couldn’t. Given how my stomach flips and my heart pounds in my chest as I think through what all this means for our family.
“I don’t know how to process all this. I feel like I’ve been walking through the dark without even knowing it. You must think I’m clueless for how much I didn’t realize was happening right in front of me.”
“I don’t think you’re clueless, Bristol. I think you were innocent and all the better for it.” Anson gives me a sympathetic look, but in my current state it only makes me feel more pathetic.
“Am I better for it? Because now I’m questioning if I ever knew you at all. Or Hazel. Or any of the Stocktons.”
“The Stocktons business model isn’t exactly a secret.”
“But you and Hazel aren’t Stocktons.”
“She is now.”
“So what’s your excuse?” I’m still so angry.
It’s hard to hold ground with Anson though. Especially when he’s so even-keeled and patient with my fury. But I still think I’m owed more explanation than I’ve gotten yet. How a man like him got into business like this.
“The Stocktons might as well be my brothers. Same as Bo and Cade. I respect their decisions, and I believe they’ll have my back as much as I’ve had theirs if ever I need it.”
“So you kill for them?”
“I’m not an assassin if that’s what you’re asking.”
“I’m asking if Chris would have been the first time you’d have cleaned up that kind of mess for them.”
He hesitates. Crossing his arms across his chest before he finally shakes his head and meets my eyes with the truth.
“Not by a long shot.”
“How did I not know?”
“It’s like you said before. I sometimes stayed out late, and you watched Ford. You assumed it was always with women, but I really did work some nights.”
“So I’m a co-conspirator.”
“Hardly.” His brow furrows at the idea I’m somehow complicit in all of this. But I have to imagine the folks in this town assume rather plainly that I’m involved in whatever the Briggs and Stocktons are.
“It feels like it. It feels like you would have easily made me one tonight if you decided it was in line with your personal moral code. If Hazel hadn’t taken my side, insisted we turn him over, would your decision have been the same?”
“I wouldn’t kill someone you love. I wouldn’t hurt you like that.
But I won’t lie and say the thought didn’t cross my mind.
I always knew he was reckless. Completely fucking careless when it came to you and your safety.
But tonight he took things way too far. Had we called the cops.
Had there been a standoff… Fuck. I don’t even want to think about the choices he might have made.
I don’t want him having chances to do that again. But I couldn’t hurt you like that.”
“I don’t love him.” I want to be clear about that much.
Chris was someone I thought I loved once.
Maybe before I knew what love was really supposed to look like.
When I accepted half measures. Before Anson showed me what real love looks like.
Even in all the fog of tonight’s revelations, I know that much.
“You sure? It hasn’t been that long, and it sounds like he broke out of prison to be with you.”