Chapter Twenty-Six
Roadside Park between Marietta and Livingston
Bo didn’t want to be doing this. Or at least, not alone. He’d have preferred Sam with him, but she’d said they could hardly play the I hate the Bennets game if she was there.
That was the plan. Tell this private investigator he hated the Bennets, was tired of them, and he’d help the PI however he wanted. Then take all that information back to Sam.
Bo wasn’t sure if it was a lie. He wasn’t sure of anything. Sometimes, he did hate the Bennets. The way they looked like him. The way they looked at him. The way they were bigger than him, more intimidating.
The way they seemed to know what to do. How to move forward. And expected him to be the same. They didn’t ask him things. They told him things.
More than anything, the three brothers represented awful things he didn’t want. He didn’t want this.
But he felt trapped. Because he’d come here looking for answers that had been missing his whole life. Answers were supposed to fix things, fix him, not make everything worse.
Sam had coached him on what to say to the PI, what information to get. He was supposed to pretend like he’d rather help a stranger than a Bennet. And she’d said he could lean into the truth of just wanting to go home but not wanting this to follow him there.
But he was supposed to remember everything the PI said. Everything. And bring it back to Sam. So the Bennets could do … whatever.
Bo didn’t want to.
But he was here. He was here, and he didn’t even know why. To play some game so some guy he didn’t know maybe got punished for killing some lady he also didn’t know? He was no hero. None of that really mattered to him, did it?
Maybe the two people were biologically his parents, but he didn’t know them. Them or his biological brothers. They were strangers. Nonentities in his life.
He thought of his actual dad. The man who’d raised him. Who’d died last year. Wasting away to cancer.
Matthew Lake had always done the right thing. He’d fought for people, worked hard, tried. And what reward had he gotten? No biological children and an early death.
Bo had learned a lesson in that. There was no real reward for good in this life. You had to find your own rewards.
So what did it matter if some murdering asshole went free? Why was Bo putting himself through this for people he didn’t know? He didn’t want to.
He pulled his rental car into the parking lot of the park the PI had told him to meet him at. There was a man sitting at a picnic table. The same man who’d been bothering him for the past week. Bo sat in his car and considered him from afar.
He didn’t trust this man. He agreed with Sam that whatever this guy wanted from him, it was wrong.
The problem was, Bo didn’t think the Bennets were right either.
He kind of thought everyone was wrong. Everyone was so busy trying to fight things and find things and control things. He just wanted to go home.
But he’d let Sam talk him into this. He’d let her talk him into the Bennets’ plan.
He had to go through with it.
Do you? He wasn’t exactly known for seeing things through at home, was he? Why should this be different?
But the PI had spotted him and was looking at him now, and Bo knew he couldn’t just drive away. He reluctantly got out of the car, crossed the snowy ground to stand in front of the PI.
“I’m glad you finally came to your senses, Mr. Lake. It’ll make everyone’s lives a lot easier.”
“I was tired of being harassed,” Bo said, just like Sam had told him to. “By you and the Bennets.”
The guy smiled his oily smile. “I’ve got the answer to both those problems. Have a seat. Let’s talk.”
Bo eased onto the picnic bench.
“Now, I know the Bennets have probably filled your head with all kinds of stories. And maybe that lunatic Harrington woman. I hope you know, no one actually thinks she’s sane around these parts.”
Bo thought of the woman’s creepy eyes. Insane? He didn’t think so, but there was something wrong with her. Even if she was his dad’s relation.
“I’m not going to fill your head with anything. I’m going to make you an offer. It’s yours to take or leave. You give me a definitive answer then I’m out of your life.”
Bo wondered if the Bennets would make that kind of offer. If he told them to leave him alone, would they?
He thought of the way they’d looked at him the other night up in their fancy ranch house.
Big and sprawling and old but kept up nice.
He’d never known anything like that. And they’d been all homey inside, all tall and intimidating.
They’d all talked down to him. Like they were in charge of him. Like they were better than him.
Sam might like them, she might be hooked up with the Nate one, but Bo thought they just seemed like bullies. They wouldn’t let him just go. Not if it didn’t suit their purposes.
But this guy … Bo looked at the guy across the table from him. No, he didn’t trust this guy either. He didn’t trust anyone here. “Make the offer then.”
The PI nodded. “There’s no reason for you to stick around Marietta, Mr. Lake.
No reason to complicate this case. You have your answers and now you can go back to the people who really care about you.
Who aren’t using you. Like the Bennets want to.
” He pulled something out of a bag on the bench next to him.
A big fat envelope that he set on the table between him and Bo.
“If you need some incentive, I’ve got it for you. ”
“Incentive.” Bo hesitated for a minute, then picked up the envelope. Inside was money. Cash and checks. Checks made out to him.
“It’s a significant sum of money, son. And all you have to do is disappear. Never to be bothered again.”
Significant money. Bo had never been any good at making money.
He tended to float from job to job, never really finding a place that suited.
He knew his mom worried about him. Since Dad had died, she’d started worrying about what would happen to him once she died.
Like he wouldn’t be able to handle himself.
This would solve that, wouldn’t it? She wouldn’t worry about him.
He wouldn’t have to worry so much about the straight and narrow. He’d be set. But who offered money without a catch? Bo wasn’t stupid.
Bo looked at the guy, the guy he knew was not making any good faith offers. “Why?”
“Why not? These aren’t your folks. This isn’t your trial. The Bennets are misguided. Trying to stir up trouble where there isn’t any. Well, you’ve done your time, your duty. Now you can go. Let the judicial system handle this mess. It isn’t yours.”
Bo wanted to believe it. He didn’t actually, but he wanted to. Someone had pushed him here. Someone had wanted him here.
And now someone wanted him gone. It didn’t make sense, what this guy was saying.
But he was pretty sure that was real money. A stack of hundreds, plus a couple checks for thousands more.
“You cash those checks every three months, following the dates on them, and you stay away, the money will be there,” this guy said. “You’ll be set for life if you use it wisely.”
Set for life. He could go home. He could forget this had ever happened. He had answers, more or less. The only ones he’d come for.
What more did he need?
Not the Bennets. Not even Sam. Not reasons. Not even the truth. He had that now, more or less.
So why stay and be Sam and the Bennets’ errand boy? Why stay and face all this hard stuff that felt bad? Why not get the hell out?
“No strings?” Bo asked.
The guy’s smile spread. “Just one.”