Chapter 29
C ora sits in front of the casket, patting a tissue at her crocodile tears.
Maisie is beside her, holding her hand, and she keeps glancing in my direction with that sorrowful look on her face.
Wade is devastated, but he’s trying hard not to show it.
I guess that’s where I failed as a big brother.
I was so determined to stay strong for them I made them think they had to hide their feelings too.
Cole doesn’t look sad; he’s just angry. And I know neither of my brothers will be forgiving me any time soon for taking those three lives without them.
The case may be closed in the eyes of the law. But it ain’t to me. Jason McIntyre is still out there somewhere. Finding him, and making him pay, will be the distraction I need after Maisie leaves for L.A. tomorrow.
Cora refuses to get up from her chair when the service is over. I guess she wants to ensure she plays her grieving widow part right to its bitter end.
It’s been a week since Pops died, and yesterday when Miles read out his will, we were all shocked to learn that he’d left her a share in the ranch. It’s only a small one, but it ensures that she’ll be sticking around.
“Have you thought about what we're gonna do?” Wade asks, as the crowd starts to disperse. Pops ensured I was the one to take over the ranch by leaving the biggest percentage of it to me.
“She ain’t gonna sell. I already got Miles to suggest it to her.”
“You can’t seriously be thinking about letting her stay?” Cole shakes his head as he watches her take comfort from Mayor Walker and his wife.
“Say’s the man who still sleeps in the Mason’s bunkhouse,” Wade pipes up, and before Cole can make a scene and throw a fist at him, I speak up.
“Cole’s got his reasons.” I stare across the graveyard at Joe Mason and his wife, Aubrey. He’s holding her hand as he talks with his father and the Commissioner, and I notice the shy glance she gives my brother.
“We need to stick together. All we got right now is each other's loyalty, and I’ve figured a way to turn that into power,”
“Now if you could just figure out a way to make her disappear?” Cole gestures his head back towards Cora, who’s walking towards us.
“I’ve invited a few close friends back to the house,” she informs me, when she passes on her way to the funeral car. Maisie smiles awkwardly at me as she follows behind with Leia Walker, and Wade takes his hat off for her when she offers him her condolences.
“It’s started already. She’s gonna strut around like she owns the place,” Cole shakes his head.
“And she will if we don’t play it carefully,” I point out, trying not to show my frustration.
“We know how things have gotta be run from now on, we go back to the way things used to be, and laws are gonna have to be broken to get there. But we gotta be smart about it. She’ll be waitin’ for us to fuck up, because if we ever go down, she gets it all. ”
“How the fuck we supposed to pull this off with her watchin’ our every move?” Wade asks, as we watch Cora get in the car.
“We’ll figure it out, but for now, we stay on guard and play nice.” Wade and Cole go to join her in the car, and I head over to say one final goodbye to Pops.
“You may not agree with how I’m gonna do things, but I’d like to think that you’ll find a way to be proud,” I stare down at his casket.
“We’re gonna make the Carson name what it was, get our ranch back to where it needs to be, and we’re gonna need all the help we can get.
Keep us in your prayers Pops, and say hi to Bree.
” I turn and walk away from the grave, placing my hat back on my head before I join the others.
* * *
I spend the next few hours being polite to the people Cora invited back to the house.
There are way more than just a few, and it’s no surprise that she invited all the Masons back here too.
Thankfully Pops had the sense to put a clause on her shares so she can’t sell them to anyone but us, but I bet the Mason’s don’t know that.
And I can only guess it’s the reason their noses are wedged all the way up her ass, right now.
I’ve had enough of being social, so I head to my office, closing the door and pouring myself a drink.
I’ve already had Miles take care of all of Maisie’s college fees.
I don’t know what Cora’s financial situation is, but I’m not willing to bet on her having saved enough to put Maisie through it, and no doubt she was relying on Pops for that.
I’ve also told Miles to make sure she thinks that the $50,000 dollars I had put in her account was left to her by my father.
I may not have a place in Maisie Wildman’s future, but I’d like to think I can play my part in bettering it.
When the door knocks, I clutch at my glass and hope it ain’t her. I’m too weak to be around her right now and seeing her only causes pain.
“Come in,” I call out harshly, and when the door opens and old man Mason steps inside, I immediately straighten in my chair.
“Son,” he lowers his head, as he steps towards me. I notice that he’s taken off his tie and popped open his top button. I also notice the brown file that he carries in his hand.
“What do you want?” I make it clear his company isn’t wanted. You know a town is corrupt when your enemies drink your liquor and look far too comfortable in your home.
“I’m expecting you’ll be running this place differently to your father,” he cuts straight to the chase.
“By not letting you walk all over us,” I offer him the same courtesy, and he surprises me when he chuckles.
“We don’t need to be enemies, Garrett. In fact I’m here to offer you something. I want to show my gratitude for your recent discretion.”
“There is nothing you can offer in return for that. We both know if the Mayor finds out what Caleb does, your relationship is over,”
“Caleb has been reprimanded, and I can assure you that it won’t be an issue anymore,” The old man is clearly ashamed, and since today don’t feel much like a day for victory, I take no pleasure in it.
“I have something for you, information that I think you might appreciate.” Placing the file on my desk, he slides it across to me. I have a suspicion that this is what Jason took the night my father died, and I can’t help wondering how the fuck it got into Ronnie Mason’s hands.
All my suspicions are proved wrong when I open it up and see a picture of my dead sister.
“It’s her autopsy report,” he confirms, as I stare down at her wide-open eyes and discolored skin. It took the divers three days to find her body after she jumped, and I’ll never forget having to be the one who identified her. Pops was too much of a wreck, and I’d never have let my brothers do it.
“I know what it is. Where the fuck do you find the business in giving it to me, you sick son of a bitch,” I stare across my desk at him, thinking of all the ways I could kill him. It would be poetic justice to hand one of his sons his autopsy report to reveal which one I chose.
“Someone went through a great deal of effort to bury that report, there's no online trace of it, and this paper copy had already been stored in archives. If you turn the page and go to the second paragraph, you’ll see why,” he gestures his eyes back to the file, and I do as he instructs, turning the page and letting my eyes scan over the words.
Pregnancy gestation 14 weeks.
The words stand out from the page, and I feel the walls close in around me. She can’t have been, she was barely sixteen, and Breanna had no interest in boys.
“How did you…?” I look up at Mason and give up on hiding how much of a blow this is.
“Joe doesn’t believe in technology, he won't have a computer in the house. About a year ago I caught Aubrey using mine. I had some suspicions, so I had the history checked, and it showed that this report is what she was looking for,”
Aubrey is a lot older than Bree, but our moms were close enough for Aubrey to be the big sister she never had.
“She refused to tell me why, and I’ll admit since it involved your family, I took an interest. My intentions at the time weren’t exactly neighborly.
But I’m hoping that, my giving you this, will set the footing for how we proceed,” Mason shows all his cards.
He’s intimidated by the fact I’m running things now.
“This town never understood why that pretty girl, who had her whole life ahead of her, threw herself off Blackpoint Creek. I don’t know who worked so hard to get this buried or who put her in that situation, but I hope you find your answers,”
There’s no smugness on his face as he turns away and heads for the door, just pity and sadness.
“This don’t mean we’re friends,” I warn him, before he can leave. My body is shaking with shock, I want to tear down walls, but I have a dignity to uphold.
“I know that. But one good turn deserves another.” he nods his head before he leaves, and I read over the words again and again, wondering if they will ever sink in.
* * *
I’ve drunk far too much and locked the report away in my desk drawer.
Outside’s turned dark, and when I hear the feeble tap on the door, I don’t answer.
I hope whoever it is will go away. I can’t face my brothers yet, I don’t know how I’m gonna tell them what I just found out, and when it’s Maisie who lets herself in, not one of them, I find myself feeling relieved.
“It’s late, everyone’s left,” She carries a plate of food in her hand and places it on my desk.
“I thought you might want some supper.”
“She was pregnant.” The words fall out of my mouth because I can’t cling to them any longer.
“Who?” Maisie must notice the devastation on my face because she rushes around my desk and on her knees beside me.
“My sister,” I explain, still not able to register it myself.
It must have been what she was gonna tell me that morning when she came looking for me in the stables.
I was too busy to listen, it was calving season, and I wasn’t getting any rest back then.
She tried to get me to talk with her, and I snapped at her instead.
“I’m sorry.” Maisie takes both my hands in hers in an attempt to comfort me.
“She was sixteen. How does that even happen?” More words I don’t intend to say slip out as I think about how scared she must have been. She came to me, her big brother, and I told her I was too busy.
“Do you know who the father was?” Maisie asks.
“No idea, but I’ll find out.” I don’t know how yet, but I will. It just became equally as important as killing Jason McIntyre.
“She tried to tell me, and I was too busy,” I shake my head and try to hold in my tears. I can’t break, not in front of her. Or my brothers. I can’t break in front of anyone.
“Don’t blame yourself. None of this is your fault.” Her words don’t mean a thing because it is my fault. If I’d have let her tell me, I’d have found a way to make it ok. I’d have supported her and helped her in all the ways a big brother should.
“Go to bed, Maisie,” I tell her robotically, standing up and making my way to the door. I open it for her so she can’t argue, and when she gets up off her knees and moves towards me, that urge to grab her and hold her tight makes me grip the edge of the door a little tighter.
“Don’t shut me out,” she whispers, wrapping her arms around my waist and resting her cheek on my chest. I remain stiff as she holds me, trying my best not to smell her hair and give in to the temptation to squeeze her in my arms and never let her go.
“I have to,” my whisper comes out weak and pathetic. “Please, don’t make this any harder,” There’s a desperation in my voice that doesn’t belong there. I’ve never begged for anything in my life, but I’m begging her for this.
“I leave tomorrow morning. I don’t want to leave here, never knowing,” She looks up at me with those big blue eyes, and I wonder if she’ll ever know how much I wanted her.
“I told you, if I have you, I won’t let you leave,” I warn her again, trying to hold it all together when all I wanna do is give in.
“Then ask me to stay.” Those eyes fill up with tears that cascade over her cheeks, and when I wipe one away with the pad of my thumb and can’t help bringing it to my lips so I can taste it.
I’d have liked to have given her the world, to watch her smile every day and be the cause of all her laughter.
But this is the only world I have to offer, and it’s too dangerous and far too destroying to keep her in.
“No.” My heart cracks from the devastated look I put on her face. Being the cause of her hurt puts a pain inside me that I know won’t leave with her, but I’m doing this for her.
“You're cursing us both,” her bottom lip trembles, and it makes me desperate to kiss it one last time.
“I’m already cursed.” I smile back at her sadly, praying to God she’ll try to understand.
This isn’t about her age. Maisie’s right, she is a woman.
I should never have treated her any different.
This is about me doing the right thing and not condemning her to this place or the man I’ll have to become to keep it.
“Then I hope that curse follows you to hell, Garrett Carson.” She steps away from me, and with all her sadness turned to hate, she does what I asked of her and leaves.