Chapter Six
Icrawl off the bed, needing a minute. I walk to the bathroom and close the door, sliding down it until my ass hits the floor. To say my head is ready to explode is an understatement.
I can hear the guys quietly talking, but I can’t make out the words through the thick oak door.
I give myself another minute before I get to my feet and stumble to the sink.
I wince at my image in the mirror. My skin is as pale as a sheet of paper, and I have dried blood smeared everywhere.
I glance down and notice for the first time that the clothes I’d been wearing have been stripped off me, and I’m wearing a black button-down shirt, presumably one of Austin’s.
Slowly, I unfasten the buttons and take in my naked body beneath. My eyes fill with tears once more when I see the streaks of blood, because that blood’s not mine. It’s Dawn’s, and none of this is just a bad dream that I’ll eventually wake up from.
I fight the urge to climb into the shower for all of five seconds before I climb in fully clothed and turn the water on. I don’t care that the water’s freezing. I need to get the blood off me.
I tear the shirt from my body and scrub my skin until it’s red and painful, sobbing my heart out until the door bursts open and Riggs steps in. He takes a look at me and climbs into the shower fully clothed and wraps himself around me.
“Oh, Poppy.” I hear Shepard whisper before the water shuts off.
Riggs lifts me into Shepard’s waiting arms as he strips off his now-wet clothes.
Austin walks in with a handful of towels.
He offers one to Riggs, then places all but one on the counter.
He opens it and waits for Shepard to decide.
They stare at each other in a silent standoff for a moment before Shepard relents and hands me to Austin, who wraps the towel around my naked body and carries me back to the bedroom.
I stare at the comforter as he sits me on the bed. Shepard slides in behind me with a towel and gently rubs my hair dry. Riggs takes a pair of sweats that Austin throws his way.
“I didn’t know.”
I lift my head at Austin’s words.
“I thought I dreamed you. Even when I heard what had happened to you, I thought it was your father who did it, and that my drugging you had made everything worse.”
“When did you know?” I ask, my voice barely above a whisper.
“I felt your power under your skin the day I met you. Like a vibration that made the hairs on my arms stand on end. When I came to the pasture that day and took you by surprise, you had electricity rippling over you, enough to kill a man if they touched you. But I didn’t feel anything.
I told myself there was a logical explanation.
My father used to call my momma a cheating whore, and I wondered if there was some truth in that.
I looked nothing like my father, perhaps for a reason.
It got me thinking that perhaps I had some witch blood in me too. ”
“And males born from witches can be immune to their powers,” Riggs says. He and I went over this. It’s what we assumed, too, in the beginning.
“I mean, it had to be that. Your father raped you, and you killed him. But then that day on your porch, you told me it wasn’t him, it was Andy, and then I knew it really was my fucking fault. Parts of that night started coming back to me. His anger and hatred of you, for starters.”
I remember how pale he went. How shocked he was by my words.
“If you really thought that motherfucker raped Calliope, why the hell was he still working with you?”
“When news came out that Martin was dead, and Calliope did it, something in Andy changed. At first, he was pissed at me. And rightfully so. I drugged you, so it was indirectly my fault. But then the days and weeks went by, and Andy slowly became someone else. There were times he looked guilty or remorseful, but I didn’t know why.
I thought maybe I was projecting because the guilt of what I put into motion was killing me. ”
“You hired Jen.”
“I had to do something. But then she fired me and went rogue.” His lips twitch at that before his face turns serious.
“When you told me it was Andy, the guilt and remorse suddenly made sense. I wanted to kill him, but that was too easy. Fifteen years you lost because of him. No, I couldn’t let that slide.
So I started working behind the scenes, switching things up, ready to retire from the business I built. ”
“Fuck. You set him up,” Riggs guesses.
I frown, confused. “Set him up for what?”
“I made a few bad calls on purpose, got into bed with some bad folk, and painted a target on my brother’s back.
I sabotaged the empire I built, making sure everything would point to Andy when it all inevitably came falling down.
But then Riggs turned up, and Andy proved what a piece of shit he really is. ”
“He gave me those papers because he knew all along it was you. He didn’t say anything to the police, or even to me. Not to protect you, but so he could use the truth as leverage.”
“If you remember, the second your focus was on me once more, he was gone. He told me afterward how it all went down that night. How he spiked my drink with a combo that would make me horny and my memory spotty at best. As I said, he had no interest in you. He thought if you reported me for raping you, I’d go to jail, and he could take over the business. ”
“But then I killed my dad, and suddenly the nobody girl you raped became a notorious murderer in the spotlight. And he freaked out enough to keep him quiet all these years.”
“At least until he needed a get out of jail free card,” Shepard grunts.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Even as I say it, I know I didn’t exactly give him a chance to explain.
“At first, I was recovering from getting shot. But then as time ticked by, I wondered what the point was. It doesn’t change anything, Cece. I still raped you.”
I flinch, but when he tries to move away, I grab his hand. I squeeze my eyes shut. The truth is, I’m not sure this is something either of us will get over. “I think it’s safe to say Andy raped us both.”
I never thought I would ever see Austin cry. When he collapses into me, burying his face against my neck as his hot tears fall against my skin, I realize how much this man has been carrying.
Riggs moves closer, offering his silent support, while Shepard supports the extra weight now threatening to throw me off balance. Nobody pushes him to continue. We all wait, feeling helpless as he purges the agony inside him.
Eventually, he gets his shit together, looking embarrassed when he raises his head to find Riggs watching him. But Riggs, being the man he is, leans over and squeezes Austin’s shoulder.
“It was you,” Shepard murmurs, making me frown.
“What?”
“Today, before the meeting. One of my officers mentioned having a family member come down to the hospital morgue to identify a body. That’s why you were in town. You killed your brother.”
“I wish. I dream about snapping his fucking neck before shoving his severed head on a spike.”
“I could get on board with that,” Riggs agrees.
“I’m in a relationship with a bunch of fucking psychos,” Shepard mutters, making Riggs smirk.
“We’re dating now, Sheriff?”
“Fuck you,” Shepard snaps back, but there is no heat in his statement.
“Not until you grow a pussy. For a while there, I was worried that might happen.”
Shepard throws a pillow at him, making him laugh.
“Austin?”
He looks at me, and the others quiet down. “You don’t mess with the Russians. They’re crazy motherfuckers, and the Bratva are crazier than most.”
I open my mouth and shut it again. He killed his father to keep me safe and orchestrated his brother’s death to avenge me. A part of me might always hate him for what he did to me, but there is another part that doesn’t know how not to love him.
“I could do with losing my memory myself right now,” Shepard groans, earning a glare from Austin. “Too soon?”
Riggs laughs as he reaches for my ankle, his face turning serious. “Better fill Shepard in on the rest.”
“Fuck me, there’s more?”
“Remember when I said I’d circle back to Dawn?” I look over my shoulder at him, and I can practically see his eyes moving a mile a minute. “You notice the similarities between Dawn’s story and my mother’s?”
“Wait. You’re saying Dawn’s a witch?”
“I’m saying, there is likely some in her blood. Not all witches have powers as I do.”
“She’s not kidding. Most witches can’t do a fraction of what Calliope can,” Austin adds. “But the blood of her virginity would still be potent…” he lets that hang in the air.
“So Hannah has witch in her, too?”
“Possibly, yeah. But that’s not all Hannah has.”
“What else does she have?”
“A sister.”
“Wait, what? Who?”
I look at him and swallow, revealing my final truth.
“Me.”
The ride back home is tense. Each of the guys has a vehicle, so we’re forced to ride separately. I end up riding with Shepard, mostly because he still has a million questions.
“For Hannah to be your sister, and if Dawn was her mother…”
That has me rubbing my chest. “Then we share the same father.”
“So Martin wasn’t your father.”
“No, he was.”
“I’m so fucking confused.”
“You ever really looked at Hannah’s eyes? I know you’ve looked at mine.”
“They’re the same. Huh. Some fucking cop I am.”
“Who else has those eyes, Shep?”
He frowns, but the answer is right there. His mouth drops open as he turns to look at me. “Porter? Porter’s your father? But how?”
“He faked his death, had Dale frame me for it, and then spent a lot of money on changing the way he looked.”
He blinks at me, waiting for more before shaking his head and looking back at the road. “Why?”
“Now that’s a loaded question. If you caught the parts where Austin was explaining my birthmark and my powers coming in, then you’ll understand that my father would have noticed it too.”
He grimaces. “You mean the part where he would have raped his own daughter just so he was immune to her gifts?” he spits.
I look out the window, hating that it hurts still, even knowing what a fucking bastard my father is.
“Fuck, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.” Shepard slides his hand over my thigh. I cover it with mine and sigh.
“Sometimes the truth is just shit. Doesn’t mean I can hide from it, though.
I think Austin is right. He always planned to take my virginity from me, which is why he wanted to marry me off to a weak-ass bitch like Andy, who wouldn’t give a fuck about me anyway.
When he realized someone had beat him to it…
” I shake my head, wondering what the fuck was going through his mind in that moment.
How did any of this seem like a good idea?
“He did it to protect himself. The monster suddenly realized someone more deadly had entered the game. One with a vendetta against him.”
“But I didn’t want revenge, I wanted freedom.”
“He wasn’t thinking like a sixteen-year-old girl, though.”
I nod, understanding what he’s saying. “He fucked his own life up, too. It must have been plan B or C, and a poorly thought-out one at that. There were so many things he overlooked. In the end, it just didn’t seem worth it.
I lost fifteen years of my life for nothing. He still lost everything in the end.”
“I’m sorry for everything you lost, Poppy, but I’m not sorry that man fucked himself over. Sometimes, I wish I were more like Austin, then you’d never have to worry about that motherfucker again.”
“No, you don’t.”
He sighs. “No, I don’t. I really hate that guy.”
And for some reason, this cracks me up. And I don’t stop laughing all the way back to the ranch.