Chapter 29 #2
I shake my head. “But he’s not from around here, is he? And I wasn’t wearing my name tag today. I’m telling you, he knew me.”
Rhett shoots me a worried look before his brows slam together. He opens his mouth to speak but Blair lets out another happy squeal.
“He knows you and he didn’t threaten you? Wow!” she claps her hands together as she grins. “That means he probably likes you already!”
“Does it? Really?” I hedge, my voice strained as anxiety brews under my skin.
Rhett shakes his head frantically, terror turning his face white, when Blair turns her back to him.
Yeah, that’s what I’m thinking too.
“Did he say anything?” Blair asks.
“Ah…” I frown. “He said he’s completing a special project and that he wanted to see if Ledger was around. Oh, and he’ll be back.”
“Son of bitch! Fuck!” Ledger shouts as he storms away from us. He kicks one of the chairs around the firepit and then spits into the cold, empty pit.
Rhett and I watch Ledger as he flips a chair and chucks his walkie talkie toward the cabin.
“Shouldn’t he be excited that his best friend is in town?” Rhett mutters to me.
“I mean I would be excited.”
Rhett hums, his brows creeping together. “And shouldn’t he be thankful we have backup if trouble shows up?”
“Yeah…”
“So why isn’t he excited or thankful, Santi?”
“My guess? He’s probably afraid that Dad is going to find out how the hell all of this started,” Blair says, interrupting us. “As he should be.”
Rhett and I trade looks again before I glance at her.
“Is the blow out going to be bad?” Rhett asks her.
Blair chuckles and says in a low, conspiratory whisper, “Dad’s not predictable. Who knows what’ll happen when he finds out?”
Between my interaction with her dad, Ledger’s reaction now, and learning last night what her dad’s really like, her response doesn’t inspire any sort of confidence in me.
In fact, I’m feeling more shaken now than when I got up here.
When I turn to look up at Blair, I find her staring at the screen again, her grin so wide that I’m afraid it’ll split her face in two.
It’s the joy on her face that pushes aside my trepidation. The grin that stretches across my face surely mirrors hers. Seeing Blair happy is enough to accept whatever the hell is about to happen now that her dad is in town. She isn’t happy enough for my liking these days. Who am I to kill the mood?
“I wish I’d known who he was. I would’ve invited him to dinner and asked him about the text messages he sent to Ledger,” I tell her.
Ledger whirls around and stomps back toward us. “What fucking text messages, Santi?”
“You know, on your phone,” I tell him, perplexed by the way his face grows pale. “Oh, right, we didn’t give you your phone back…”
Even Blair looks a little apprehensive right now. She reaches out to touch Ledger’s arm. “That’s how I knew he was alive. He texted you. I totally forgot about that.”
“Okay, so you missed a few text messages?” Rhett snaps. “So what? Why are you—”
“A few?!” Ledger’s eyes nearly bulge out of his head.
Blair winces. “Oh, shit, you’re in a lot of trouble.”
Ledger glares at her. “You should’ve told me!”
“I forgot!” She throws her hands up. “I had more pressing issues. Like my godfather possibly trying to kill me. I was just happy to see he was still alive!”
Ledger’s face turns red as he glares at her. He opens his mouth but Rhett holds up a hand.
“Can someone explain what the fuck is happening?” he demands, glaring at the two of them. “Why are you two freaking out?”
Ledger shifts his attention to Rhett.
He opens his mouth but only a croak comes out. My blood runs cold again at the fear that flickers across Ledger’s face as he shuts his mouth. Ledger shakes his head and lets out a long, pained sigh.
“It’s a rule,” Blair answers for him after a minute, her voice quiet—solemn even. “You have twenty-four hours to respond. If you don’t, Dad gets pissed.”
I roll my eyes. “Seems dramatic, carino”
“You don’t know my dad.” Blair glances at Ledger anxiously. “Maybe it’s time you get your phone back?”
“Where is it?” he growls.
“Upstairs in Wes’s room. Top drawer to the left,” she replies.
Without another word, Ledger takes off toward the house. The three of us watch him go until he slams the back door behind him.
I pull Blair down into my lap. Instantly, her arms come around my neck, and her worried brown eyes meet mine.
“Carino? Should I, ah, warn Wes we might have a problem?” I ask her.
She hesitates. Her bottom lip gets trapped between her teeth as her gaze drifts off toward the woods.
Rhett lets out an annoyed huff and rakes his fingers through his hair, attempting to get it out of his face. It doesn’t work. Those dark strands fall right back into place.
“Blair, your silence is freaking me the fuck out,” Rhett says. “Say something!”
“I don’t know what we should do!” she says at last. She looks at him. “Like I said, Dad is unpredictable.”
“He’s a psycho, that’s why you're scared right now, isn’t it?” he counters. “I fucking called it!”
“Mi amado.” I shoot him a dark look. “Be nice.”
Rhett scoffs. “Be nice? Be nice? Ledger, who didn’t even freak out when we had him tied up downstairs, is now panicking. Blair is panicking.” He points to her. “This badass woman doesn’t panic, Santi!”
Blair laughs weakly. With a shake of her head, she says, “Look, everything is going to be… ah, alright. I’ll make sure of it.”
Before I can point out that her lack of confidence is really not helping Rhett’s anxiety, or mine, Ledger storms back out of the house. We all whip our heads around and watch him stomp towards us.
When he stops before us, I hold my breath. With his mouth pinched and brows knitted together, Ledger doesn’t look like he’s bringing any good or comforting news. He looks at me, then Rhett, but it’s when he gives his complete attention to Blair that I realize how serious a situation we’re facing.
“I responded back and he answered immediately,” he tells us while still staring at her.
Blair nods. “Alright, did you assure him everything is good?”
Ledger scoffs. “I didn’t get the chance. He told me he’s coming over tonight. That we’ll be talking face to face.”
Blair relaxes with a sigh and suddenly smiles. “Oh, that’s great!”
“Great?” Rhett repeats, his voice strained with incredulousness.
She nods. “You guys will see, Dad is amazing.”
The look on Ledger’s face tells a completely different story. Blair doesn’t seem to notice as she slips off my lap, humming happily, but Rhett does. He stares at Ledger, his face tightening with unease.
My stomach flips uncomfortably.
Fear hasn’t been a word in my vocabulary in a long time.
There’s been nothing to fear. Any danger in my life came from me.
I kill people for fun. But since Blair’s blown into my life, I’ve learned there’s a lot to fear.
There’s loss, there’s the unknown, there’s the fear of fucking waiting for something horrible to happen…
Right now, I feel fear creeping up my spine like a spider.
Simply being in Anchor’s presence was enough for my soul to want to lean away from him. That was just within the few minutes of conversation we’d exchanged while I rang him up. What will it be like with this man under our roof?
Judging by Ledger’s hardening expression—it’s going to be rough.