Chapter 23 #2
I know.
I know.
I know.
Sarah holds Evie’s hand tight, who is unaware of the drama that's playing out.
My kid grins at Landon and wrenches free of Sarah’s grip to run up to my brother. “Uncle Landon.”
I’ve got to give him credit; he recovers from the shock of seeing Sarah faster than she does. Faster than I do
“Hey, Evie girl. How are you?”
Before Evie can get close to my brother, Sarah pulls her away, like Landon has the plague. “Come on, Evie, we have to…we have to….”
“But, Dr K,” Evie protests.
Bandit is barking like crazy. He can read the tension, and he’s snarling at Landon.
Sarah all but hustles my kid away into the stables, where the horses are, speaking loudly to Evie about one of the horses she just has to check up on.
“What the fuck is she doing here?” Landon snarls.
I turn to Dodge and jerk my chin. He nods. He’s going to make sure Sarah and Evie are okay.
Something is wrong. Very wrong. I know it in my bones.
“She’s saving my Angus.”
“What?”
“Bodie broke his leg and—”
“Get another vet.” He steps closer, and there’s menace in his eyes, in his tone. “Not her.”
I tilt my head to look at him. “Why do you care who I use? You ain’t here that much, Landon, though you have been comin’ around more often.”
I walk up to the storage room and lock it. I hear Landon’s footsteps behind me.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Nothin’.” I slip the key into my pocket. I need to destroy that feed, throw it out…or maybe save it, in case we find out who did this. “What are you doin’ here, Landon?”
“Look, I just had a meeting with Senator—”
I raise my hand to silence him. “If you’re gonna say Jessup, you can stop right there.”
“Cade, come on, you’re breaking your back for pennies when you could be cashing in. Jessup’s ready to deal. Offers like this don’t last forever.”
“No,” I grind out, heat building behind my teeth. “This ranch isn’t for sale. Not to Jessup. Not to anyone. You want easy money, find it somewhere else.”
His jaw ticks, that politician allure dropping like a mask slipping. “You’re a fool. Evie’s future isn’t in cows and dirt. It’s in capital. Power. Influence. The kind of life I’m building for this family.”
I take a step closer. “That life you’re building is for you. It doesn’t touch me. Doesn’t touch this land.”
I brush past him, wanting to get the fuck away from him before….
And just like that, a thought enters my mind. It sinks into me like a stone.
Why would someone want Blue Rock to fail? ‘Cause if Thunder died, it would hurt me financially, as it would my future. It would be a while before I’d be able to save up to buy an Angus like Thunder.
I whirl around to face my brother. “Someone poisoned my cattle. Tried to kill Thunder.”
He narrows his eyes, and then something flares in them. “It’s that bitch.”
I get close to him and look him in the eye. “Did you rape my girlfriend, Landon?”
I realized then that I never asked him this question. Not once.
“Of course not.” His nostrils flare, and his eyes dart around.
And right there, I know…for sure.
“You did, didn’t you?”
“You’re out of your mind, Cade.”
I have my hands around his neck. “You son of a bitch.”
“Congressman,” I hear a voice from behind me.
Landon doesn’t travel with a security detail, though his driver—a former military guy—doubles as a de facto bodyguard. I need to get my hands off him before I do something I’ll regret.
I shove Landon away.
He stumbles and then straightens. “What’s gotten into you? Are you fucking her again? Is that—”
“Remember when we were kids and you put a scratch on Dad’s brand-new truck.”
His face crumples in confusion.
“He asked you if you did it, and you said, ‘Of course not.’ You had this same look on your face. I know you better than anyone else….” My words evaporate into ether as the world comes crashing around me.
“That girl is a liar, Cade.”
I press my lips together and shake my head. Everything I held true has vanished.
My brother puts his hands on my shoulders. “Look at me? I am your brother, damn it.”
I say nothing. I don’t know what to say because I know.
I know.
I know.
I know.
My pulse hammers—I finally have the truth, the one that’s been gnawing at me, forcing me to choose between my brother and Sarah.
I chose him. I chose wrong.
I pull away from him. “Get out.”
He growls at me in frustration. “This ranch is half mine, don’t forget that.”
“Not anymore, it’s not.” I shove my hands in my pockets because I want to smash his face into the ground, beat him into a pulp, and then hit myself just as hard. “I have sixty-five percent…my sweat equity, remember? Now get out and stay away.”
Landon shakes his head. “Brother, don’t let her come between us.”
“Get. The. Fuck. Out.”
I can see in my mind’s eye how Sarah grabbed Evie and took her away. That was fear. She didn’t want the girl she loved to be anywhere around Landon because…he sexually assaulted her.
After throwing a couple of dire warnings that don’t register, Landon leaves.
I watch his SUV drive away, unable to construct my next steps because it is still sinking in that my Dove never betrayed me; it was I who destroyed her.
“Did you sleep with my brother and call it rape?”
Her body is shaking. “No, Cade. Landon did—"
“Tell me the truth, Sarah. Did you come on to Landon? Did you want him?”
I feel like I’m in a horror movie because my girl, my Dove, had sex with my brother and then accused him of something heinous.
“No.” Tears roll down her face. “I don’t want him…I love you; I only want you. He forced—"
“So, you’re just going to lie to my face? He told me everything, Sarah. He said you’ve been after him for months, throwing yourself at him while I wasn’t looking. And now you’re trying to ruin his life?”
I’m so angry, I don’t know what to do with myself.
I can hear my father say that we Mercer men have to stick together. And…I know my brother. He’s not who she says he is. I know it. I have to know it. I grew up with him. He’s my big brother.
“Cade, on my mother’s grave, Landon raped me. He raped me and….”
I called her a slut after that and walked away, making sure everyone in Wildflower Canyon knew what I thought of her. When they made her life miserable around town, I egged them on. When she left, I felt like I won.
Now, I hang my head in shame.
I didn’t believe her. I didn’t take care of her. It makes me complicit in what Landon did to her.
I fall to my knees, unable to bear the weight of my crimes against an innocent. Against the woman I love.
Helplessness surges through me. I can’t go back. I can’t change the past. I can’t….
I tip my head back to the sky and let out a ragged cry before slumping forward, eyes burning as I take in the harsh land around me.
My fists slam into the ground, splitting skin, dirt grinding into the cut. I welcome the sting, wishing it could punish me half as much as I deserve.
I hit the hard earth again. And again. And again. Pounding, gasping, choking on the truth that no amount of blood or dirt will ever scrub me clean.