Chapter 29 #2
My heart races like crazy. I wasn’t ready for an altercation with him this morning.
“Yeah, like it did ten years ago? I know you were helping your dad to get rid of me, send me off to some school overseas. I was nothing to you back then, so why pretend I mean something now? What are you getting out of it?”
His nostrils flare. “I never would have let him send you away.”
“It was happening, I heard my mum tell your dad the school was booked. And you helped them, you made sure I came home that night knowing what Keller had planned for me.” Fresh pain radiates through my chest, taking me right back to that night.
“They weren’t sending you away that night. We had time. If you and your dad didn’t take off, I would have helped you stay.”
“How?” I scream back at him. “We all know your dad had all the fucking power. If he wanted something, there was nothing you or anyone else could have done about it.”
For a beat he just stares at me. He knows I’m right. He was just a kid, he had no power against a man like Keller, even if he was his dad. “Things are different now. He’s not here, but you are. And we won’t let you go this time.”
Yeah, his words make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
All I ever wanted was to feel like a part of this crew, be one of them, but I grew up and realized that wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.
A bitter smile crosses my face. “This time you don’t have a choice.
When I get what I’m after, I’m leaving, and there will be nothing you or anyone else can do to stop me. ”
He lowers his face so it’s just off mine, a cruel smirk painting his lips.
“You run, I will chase you. Try and hide, I will track you down. I didn’t get this powerful by following Daddy’s instructions.
I made up my own rules, ones you can’t escape.
I’m going to be stuck on you like glue until you give in to what we all know is inevitable, even if I have to play dirty to make it happen. ”
I shake my head, words not forming even though I want to fight him. Want to yell and scream until he hears me out. Till he stops this madness, but there is something in his eyes that stops me. A desperation I don’t even understand. “You could have anyone, why are you doing this to me?”
“Because you’re one of us, and I never should have let you and your dad leave in the first place. What has happened to you in the last ten years is on me, and I intend to spend the rest of my life making it up to you.”
My heart flutters. He blames himself for what happened to us?
That’s just absurd. “You’re not as powerful as you think, K.
You couldn’t have stopped what happened.
Don’t live your life with that regret. What my life became is on whoever killed my mum.
If you really want to help me, help me find who murdered her. ”
He runs a shaky hand through his hair. “You’re looking for answers you don’t really want, birdie.”
“What?” I huff out. “Stop trying to act like you know me or have my best interests at heart when we all know you only do shit for yourself. Why wouldn’t I want to know who killed her? I loved my mother, she was a good person, trying to do good things for this town.”
Pity fills his eyes. “Come on, Dove, I know you saw those photos. You know she wasn’t the person she wanted us all to think she was.
She was just as dirty as my old man, probably more because at least Keller owned it.
She was hiding behind a perfect facade. Perfect husband, perfect daughter, perfect mayor, but it was all a lie. ”
His words fill me with venom, and before I can stop myself, I slap him across the face as hard as I can. It stings the palm of my hand, but I hardly notice with the anger trembling through me. How dare he.
Kasen falters back, not expecting it, before a deranged smirk glides across his lips as he touches the side of his face where I got him. He’s not right in the head, that’s the only thing I can be sure about.
River steps in between us. “Enough, K, leave her alone.”
“She didn’t deserve to be killed,” I spit back at Kasen.
His glare darkens further, and he tries to shove River back. “Maybe she did. How can you know when the life you all lived together was a lie? You think that night ruined your life, but maybe it freed you from a hell you didn’t know existed yet.”
My glare turns deadly. I hate him. With everything in my being, I hate this man standing in front of me.
I want to inflict the same pain he is. I want to destroy him like he is me, but I don’t think that’s possible.
He’s dead inside. So instead, I turn away from him.
What’s the point in fighting? He thinks he’s right no matter what I say, and I will never agree with him on this.
It doesn’t matter what my mum did, she didn’t deserve to be shot for it. Nothing he can say will change my mind.
“Don’t walk away from me,” he calls after me.
“Just let her go, man, you two yelling at each other isn’t going to help the situation,” River tells him, his voice calm.
But in normal Kasen style, he doesn’t listen. I can feel him hot on my heels as I hurry down the hallway to my room.
I try to close my door, but he gets in the way. “Go put something nice on, a dress preferably. You’re coming to work with me.”
I throw a filthy look back at him. “No, I’m going to work with River today.”
He towers over me, deliberately trying to intimidate me. “Not anymore, you’re not. You need a good hard dose of reality.” He shoves a small cardboard box in my direction, one I didn’t notice him holding before. “I came home to give you this.”
With shaky fingers, I pop open the top that he’s clearly already opened even though the front of it is addressed to me.
Sickness fills my stomach when I find a dead little bird with no head, its blood smeared over the inside of the box.
I drop it and scream, my skin instantly crawling.
A scrap piece of paper drops out with a clear message for me in cut-out magazine letters, much like the ones my mum used to get.
“Little bird, little bird fly, little bird, little bird die.
I know what you did, little bird, and it’s time for you to pay.”
My heart thumps, my stomach churns. I suck in labored breaths, trying to get the racing under control, but it’s no use. I run as fast as my feet will take me, throw back the toilet seat, and throw up my breakfast. My body trembles all over with fear and anger. Who the fuck is doing this to me?
Kasen is there with me before I know it, pulling my hair back. “You’re okay,” he tells me, his voice soft.
“Why would someone do that to a poor innocent animal?” I cry.
“Because they can. I don’t know what you did to piss this person off, but he’s after you.”
I stand up and move to the basin to wash my face and hands. “I haven’t done anything. You guys know all there is to about me. I’m not lying to you, Kasen, I swear. This has to be the Southern Breakers. Someone must have seen what we did and they want revenge.”
“Then why aren’t they coming after me as well?”
I glance up at him, fear coursing through me. “I don’t know.”
“Could there be an old boyfriend you pissed off? Did you cheat on some poor dude?”
I raise a bitchy eyebrow. What kind of slut does he think I am? “No.”
He pulls a face like he doesn’t believe me. “How can you be so sure?”
“I’ve never been in a relationship before,” I spit back, not really wanting to get into the personal side of my life but also needing him off my back about this.
He blinks back at me a couple of times. “For real?”
I throw my hands up in the air. “Don’t fucking judge me at a time like this.”
“I’m not judging, I’m just surprised. You’re beautiful, and no man has ever asked you out? Not even some random hook-ups from the club you worked at? Think, birdie, this could be anyone with a chip on their shoulder.”
I shrug, feeling even worse about my past life than I already did.
I know it’s sad to be a twenty-five-year-old who’s never had a boyfriend, but that’s my reality.
Shit, I hadn’t even had sex till like twelve months ago.
“I kept to myself mostly, worked to pay the bills, filmed when I had spare time. My friends were the girls I worked behind the bar with, but I didn’t have time to socialize, and they shouldn’t have any reason to hate me. ”
He scratches his head, looking genuinely confused. “Then it’s got to be the same dude who was after your mum. You coming back must have triggered him to start this creepy shit again. It’s the only logical conclusion.”
“But he’s not asking for money or anything. From what we can tell, he’s just trying to scare me, wants me to leave town and not come back.”