Bo didn’t wantto be doing this.Or at least, not alone.He’d have preferred Sam with him, but she’d said they could hardly play theI hate the Bennetsgame if she was there.
That was the plan.Tell this private investigator he hated the Bennets, was tired of them, and he’d help the PI however he wanted.Then take all that information back to Sam.
Bo wasn’t sure if it was a lie.He wasn’t sure of anything.Sometimes, hedidhate the Bennets.The way they looked like him.The way they lookedathim.The way they were bigger than him, more intimidating.
The way they seemed to know what to do.How to move forward.And expected him to be the same.They didn’t ask him things.They told him things.
More than anything, the three brothers represented awful things he didn’t want.He didn’t want this.
But he felt trapped.Because he’d come here looking for answers that had been missing his whole life.Answers were supposed to fix things, fixhim, not make everything worse.
Sam had coached him on what to say to the PI, what information to get.He was supposed to pretend like he’d rather help a stranger than a Bennet.And she’d said he could lean into the truth of just wanting to go home but not wantingthisto follow him there.
But he was supposed to remember everything the PI said.Everything.And bring it back to Sam.So the Bennets could do… whatever.
Bo didn’t want to.
But he was here.He was here, and he didn’t even know why.To play some game so some guy he didn’t know maybe got punished for killing some lady he also didn’t know?He was no hero.None of that really mattered to him, did it?
Maybe the two people were biologically his parents, but he didn’tknowthem.Them or his biological brothers.They were strangers.Nonentities in his life.
He thought of hisactualdad.The man who’d raised him.Who’d died last year.Wasting away to cancer.
Matthew Lake had always done the right thing.He’d fought for people, worked hard, tried.And what reward had he gotten?No biological children and an early death.
Bo had learned a lesson in that.There was no real reward for good in this life.You had to find your own rewards.
So what did it matter if some murdering asshole went free?Why was Bo putting himself through this for people he didn’tknow?He didn’twantto.
He pulled his rental car into the parking lot of the park the PI had told him to meet him at.There was a man sitting at a picnic table.The same man who’d been bothering him for the past week.Bo sat in his car and considered him from afar.
He didn’t trust this man.He agreed with Sam that whatever this guy wanted from him, it was wrong.
The problem was, Bo didn’t think the Bennets were right either.
He kind of thought everyone was wrong.Everyone was so busy trying to fight things and find things and control things.He just wanted to gohome.
But he’d let Sam talk him into this.He’d let her talk him into the Bennets’ plan.
He had to go through with it.
Do you?He wasn’t exactly known for seeing things through at home, was he?Why should this be different?
But the PI had spotted him and was looking at him now, and Bo knew he couldn’t just drive away.He reluctantly got out of the car, crossed the snowy ground to stand in front of the PI.
“I’m glad you finally came to your senses, Mr.Lake.It’ll make everyone’s lives a lot easier.”
“I was tired of being harassed,” Bo said, just like Sam had told him to.“By you and the Bennets.”
The guy smiled his oily smile.“I’ve got the answer to both those problems.Have a seat.Let’s talk.”
Bo eased onto the picnic bench.
“Now, I know the Bennets have probably filled your head with all kinds of stories.And maybe that lunatic Harrington woman.I hope you know, no one actually thinks she’s sane around these parts.”
Bo thought of the woman’s creepy eyes.Insane?He didn’t think so, but there wassomethingwrong with her.Even if she was his dad’s relation.
“I’m not going to fill your head with anything.I’m going to make you an offer.It’s yours to take or leave.You give me a definitive answer then I’m out of your life.”
