“You’re a full-on asshole,” a voice said, and I didn’t bother looking around.
“Thought James would come himself, or ain’t I worth that consideration anymore?” I snapped.
Strong hands grabbed and hauled me up from where I was sitting. I was slammed back against a wall and pinned. Before the war, this would never have happened.
“Fuckin’ idiot,” Gunner snarled.
“I’ve got nothing to say,” I retorted weakly. “Let me the fuck go, Gunner.”
James’s brother looked me in the eye and sneered. “Make me.”
I shoved against his chest, and Gunner didn’t move. “Pussy,” Gunner taunted and released me. He walked over to Frank’s tomb and laid his hand on it. Moments ticked past before he turned back to me.
“Frank died for James and me. Everyone thinks Frank gave his life for James, but it was both of us. Frank came for me, wanting James and me to work out our shit. His selflessness was what brought us to reconciliation—that and the old ladies. Pushy bitches, all of them, and my old lady one of the worst,” Gunner said softly.
Love of his family leaked into his voice. Gunner might tease Autumn, but we all knew she held his heart in her hands.
“Without Frank’s sacrifice, I’d not have my loved ones, James wouldn’t have Kate, and your kids simply wouldn’t be here either. Think on that in your bitterness, Adam. Those beautiful children wouldn’t exist apart from Walker.”
“They’d be better off if I’m not here,” I muttered.
Gunner sent me a scathing look. “If you’re thinking like that, then yeah, divorce Rina. But are you gonna be able to handle it when a guy picks her up for a date? When Rina’s laughing at him over the dinner table, and you aren’t? Or when he kisses her, or when his cock’s inside her? Rina can have more babies. Want to pick up your children and see her belly rounded with another man’s kid? Hey, how about your kids calling him Daddy because they don’t know the drunk, pathetic asshole you turned into?”
Gunner’s worst hit deep, and then he snarled out my deepest fear. “What if Rina falls back in love with Dane?”
I lashed out. Gunner danced easily out of the way. Something else that wouldn’t have happened when I was fit.
“Don’t like reality, Adam? Then stop being a miserable motherfucker. Rina’s hanging in; she has been for eighteen months. That woman’s not quit on you, but what you just pulled? You deserve to fuckin’ lose her.”
I stared Gunner down, hate spilling from me. People always said the truth hurt; they weren’t lying.
“What are you gonna do? Man up or sacrifice everything and become a drunk in the gutter. Because that’s where you’re heading. You can reach out and take the support and the help the family will offer, or spit in our faces. Make a choice.” Gunner snapped and headed for the exit.
“Family?”
“James considers you a brother. Me? You’re the asshole kid that was adopted and ain’t settled into his new boots.” With that, Gunner stomped off. Nice.
Chapter Two.
Rina
“We’ll take the vacation,” Adam said later that evening.
I looked at him and nodded before walking away. I didn’t know what else to say or how to act. Adam had flung me this morning. Divorce. It was something I’d never considered. Adam had certainly thrown a curveball. What was worse, I couldn’t tell if he was genuinely sorry or just mouthing the words.
He could then tell everyone, ‘Hey, I tried, but it didn’t work out.’ The sick feeling that had taken root in my belly intensified, and I rushed to the toilet and threw up. James had told me that Gunner had read Adam the riot act. But would it help or hinder us?
Mariah
I smiled as food and drink menus sailed past me. The cleaning team had just left, and Lady Catherine was making her presence known. She adored The Black Cat, named for her, as much as Benedict and I did. Lady Catherine Norton was a lawunto herself. The Black came from the colour of her hair, and Cat was a nickname shortened from Catherine.
Lady Catherine, or Cat as Benedict called her affectionately, took an active role in the inn. She loved scaring the pants off customers as well as making them laugh. Locals knew the inn was haunted, and they knew why. They’d played a huge part in helping me save Benedict and also vanquish an uber and a wannabe vampire. Vemis, the uber vampire, had tried to turn Benedict into a vampire and had failed, leading to Benedict haunting the inn for hundreds of years.
Klaus Anderson had succeeded in freeing Vemis from his prison, but Vemis had turned on him and, quite basically, eaten him. A battle had occurred, and we’d won, and through God’s grace, Benedict had been given life again.
Life had changed for us then; there’d been a big battle, and we’d discovered an ancestor of Benedict’s, Ajax, hiding in Wollscombe Manor. Ajax had left us with a secret mission of his own after the battle. But he and his brother Silas were who the Nortons descended from. Benedict could trace his lineage right back to Silas. It seemed something out of a novel, but it had been real life, and I’d lived it!
Since then, we’d moved back into Wollscombe Manor and had been living there, apart from when we left Friday morning and returned on Monday morning. The weekend we spent at The Black Cat. It kept the bond between Lady Catherine and Benedict tight.
