The words land hard. Final. Irrevocable.
“You let her kill my wife, then?”
My father’s jaw tightens. “No. I had no idea Laurel would do anything like that. The most I thought she was capable of was manipulation, not full-blown murder.”
John laughs, sharp and broken. “Emma’s dead, Hudson. Sadie’s dead. Sutton was almost killed today. My daughter is missing because of that woman. Explain to me why I shouldn’t be placing the blame on you.”
I step between them before John does something he can’t take back. Not because he isn’t justified, but because despite them being friends, my father is still the one in charge.
And we don’t have time for their bickering.
“Enough,” I bark. “You can tear each other apart later. Right now, Peyton is alive because Laurel needs her breathing. The second that changes, we’re all too late.”
That pulls John up short. His fists clench at his sides, knuckles white, chest heaving.
My father exhales slowly. “Sadie came to me the night she decided to run,” he admits, quieter now. “I was about to kill her. Put a bullet in her head for what she did to you, but…she told me everything. How Laurel had Emma’s car crash look like an accident. About what she had been forcing Sadie to do since she was a child. About being pressured, controlled, and threatened. She was terrified.”
John’s face twists. “She could have told me.”
“No,” Hudson disagrees. “Laurel convinced her you wouldn’t believe her. She isolated her. Told her that the only one you’d ever protect was your wife and kids. Your family. That you’d destroy her before you’d listen. Like I almost did.”
That one hits John square in the chest.
“And she might not have been wrong,” Hudson adds softly. “You loved Emma. You trusted Laurel. We all did. None of us saw what was happening right under our nose. Even after Sadie came forward, I didn’t have enough to take to Richard about Laurel. I had to wait.”
John drags a hand through his hair, breath ragged. “So you helped Sadie steal the money?”
“I helped her take back what Laurel was already bleeding dry,” Hudson corrects. “That money was never Laurel’s. It was her families trust to us when she was arranged to marry Richard. She has no solitary claim over it. I helped Sadie disappear. New name. New trail. I thought if she vanished completely, Laurel would eventually give up.”
“She didn’t,” I say flatly.
“No,” Hudson agrees. “She waited. Like a cancer.”
Ace clears his throat. “Then why now? Why kill everyone? Take Peyton after all this time?”
My father’s eyes flick to the barn in the distance, where body bags are already being hauled out under floodlights. Our men. It weighs heavy on my heart at the thought of our men being gutted like pigs because of that snake of a bitch. I can see the heaviness reflected in my father’s eyes as well. The burden he carries for their lives and the families they have been forced to leave behind.
“Because Sadie set the money up for Peyton in a trust,” he says. “I think Laurel sent someone to get the information from Sadie but didn’t succeed. Or didn’t want her to know they succeeded. She most likely doesn’t know what Sadie did which means?—”
“The only person left to link to the money is Peyton,” I finish.
My father nods. “Sadie was careful. She moved it in pieces. Laundered it and then set it up in a trust. Peyton doesn’t know anything about it as far as I can tell.”
John’s voice cracks. “So Peyton’s going to what…be tortured for answers she doesn’t have?”
The thought lights something violent in my chest.
My father looks at me then. Not as his son. Not as his heir. But as a weapon he helped forge.
“Laurel will move fast now,” he says. “She knows the bodies will be found. Knows I’ll come for her. She’ll head somewhere isolated. Somewhere she still controls.”
“Where?” John demands.
I already know.
“The old processing warehouses of County Nine,” I say. “Her family used them years ago to move money and cattle under the table for us. It’s off-grid. Shielded. Easy to lock down.”
Ace nods. “It’s the one place that makes sense and it is one I had on my list to narrow down.”
