Yep. I’m a dead duck.
When I scan the porch, Sutton is nowhere to be found. Smart woman.
I kill the engine, the sudden silence loud enough to make my ears ring. My hands tremble on the steering wheel.It’s the heat.
Spoiler alert. It’s not.
Pace is already barreling down the steps by the time I get the door open and step out.
“What the hell were you thinking?” he snaps before I can shut the door behind me.
I lift my chin, even though my heart is thudding inside of my chest like a jackhammer. “Nice to see you, too.”
Pace stops a few feet short from me, staring me down like he wants to shake me. “We got a call. From the Mastersons.”
My stomach drops.
Fucking tattletales.
I swallow. “So?”
“So,” Pace fires back, “you knew damn well they didn’t want to see you. You knew that. Everyone knows that.”
“I wanted answers,” I shoot back, a little sharper than intended. “Everyone acts like I am supposed to let my mother go. Everyone refuses to tell me what she did that was so bad. You all act like she is some kind of villain but refuse to tell me what she did that made you brand her that way. So yeah, I went to see them. I wanted answers about who she was.”
Pace throws his hands up. “You needed answers so badly you droved out to the ranch of the two people who made it abundantly clear they want nothing to do with you?”
I grit my teeth. “They’re my grandparents.”
“By blood,” he snaps. “Barely.”
John hasn’t raised his voice. Hasn’t moved more than a step. But his silence feels like a weight on my chest. Shouldn’t this be him raging at me? Not Pace?
“John,” I say, trying for calm. “I needed?—”
“You had no business going out there,” he cuts in, voice quiet, but sharp as barbed wire. “Not alone. Not without telling anyone. Not after yesterday.”
Anger flares in my chest. “Yesterday? You mean when some stranger came up to be in broad daylight and started accusing me of horrible things he didn’t even name because he thought I was my mother? Things you won’t tell me about. You say thatyou want me here but all you have shown me is that you only want me here if I don’t ask questions.”
John’s jaw ticks.
“No one is telling my anything about what my mother did. Not you. Not Sutton or Colter. So I went to the only two people who might actually tell me. What was I supposed to do? Wait for the truth to magically appear?”
Pace steps closer, eyes blazing. “You need to respect that our father doesn’t want you to know for a reason. That we all want to protect you and keep you safe.”
“I am safe.”
“No,” John says, and this time his word comes out like a strike. “You’re not.”
A cold ripple snakes down my spine at the finality in his tone.
I fold my arms, trying to stay steady. “I needed to go.”
“No,” John says again. “You wanted to go. That’s different.”
We stand there, the gravel between us radiating heat, the air thick with everything none of us are saying. Pace blows out a frustrated breath, dragging a hand down his face.
“The Mastersons called because they were pissed. They said you went snooping through their property.”
