The footsteps stopped by my Mom’s shattered door and he looked in. My eyes were closed, I prayed that he couldn’t see my pulse thundering in my neck. There was a low grunt and he walked around the other side, crouching down to look in the back seat. I could hear the broken glass grinding under his boots and he was reaching in when there was a shout.
“Hey! Are you okay? I’ll call the police.”
Don’t shoot whoever it is, I thought, please don’t kill anyone else.
The sound of footsteps running away from the car. More running toward us.
“Oh, shit! Shit man! Are you okay?” The voice was high and terrified but I didn’t dare move. What if the other man came back? The footsteps move away again.
“911 what is your emergency?”
“There was an accident! Some asshole hit a car with his truck and ran off. I think they’re all dead. I’m on…”
Nate! Nate, fuck, where was Nate? Fuck!
Sobbing, I tried to push Mom off me gently, twisting in my seatbelt to look in the back. Nate was moaning, but he was alive.
“I begged the paramedics to call Carmella. She got us checked out and convinced them not to take us to the hospital.”
Ethan’s big hand is in my hair, smoothing it softly. Amazing that a man whose hands are capable of such violence can be so gentle.
“How did ya get split up from Nate and Carmella?” His voice is calm, the kind of soothing tone I’d heard from a stable hand gentling horses at my summer camp.
“I sent them away that night. Bought plane tickets to six different places. They hopped from Boston to Philadelphia, took a bus to Chicago… I stayed behind, I was trying to collect all the jewelry and money I could find in the house, but Gavin came home before I could get out.”
“What happened?” There’s the slightest edge to his tone now, but his hand is still in my hair.
“He had his right-hand man - Tony, a complete fucking asshole who did his dirty work - hold me down while he beat me up. He was so pissed that Nate got away. I couldn’t stop laughing. They locked me in my room, which was their mistake. I’d gotten out of that room a million times when I was younger and I’d sneak out to parties. There’s a nice, sturdy trellis right outside the window.”
“Aye,” he rumbles, “I was gonna kill him but now I’ll take my time. I dinna understand, why was he so set on killing Nate?”
I shift my weight to my other hip. Apparently, describing the most horrible time in my life takes a backseat to just how sore I am right now.
“My dad - my real dad - was a smart man. He had the bulk of his wealth put into an unbreakable trust for Nate and me. Gavin must have found that out after he ran through all of Mom’s money. If he killed Nate and me, the money reverted to Mom. If all of us were dead, well, it was Gavin’s. He must have gotten desperate at the end and decided to just off us all. He must have started with Nate because he hated that my brother looks just like our dad.
“I didn’t know who the hell to trust. I’d been putting together all the sick shit he was up to, like the arms dealing. I didn’t know who he owned on the police force, and that poor lawyer, Gavin had him killed the next day and all the evidence vanished from his office. So, I kept running. Nate started chelation to get all the prednisone out of his system, it’s slow as hell. I had to switch him to somewhere new every few months to keep ahead of Gavin.
“I was so desperate that night of the auction. Nate’s treatments were getting more expensive and I just… it was one night, right?”
Rubbing my wet cheeks, I let out a watery sob. “I’ll bet you’re really regretting buying me that night, huh?”
He curls me into a ball, his arms wrapped around me and so warm. “It was the best decision of my entire life, my wife.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
In which Ethan is ready to Fuck Some Shit Up.
Ethan…
My wife dozes off in my arms after her confession. I think it was cathartic for her, she’s breathing deeply with a tiny smile on her lips. I’m thinking this means she finally trusts me to help her.
The fierceness of her… keeping Carmella and her brother moving on one side of the world while she evaded that piece of shite on the other, working her arse off to take care of them.
I’m lookin’ forward to finding Gavin and cutting him into fifty tiny pieces. And this feck Tony, too.
My phone buzzes angrily on my bedside table. It’s Morrie. Sliding out from under Sloan, I covered her with a blanket and stepped out into the hall.
“Morrie, what do ya know?”
