My entire face seems to fall. Tears immediately start streaming down my face again. “Maybe we should go somewhere else…”
“No, I want to know now.” His voice goes up an octave.
I look at Kyler pleadingly, but he just nods.
“Where is she, Layne? Where’s my wife?” He takes a step toward me and grabs my arms. I freeze immediately, even though I know Brooks wouldn’t hurt me. My eyes widen as I stare at him, my mouth opening and closing as if I’m a damn fish. My heart’s pounding like crazy.
How do I tell him his wife is dead? I can’t find the right words and, to be honest, the whole situation is paralyzing me.
Norah’s hand grabs mine, and the comfort of her fingers is almost overwhelming. When I meet Brooks’ gaze, the fear of his hands on my arms subsides.
“Let her go, man.” Ky’s hands wrap around my waist and I breathe out deeply.
“Lay, please. Tell me she’s not… Don’t tell me my girl…” He shakes my arms back and forth, and I cry harder.
Bel steps forward. “They shot her. Those fucking bastards, they…” Her lip trembles and tears stream down the bridge of her freckled nose. She wipes them away furiously as Brooks’ hands fall from my arms and he sinks to his knees in the sand in front of us. Bel continues. “That bald bastard shot her in the head because they panicked. Those bastards whispered that you were on their trail.” She nods to Brooks. “Jen said she knew you were coming to get her, that she’d already warned them once and that you were going to kill those fuckers and the bastard… He couldn’t handle it and shot her right in the head.” Bel sobs. “I’m so sorry. Jen didn’t deserve that and you don’t deserve to lose her.”
Brooks’s on his hands and knees. His back is heaving as he pants.
“There was a man in a suit, he came in,” Norah continues after taking a deep breath. “He was furious and told the bald man that you were coming for him. That when you came, he would tell you who the bald man was. That they had to keep her body in a freezer for you.”
I freeze. I had forgotten that part, or blocked it.
“Damn it, I’m going to slaughterhim.” The tone in Brooks’ voice is one I’ve never heard before, and I hope I never hear him use it against me. He sounds like death itself.
Suddenly, he stands up. “Did she suffer?”
I shake my head immediately. “One minute she was shouting, the next…” I shut my eyes.
“Don’t close your eyes, Layne. Look at me.”
“I’m so sorry,” I choked out. “She shouldn’t have been there. I’m just so sorry…”
“Stop. No, she shouldn’t have been there, but it’s not your fault.” He looks calm. Frighteningly calm. But I see his clenched fists, his tight jaw. He’s about to explode.
“If I hadn’t come here—”
“You didn’t.”
“I did.”
“No, Ky dragged you home. But you were already ours long before you were his, Laylay.”
I break free from Kyler’s grip and throw my arms around Brooks’ neck. “She didn’t deserve this…”
“Let me go, Layne. I have to go.” With those words, he walks away.
I turn around and hide my face in Ky’s shirt.
Thirty-Two
Inadaze,Iwalk with Layne clinging to me toward my parents’ house.
Jen’s dead.
All the while, I was more worried about Layne. Not just because she was the one… I love, but because in my mind, she’d been the target. Jen was just an extra to them. I never expected her to be the one who wouldn’t make it.
My best friend lost his wife.
