He turned around. Hadley was face down on the ground in a pool of blood.
Unmoving.
His throat thickened when he realized what he’d done.
Shame.
Guilt.
Hate.
He didn’t know which one he felt the strongest.
The only thing he knew for certain was he was empty.
His soul a void.
Numb, he turned and walked out, climbed into his truck, and drove.
Drove into the nothingness.
Because he had nothing left to give.
FIFTY-THREE
CASH
A thunderof motorcycles prowled through the night as we tore down the twisting mountain road. A score of angry metal that raced in the direction of the lux resort on the far side of town. Up the northern mountain near the ski slopes where I’d gotten a ping that Ethan had checked in.
I was at the helm, leader of the pack as we hit town on the south end, a host of single headlights spearing through the deep, dark night.
Most everything was closed up by now, the roads barren and the windowfronts of the shops and restaurants darkened. Only the dull glow from the streetlamps and random flickers of a neon sign illuminated the sleeping town.
Sickness coiled in my guts. My blood rushing with the same venom that had snuffed out my humanity when I was seventeen.
Only it felt different tonight. The numbness assuaged. A purpose rekindled. A stoking of life and soul.
The tether I’d lost regrounding me with purpose.
He wouldn’t get to her. He couldn’t have her.
She was mine.
My wife.
In that frenzy of certainty, something still felt off. A tacky sense that something didn’t quite add up.
The fact that it’d been difficult for me to even pick up a trace of him for all these weeks when I could normally dig out dirt on next to anyone. Fucker flying under the radar. And now he was just right out in the open? Showing up at the club and checking into a resort?
A hot poker of anxiety burned a hole in the middle of my chest. An open wound that had been inflicted.
Or maybe it felt more like a scar that had been torn open wide.
A motorcycle angled up to my side, and River gave me a jut of his chin. A silent question asking if I was okay. No question, he could feel the fluster of adrenaline that coursed through my veins. A flurry of questions and doubt that scattered into the lapping night.
I gave him a look of apprehension.
A slow shake of my head.
