Page 40 of At The End Of The Day

She choked on a gasp, but he had no outward emotion other than his stare turning frantic. When her hands began to tremble, she crossed her arms to hide them.

“You saw him on the cameras?”

“Yup. I ain’t sure, but I think he’s been hiding out in the cave.”

“Oh, shit,” she whimpered, turning her back to the windows to rest her hip to the island. “We were just there a few hours ago.”

“Mm hm. I know.”

“What do we do?”

I looked at Tyler and arched a brow. “You ready to see if the shooting lessons yesterday stuck? You did pretty good aiming. Time to find out, I reckon.”

Tears were welling in her eyes, but she was maintaining her composure enough to keep up the façade. “Oh, my god. This isn’t happening.”

I opened the fridge to get a beer, just to continue the act. “Look, we all knew this was gonna go down when we came out here. What the hell did you think was gonna happen? He would just let go and move on?” I cracked it open and forced the bitter drink past the knot in my throat, nearly gagging.

Tyler dug out his cigarettes and lit one, taking a long, deep drag. “Why are we standing here, when he’s right there? Why aren’t we doing something?”

“Look, bitch. You can’t just go balls to the wall, guns blazing. First of all, the goddamn kids are right over there.”

He cursed and nodded, his thumb sticking out to rub the spot between his eyes. “Right, right. Sorry. I don’t…this ain’t my life, I dunno how to act like a banger. Panicking a little bit here.”

“Yeah, well, you’re hiding it pretty well. Hate to say it, but you’re acting like a true Serpent.”

He snorted. “I’m both honored and horrified.”

“Yeah, same. Besides, Tiny here ain’t the only one who knows some laws. Before anyone touches Jackyl, he has to be inside this house,” I stated, pointing to the floor.

“Why?”

She heaved a sigh and clucked her teeth. “The Castle Doctrine.”

“Yup,” I grumbled, taking another sip. “Self-defense law.”

The stairs creaked, drawing our attention. A moment later, Vincent joined us, appearing exhausted. “He’s gone. Went back into the woods.”

“The cave?” she asked.

“Yeah, probably. I really can’t think of anywhere else out there he’d be hiding.”

Tyler jutted his chin and blew smoke through his nose. “What about your parents? Can’t they help?”

My eyelids rounded, my focus darting to Vincent. I had never admitted to anyone that my parents were tied to the mafia, so why I chose to confide in him was beyond my comprehension. Did that mean I was beginning to trust the bastard? Christ, this was a twisted mess we were diving deeper into. “Hey, man, I don’t know what you’re talking about. They got money, but ain’t no money gonna save us if we screw this up.”

His lids thinned while he scrutinized me a moment. Recognition hitting, he coughed and nodded. “Yeah, okay. Right. Got it.”

“Look, he clearly don’t know this place is covered in surveillance, or else he wouldn’t have just been standing there, watching. We have the advantage here. But as long as those kids are here, we gotta be careful.”

Violetta coughed, visibly struggling with her emotions. Not thinking about what she was saying, she lowered her chin and rubbed her forehead, saying, “Dammit, I wish Cathy were alive. We could stash the kids with her for a few days and just get this over with.”

My pulse skipped a beat, me and Vincent glaring at Tyler to gage his reaction. His eyelids rounded slightly, his sight shifting to mine, but, otherwise, he had none. The unease fading a bit, I cut my lids and examined his features. Was there a chance I’d been wrong about the bitch? The last couple weeks, the man I’d been seeing and getting to know against my will was nothing like Jackyl had always described to us. To hear him talk about Tyler, he was a narcissistic, abusive man who took advantage of Violetta and used her for his selfish, twisted needs.

Frowning, my focus darted to her profile, a voice nagging that it had been Jackyl who had taken advantage, not Tyler. I had always been uncomfortable that she was eighteen when they got together, but sixteen? Whether they had been sleeping together then, or not, he had no business starting any form of relationship with her, at all.

“You know what,” Vincent said, wagging a finger in her direction. “That ain’t such a bad idea, sis.”

She snorted and shrugged her hands out. “Uh, she’s dead? How is that possible?”