Page 139 of Prey

He had stayed by my side all evening, letting me cry on his shoulder.

He told me everything would be okay as long as he was there.

He wasn’t here anymore.

I blinked, and more tears came out.

I looked at my mom, who was staring down at his casket with a blank expression on her face.

Then a single tear fell from the corner of her rimmed-red eyes.

A man came up and held the umbrella closer to her.

He said something quietly in her ear, and she nodded.

Even in mourning, she looked elegant.

I wondered, not for the first time, just how much my parents loved each other.

My lips trembled as more tears came.

Someone came up near me.

I didn’t need to turn around to know who it was.

He held the umbrella over my head and stepped closer to me until all I could feel was his body heat.

Roman was playing a dangerous game, coming to the cemetery like this.

Someone could recognize him, but it seemed no one noticed.

He didn’t wrap his arms around me, afraid to invite attention to us, even though I knew he wanted to.

And for the first time, his warmth did nothing for me.

My dad was dead.

That was all there was to it, and nothing he did or said could take away the pain.

* * *

I stayedin a small corner of the room and watched people mingle around the wake.

Someone laughed, and I felt a tinge of annoyance move through me. Perhaps they didn’t get the memo that this was supposed to be sad?

No one knew the full truth of what happened. The Mansen brothers were being blamed for his death, considering he died where they had been staying.

No one publicly knew why they had stayed at that cabin, or who the cabin belonged to, but I knew. It was because of my dad’s closest friend, William Gallagher.

The two of them had been protecting the brothers.

They were corrupt.

My dad was corrupt.

But he was being hailed as a hero.

The public thought he had been working to take the brothers down, and had angered them, so they took him to their cabin.

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