Page 95 of Against the Autumn Pines
I let Wyatt drive,and as I stared out the windshield of his dark SUV, my gaze glaring at the house my mother lived in, I was happy I chose to do so.
“I don’t want to go in there,” I grumbled.
His hand reached over, grasping my own, but he didn’t speak.
“What are you worried about?” he finally said, breaking the momentary silence.
We hadn’t talked on the way over. He’d taken my hand into his and a manila folder in the other as we walked out. The ride had been filled with the low sounds of the radio station, and that was the sum of it.
“What if he’s in there?” My throat felt thick with emotion—emotions I’d done my best not to fully look at or sift through. “What if heknewthey were coming after me to getto him, and he did nothing? What if he knows it all and chose to lay low because he doesn’t give a shit about me and would rather save his own skin?”
“Then I’ll kill him,” Wyatt stated plainly.
My gaze ripped from the house and to the man beside me. “Be so serious right now.”
He shrugged. “I was. Quite serious, actually. We can make him disappear, wait a few months, take this all to the cops, and hopefully sort out your identity issues. By the time they come looking for him, the pigs will have taken care of it all for us.”
My mouth went dry, and I shifted uncomfortably in the seat next to him. His words were doing things to me—things I shouldn’t be forced to think about when I was about to walk into my mother’s house. He spoke with such confidence, and Iknewwhy he did, and IknewI shouldn’t be this turned on right now by my boyfriend threatening to take out my father, but here we were.
Obviously, I was in desperate need of therapy.
“Ember?” he muttered, his voice now soft and full of understanding. I dragged my gaze from the ugly brown siding and back to his deep blue eyes. “I’m here, little flame. You aren’t doing this alone, alright? We’ll do this however you want to.”
I felt myself nod.
“You’d really make him disappear?” The corner of my mouth twitched as I tried to suppress a smile as he smirked.
“All you’d have to do is say the words, Ember Rae.”
I shook my head as a full smile hit my face. “Let’s get this shit over with, Carragan.”
We climbed out of the SUV, and I stared at the house my mother now called home. It was a double-wide trailer with brown siding and white trim around the windows. It wascute, or it would be cute if something about it didn’t set me on edge.
“How much money did she get when she sold your grandfather’s house?” Wyatt questioned from next to me.
I arched a brow. “You didn’t look into that, Mr. Know-It-All?”
He rolled his eyes and shook his head. “No, brat, I didn’t. I was more worried about you and your father. Didn’t do much diving into your mother. Plus, that’s a lot coming from you, Ms. Didn’t-Even-Open-The-File.” He looked around us. “I mean, it’s a nice neighborhood, don’t get me wrong. But his house should’ve sold for enough to have her set for a while anywhere, especially with the land tied to it. Why here?”
Pine Shallows was on one side of Raven Creek, further in and closer to the city. Sapphire Cove was on the opposite side of Raven Creek, closer to the lakes of the Rocky Mountains. There was nothing wrong with the town Mom had picked, it was just small and it felt…random. Something my mother had never been interested in.
Lori was a city girl. She wanted to be able to get coffee, get her nails and hair done, while also grabbing a five-star meal within two blocks of each other. Theoretically, with the money she’d gotten from my grandfather’s house, she could’ve moved somewhere all of that was possible—an actual city.
“I’ve never given it much thought past the idea that this place isn’t my mother at all. She’s very…glitz and glam.” I looked over at him and started chewing on my bottom lip. “You have a theory, don’t you.” It wasn’t a question; I knew he did. The question was what that theory was and how much I was going to fucking hate it.
Wyatt nodded. “I do, but let’s go have some dinner. We can talk about it later after we see how all of this goes down.”
He slid his hand along my back and guided me up the few steps to my mother’s front door. I knocked, but before the second hit could touch the metal, the door swung open, my brother’s smiling face there to greet us.
Evan was the tallest out of the three of us kids, at just over six feet. His shaggy auburn hair was brushed back today, and his skin tanner than normal, making his freckles pop even more.
“Ember!” he yelled, the excitement clear in his voice as he pulled me into a hug. He let me go after a brief squeeze and turned to Wyatt. “You must be the new guy.”
Wyatt chuckled. “That’s me. Wyatt,” he said, holding out his hand for Evan to shake. “You must be Evan.”
Evan shook his hand and looked down at me. “Talkin’ shit about me, sis?”
I rolled my eyes and pushed his arm off me. “Nope.”
