Page 64 of The Price of Mercy
This time, he throws his drink at my face. I dodge, and the sound of shattering glass fills the room. Both of us fall silent and still. I need to play nice in order to figure out what he has on Mercy’s family, and he needs to play nice-ish so that I don’t burnhis entire legacy to the ground. We’re at a stalemate, and we both know it.
He clasps his hands together and looks me in the eye. “You know what’s at stake, don’t you? That girl you’ve been watching, her family—” His eyes flash silver in the moonlight. “They’re inconsequential compared to the bigger picture. I’m providing you with a future.” Glancing at my mother’s portrait hanging over the mantle, he frowns. “All they can give you is a family that’s just as broken as ours.”
I follow his gaze and study my mother’s face. She looks elegant in a white gown and pearls, with a subtle smile that illuminates her vibrant eyes. My father believes that we’re broken because my mother is missing. I could yell myself hoarse proving him wrong, but it won’t matter. To him, I’m the shitty consolation prize he got for loving a woman as radiant as the sun. She burned so brightly that her body gave out long before any of us were ready.
But I’m not planning on marrying the sun.
I’m in love with the gentle pull of the moon.
Drawing a breath, I swallow my feelings and lock them away in a box inside my chest. If I’m going to play my father’s game, I have to stay sharp. The only way I can help Mercy now is to undo whatever contracts my father holds over the Morningstars. It will take time. Precious time that I’d rather spend with the woman I love. But…
If I have to sacrifice my desires to keep her safe, so be it.
I’ll become the son my father always wanted.
It’s a price that only I can pay.
Chapter 26
Mercy
The days blur together.Somehow, I pull together a project worthy of a B for my painting class, and then the fall bleeds into winter.
I don’t hear from Sam at all.
Keeping busy around the house helps. With my siblings’ absence and my dad’s impossible schedule keeping the morgue running, things have fallen into disarray. The dishes keep piling up. My grandmother’s run out of tea and no one has restocked for her. We haven’t switched out our summer blankets for the winter ones, and squirrels keep breaking into the attic. I’m on the roof to assess the damage and find their hidey-hole when Kane’s motorcycle roars down the driveway. He jumps off after skidding to a halt and kicking up gravel dust.
Throwing off his helmet, he lunges for the ladder. “What the hell are you doing?” He climbs the rungs in record time and unsnaps the belt around my waist to claim my tools for himself. “Get down. I’ll fix it. Where’s the leak?”
“It’s not a leak,” I sigh, staring at the blocked gutters. “It’s an infestation. We have friends in the attic, and the gutters—” Stress builds quickly, and I feel it pull at my spine. “I should have been paying more attention. I’ll fix it.”
Kane hooks my belt around his forearm and grabs me by the shoulders. “No,I’llfix it. Go back inside.” He glances down at the ice clinging to the roof. “It’s not safe up here.”
Scoffing, I puff out a breath. It clouds the air around us. “It’s not safe anywhere, Kane.”
A muscle in his jaw twitches. “You’ve been listening to Zane.”
“It’s hard to ignore when he keeps spiraling.” I rub my tired eyes. “I thought you talked to him.”
“Idid.He’s stressed the fuck out. Again.”
Even with a broken arm, Zane hasn’t slowed down. If anything, he’s gotten more manic, pacing the kitchen and ranting to my poor grandmother. She plys him with tea and manages to make him sit before he hurts himself, but there’s only so much any of us can do. He needs professional help.
I contacted my psychiatrist a week ago and squeezed Zane in for an introductory appointment. He doesn’t know about it yet, but Kane and I have been working up to telling him… Sighing, I pull Kane’s phone from his pocket to check the time. “His appointment is in two hours. Are you taking him?”
Kane’s forehead wrinkles. “Yeah, but…” He turns his head towards the old church they’ve claimed as a temporary base of operations. Zane hasn’t come out yet this morning. “I think you should take him instead.”
“Are you crazy?” My foot slips, and I hold onto Kane to keep from falling. “He doesn’t even like me!”
Cursing aloud, Kane shuffles us away from the edge of the roof. “Shit, Mercy, you’re gonna to break your neck up here.” He sighs. “Look, I’ll work on the house today if you promise to take care of Zane for me. You know the doctor and what to expect. I don’t. This is out of my wheelhouse.” Meeting my gaze, he smiles wryly. “Zane isn’t nearly as prickly as you think he is. He’s just been in a bad mood lately.”
“Ever since he met me,” I grumble, brushing the hair from my eyes and tucking it behind my ear. “Fine, I’ll take him, but you need someone to help you up here. My dad’s got an address book with local businesses and people we know who owe us favors. Ask him where it is, or Grandma might know?”
While I’m rattling off instructions, Kane helps me get to the ladder. “I’ve got it. Go wake Zane.”
“He’s not up yet?”
Kane descends after me and jumps down the last two rungs. “Trouble sleeping.”
