Page 22 of Stone Cold Savage

“I wish I did, but I already put it toward this place. I don’t have much left.” Nash admitted.

“You’ve done more than your share already, brother.” Cut shared. “Nora and I have put away a fair amount, and it can all go toward this place. It’s our legacy and…”

“You’re all missing the point.” Devyn chuckled maniacally as if the joke was on them, and she was the only one who got the punchline. “She lied to us. All of us. Even if only by omission. We inherited a lot of debt, medical bills, property, and shell companies we can’t even unravel and access, and the biggest inheritance of all… her secrets. Secrets that have us all huddled here like a damn compound because someone, or something, got rid of her, that wasn’t the cancer, and we’re all next.”

“Dev…” Coy began, but she wasn’t listening any longer.

“No. There’s nothing you can say that changes the facts,” Devyn stood from her chair, “She lied. Left us in danger. Didn’t trust any one of us or respect us enough to warn us of… of… anything. Just hung us out to… die. That’s who Delilah Stone was. The real Delilah Stone. You all can keep defending her. Feel bad for her. But I, for one, am done. I have no idea who our mother really was, and I don’t care any longer. I just… I just want…”

“Devyn, you don’t mean that.” Dillon corrected.

“I do, Dill.” Devyn looked around the space from person to person and then beyond. “None of this is real. It’s all a lie. One big fat fucking lie, and if you all don’t get your heads together on this, you won’t survive this any more than she did.”

Devyn marched out of the room, her kitten in hand and Diesel on her heels, but Rip stopped her at the doorway.

“Where are you going?” he asked.

“Anywhere but here.” She tried to push past him, but Rip didn’t budge. “Get out of my way, or I’ll shoot you again.”

“Where… are you going?” he growled.

“Not that it’s any of your business, but I’m headed for the barn. There’s a punching bag in there unless you’d rather play the part yourself.”

Rip stepped aside.

“Great. I’m allowed to go. You sure it isn’t too dangerous? I’d hate to be shot at or run down on my way out there.” She scanned the room, and nobody made eye contact. “Great. You know where you find me.”

Devyn marched out of the room unopposed, leaving a deafening silence in her wake.

“Jesus. How did this happen?” Coy asked under his breath. “Especially given our line of work, Dill.”

“I don’t know. I guess we were a little too confident. We saw what we wanted to see: our sweet mother and our family home being run just as it always has without a hitch.”

“She’s not wrong,” Cut said. “We really didn’t know who our mother was. At least in the last year or so.”

“And with her mixed in the pictures on that lawyer’s wall today,” Coy added. “I believe Devyn’s right. We didn’t have a fucking clues who our mother was.”

“Or did we?” Nash defended. “Maybe she was still exactly who we knew her to be, navigating something bigger than her, the best she could… alone. Maybe we were the problem. That’s an awful lot for her to do unnoticed. What does that say about us?”

“I agree.” Cut sighed. “Until we found out she was sick, we all just sort of went about our business, focused on our own lives.”

“I know I’m an outsider looking in, but I think I’m the closest an outsider can get and have a little perspective, but isn’t that how it’s supposed to be? You’re all adults. You’re supposed to live your own lives, as was she. It isn’t like you missed something right in front of you,” Kenzie shared, “Lilah hid something –– something pretty big it seems –– from all of you. You guys are all good at what you do, but she was clearly better. Instead of blaming yourselves for becoming exactly who she raised you to be or blaming her for wanting to protect you from something, how about we look at this with a new set of eyes…”

“I agree and couldn’t have said it better.” Nash interrupted. “Just because she kept us in the dark doesn’t mean she intended to forever. Perhaps she just ran out of time, and really, at this point, does it even matter? Figuring out why she didn’t tell us what was happening doesn’t solve the mystery at hand.”

“Unless it does, Nash,” Coy said. “Maybe breaking down what Delilah was up to and why she kept it so quiet will help us solve whatever the hell this chaos is around us. One kind of goes with the other, ya know?”

“Sure. But the new perspective needs to be that she did this out of love or just leave the emotion out of it all altogether. We keep coming at this thing as Mama did something hurtful. Who was she, and why were we so damn blind is nothing more than a distraction.”

“Look who’s the smart one now.” Coy grinned. “You’re… right, and I can’t believe I’m saying that.”

“I guess we know who the wise one is among us.” Cut laughed. “And… he’s right.”

“Maybe,” Nash went on, “Instead of blaming Mama and feeling… hurt. We should take the time to get to know her.”

“With all due respect, isn’t it a little late for that?”

“Not at all, Kenzie. Mama’s all around this place.” Nash rebutted. “Everywhere we look…”

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