Page 16 of Tactical Revival

I’ll never forget the sound of his voice. Not as long as I live.

“What are you doing here?” I demand.

Margot’s gaze lifts to mine, her expression confused.

The man turns to face me, his face aged, yet somehow still the exact same. “Hi, Jax.”

“You two know each other?” Margot asks curiously. Her gaze flickers from him to me, then back to him.

“This is Bradley Payne,” I tell her, then turn my attention back to him. “You’re forcing me to repeat my question. Why are you here?”

“I want to talk to you.”

“And I want nothing to do with you. Get out.”

“Jaxson.”

“No.”

“I’m not leaving until you talk to me. So I can either sit right here in this kind woman’s lobby until you do, or we can get this out of the way now.”

I would love to call him on it. See just how long he’d be willing to sit here before running out like he did last time. But the last thing Margot needs is a scene made in the lobby of her B&B. “Fine. You have two minutes.” I turn and head toward the door.

Because I don’t want her to see my anger, I don’t look at Margot as I walk past the desk and back outside, into the early morning. I don’t bother to hold the door for Bradley as he follows me out, nor do I look back at him as I head across the small parking lot and toward the top of the steps I’d happily climbed mere minutes ago.

“It’s good to see you, son,” he says.

“No. You don’t get to call me that.” I turn to face him. I stand an inch taller than him now, and he’s far slimmer than I remember him being. Then again, maybe that was the terrified boy I’d been, looking up at a man he saw as a monster.

“You’re my blood,” he replies.

“Which meant nothing to you then, and it means nothing to me now.”

“Tyler and I have made amends.”

“Tyler wasn’t the one you nearly beat to death.” I snarl, taking a step closer. “Tyler wasn’t the one who had to step up and be a man and provider at the age of sixteen because you and Elizabeth couldn’t bother to be parents.”

“I was out of my mind drunk when I did that,” he says. “I never would have put hands on you sober.”

“And that makes it better?” I have to take a deep breath. Please, God, help me control my anger before I do something I will regret. “Either way, it doesn’t matter. It’s in the past. I’ve moved on, and I suggest you do the same.”

“I want to apologize. I want to make things right.”

“Fine. You’re forgiven. Now leave me alone.” I start past him, and he wraps a hand around my arm. I freeze in place as fresh anger washes over me. “I suggest you take your hand off of me, Bradley. I am not the boy I was the last time you grabbed me like that.”

He lets me go, then shoves both hands into his pockets. “I just want to make amends.”

“There are no amends to be made,” I reply. “I’ve forgiven you because it’s what I’m supposed to do. Truth is, I did a long time ago. But that doesn’t mean I have to have you in my life.”

Hazel eyes, so like my own, fill with tears. “I’m dying.”

The confession hits me harder than I’d have guessed it would. “Then take your deathbed confession to a preacher, Bradley. Get right with God, and leave me be.” I push past him and back into the B&B, leaving him standing down by the cliffside.

My chest feels like someone dropped an anvil on it, so I don’t even notice that Margot has followed me into my apartment until I’m turning to close the door and she’s moving inside.

“I am so sorry. I didn’t know his name. We hadn’t gotten that far. He just came in asking for a room and we got to talking about the beach and—” She stops talking and stares up at me. “I am so sorry, Jaxson. I never would have let him in the door if I’d known who he was.”

But we both know she would have. Not to hurt me, but Margot is far too kind to close the door fully on anyone. It’s why Chad has managed to get a foot back into it.

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