Page 126 of Vicious Sentiments

Margo narrows her eyes at him. “That’s a last resort, you hear me? I can’t even fathom what was going through your mind when you—” She eyes the woman again and speaks lower, “tied him up in my closet,”she seethes.

“I was thinking that he’s a fucking liability.”

“He’s family,” she snaps.

“Family doesn’t want to fuck their mother,” Cape grinds out through his teeth. My stomach rolls at his words, and the woman in the room gets up abruptly and leaves.

Margo’s eyes flash, and I realize that she knows this but didn’t expect us to know. Was she aware of it that night in her room? Has she known longer than that? Why would she not have done something about it sooner?

“Yeah, Ma. I’m not fucking stupid. Even Marney knew,” Cape says.

Her chin falls. “What?” The horror in her eyes has Cape repositioning his stance.

“She suspected,” he concedes, and Margo takes a deep breath.

“We need to have a meeting. All of us.” She shakes her head. “No more tying people up and no more secrets.”

“You’re one to talk,” Cape drawls, and I shrink away as Margo shoots out a hand and slaps him across the face. The sound echoes in the empty room.

His head barely moves, and when she pulls her hand away he clenches his teeth.

“You donottalk to me like that,” she breathes.

“Ma…” Julian frowns and shakes his head.

“I don’t want to hear it,” she says and looks back at Cape. “You were out of line and you needed a good smack to knock some sense into you. Dillon is yourbrother,we don’t hogtie brothers. You didn’t think that maybe doing that would make everything ten times worse?”

Cape rolls his jaw and stretches his cheek before he speaks again, and I’m surprised by how much restraint he has in the face of being slapped.

“Ithoughtthat I was preventing the FBI and SWAT from swarming our homes. Because if I had let him go at that moment, he would have led them right to us. And by the way you’re acting right now, you know I’m fucking right. So are you going to tell me what happened, why that lady was looking at you like you’re a pariah or you going to keep lying while preaching to me about secrets?”

“If I keep secrets, it’s to keep the peace.” Margo’s chin shakes andher eyes start to water.

“Against your own flesh and blood?” Cape takes a step back.

“I don’t see you talking about Marney like that.” A sob escapes her. ”Would you want her committed too if she had a mental illness? Would she not be your family if that was the case?”

“Ma…” Cape sighs and leans back in. “You know as well as I do that Dillon doesn’t just have some mental illness. He’s a sociopath. I let it go the past few years because we aren’t exactly saints but what I don’t get is why you’re in denial. I know you’re smart, Ma. You see it. So why? Why are you protecting him?”

A tear rolls down her cheek as she opens her mouth to speak but after a moment she closes it and lifts her chin. She swipes the tear away roughly and straightens up.

“I’m going home to take a shower and then I expect you both there.” She steps around us before turning back. “Also, they are letting us see Marney for a few minutes at a time. Just ask the nurse.”

Chapter Sixty-Four

The room that Marney is in is dim and solitary. The blinds are shut against the sun, and the only sound is the quiet beeping of the heart monitor. I inch closer to her bed and it feels like my chest is going to cave in on itself with how much it hurts to see her like this.

The hitch in Julian’s breathing tells me he feels the same. I can understand why Cape didn’t cross the threshold and instead went back to the waiting room. I think he would have been strong enough to come inside but I also know that he feels this is his fault.

“Hi,” I whisper and put a hand over Marney’s. I don’t know if she can hear me or not, but it would feel weird not to greet her.

Julian steps around me and goes to the other side of the bed. He eyes her up and down and runs a rough hand down his face. Marney has a tube going into her mouth and probably down her throat. Her head is wrapped in gauze and there are wires coming out of her hospital gown. If Julian doesn’t like the sight, I can only imagine Marney wouldn’t be too happy with how she looks either.

Tentatively, I reach out and try to fix some of her silky hair that’s trapped beneath the gown. At least it’s not soaked in blood anymore, and I’m grateful to whatever nurse cleaned her up.

“You’re handling this very well,” Julian says, and I become aware of his eyes on me.

I shrug and go back to holding Marney’s hand. There isn’t anything I can say. I don’tfeellike I’m handling it well but I probably don’t look as shaken as I feel. That’s something I can thank my past for at least. When bad things happen over and over again and no one cares, you start to bottle it up and hide all the pain.

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