Page 106 of Vengeful Union

Chapter Thirty

30

RORY

When I finally pull away fromLara, she looks up at me, biting her lip. I reach down to thumb it out from between her teeth, and she smiles at me a little.

“What can I do?” she asks quietly.

I don’t know how to answer her. My head is a mess right now. I can’t stop thinking about my mother, about how kind she was to me, how she rocked Bree to sleep with both of us in her lap at night.

I can’t stop thinking about the fact that I hated her for leaving. When Bree came to me, telling me how Ma had just left us, I’d destroyed my whole room, thrown even my mattress against the wall.

Bree had just waited for me outside the door, sitting with her back against the wall. She didn’t come inside, just waited for me to come out, breathing hard.

That memory reminds me that I shouldn’t do this all on my own. I shouldn’t make any decisions right now when my head is all over the place.

“I need to talk to Bree.” My voice is hoarse from unshed tears and held-back emotion.

Lara doesn’t even blink, just grabs the phone, handing it to me after dialing a number and speaking to one of her brothers in low tones.

She wordlessly hands me the phone, and I take it outside on the balcony, letting the fall air attempt to cool my heated blood.

“Rory?” Bree asks quietly when I don’t speak, just breathing a little too hard into the phone, trying to get myself together.

“He killed her.” Those three words are all I can manage in that moment and keep my cool.

Bree goes quiet on the other line for just a moment before speaking again.

“I know.”

I squeeze my eyes shut, fighting angry tears. “He killed her, and I was somadat her, Bree.”

“I know, Rory. I was, too. Pa and I were so close after she left... he’s been lying to us for so long now. It’s hard to believe.”

“Fuck.” My voice sounds liquid.

“Rory.”

“Yeah?”

“Take care of it.” Her voice, once gentle, is fierce now. “Take care of him for me. I can’t get anywhere near him because of Declan, but if I could?—”

“What are you saying, Bree?”

“If I were there, I’d burn the house down with him in it.”

I blink, surprised, but I can’t help but smile a bit at my normally gentle-hearted sister’s ferocity.

She’s right. He had lied to us for most of our lives.

“I’ll make sure he gets what’s coming to him.”

I’m not going to burn the house down with him in it. I’m not going to kill him. I’m done with killing. I’ve had to do way too much of it in the recent past.

But I’m going to make sure he confesses all his sins, exactly what he did to her andwhy.

“I love you, Bree.”

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