Page 128 of Oliver

I’ve heard no noise to indicate otherwise.

Diem and Ramsay come through the door. Ramsay eyes me quietly and when I look down, I remember I’m still covered in blood.

Willow follows, stopping beside me as I point down the hall.

As soon as I do, Oliver appears. His hair is ruffled and his face haggard but his eyes, they’re a wasteland as he barks, “I don't want her here. Go.”

Catching the sob in my throat, I squeeze Willow’s hand when she wraps her fingers around mine.

“What’s going on?” Ramsay says and Oliver roars, “Get her the fuck out of here.”

Chapter 38

Oliver

“He wasn’t there,” Ramsay says, and I look up from my phone.

It’s been a week since the incident. After cleaning up Bone’s body, I called the police and they responded to Mom’s suicide. Covering up her actions was the last act I performed for my parents.

In some macabre ode to Dad’s love, he refused to let the world think Mom was a serial killer and now he’s facing life after confessing to crimes he didn’t commit. Although I still hate the bastard, I admit, he’s accepting his part of the blame in this sordid story, however ridiculous it might be.

It took me two days to come around to telling Maeve the truth and she took it with a stoicism that reminded me, my baby sister is stronger than I gave her credit for.

I haven’t spoken to Penny, and I refuse to listen to anyone else if they bring her up. I did confirm that she’s gone to her uncle and Ramsay helped her find an apartment, even moving all her shit.

I suspect he’s supplementing her cost, and she probably doesn’t know but at least she’s in a safe neighborhood.

“What do you mean?” I grunt.

The longer I’m here the more my skin crawls to leave. I think Ramsay senses my ill at ease and I’m sure it’s killing him that he can’t control this too.

“The weird fucker who stands sentry said he’s gone. Disappeared,” Ramsay says, sitting beside me with a sigh.

I appreciate his effort to get me out of this mess, but I may be better off continuing the journey I started what feels like ages ago. I can’t stay here.

I don’t belong. I never truly did. Now I understand why. It’s not my genius that set me apart as the cold, emotionless bastard I am. It’s genetics.

I am my mother and her father before her. It doesn’t matter that I’ve never killed someone because I thought I was a fucking god. The lack of humanity in my dark soul points to a sickness I can’t let loose.

It’s molded to my bones, wrapped around my dark heart and writhing below my skin. How long before it pulls me under?

Who fucking knows but I need to be long gone before then.

“The asshole even said he didn’t know what the future of that stupid club would be. Good fucking riddance,” Ramsay says.

While I agree, I know, there’s always someone willing to keep that shit going. There’s no end to the bad guys roaming this world, cloaked in normalcy, and hiding behind pretty lies. Still, I wonder if the man Penny bludgeoned to death wasn't the same fucker who allowed me entry into his world and subsequently ousted me. If it was, I guess that's one last loose end, I don't need to tie up—literally.

“Ollie,” Ramsay says, and I finally meet his questioning stare. Except I don’t have the answers he’s looking for. “I don’t know what’s going on in that head of yours. I never have,” he says this with a wry twist of his lips. “Whatever it is, we’re brothers…we do shit together.”

Do we? I can’t remember the last time I included my brothers in the shit rolling around in my brain.

“Thanks,” I grunt and his brows furrow.

Too fucking bad. I can’t afford to lose focus and one of the few people who can easily derail me sighs before standing and walking away.

Penny

The sun warms my skin, at odds with the storm clouds roiling in my heart as I stand at the back of the service and stare at Oliver’s back. As usual these days, even though he’s surrounded by his brother’s and their women, he stands apart with stiff shoulders and a grim frown.

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