Page 78 of Sweet Misery

I didn’t stick around. I knew he was dead.

Quickly, I darted through the warehouse and found a back exit and ran through it into the night, freedom almost mine.

I was willing to pay the price for it too.

Any cost.

I just had one more stop before I was truly free.

25

SEVER

It rained the day we buried our father. We all wore black. We spit on his casket after they’d lowered it into the ground, just the four of us.

He’d been murdered.

A job many had tried to do over the years but none had ever succeeded in.

Arianna’s body was missing when we’d arrived to find him dead. We’d killed his two men outside, guarding him. We’d gone inside hoping to retrieve her body and had instead found his.

If we needed confirmation she was still alive, it came in the form of her father’s death reaching us.

Also stabbed.

His wasn’t as clean as our father’s had been.

He’d been practically ripped to shreds.

We’d had the mess discretely cleaned up.

We knew it was her, especially after I’d told my brothers I’d given her my knife. She’d faked her death so well. She’d always been amazing in the theater productions in high school though, so I wasn’t sure why I was so surprised.

She hadn’t returned to us though. That was a month ago now. Mass was now in charge of the syndicate. The transition had been flawless, fortunately. Anyone who remained loyal to our father made their voices heard, and we’d killed them without mercy.

“Mm, I miss her,” Ren said, sighing as he stared out the window in the living room. He’d been there nearly every waking moment, like he expected her to just walk up the long driveway and knock on the door.

“I do too.” Roe drank his scotch down and let his head fall back against the couch cushion.

“She’d be insane to come back to this,” I said glumly, knowing it was the truth. I was sure it hadn’t been a pleasure cruise with us. In fact, I wasn’t so delusional that I thought our love was enough.

But she was free. It was what she wanted most, and I’d accept that.

To know she’d survived and succeeded where we’d failed had brought me a new kind of high I knew I’d never be able to replicate if I tried.

As long as she was happy and safe wherever she was, I’d accept it.

Because I loved her, I’d accept it.

We all felt the hole her absence left though.

I knew Roe and Ren drove around at night looking for her. Every night, they’d drive past her dad’s place. Some nights, I’d go with them, hoping maybe she’d return there for what little bit of her stuff was left behind but no. She never came.

“She would,” Mass agreed, rubbing his eyes. “I’d have fled too.”

“I’m proud of her,” Roe said. “Even if she left us, I’m still proud of her. She was stronger than I realized.”

“She was,” Ren mused, looking over at us all. “I bet she’s having a laugh at us assholes, thinking she pulled a fast one.”

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