Page 79 of Love Me, I Dare You

Monty’s eyes blaze with a fierce intensity I’ve never seen before. The anger radiating from him is unlike anything I’m sure he’s felt since the day he came and took Monroe out of this very home.

His usual composed demeanor is gone as the air around us crackles with raw, unbridled tension. The three of us stand silent, fearing what comes next. Rage consumes him entirely, fueling a fire in him, threatening to engulf everything in its path.

Though my oldest, unflappable brother, inhales a sharp breath and lets it out, mentally counting to three. “I said no, and that’s final.”

“What’s going on here?” Jase says as he descends the stairs and enters the room.

Monroe’s eyes turn furiously in his direction and I’m almost sorry for the poor guy. “What’s going on is my father is dying and my brothers refuse to tell me where he is.”

“Look, Monroe, it's better this way. He doesn't look good. You don’t want your last memory of him to be that. Trust me, especially not given you're a little more sensitive.” Jase doesn't know Monroe, which is probably why he doesn't know it’s best to stay away from her when she’s like this, not taunt her like he’s just done.

Her blue eyes grow weary and ireful, an uncontrollable storm of emotions raging in their depths. “Stay the fuck out of it, Jameson. This doesn't concern you.” She turns her angry expression back on Monty and me. “How the fuck does he know?”

“Jase went with me,” I confess, agreeing with what he’s just said despite Monroe not liking it. “Trust us when we say you’re better off.”

“You don’t get to say that, Nash.” She lets out a humorless laugh, her eyes pleading with my brother and me. But neither one of us is going to change our mind on this.

My expression softens, and I want to say yes. To tell her I’d take her myself if I thought it would make her feel even a smidge better about the entire situation surrounding our father, but I’mtelling the truth when I say she’s better off. “Sorry, Iz. It’s for the best, okay?”

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Nash

The bright sun warms my skin on the relatively beautiful autumn morning, as I shine Daisy’s tires out by the barn. It’s uncommon for such weather this late in the fall, but you won’t find me complaining. It’s the one thing I enjoyed most about my recent years out in the desert. Phoenix was scorching hot, and riding my bike out there, even during those hot summer nights out on the highway, was something I was really missing. The winters were cold, but that’s when I wandered out west to California and spent some time with Beau.

I may not have reached out to Monty and Monroe when I was gone, but with Theo and Beau, who had also left town shortly after me, I’d check in every so often. It was easier with Beau since he stayed out in California and worked a more steady career in luxury real estate. Theo was always out on the road, being one of Country Music's most popular stars of the decade, so most of our reunions were when his tour coincided with whatever city I was currently in.

Though I didn't miss the solitude. Somehow, I was growing accustomed to having other people around me ever since I’vebeen back home, but I missed the freedom of it all. Not knowing what the day was going to bring, or holding out any expectations.

Every day was a surprise and a gift to be alive since most of the time, I wasn’t sure it was something I could guarantee. I wasn’t an outlaw like the folk I hung around with, but being near them always put a target on my back from their enemies since, regardless of my ties, I was offered their protection for my loyalty. I hadn’t spoken to Dex since I left, giving him no certain answer on if I'd go back. I knew if I decided to, the doors to his club would remain open for me.

Only now, I wasn't sure I wanted to return to the life I lived before I reunited with Bailey.

We might fool ourselves into thinking anything between us is possible, but I’m not worried about figuring that out right now. All I want is to be by her side and continue to indulge in the decadent sweetness that is her.

It’s been a week since we accepted our reunion was inevitable and stopped fighting it. Seven days and already I feel like I’m walking on eggshells when I’m with her, not wanting to say or do the wrong thing and ruin the good times we’ve had. Luckily, we’ve been so busy there has been little time to sit and talk about what the hell it is we are doing.

“I need you to take me to see Franklin.” My little sister appears before me, her figure gleaming in the sunlight as I look up from my spot kneeled before my bike. Was it foolish to think seven days would be long enough to make her forget this foolish need to see him?

“Does Monty know what you’re up to, Izzy?” I ask, already knowing the answer. Since Monty left early this morning to pick up the tile samples for the remodel he’s doing to the downstairs bathroom at their house, my sister’s decided this is the perfect time to come see me.

Monty and I have been together all week, tirelessly working to make as much progress as possible before our deadline, which left Monroe no opportunity to get me alone. I haven't told my brothers the truth about my visit to our father that morning, but I expect they'll find out soon.

Aware that her lie is exposed, Monroe refuses to make eye contact. “No, and that’s why I’m here. He’s extremely overprotective and still treats me like the weak little girl I was when he took me in, but not you,” she says, pointedly looking my way now. “You don’t care what happens to me, so it shouldn’t matter to you whether I get hurt.”

I stand, wiping my fingers as much as I can, and tucking the dirty rag into my back pocket. “Izzy, you know that’s not true.”

She lets out a scant breath, placing a hand on her jutted out hip. “Do I Nash? Because I’m not sure what you’ve done that’s proved otherwise. Anyway, I’m not in the mood to get into that again. Are you going to take me, or should I figure out a way to get there on my own?”

I knew this day was inevitable, and honestly, after spending a week contemplating the pros and cons of the situation, I’m not opposed to letting her see our father. I don’t want my little sister to one day regret anything about her lack of connection to him. Franklin doesn’t get to continue to haunt her and torment her from beyond the grave. Not when he’s already done so much.

Patting the seat of my bike, I give her a wide, taunting smile. “Hop on, little sis.”

We take over an hour to drive the twenty miles to West Rivers Bend thanks to the derailment of a shipment of swine being driven to a nearby slaughterhouse. Monroe said it was fate that stopped the poor animals from being taken, as the two men had to spend hours herding the animals back and returning them back to the farm.

Once the officers removed most of them off the highway, the traffic picked up, allowing us to arrive just after lunchtime.

“Mr. Bishop,” Jackie, the nurse that showed Jase and I to my father’s room last week, says as she meets Monroe and me in the clinic’s waiting room.

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