Page 46 of Beautiful Ruins
Now, I knew there were things he’d hidden from me. Hidden from Sadie. Things that circled back like a pack of rabid dogs, teeth bared, ready to tear through the life I’d built when there was nothing left of the old one but the house and my brother’s ghost.
Somewhere a dog barked into the dark. It probably sensed the bullshit brewing inside me, just as the two men standing in front of me did. Bear nudged a larger rock with the toe of his boot. It rolled a few times, then settled back into place with the rest of the dirt. He stared at it like it had all the answers he was looking for, then fixed those knowing eyes on me, steady enough to peel away what little patience I had left.
“You pacing for a reason?” he said, his voice low and grating on my goddamn nerves. “Or are you just marking your territory?”
I glared at him through the cigarette smoke as it curled into the humid night air. “Is it that fucking obvious?”
He scoffed. “Getting there.”
Scout rubbed the back of his neck, his eyes whipping between the two of us. “This feels like it’s going to blow up, VP. You should have seen Snake’s face after you two left.” He looked like he wanted to ask a hundred questions but didn’t dare open his mouth again, his discomfort about as welcome as Bear’s stare-down.
He never had been all that good with tension, and the amount rolling off me at that moment could be sliced with a knife.
“Well?” Bear said, dismissing Scout’s concern, arms still crossed like he had all night. “You want to tell me what the hell that was back at the clubhouse? I know you two have history, or whatever, but claiming Sadie as your old lady . . .” He shook his head, unimpressed. “Risky move, man. But tell me, what’d she think of it? I know you didn’t ask first.” A hint of humour lingered in his tone, as though he knew exactly what Sadie thought of it.
My jaw tightened as the memory of Snake draped over Sadie gnawed away at me.
I flicked the cigarette butt into the gravel and toed out the cherry. “I didn’t have a choice,” I said, the words forcing their way out. “She found a letter from Logan . . .” The words hung there, unfinished and accusing, and I rubbed the back of my neck in an attempt to buy me some more time. “He wanted to tell her something the night he . . .” I cleared my throat. “. . . you know.”
Jesus Christ, I couldn’t even bring myself to say the wordsuicideout loud. If I uttered it, it would make it more real, an unchangeable fact. But his death wasn’t still up for debate. My brother’s ghost wasn’t hanging around waiting for a fucking verdict.
Scout was the first to react, his mouthdropping half-open, a question stirring on the inside of his mind. He glanced at Bear, to me, then back to Bear again. “What did he want to tell her?”
I sucked in a deep breath, dust and motor oil clinging to the air. I swiped the back of my wrist across my nose, trying to clear the tightness in my throat. “The letter didn’t say much. Just that there was sometruthhe needed to tell her. Now Sadie won’t leave the damn thing alone. That’s why she was there tonight, stirring shit. She’s looking for answers.”
“What’s it got to do with the club?” Scout tilted his head, a frown set on his face.
I crossed my arms over my chest, half-shrugging. “Sadie and Logan had this, I don’t know, song or some shit that they’d made up as kids while catching tadpoles at Hollow Creek.”
Scout’s frown deepened, but he stayed quiet—same as Bear—and let me keep going.
“My old man had gotten into Logan’s head,” I said, my gaze darting to Sadie’s blacked-out window. “I found messages on his phone after he died.” That was it. I’d said the words out loud now and there was no taking them back. “But that’s not all.” I glanced out at the empty street. “Patricia—Sadie’s mum—had notebooks full of addresses. Looks like she was investigating Hollow Creek Farm.”
I’d spent years pretending—ignoring—the gnawing voice in my head that said my father had something to do with Logan’s death. Not that he’d strung him up himself but handed him the rope.
Bear remained silent, those all-seeing eyes remaining set on me. He understood what I wasn’t saying. Understood that the shit I’d dredged up was a lot deeper than any of us had thought.
“What are you saying? That Logan knew Patricia was onto something?” Scout said, stepping forward. “Her death was ruled an accident, right?” His voice had that eager edge to it,like he was about to stumble onto something big. He was getting there.
“I think my brother knew more than he had let on,” I said. “And as for Patricia’s accident, I’m sure you can put two and two together. Hollow Creek Farm seems to be the centre of all this shit. Whatever was going on back then, it was enough to have the chief’s own wife taken out.”
“Fuck.” Scout’s cheeks puffed out as he forced out a breath.
“Now you know why I don’t want Sadie touching this. She’s trying to pick up where Patricia left off, like she’s got any idea what she’s walking into. What I did tonight, it should keep Snake at bay for now. Still doesn’t mean she’s out of danger. Look who her goddamn father is.”
Bear shifted, a slight movement that carried a tonne of weight. He wasn’t good at hiding when he was worried, and I’d known him long enough to recognise the set of his jaw. “You think your brother was in on it—Patricia’s death?” It wasn’t so much a question, more so a grim confirmation.
“Maybe,” I said, my words looping in my head like a scratched record. “He was hiding shit from me the whole damn time. From Sadie, too. She won’t stop until she uncovers whatever it is he took to his grave. I’ve been pushing her away, but now . . . we’re official.” I hated what I’d done to Sadie. Made her question herself, all because I wasn’t ready to face the truth.
Logan had gotten himself into shit.
Bear stared at me, the way he did when he knew I was trying to convince myself of something. “You said there are notebooks?” He lifted a thick eyebrow, stroking his beard with tattooed fingers. I nodded. I knew where he was going with his line of questioning. Still, I waited for him to continue. “Sadie could be sitting on a fucking ticking time bomb.”
My blood pounded in my temples, and I swallowed againstthe hard knot in my throat. “She’s in over her head, and she doesn’t even know it,” I said, the truth of it hitting me where it hurt the most—my goddamn heart. “She’s going to bring the entire shit pile crashing down on all of us. It’s a goddamn mess.”
The dim porch light cast half Bear’s face in shadow as he nodded, slow and calculating. He was wrapping his head around the situation, all those wheels in motion, figuring out our next move.
Snake was simple. We had a plan, and once the chief was on board, it was go time. But Sadie? She was a whole other storm, and this mess wasn’t something we could solve in thirty minutes under the office light.
