Page 90 of Montana Falls
What came was far worse.
“Mom?” Misha’s broken voice cut through the air like a knife.
I opened my eyes, my heart pounding in my chest. He stood near the club’s entrance, a few feet away from Price, holding a gun. His hands were steady, but there was something raw and broken in his eyes as he looked at Retta.
As he pointed a gun at hismother.Something that took Price a moment longer to do.
Retta didn’t move. She didn’t say anything, but I could see the slightest flicker of emotion in her eyes as she looked at her youngest son.
“She’s Cassie.” I said simply. “I know it is ridiculous but-”
“I believe you, sweetheart.” He breathed. “Lincoln explained things to me outside when he picked us up after the car crashed.”
He finished his sentence as Kody and Lincoln joined the party, both holding guns, both aimed at Retta.
Lincoln wasn’t hesitant like Misha. Lincoln wasn’t unsure, or trembling, or… orcrying.
“Logan?” I asked him, unable to say anything more than that, even if I wondered who the fuck had crashed a car and how.
“He’s gonna be fine, don’t worry, princess.” Lincoln answered as he kept his eyes on his mother. “He survived the blast, but broke both of his legs – everyone we care about isgonna be okay,” he promised, and relief surged through me hard enough to make me tremble. “It’s not what you wanted, is it,mom? You wanted all of us to die.”
Retta shook her head, but her grip on her weapon was firm. “I was dying too… I was meant to be there so I could… we could…” she panted as she trailed off, head still bobbing.
“Step away from Sapphire,” Misha said, his voice cold and steady as I noticed he used his non-dominant hand with his gun, and I frowned, wondering how badly injured he was.
Retta’s grip on the gun tightened, but she didn’t shoot it. For the first time, she seemed… uncertain. I could see the tension in her, the conflict, but she didn’t make a move.
I stood there, my chest heaving, tears still running down my cheeks, watching as Misha faced off against his mother. My heart ached for him. For all of them. But I had no time to think too hard about it because Retta dropped her gun. She let it slide out of her hand, and I immediately pounced, snatching it up and pointing it her way instead.
“Put your guns down.” I told the others, knowing they could not do what needed to be done.
Knowing I was the only one who could end things, even if it would hurt.
I wanted her dead. I wanted her tortured for weeks on end until she begged me for death and then I wouldn’t let her have it.
I wanted to break her over and over again just like she had done to me. I wanted to make her a prisoner in my dungeon and ruin everything about her until she was nothing but a hollow shell of the woman she used to be.
I wanted to be her nightmare for the next few years until I grew bored with playing the game of revenge, then finally killed her.
But I wouldn’t do that. I couldn’t do that toRetta– to the men I love’s mother.
I also couldn’t let her go.
“Get on your knees.” Tears burned down my cheeks as I raised my gun, lining it up with the face of someone I had never once thought could betray me.
Someone I loved.
Someone I let into my home.
Someone I let hold me as they whispered promises that everything was okay – that I was safe.
Someone who had comforted me as I sobbed over my daddy’s death, like they hadn’t pulled the trigger.
“Sapphire.” Kody said my name, but I ignored him. I had to ignore him and whatever it was he was trying to say.
Retta didn’t move. Or Cassie. Whatever the fuck she wanted to be called. She just stared at me like I held the meaning to the universe or something and she couldn’t wait to see all my secrets.
“I loved you.” She said simply. “You saved me and I loved you for it – protected you… and this is the thanks I get?”
