Page 72 of Loving Trent
“While Nathan was setting the hallway below Shawn’s on fire, Steven was setting the staircase on fire?—”
I jump up, and in the process, papers go flying along with Ryan’s laptop. Ryan stops talking instantly as I pace back and forth. My whole body is trembling, my heart’s racing, and Iswear I’m craving the feel of blood running down my hands. Nathan and Steven’s blood. “They tried to kill him,” I roar.
One second, I’m staring at the kitchen’s closed door, and the next, I’m in Uncle Joey’s arms. No matter how hard I scream at my muscles to relax, knowing someone that I let walk away tried to kill the love of my life pisses me off. I should have ended Steven that night. “I let him go,” I finally say, taking a deep breath and letting it out.
“You didn’t know?—”
“But he could have come back,” I whisper, grabbing Uncle Joey’s shirt and holding on for dear life. “They could have come back to finish?—”
“Don’t think like that,” Uncle Joey demands.
“Why would someone do that to someone as amazing as Shawn? Stealing money, I understand, but murdering him…. What did they have to gain?” I ask.
“The one thing they were always after… Money,” Ryan says from behind Uncle Joey. I look up and find him standing right behind him. “Steven took out a life insurance policy on Shawn when they first started dating.”
Everything shuts down inside me as if someone has pulled the plug. My mind stops trying to figure out how someone could be so evil or how I could have lost the love of my life. Instead, one statement is running on a loop. Make them pay. I pull out of Uncle Joey’s embrace without saying a word or looking at him. I’m running on autopilot. It’s the same way I was when I got the letter from Nina, but a million times worse. Slipping my shoes on, I grab my jacket and slide my arms through it.
“Trent, where are you going?’ Uncle Joey sounds as if he’s far away instead of standing right behind me.
Without looking behind me, I answer him coldly, “To kill two people who thought they could take the love of my life away.” Then I open the door and walk out.
Thirty-Six
TRENT
“Trent! Listen to me, please. You need to go get Shawn and tell him,” Sonny says for the third time since I showed up at his house with Uncle Joey and Ryan following close behind me. The drive from Uncle Joey’s house out into the country is nothing but a blur. I’m not even sure if I’m the one who told Sonny what was going on.
But I am fully aware of everything going on as I say, “If you want to go after the people who not only stole from your son, but tried to kill him, you better grab your shit because I’m leaving with or without you.” Then, like rain slowly coming through the tree, Sonny’s words finally hit me.
“He doesn’t need to know about this.” I don’t want to yell at Sonny, but I do because he isn’t getting it. I can’t stand the thought of telling Shawn that someone he trusted—Nathan—and someone he once shared his life with—Steven—meant to cause him harm. Deadly harm. Watching the pain that will inevitably come from learning someone planned your death, fill Shawn’s green eyes will do nothing but add fuel to the fire consuming me.
“Yes, he does,” Sonny says, calmer than I think he should be.
My chest shakes as I take in a deep breath, the cold winter air doing nothing to stop the fire, nor does it help slow my racingheart. “You’re right. I misspoke, of course, he deserves to know, but not right now. I will tell him after I can promise him that they won’t hurt him anymore. I have to be able to look into his eyes and show him that no one is coming after him.”
Sonny steps closer to me, our visible breath mingling together. “I think it’s more than that. I think the reason you don’t want to tell him before you do this is because?—”
“Don’t.” I plead in sheer terror and desperation for him not to complete his sentence. I know he sees the truth. I fucking knew he would the moment I said what I said. But if he gives that thought life, it means I have to face it, and I can’t do that. I can’t face the real possibility that this side of me… the dark need to break, maim, and kill someone for daring to even think about hurting someone I love will be the one thing Shawn can’t overlook.
“It won’t happen.” Sonny lays a gloved hand on my shoulder, looks me dead in the eyes, and shatters my view of Shawn O’Dell Foster. “My son has not only accompanied me on multiple missions to rescue abused women and men. But he actively participated in the plan to murder the man who hurt Sammy. His hands have gotten bloody only once, but that’s his story to tell you, not mine.”
My thoughts fly back to the day we moved into the house, and the moment Shawn told me he was helping find Tom and Sandy. He said it wouldn’t be the first time he got messed up in something illegal, but with everything going on, I haven’t given that statement a second thought. Nor have we talked about it. I guess we should have, because now I need to know. I have to know what my brave baby boy did to protect someone. Squeezing my eyes shut, I will my dick not to get hard at the image of Shawn exacting revenge for someone, because that can’t be healthy, can it?
“Fine, let’s go.”
Shawn is currently at the gym, and even though just a few minutes ago I was arguing to leave town right this second, we head to the house to wait for him. Let him have ten more minutes of normal before we blow up his life. Sonny calls Nana as soon as we leave his house to have her pick up Harley from school and hold onto her until we get back. He tells her as much as he is comfortable with, and I don’t say a word. That’s his mother, and if he believes he should handle her with kid gloves, that’s on him. On the other hand, I’m sure she will see right through his lies of omission.
Turns out I’m right. “Of course she did,” Sonny says, staring out the windshield straight at the five people standing beside a blacked-out truck.
Adam, Parker, Levi, Zak, and Sammy watch us intently. With a quick look at each person, it’s clear that they are ready for whatever is happening. I narrow my eyes on each male and can tell they are carrying. Adam has straps from a shoulder holder for pistols. Parker’s shirt is pulled up a little thanks to his arms being crossed, and we see his pistol on his belt holder. Levi is bolder than the others. He wears a pistol strapped to his belt, on the outside of his shirt, all the time. Zak is in the same boat as Parker, but he has his tucked into the waist of his pants, the gun resting against his stomach. Sammy, on the other hand, has a shotgun beside her. They are more than ready to go to war.
“What the—” Adam pushes off his truck when we open our doors, but Sonny cuts him off.
“We wait until Shawn gets home.” He motions for them to follow us into the house.
Waiting for Shawn feels like we’re wasting time. As soon as I hear his car pulling up in the driveway, I’m at the door waiting for him. The worried look on his face as I pull the door open, grab his shirt, and haul him into my arms threatens to bowl me over, but I don’t let it. “What the fuck is going on?”
“Son, we have to talk,” Sonny says, and continues to tell him everything.
