Page 102 of Little Bird
I heard when she screamed and came tearing down from my room, my heart in my throat and my hands up and ready to fight whoever had hurt her. Because I knew it had to be someone. She’s been keeping secrets since she arrived, and though I didn’t know what the fuck she could have gotten into, I think I always knew it had to be someone else’s fault.
Someone else after her.
When I come to a skidding halt at the bottom of the stairs in the driveway, I realize that a part of me always sort of assumed it would be Helen.
The woman is up in Taryn’s face sneering at her like she wants to end my girl’s life, and behind her is a man I’ve never seen before. I don’t have to guess who he is. We heard Helen had married into the mafia, and this guy is the epitome of a wise guy. If that’s even what they’re actually called. He’s dressed in all black, an overcoat over dark slacks that are far too nice for the snow, and I hope his expensive shoes are getting ruined by the moisture. He has his hair slicked back and his complexion is dark, like he’s just stepped off the boat from Italy.
He looks dangerous and terrifying.
And he’s holding a gun to my girl’s head.
I don’t know how Taryn knows I’m here, but her eyes swivel suddenly to me, and my mind finally catches up to the fact that they’re speaking.
Helen has just offered her a deal. She wants Taryn to go home with her so she can have something she claims is hers, and if Taryn decides to stay up here instead, Helen says she’ll ruin us. Ruin the town. Destroy everything.
I stare back at Taryn, my heart splitting into a million shards in my chest. I just found her again, but it’s more than that. She spent days—weeks—weaving her soul around mine and helping me put myself back together again. She’s been up with me in the middle of the night, listening to my secrets, and up there on the ridge to watch the sunset. I’ve felt her sunshine on my face and her breath in my lungs, her body wrapped around mine as I fought for my own soul. And against all odds, I remembered how to be vulnerable. How to love.
For her.
And now I’m going to lose her again anyhow. I’ve opened myself up, giving her every piece of me, and she’s going to leave me again despite it all. Even with everything I did, it hasn’t been enough.
I’m not enough. I never have been.
Because I can see in her face that she’s going to choose to go home and desert me, and I don’t think I’ll survive it.
Not again.
I take a step back, then another, my soul screaming in my core that it would be better to run away and hide than stand here and watch as she betrays me, but I come up against something hard and unmoving. I look over my shoulder, surprised, and find my father there, his lips pressed together and his eyes as cold as ice.
And suddenly I don’t think I have to run anymore. Instead, I take a step to the side and wait for him to join me there, his shoulder against mine as we stand in front of our house and wait for Taryn to make her decision. Stay with us or leave us.
Love us and everything we’ve given her... or desert us.
Helen must realize we’re here because she suddenly turns and looks over us, her expression communicating very clearly that she barely thinks we’re worth the time. She looks like she’s just seen two bugs she wants to step on, and my temper starts to rise. Who the fuck does she think she is, coming up here and threatening Taryn, then looking at us like we’re dirt on her fucking shoe?
This woman used to live here. She used to be my stepmother.
But she’s changed, and with that realization comes a wave of guilt strong enough to knock me over. Taryn said her mother had changed and I didn’t believe her. I thought she was exaggerating.
My eyes fly back to Taryn’s, and I can see the truth written all over her face. She’s horrified that her mother is here and even more upset that she’s being forced to make a decision between us. Stay and ruin our business, or leave and ruin our hearts.
Then Helen makes it even more complicated.
“I have a choice for you as well, boys,” she says derisively. “I know you don’t want her as much as she thinks you do. Why would you? She’s just a girl. But I’ll make it worth your while if you let me have her back. I’ll give you $1 million to let her go. All that money, just to tell her you don’t want her here. Send her home and I’ll make sure it’s in your account first thing in the morning. Don’t make that face, Gunner, I know it’s more than you’ll see in your lifetime. I’m doing you a favor. Tell the girl you’re finished with her, finished with whatever game you were playing, and I’ll make you the richest man in town.”
I clench my jaw, so angry I can hardly see straight. She’s offering us money to tell Taryn to go home? Money to tell her we don’t want her? And not just money, but more than we’ve ever had before. That money could save the business and keep us afloat forever. My father could quit the university and stay at home. We could go full-time with the business. I could expand the line like I’ve always wanted to.
Hell, we already have the marketing plan for it. Taryn made sure of that.
And suddenly I realize what Helen is doing. She’s making Taryn choose between saving us and saying goodbye... and she’s giving us the same choice. Choose the money.
Or choose her.
I don’t know about my dad, but I’m pretty sure we both have the same answer.
“We don’t want your fucking money,” I spit. “And Taryn isn’t going anywhere.”
Before I’ve even finished speaking, men start bleeding out of the forest around the house. Not men from town. Hell, not men who’ve ever even been in the mountains before, I don’t think. They’re all darkly suited, hair slicked back and hats on their heads. Fuck, some of them are even smoking cigars, and I think for a moment that we’ve found our way into a fucking mafia movie from the fifties or something.
