Page 65 of Moon Blind Hearts
I immediately put them on my neck, making Genie coo at my pretty necklace, and it’s not lost on me that we seem to match now, the three of us. I touch my hands to the strand around my neck and look up at the man holding my daughter like she’s his own. Everything is going to shit right now. We’re about to face the very real danger of my father dragging me back home to Washington D.C. But at the very least, I’ll have these moments to look back on.
No matter what.
Without thinking too hard about it, I wrap my arms around Oak, letting him tug me in close, and whisper the words I thought I’d never say.
“I love you.”
He tenses but he doesn’t call attention to it, letting me settle into the feeling. Only when he feels like I can handle it does he repeat the words.
“I love you, too, darlin’,” he murmurs. “More than I can ever explain.” He hugs Genie tight. “I hope I can do right by you two. We all do.”
And I realize, that all this time I’ve been running, all this time I’ve been hiding, I’ve only longed for one thing. To be valued for who I am. I’ve been desperate for someone to hold my hand when things get tough because they want to, because the like who I am completely. It’s not about who shies away from your hurt or your problems. It’s about the ones who stand in the rain with you, in the middle of a storm, when they had the choice to be dry.
Cash, Oak, and Sawyer are standing with me in the rain.
It seems only fitting that I cry when I realize, but Oak is there to wipe the tears away. He holds me through it.
I’ve never felt so safe. So free . . .
But when Cash and Sawyer come out on the porch to join us, we don’t get to sit in that feeling for long.
Not when the line of black Suburbans turn down the driveway in the distance. Not when the one in front rams through the metal gate and starts crunching along the gravel toward us.
We’re too late. It’s all too late.
The storm is here.
Chapter 38
Jules
I stare at the black car in front, knowing he wouldn’t be in that one. He’s never in the first car, but he can be in any of the other cars throughout the line.
“I count six,” Cash says, reaching inside the door for a shotgun. He tosses it to Oak before reaching for another revolver he tucks into his belt.
My eyes dance across the guns. “He’s a senator. You shoot at him, you go to prison.”
“We ain’t gonna shoot,” Oak reassures me. “Unless they shoot first.”
“It’s all being recorded,” Sawyer reminds me as Cash passes him his own gun, a rifle.
How do I tell them that won’t matter? Recordings can be doctored. Things can be erased. Government officials do it all the time. They get away with things no normal person could. My father has been playing this game for a long time.
As the black cars slowly come down the driveway, my heart beats wildly in my chest. They’re earlier than we planned, which means my father had already been close. We don’t have any of the security measures in place. We don’t have the backup we planned. We don’t have anything except the recording and a few guns.
“I shot off texts to everyone,” Cash announces. “Hopefully they’ll get it in time.”
“The Sheriff?” Sawyer asks.
“Him, too,” Cash answers. “The whole damn town near it.”
But I’m not listening to them. My eyes are on the six vehicles as they reach the end and drive around the circular driveway, parking one after the other along the edge. The cars all have government license plates, their window tint so dark, I can’t possibly see anyone inside. Still, my eyes go to the third car in line, like I can feel his horrible fucking aura. Somehow, I’m not surprised when the doors on that car open first. I’m not surprised when the leather shoes worth more than most people make in a month step out onto the gravel.
But I am terrified.
My eyes flick to the cabin where Genie is with Bonnie and Ivy. Stay inside. Stay inside. Please stay inside. I pull out my phone and fire a text over to them, but Bonnie has a habit of leaving her phone in the kitchen to charge and Ivy has her phone permanently on silent. If Bonnie is hanging onto Genie, she may not see the message in time. Ivy might not check her phone and let her know.
My father gets out with all the grace of the family training we’ve all had, poised, powerful, a presence no one can ignore. The secret service members he brought with him are already out of their vehicles, each of them looking around in their dark sunglasses. They’ve already clocked the guns Oak, Cash, and Sawyer have, and they’ve definitely already clocked me.
