Page 68 of My Three Rivals

Wait. We just had to calm down and wait.

CHAPTER29

Tegan

Ivowed to turn the phone back on and call Wyatt as soon as I finished with Nick. I hadn’t expected him to find me gone so fast, and guilt gnawed at my stomach lining.

If Five Penny was the escape in my childhood, The Redwood Forest Trailer Park was the place of my nightmares.

I hadn’t been to the place in years, well before I realized just how terrible a person my father was, and he still made obligatory visits to his only brother, my Uncle Charlie. I must have been ten the last time I was there, and Uncle Charlie hadn’t overdosed yet.

Uncle Charlie, Nick’s father, had always freaked me out, with his rotting teeth and wayward hair. He screamed obscenities at both his children, often throwing things at them when they didn’t move out of the way of the television fast enough, or Sabrina didn’t get him a beer when he demanded.

The entire park perpetually stunk of rancid liquor and something burning, but someone had attempted to make some kind of upgrades to the place, a fact that I noticed when I steered the SUV into the rows of rundown trailers.

Barefoot kids ran amok, and I had to keep an eye out to ensure one didn’t end up under the car. Everyone outside turned to take in Wyatt’s sleek, pretty vehicle, fueling my shame at having taken it and brought it to the living apocalypse.

But Uncle Charlie’s trailer still looked as shitty as ever, the roof peppered in holes, covered in rotting pieces of plywood. The same rusted, webbed porch chairs sitting outside the half-hanging screen door.

To my horror, I saw a familiar face when I stopped, but I wouldn’t have recognized my cousin Sabrina if she wasn’t in exactly the same place I’d last seen her.

She was two years younger than me, but she looked twenty years older, crow’s feet slashed around her eyes and mouth. Her dull blue eyes stared at me indifferently, her tongue jutting out to lick her lips when she realized I was approaching.

“Sabby?” I called out, noting the track marks in her frail arms.

She cocked her head, trying to place me.

“It’s me, Tegan…” I said, slowly approaching her, closing and locking the car as I moved.

She nodded, jutting her chin toward me, and her eyes traveled up toward the broken blinds of the single window looking outward. The blinds moved, and I realized that someone was inside.

“Yeah, hey,” Sabrina mumbled, dropping herself onto one of the frayed aluminum chairs. “Do you have like twenty bucks?”

I shook my head. “No,” I lied. “I… I’m looking for Nick. Is he here?”

The screen door swung open, crashing against the side of the trailer and making Sabrina start. Nick stared out at me, grinning, and suddenly, I felt like I was staring at Uncle Charlie.

“Hey, Nick,” I said, resisting the urge to flee back to my car.

I had to find Maverick, and Nick was my only lead.

“Hey, cuzzzzzz,” he drawled, sauntering down to meet me at eye level.

He smelled like he hadn’t showered in a week, his face covered in sores.

“Nicky, do you have—” Sabrina whined.

“Shut the fuck up and get inside!” Nick whiplashed at her, taking me aback.

He was the spitting image of his father.Oh, Gran. Why were your sons such fuckups?

“But, Nick—”

He raised his hand, and Sabrina scrambled to avoid her brother’s backhand blow, leaving me quivering. As soon as Sabrina was squared away, he beamed at me again.

“So, what’s up, cuzzy? How’s that vineyard treating you?” he leered.

“I know that you knew what Emerson was doing,” I shot out, forgetting any plan I had to keep things civil—at least until I could get the information I needed.

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