Dark Lonely Lies (The Denton Family Legacy 6)

Chapter Twelve

The following morning, Landon left Tulip asleep in his bed. After his confession last night, he partly expected her to run as far and as fast as she could away from him. Knowing she hadn’t and he hadn’t scared her away left him with a big smile on his face. He wanted to get her breakfast and well, whatever music he had to face, so be it.

Climbing downstairs, he saw the guards, all of them tensing as they watched them. Ignoring them, he went toward the kitchen, where he found Jacob, Abel, and Gabriel, sharing a cup of coffee and whatever the conversation was about, it went silent with him near.

“Well, call me surprised. Were you talking about me?” Landon asked.

“Yes,” Jacob said. “We’re wondering how we’re going to clean up your mess so you can come home.”

“I thought you’d be going off, chasing Tamsin.”

“Rick said it was a bad idea,” Gabriel said. “I doubt she would’ve been so willing to give away her location after all this time.”

“Where’s Jade?”

“In a safe place,” Gabriel said.

“I want to see her.”

“That’s up to Rick, not me.”

“You do know I don’t need permission from Rick to see my friends. I can do whatever the hell I want, when I want.” He raised a brow at each of them as they shared a look. “I killed our father right in front of you all. I took Tamsin away from this bullshit and that fucking pervert. I saw the way that old bastard was looking at her. You guys may be happy with being our dead dad’s slaves and bowing to his every command, but I wasn’t going to allow our sister to be hurt by a piece of shit. She didn’t deserve it.”

“It wasn’t your place.”

“Fuck if it was my place. You know what? Fuck this bullshit.” He stepped away from the kitchen. “I’ll feed my woman when you pansies aren’t here anymore.” He stormed off, heading toward the guest part of the house. He tried every single door. At each one that opened, he didn’t bother looking inside and immediately went to the next one.

About half an hour later, he finally came to a locked door.

“Jade, if you’re in there and you’re figuring out how to pick the lock, step back.”

He heard some movement, lifted his foot, and kicked. It took him three more kicks for the door to spring open.

Jade sat on the edge of the bed. She ran her fingers through her hair and smiled as he stepped through the threshold. She threw herself into his arms.

“How’s Tulip? Is she okay? They didn’t do anything to her, did they? I’ve been so worried. I don’t know what to do. Tell me you’ve got some kind of plan.” She looked around the room.

“I … I don’t.”

“Landon, how did they find us?” she asked.

He stared at her, waiting for her to realize he’d done it on purpose.

She kept on watching him. “No, you didn’t.” She walked away from him. “You did this? On purpose?”

“Running wasn’t part of the plan.”

“No? But it fucking worked, didn’t it? Fuck!” She grabbed the nearest lamp and threw it across the room. Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” she asked.

“My brothers will protect you.”

“I thought you were different. I thought I could trust you.”

“If you keep running with me, Jade, you’re going to get killed.”

“What part of I don’t care don’t you understand? I don’t care if I die because at least I’ll be dead on my own terms. Right now, it’s about being on their terms.” She slumped down on the bed. “I … they’re going to send me back.”

“I’m going to talk to Rick.”