“They won’t believe you,” she sobs, swiping a tear from her cheek. I have to admit, I’m surprised she has the balls to test me. Maybe she’s not as fragile as I thought.
Licking my lips, I step back over to her, my nearness intimidating her.
“Perhaps not, but I guarantee you my club can find out where Prince Charming lives and take him out of your life completely.” Her eyes widen as if she just realized how fucking crazy I really am.
“Can I make myself any clearer, Nurse Hailey?” Tipping my head to the side, I slip a piece of her silky hair behind her ear. “You want to see my potential? I’ll show you just how much I can fuck up your world, baby.”
5
Godric
A week later
* * *
Just outside the gates of Highland Heights Mental Facility, my mother awaits to pick me up. My boots crunch on the loose gravel, and the warm sun shines onto my shoulders. Closing my eyes, I inhale the fresh air. Freedom. Opening the passenger door, I slide into the leather seat and turn toward my mom. Her eyes are clean of makeup. Her hair is a mess. My mother never leaves the house without mascara and her hair being done.
“What is it? What’s wrong?”
“It’s your father…he died.” Tears fill her eyes. My mouth parts as I force myself to take a breath. A hollow feeling cracks into my chest as memories with my dad flash before my eyes.
When?
How?
“The cancer took him that fast?”
“No. He took his own life.” Her hands raise as if she can’t begin to comprehend how it happened, how he could do such a thing. My father isn’t a man who would take his own life, but if he knew what laid ahead of him—chemo, pain, having others wipe his ass—I feel taking his own life gave him peace in a way. Still, cancer is not how I saw my ol’ man going out. Not after the mayhem he’s survived. A disease killing him is a cruel joke from above. My mother starts to really break down, tears spilling down her face and uncontrollable sobs rocking her body.
“Shit, Ma. Why didn’t you call me or something?” I pull her into my arms, and she rests her chin on my shoulder, her sobs winding down into sniffles. With Dad gone, the club has to be a mess. I wonder how my brother is handling it. I don’t even remember the last time I saw my father alive. It had to be the night I got arrested. Did he look sick? Did he kill himself before I got out because he didn’t want me to see him so ill? Trying to wrap my mind around it, my mother pushes herself back, wiping the tears from her face.
“The funeral is this weekend. I was so scared you wouldn’t be out in time.” She pulls a wadded-up tissue from her purse and dabs at her nose. I didn’t think I would be in that shithole as long as I was.
Sitting back in my seat, my head against the headrest, memories of my father teaching me how to fish, shoot, and basic rules of being a man float through my subconscious before a still image of my dead girlfriend comes screeching in. I think about her, our place together, if she has a grave.
“The trailer…is it gone?” I ask, keeping my eyes forward.
“It’s still there but someone else lives there now.” Her voice is a little shaky, but she’s pulling herself together. She’s strong, I give her that.
The trailer being gone is a good thing. I don’t think I could go back in there. One thing slams to the front of my brain, and my head snaps to my mother.
“Where’s Phil?”
She wipes the tears from under her eye shaking her head with confusion. “Who the fuck is Phil?”
“My fucking dog.” Well, it was Bella’s dog too, but as many times as that asshole ate my boots and jumped on my lap, I deserve to have him.
“Oh, I think he’s with Bella’s mom.” He tosses her hand at me like it’s yesterday’s news.
“You’re joking…” Bella’s mother hated her own daughter, why in the fuck would she care about an animal?
Patting the dashboard, startling my mother, I say “We’re making a pit stop. Go!”
Putting the car in drive, she pulls onto the road.
“Where? Where the fuck are we going?”
“To Bella’s mom’s house. She lived in the same trailer park. Just head that way.” I point to the left side of the road, and my mother starts bickering about how I need to just go home, and I call her crazy—just like we were before I got thrown into a mental institute.
Twenty minutes later, we pull down the hill into the old trailer park. My chest constricts at seeing my and Bella’s old place. Balling my fist, I rub the ache as we drive by. That night is still so vivid yet a blur. Maybe if I go in there, it will bring things back. Maybe I’ll snap again.