Desperation equaled destruction.
Mack knew that now. Too well. And he was ready to stand for something. Something better.
His father cracked a malignant grin. “What, you think you’re better than this? You think you’re different than me?” His tone was mocking when he asked it.
Anger constricted Mack’s chest, and he lifted his chin. Maybe he did. Izzy promised night after night that he was. When he’d lie tangled up in her arms and legs, bare flesh against bare flesh, she’d whisper that he was better than the trash he’d been bred to be. That he was better than following in his father’s debased footsteps.
That he had something so much better then a wicked, worthless heart.
He wondered if his father saw every thought play out in Mack’s mind because that grin turned into a sneer. “That little bitch has been after you again, hasn’t she?”
A cyclone of resentment twisted through Mack.
All the beatings.
All the words.
The loss of his mama.
The agony. The grief. The hatred.
Through all of that, Izzy had been the one good thing that remained.
Mack took a violent step forward. “You don’t get to talk about her like that.”
Kiel growled, asshole pushing up to his feet, wifebeater stained and his teeth yellow and a big-ass wrench in his hand.
He was nothing but a bad joke.
A cliché.
Just like Mack’s father.
His father who was chuckling a cruel, dark sound. “And what do you have to say about it?”
“I’m saying I’m done with this life. With you. As soon as I graduate next month, I’m leaving with her.”
With a shake of his head, his father scrubbed a greasy hand over his face and smiled.
Mack didn’t make the mistake of thinking he might be offering him his congratulations.
A second later, his father was pressed up in his face, two of them chest to chest, aggression sparking between them.
“Warned you a long time ago about them, Mack. Told you to stay away. They’ve messed with my life enough. You let her fuck with your mind? I’m gonna fuck with her body. See how she likes that.”
“You touch her, and I will kill you. You won’t see the next day. I promise you.”
Smugness held fast to his father’s expression. “You are who I say you are. You do what I tell you to do. You sit pretty, shut your fuckin’ mouth, and do your job. Or else it’s gonna be you who ends up in the ground. Got me?”
* * *
Mack climbed out of his car. Late afternoon light glimmered through the lush leaves, the only beautiful thing about this place. He looked around when he sensed that something felt . . . off.
Like the peace he was breathing was artificial.
An undercurrent of upheaval riding on the atmosphere.
A knot climbed his throat, and he was struck with the same rage and revulsion that took him over every time he stepped foot on his father’s land.
Though today, it was intensified.
Following that unsettled sensation, he ducked into the house.
Empty.
He ducked right back out and strode over to the shed. He yanked the sliding door and pulled it open, metal track and wheels grinding their protest.
His eyes scanned the interior of the squalid shack, hatred spilling from him as he stepped inside.
Clarissa was on a stool in the corner where she always sat, texting someone on her phone. Her attention immediately snapped to him, her dark eyes flashing with something he didn’t want to read.
He ignored her the way he always did. Refusing to give into her ploys to get him back. Like she could ever come close to comparing to his Little Bird.
Kiel was in a Mustang, removing the stereo system. Just another day on the job.
“Where’s my father?” Mack grated.
Kiel edged out, and he looked at Mack from over his shoulder. A grimy smile stretched across his mouth. “Takin’ care of something he should have taken care of a long time ago.”
Unease shivered through Mack’s being.
“Yeah? And what might that be?” Mack said, voice twisting in a low threat.
He hated this prick just about as much as he hated his father.
Kiel’s expression hardened. “Don’t worry about it, boy. Get your ass over here and get to work, way you shoulda been doin’ all along. Know that delivery didn’t make it to Florida two days ago. Think your pa wasn’t gonna notice? ’bout time he taught you a lesson.”
Panic screamed across Mack’s flesh, and he was no longer playing games. He surged forward, ready to fight the answer out of him if he had to. “Where the fuck is he?”
Kiel’s eyes gleamed. “Made a little trip into town.”
Mack’s head spun, furiously trying to figure out what angle his father was gunnin’ for, which sick, twisted scheme he was playing next.
Clenching his teeth, he backed away from Kiel whose expression turned smug.
He wanted to knock it from his face.
He stared down the bastard for another beat, trying to get a read on him, before he slipped out of the shed and started for his car. That unsettled feeling blazing. None of it sitting right.