Exodus (The Ravenhood)

They’re leaving, and they’ll be untraceable wherever they land. A thousand-pound weight sinks in my stomach.

“And I hope you know, you’re better off there,” it was a warning, and she’d delivered it with the gentleness of a mother’s love. “There’s nothing good going to come out of you coming back here. You don’t want to end up a dried-up old lady working at the plant, anyway. And we only want the best for you.”

“Layla—”

“I gotta run, but I just wanted you to know that I’ll miss you.”

When the line disconnected, I screamed at the loss. Neither Sean nor Tobias wanted to speak to me.

It was all over.

My future had been decided, my ties cut, they didn’t want me to come back. I had no choice in the matter, no say. And I’d lived that reality before.

Thoroughly unhinged, I shattered over and over again at the finality of it all. It was never going to end well, but that parting had ripped some of my humanity away from me.

I moved to Triple Falls a teenager, wanting nothing more than to challenge myself, to give in to my wild side, and create some stories to tell.

By the time I stood in my new apartment in Athens that night, I was a woman who’d been unearthed by deception, lies, lust, and love, whose essence was shrouded by life-changing secrets, full of stories I could never share and never, ever tell. In keeping me safe, in architecting my future, they’d left me to wither and rot with those secrets.

Between the painstaking lengths my boys went to and the first-class ticket my father bought out of hell, all I wanted to do is go back and let the flames consume me. But in protecting me, in all the trouble my presence caused, all they asked in return is for my absence and to keep their secrets.

And I did.

Baptized by fire, I wore my mask until I grew into it, I kept our secrets, following their orders to the letter while trying to resume some semblance of a life.

And eventually, I did that too.

I far exceeded my own expectations, but time has been nothing but a noose, giving me the rope an inch at a time. And now that I’m here, I refuse to continue the charade. It’s far too much to ask. And so, I’ll demand answers and seek them in full from the man who owes me the explanation.

And I’m not leaving without one.

It’s my last promise to myself as I drive down the lone road leading to the forgotten house.

An eerie feeling washes over me, and I expect nothing less as I gaze on at the grand estate from the gate as freezing rain begins to pelt the hood and windshield of my Audi. The house is far more intimidating underneath the grey sky. But I know a majority of my contempt is due to the history that lives within the walls.

Pulling up, I swallow hard and step out. Leaving my bag in my car, I grab the envelope from my purse that the management company sent me years ago along with the new key, security instructions and a schedule for those in charge of maintaining the late Roman Horner’s estate. I palm the heavy key in my hand as I walk up the steps and turn back toward the driveway. Though the wind whips heavily around me while the stinging rain infuses the cold into my bones, I’m graced with a glimpse of my past, an image of a golden man waiting at the hood of his Nova, boots and arms crossed, a smile playing on his lips. The gilded tips of his spiked halo, lit by the sun as his eyes dance with promise and mischief. And just as soon as the ray appears, it’s gone.

Taking a calming breath, I turn and unlock the door, pushing it open and stand frozen at the threshold baffled by the sight that greets me.

The interior is no different than it was the day before I left, though I can only imagine the damage done that morning. I’m fairly certain the walls house shells of bullets in between sheetrock and touched up paint. But all traces of that horrible night are gone, as if I imagined it.

If only that were true.

“No one leaves breathing.” I shudder as I think of the look on Tobias’s face when he gave that order. Tyler said Miami had pulled up ten cars deep.

If the ravens succeeded in carrying out that order, there had to have been a significant body count. And then there was the brotherhood side. I didn’t know them all personally, but I hated to think they’d lost more brothers that day.

Odds are, they did.

I’d accused Tobias when we met of being a petty thief who threw parties trying to downplay the extent of what I knew, all the while they kept me cornered, shielded, and safe from the ugly truth of the reality of what the war they waged entailed.

Dominic had admitted as much to me the night he died.

“You were amongst liars, thieves, and killers.”

And as many times as I was told, I still had to see to believe. And that night, I became a believer in the worst imaginable way.

But I understood their logic. They never wanted me exposed to it, so they distracted me, kept me ignorant to it for as long as possible because they didn’t want me to see them for who they really were—dangerous criminals whose bad deeds ran more along the lines of corporate theft, blackmail, racketeering, espionage, and if forced, retaliation that included bloodshed.