by Raven Scott
“I would hope not.” Vanessa’s smile widened, and I ran both my hands through my hair to flop my head back and stretch my legs. Staring at the ceiling, I wiggled my toes in my boots as the silence rang in my ears. “What would you do about my mom if she was your mom?”
“She was my mom at one point—” My head snapped up, and Vanessa pulled out the wheeled office chair from the cubicle next to me to sit, smoothing her skirt with stiff fingers. He pretty, long face washed in seriousness, a powerful depth in her eyes that sucked me in and made my heart race. “My parents were extremely religious. As in, going to church 5 days a week, blaming puberty on the devil, and home schooling me because the world is a terrifying place full of sinners— that kind of religious. I was 17 and almost illiterate. The only thing I was allowed to read was the Bible. One night, I decided to run away, knowing that there was more out there than my parents were telling me. I stole a bunch of money and took the late train until I hit New York City.”
“The only difference between you and me, Riley, is that I didn’t have a panic button to save me.” My eyes widened, my throat closing as Vanessa’s expression strained while memories flashed across her face. Clenching my hands into tight fists in my lap, I ground my teeth hard, and she pursed her lips thinly before continuing. “Carlyle saved me— he likes to do that. It’s how he builds his relationships with his people. You haven’t met him, but he inspires people like no one else can. He bought the train car it happened in, found the guys, and let me have my time with them. I was 19, had no experience at all with men, and for a long time, I thought I was in love with him. Years and years, I groveled at his feet— did whatever he wanted, right when he asked, no matter what it was. Now that I’m almost 30, it’s embarrassing how naïve I was at the time.”
“He just led you on?” She shrugged a little with one shoulder, and my mouth dried at the implications of that action. Being strung along by someone like that. . . I’d heard a lot about this Carlyle guy, and he didn’t seem all that great to be in a relationship with. For me, at least. “What happened?”
“I wouldn’t say he led me on, but he never discouraged me. One day, I just had this epiphany. I woke up and asked myself what the Hell I was doing, and why, and when did I become so pathetic? I was always a step behind him, and he never glanced at me twice. I was his personal secretary, but he never said a single word to me that didn’t pertain to business. Even the normal ‘how was your weekend?’ stuff— I got a generic answer. It was like a switch flipped. Carlyle saved my life. That was the only thing he’d ever gone out of his way to do for me. I owed him my life, but he’s the kind of person you’d happily give your life to.” A small, sad smile stretched her thick lips, her cheeks reddening with residual embarrassment even as the blood drained from my face. “It honestly didn’t take long to get over him, especially after a few years when he met his wife, Valerie. Anyway— back to the story. After the train incident, I called my mom and told her what happened to me. She said it was my fault— that I’d been enticed by the Devil, and I deserved it for forsaking God, and all that religious nut shit. It was the worst phone call I’d ever had.”
“My mom told me if I wasn’t into bondage. . . if I didn’t hang around ‘people like that’. . . that I was basically asking for it.” Ducking my head, my eyes stung fiercely, and I cleared my throat roughly as my chest tightened at the memories. “She’d call me specifically to tell me that kind of thing, and then she’d get mad when I got mad. I’d hang up, tell myself I wasn’t taking her calls anymore. . . but I always did again. The last straw for me was when she told me I couldn’t move the goalposts wherever I wanted and try to ruin someone’s life and. . . yeah. . .”
“Reece was the one that killed them— my parents.” Surprise twitched my brows and unhinged my jaw, and I stared, open-mouthed at Vanessa as she nodded firmly. “It was one of his first jobs, I think. I always liked Reece— he’s cool, collected, rational. . . all the things you want in a handyman. He doesn’t let other people’s opinions run away from them, and always makes sure to keep his expectations realistic. So, one day, I told him that I had a job for him, if he wanted it. I had wanted to do something for a while— the ultimate ‘fuck you’ not only to my parents, but the person that they’d made me into. Actually, for a long, long time, like, a few weeks, no one knew what happened to my parents. They just disappeared. There was a huge man hunt for them, and he refused to tell me what happened.”
“What did he do?” Images of Reece crouching over Brandon flashed behind my lids when I blinked. If he could so easily make a grown man shit himself, what would he do if he had real reason to go hard? Of course, my reason was reason enough, but this would’ve been more than 6 years ago, if Vanessa’s timeline was right.
“They found my parents in an abandoned church after weeks of rotting there. There was a book, too, detailing all my parents’ sins. That’s why he’s super anal about researching his targets, by the way— it started after this request. He spent weeks figuring out all my parents’ dirty secrets, and then spent more time researching the ways to punish them in the Bible. And, then, he did that to them over the course of about a week, I guess is how long it took. My dad was cheating on my mom with a teenage boy from the church. My mom liked money a little too much and was stealing from her job. There were pages and pages of individually listed sins and what the punishment was. Honestly, it was glorious going to the police station to read it.” Picking my jaw out of my lap, discomfort wormed between my ribs, and Vanessa caught my gaze as her smile disappeared. “It didn’t quiet that voice my mom had implanted in me that maybe she was right. It didn’t change anything, to be honest.”
“I don’t expect it to change anything. . . my mom hired someone to kill me, and Reece is right about that, too. If I just ignore it, what if she tries again?” As if he knew his name was being mentioned, my phone started to trill with Reece’s ringtone. Swiveling around to swipe my phone off my desk, I frowned at the time before answering the call. “Hey— I‘m just packing up now. What’s up?”
“I have to drive my couch goblin upstate. You wanna come for the ride?” Puffing my lips out under brows furrowed by thought, I nodded with a little hum. “Cool. I’m outside. Are you talking to Vanessa?”
“Yeah. Um. . .” I rolled my jaw awkwardly, not knowing what to say, and Reece grunted lowly into the phone as the line rustled loudly. “I’ll be down in a few minutes.”
30
Reece
“You know— last time my mom called me, she said my ‘boyfriend’ had messaged her on Facebook, and that we were dating, and he wanted to introduce himself.” Speaking up from the passenger seat, Riley gazed at the dash from under furrowed brows when I briefly glanced at her. “I wonder what that meant.”
“I dunno, but why does it matter?” We had a ways to go to get to Carlyle’s home base-slash-office-slash-evil-villain’s-lair, but the highway was clearer than I’d expected. No one was trying to break check my pretty nice car, and I wasn’t being rammed by truckers, which was always a good thing. “Your mom is fucking delusional, baby.”
“Ah— I know, I’m just wondering if Brandon somehow found my mom. I have Facebook, but I never use it. It’s not even installed on my phone or anything. He could’ve found me, found my mom, and tried to pressure me or something. I don’t know. It’s also possible she lied to. . . well, I don’t know why, but it’s possible.” Flexing my hands on the wheel, I frowned as I glanced in the rearview before flicking on my blinker. “I’m just not sure what to do. I know acting on what I know won’t make me feel better, but I worry about what’ll happen if I don’t do anything.”
“Why not introduce them?” Piping up from the back, Delilah sprawled on the seat lazily, but the excitement trilled in her voice. Surprise rose my brows, and she hauled herself up to sit to grip the back of Riley’s seat. “You wanna know why people hire people like Reece? Because then they don’t have to face their actions. Someone else did that— not your mom. So, why not
introduce to her the man she hired to kill you?”
“That’s a terrible idea, Delilah.” Scowling lightly, I trained my eyes back on the road while she scoffed a little in my ear.
“Trust me, okay. If there’s one thing I know a heck of a lot about, it’s people coming after me for no reason. That lady isn’t your mom biologically, and even if she was, Riley— she raised you like she hated you, anyway. The only way to get better on people like that is to be free and happy.” Everyone’s got an opinion. Shooting an irritated glance at Riley, a sourness coated my tongue. Everyone was giving her different advice from different angles. No wonder it was taking her forever to decide what to do about her mom. “Besides, it’s not like you want to do anything about it, anyway. You just don’t want it to happen again, right? So, just be all like ‘hey, I know you did this, and if you ever try again, I won’t be lenient’ or something.”
“Yeah— because that works.” I rolled my eyes, but I could see Riley seriously considering what Delilah was saying. My only protest was that I wanted her to make her own decision, not rely too much on other people’s. She was so unlike me in that regard, though. Riley cared a lot about what other people perceived, their opinions, and how they affected her.
“My mom did say she wanted to meet my boyfriend. . .” Clenching and releasing my jaw absently, I inhaled through flared nostrils at the evil lilt in Riley’s tone. “It’s Friday— she’ll be home, and so will my dad.”
“If that’s what you want to do, baby, I’ll drive you up there.” Truly, I didn’t know how I would handle this situation considering my mom was dead— and also not married to a pedophile and raising some child’s child. What I did know, for certain, was that this probably wouldn’t go however Riley expected. Her mom most definitely wouldn’t break down in tears, confess, and try to better their relationship. Even her father, who I hadn’t heard a peep about other than the fact that he screwed a prepubescent girl, probably wasn’t going to admit he did anything wrong.
This wasn’t going to end well, but. . . I guess. . . at least it would end.
“I don’t know. We’re going to be an hour from Redding. . .” Trailing off, Riley turned out the window, and I pursed my lips thinly. Glaring hotly at Delilah through the rearview mirror, irritation gnawed at my gut as she flopped back to cross her arms with a huff.
God damn bitch has her head so far up her ass her brain is being fried by her stomach acid. What did Delilah know about the world? She had a rich, foreign boyfriend that paid for everything she wanted or needed. Sure, she had someone looking over her shoulder, but who didn’t? Delilah wasn’t fucking special because she didn’t like being watched. Whether it was the government, a parent, or a concerned friend— everyone was being surveilled in some way, by someone, at all times.
But I wasn’t stupid enough to ignore the fact that Delilah had a point. Introducing me to Riley’s parents, and making sure they knew that I knew their nasty ass secrets, meant leverage. Short of killing them, scaring them was my best option, and I had plenty of ammunition.
It’s not my decision, though. I wasn’t gonna pull a Carlyle and hijack Riley’s problems to solve them for myself. That wouldn’t help her. Through the speakers of the car, my cell phone started to trill insistently, and I reached without thinking to touch the pad on the dash. No point in grumbling about it to myself. Riley always pulls through. It just takes a while.
“What?”
“Mr. Brandt— it’s Francine, your mother’s estate planner. Is now a good time?” Curiosity arched my brows high, and I answered a simple ‘yes’ before she continued. “I apologize for calling seemingly out of the blue, but your mother insisted I wait 3 months. I’ve been keeping an eye out for your sisters, like she’d asked, and things are going. . . as expected. That being said— I have a clause in your mother’s will that states if your sisters can’t come to a decision about the house, I need your authorization to sell it. The property was to be transferred to you if, after 90 days, no decision could be reached.”
“Uh. . . seriously?” My dumbshit response was all my brain could get out, and Francine shuffled around on the phone a little as I reached to rub my jaw roughly. “I thought my sisters got the house to fight over.”
“As I said, if no decision could be reached by them within 90 days, the deeds are transferred to you. I know you don’t want to, but I can do everything remotely from here. I’d like permission to record the conversation starting now for confirmation. Is that okay with you?” Fuck.
“Yes, it’s fine.” My aggravation increased ten-fold, and I flexed my hands stiffly around the wheel. “Why wasn’t I informed of this before?”
“I suppose your mother hoped your sisters would come to some sort of agreement before the 90 days were up. This hasn’t happened, so as stipulated in her will, the deed to the house and the land it sits on is yours, Reece. As I mentioned, I can outsource everything. You’d only need to come to Arkansas to sign the sale. That being said, again, as per your mother’s will, I started the eviction process on your sister this morning.” I could’ve fucking told her that my idiot sisters would argue until they died about that house, and I rolled my eyes until their sockets ached. “I need confirmation to bulldoze the buildings on the property and sell the land as-is. If you wouldn’t mind stating your full name and date of birth, and whether you approve this step.”
I did as she asked, and Francine clacked away on a keyboard briefly as I contemplated pulling over to throw a tantrum. Was this shit even allowed? I had all my mom’s shit, which I didn’t want, and now I had her land, which I also didn’t want. I hadn’t missed my mom since her funeral, but now she was putting all her fucking baggage on me from beyond the grave— exactly the way she did before I left.
“I need approval to put the land up for sale through Trundle Real Estate Firm.” Again, I stated my name, birthday, and verbal approval, and my knuckles turned white around the wheel when Francine spoke up. “Finally, I need approval to lawfully force the occupants of the Brandt house out should they refuse after the eviction is processed.”
A third time, I repeated my information, and Francine said her thanks and goodbye before hanging up. Silence reigned in my smallish car as I ground my teeth. My mom pulled this shit all the time when I was a kid, heaping my sisters’ responsibilities on me. I was too damned old to be cleaning up after them, and yet, after ten years out of the house, my mom still found a way to drag me back.
“Damn. . . now I’m in a bad mood.”
31
Riley
“Please don’t ask me if I’m really sure I want to do this, Reece.” Maybe, the words spilled out of my mouth because I wanted him to stop me, but I knew he wouldn’t. Reece was all about independent decision, and I glanced over the center console as he scowled lightly. “Are you okay?”
“I should’ve expected my mom to jerk me around from her hole in the ground. . .” Grumbling more to himself than me, Reece rubbed his clean-shaven jaw with his palm and flopped his head back against the rest to exhale a rough sigh. My heart pounded hard against my ribs, and I reached to hold his free hand tightly as tension zinged through my body. “Not much I can do about it, I guess. At least Francine isn’t incompetent, but I wish she’d told me beforehand. Honoring the dead only shits on the living.”
I only hummed softly, staring out into the neighborhood I’d grown up in. Redding was a small, rich town with two schools and more snobby, rich people mansions than actual residents. Trees lined the road, dead right now, but the oaks would be in full bloom in the Spring and make everything beautiful and rustic. Rubbing the back of my hand absently, Reece hoovered up air through flared nostrils, and I pursed my lips thinly.
“At least it’s money?” Honestly, I didn’t know what to say concerning Reece’s mom. All I ever heard about her was that he loved her, but she wasn’t a very strong-willed person. Even now, dead and buried, she couldn’t make a decision, and he hated that inability to choose.
Which, really
, made it easier for me to decide to see my own mom.
“That bitch could sell the property for a million dollars, and it wouldn’t be enough to make me want to drive back to Arkansas.” Lacing our fingers together, I turned my gaze past him and out the driver’s side window. I knew my mom and dad were home, and a dreary atmosphere descended on the car. “Are you okay, Riley?”
“I don’t know.” The confession slipped out before I could stop it, and I scrunched up my face in disdain. My parents weren’t flashy rich or anything; they’d moved here during a recession decades ago and could comfortably afford it, but their house was small. By comparison to the other houses around here, that were barely used and ignored, my parents must’ve seemed destitute.
But this was the place I’d grown up, spent so much time trying to get my mom to approve of me before giving up. This was the street I learned to ride my bike on— alone. I’d gone to the local high school, where I had okay friends, but never invited anyone to my house. My mom wasn’t someone I wanted to introduce anyone to, let alone the guy I was dating. . . who also happened to be the man she’d contracted to kill me. For pennies!
“Even trying to get rid of me, she puts in the minimum.” Mumbling softly, I unfurled my fingers from Reece’s to step out of the passenger seat. My mom’s rose bushes were immaculately round, showing no signs of all the times I’d fallen in them. The path to the house was free of dead grass and debris, and the driveway housed my dad’s truck. I knew that if I opened the garage, my mom’s car would be sitting there, unused, the gas turning to sludge and the oil in the engine slowly seizing up.
Even in mid-March, there was something truly dead about this house. No matter how hard life tried to establish roots, they never took. Shutting the door to Reece’s car, I rounded the front to tug my jacket a little tighter around me. Despite the fact that it was nearly 7pm, the sun hadn’t fallen below the trees, and a golden glow encapsulated my childhood home.