Unbreakable: Haven Falls (Book 6)

by Sheridan Anne

  “I guess it kind of does,” I tell her. “Spencer has been there to put you back together every step of the way. He makes you smile and just when your world was falling apart, he was there to help you through it. It’s only natural for you to want to cling to that with everything you have, and I guess the news that he was staying around and was going to be near you was overwhelming and you acted on instinct.”

  “What are you trying to say? That you’re all team Spencer now?”

  “No. I’m a firm believer in team Rivers and I believe the Rivers and Tully train will roll once again and make the best kind of magic, but in case I’m wrong and that’s a lost cause, then don’t you think that once you’re ready, you owe it to yourself and to Spencer to explore what you two have? You never know, it could lead to something amazing.”

  “It could also lead to another broken heart.”

  “I don’t think Spencer has it in him to break your heart. He follows you around like a lost puppy. I think you’re the real deal for him. Besides, he’s pined after you all senior year after you dated briefly last summer. If he’s already waited that long after getting a little taste, then I think he’ll wait as long as it takes.”

  “Ok. So, say I get together with Spencer and then Rivers show up out of the blue. What am I supposed to do then? He’s not the kind of guy I’m just going to forget about. Just thinking about exploring my options with Spencer makes me feel as though I’m being unfaithful to him. Rivers is my guy and he always will be.”

  “I don’t know,” I tell her, leaning forward and squeezing her thigh. “That’s something only you can answer, but what I do know is that Rivers left saying that he couldn’t give you what you deserve, and despite how badly I want you two to make it work, he wanted you to move on. So, I guess you need to ask yourself if you’re prepared to wait around for something that could never happen or if you want to give it a shot finding happiness with Spence.”

  Tears pool in Tully’s eyes as she looks up at me. “But what if I can’t find that same happiness with Spencer that I had with Rivers?”

  “I…” I shake my head, unable to answer that in the way she needs. “Then you buy yourself ten cats and visit me on the weekends.”

  “Yo,” the door flies open and Noah comes storming in, looking proud as punch. “What’s going on in…shit. Tears?” He comes to an alarming stop. “I knew there was a reason I let you talk me out of coming in here.”

  I roll my eyes and throw one of Tully’s old teddy bears at him. “What do you want?”

  Noah eyes his sister warily before turning his gaze on me. “I was just talking to Officer Langston,” he starts, making me sit up a little straighter. “They fucking got him. They’re pushing for trial in three months and with the list of charges against him, he didn’t get bail so he’ll be sitting in prison until then.”

  “What?” I say, throwing myself off Tully’s bed and crashing into Noah. “Are you kidding? That’s incredible.”

  “Yep,” he says. “You’re free of him.”

  “Well, that’s assuming the trial goes as expected and he doesn’t get off on some ridiculous technicality.”

  “Trust me,” he says, pulling me in. “They made sure to dot all their I’s and cross their T’s. They’re ready for this and a case this big they’re not going to screw up by messing up the paperwork. They had my statement, so they had probable cause to arrest and I don’t doubt that someone remembered to read him his rights. Everything is going to be ok. Remember that this is probably the biggest arrest of their careers. They’re not going to let him slip through their fingers. Every step is going to be checked, double checked, and then triple checked.”

  “He can afford the best lawyers in the country,” I remind him.

  “Not when his assets and accounts are frozen.”

  “Really?” I question in surprise.

  “Uh huh. Anton’s empire is going down and there’s nothing he can do about it from the confines of his cell,” he grins. “Now, are you two finished with your little ‘girly’ moment or are you going to come and wash your own damn cars? Because God knows I fucking love you both but I’m not washing all of them myself. Besides, Aiden is a cool dude, but when it comes to cars…”

  Tully groans and looks out the window. “I don’t want to go out there.”

  Noah scoffs. “Why? Did you turn into a pussy during the last ten minutes?”

  Tully flies off her bed. “Fuck you,” she says in a show of defiance, storming past Noah and right out her bedroom door just to prove her point. Tully Cage is no pussy, but she had no reason to worry anyway. Spencer’s not going to ask her about the kiss unless she brings it up. He didn’t use to, but he respects what she’s feeling and he’ll do just about anything to make sure he holds onto what little hope he has.

  “You know what I don’t understand?” I murmur as Noah takes my hand and leads me back outside. “Where did all those boxes of evidence come from? That clothing store was way too small to fit all of that inside it.”

  Noah grins as though he enjoys that I’m not in on the big secret. “Anton’s warehouse is underground. There’s a door in the fitting rooms that looks like it leads to a storage closet, but it’s actually stairs that lead down into his warehouse. It’s massive, probably runs as far as the grocery store and back towards the gas station.”

  “Well, shit. That’s huge.”

  “Yep. Everything is in there. Guns. Drugs. Money. He’s going down and no expensive lawyer is going to stop it.”

  My head spins as we walk back out into the mid-afternoon sun. Noah’s phone rings, drawing my attention. He pulls it out with an irritated groan, always hating being disrupted when he’s having his special ‘Noah and Camaro’ time.

  “What’s up?” he says into the phone, leading me over towards his car before reaching for the hose. He pauses for a slight moment before a seriousness comes over him. “Fuck. Yeah, ok. I’ll be there in a second.”

  I gape at him. “What’s going on? What’s wrong?”

  Noah digs for his keys in his pocket, pulling them out a second later as he shakes his head in disbelief. “The fucking warehouse just went up in flames. I guess someone is trying to cover their tracks.”

  “I guess I’m not surprised.”

  Noah leans in and presses a quick kiss to my lips and within the blink of an eye, he’s gone, careening down the street with desperation to save as much as that shit as possible. Though, something tells me it’s already too late. The cops raided that place good and well, even the evening news showed they were still there until the late hours of the night, hauling boxes upon boxes of evidence out of there. I doubt there’s anything left in there to burn.

  Anton can try, but he’s not getting out of this one. He’s a goner and he knows it.

  Chapter 17

  I walk into Castle Rock Maximum Security Penitentiary for Men and my blood runs cold as I join the line of visitors. It’s one thing visiting my mother a few miles down the street at the facility for women but visiting my father…this is seriously insane.

  I don’t know what I was thinking coming here. Maybe I needed some answers and to set the record straight or maybe I just needed to see him behind bars to make sure everything I’ve been hearing on the news was true.

  Hearing news reporter after news reporter talking about it day in and day out is one thing, but actually seeing it with my own eyes and knowing that Noah and I are finally free from Anton’s hold is something I couldn’t pass up.

  Noah would probably kill me if he knew I was here without him. I had the same fight with him after visiting my mother for the first time and he finally came around. After visiting her with me and seeing that it’s really not as bad as he thought it was, he’s now fine when I go by myself, but this…I have a feeling is going to take a little more than the ‘I’m a big girl, I can take care of myself’ speech. He’s going to lose his mind and probably won’t be talking to me for a few days. But it’s worth it to get this closure.


  I’m hoping that once I walk out of these doors after visiting my father, it’s the last time I’ll ever see him again. I mean, I’m more than happy to go stand at trial and be a character witness if it comes down to that, but something tells me they have more than enough evidence to bother dragging little old me into it.

  Hopefully, this is it. I’ll walk out of here and close the door on my father for good.

  Visiting my mother? That’s something I plan to make a regular occurrence. The more I go there, the more I seem to break through her barriers. She’s rough around the edges, but I would be too if I was put in prison for partaking in something that I was doing solely to protect my son.

  Don’t get me wrong, I know deep down that the story she told me could have been a lie to get me on her side, but something right down in my gut told me that she was finally telling me her truth. Everything made sense when she told me that. The reasons she told me my father was Harrison, the reasons she gave me away, the reasons she lost her mind when she was first asked about Anton, it was always to protect me, to keep me safe from a life that no child should ever have to be part of.

  She loved me just as a mother should have and if I take into consideration the way the love shines out of her eyes when she speaks of Rivers, it’s clear that she loves him with everything she has, and I’m assuming that she would have felt the same for me at one point. Giving up her baby girl to some stranger you met in a bar would have been the hardest thing she could have possibly done especially considering the way she spoke of always wanting to be a mother and a wife.

  I couldn’t possibly imagine giving up my child and I’m so grateful that Gina did. She did everything in her power to make sure her baby girl had the life she always wanted for her.

  All these years I’ve struggled with the fact that I was abandoned. I’ve always thought of myself as unlucky. I lost Kelly which turned out to not be such a bad thing and I lost Kaylah and Jackson when I thought I needed them most. What I didn’t realize at the time was that those events would lead me to where I am today.

  Without losing Kaylah and Jackson, I never would have Tully and Noah in my life. Without losing Kelly at twelve years old, I never would have grown into the strong, independent woman I am today. And without Gina abandoning me on dad’s doorstep, I never would have had the life I’ve been blessed with.

  All these years I thought I was unlucky, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. I’m the luckiest girl to have ever graced this planet and I have Gina to thank for it for placing me in the home of Harrison Bronx.

  Yes, there were hard times, and yes, there were occasions where I wanted to scream at my father for being an overbearing, overprotective asshat, but I wouldn’t change it for the world.

  I move up in the line and I snap out of my head. What was I thinking of getting lost inside my mind? Now is certainly not the time. I should be concentrating on not screwing up or saying something that’s going to get me shot.

  I move up to the front of the line and I give the man my name, pleased that I’d done right this time and made an appointment. I have a feeling this place isn’t going to look so kindly on teenage girls who come wandering through the door unannounced.

  The guard before me ticks off my name and gets me to sign in before requesting as many forms of ID as possible. He even goes as far to take a photocopy before questioning if this is a one time visit or if I plan to visit Anton regularly.

  I let him know that if everything goes as I’m assuming it will go that this will be my first and last visit to a maximum-security prison ever.

  The guard gives me a blank look and suggests that I should take my ID off the counter and move my ass along. Apparently, he’s not one for small talk.

  I do just that and scram. I get caught up in three separate security checks, each one worse than the last and it takes nearly an hour to get from the front door through to the last security checkpoint.

  By the time I’m finished, everything I own from my phone, keys, and purse have been stashed away for me to collect when I sign out and before I know it, I’m being ushered into a room much different than what I was expecting.

  This isn’t the open room with tables and chairs for everyone to sit and have an open chat about their lives. This is a line of booth like tables with a solid glass down the middle and the old raggedy phones on the inner wall.

  I’m led down to a chair and told to sit patiently. I don’t know why I feel so nervous but when the guard steps away, my fingers begin tapping. Maybe it has something to do with the whole ‘maximum-security’ thing. Maybe it’s knowing the men on the other side of the glass, the ones with tattoos on their faces and gang-related bandanas who all leered at me as I walked through the room, having all done something sickening to land themselves in here. I’m literally sitting in a room among murderers.

  I’m sure Anton will fit in just perfectly with these guys. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if Anton already knew them all. Perhaps he’s the reason half of them are in here.

  I’m too busy wondering about the other men sitting around me to notice Anton approaching our table and before I can give myself another second to mentally prepare, he’s dropping down in front of me with a proud smile.

  Anton leans in and takes the phone before slowly bringing it to his ear, his smile growing further across his face as he does.

  I sit there staring at him before remembering that I’m going to need the phone too, otherwise I won’t be able to hear shit. Though, now that I come to think about it, maybe I’m not here to hear anything at all. Maybe I’m just here to tell Anton how it's going to be and then get the hell out.

  No, that’s just going to leave me with unanswered questions, and I’ll end up back here when I really don’t want to be making another trip.

  With that sorted, I grab the phone and press it to my ear, wondering when the hell this thing was cleaned last. I can only imagine the type of people who would have been sitting in this chair before me.

  “Henley Mathers,” Anton says proudly. “I was wondering when you were going to come and visit your old man. It’s been two weeks already. I was expecting you a while ago.”

  “It’s Bronx.”

  “What?”

  “My surname. It’s Bronx. My name is not Henley Mathers or Henley Rivers, it’s Bronx. I had it officially changed. So, if you’re going to address me, then I expect you to do it correctly.”

  Anton’s eyes narrow on me and it’s clear as day that he does not approve of me officially changing my name. “I don’t care what your name says on paper. You’re my daughter and my blood runs through your veins. You’re a Mathers and you always will be. No piece of paper is going to change that. Though,” he adds as an afterthought. “I could probably get that piece of paper changed.”

  Over my dead fucking body.

  I sit in silence, not wanting to respond to his bullshit and he quickly gets the hint. He lets out a sigh and gets on with it. “What are you doing here, Henley? Not sure if you’ve noticed, but I can’t exactly do you any favors at the moment.”

  “I’m not after a favor,” I tell him. “I’m after some answers.”

  “I don’t have time for answers.”

  “Really?” I say, indicating to the dull room around us and reminding him exactly where he is. “Because it seems as though you have all the time in the world.”

  Anton raises a brow before sitting back in his chair and acting as though nothing can touch him. “You know, I’m very aware that it was your boyfriend who squealed to the cops.”

  I sit back in my chair, mimicking his stance. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I tell him. “You told Noah that a condition of his release was that he keep his mouth shut and he stood by that. Not sure if you noticed but Noah’s an honest guy, unlike the ones you surround yourself with.”

  A flicker of doubt flashes through Anton’s eyes and I let out a discreet breath of relief. He has no idea who spoke with the cops and was just taking a wild gu
ess. Either that or he really wants to believe that his own daughter wouldn’t lie to him, and if that’s the case then he’s in for a rude shock because I’d protect Noah a million times over the scum sitting before me.

  “What is it you want to know?”

  “There are a few things,” I tell him.

  “I thought that much,” he murmurs. “Why don’t you start with the easy things and work your way up?”

  I nod, for once finally being on the same page as the guy. “Was it your actions that sent Kelly to prison?”

  Anton’s face scrunches up in confusion. “Kelly?”

  “Aria’s mom. My little sister. The mother of the girl I asked you to find.”

  Recognition flashes in his eyes and he shakes his head. “Funnily enough, I had nothing to do with that. You requested that I make her pay and I did that with a good old-fashioned terror inducing threat. It was fun actually. I got to go back to my roots. I haven’t done that shit in years. Worked like a charm too. You should have seen her face. Fucking priceless.”

  “The drugs?” I prompt, not wanting to get carried away with storytime.

  He lets out a sigh, clearly seeing that the fun is over. “They were already there. My sources tell me the cops were actually going in to check on one of the guys she was living with who skipped out on a meeting with his parole officer and found her with it. She did that all to herself. A case of wrong place, wrong time.”

  “So, me asking you to make her pay had absolutely nothing to do with her winding up in prison?”

  “None at all.”

  I nod my head and let out a breath, not realizing until this very moment just how badly I was needing that clarified. I don’t think I could live with that on my conscience. Sending someone to prison for a crime they didn’t commit is taking it a little too far, but considering she did commit the crime while on her probationary period and I had nothing to do with it – well that I can live with.

  Alright. Onto the next thing. I take account of everything I need to sort through and hit him with the next question. “You lied about being my father, or well, knowing that you were my father. When you didn’t know at all, did you?”