by Claire Raye
She shakes her head at me, her mouth dropping open even as she fights her smile. “Of course you would say that.”
“What?” I ask, stepping closer as I slip an arm around her waist and pull her toward me. “Don’t pretend it’s not true,” I say, pressing a kiss to her lips. “I’m pretty sure we’ve had afternoon sexy times every day we’ve been hiding out,” I say, chuckling. “Well actually,” I pause, kissing her again. “Afternoon, evening, morning, lunch time…”
“Hmmm,” Sienna murmurs, smiling up at me. “As tempting as that is, I’m not sure I could get in the mood here.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean. I don’t really like the idea of my dad busting in on us in the middle of that either.”
Sienna slaps my chest, her eyes wide as she says, “It’s not just your dad, Reid.” She points to her hair now and the microphone we both know is hidden there.
I burst out laughing, leaning down and putting my mouth right against her ear, I whisper, “Sure you don’t wanna give them a show?”
Sienna smacks me hard on the ass, which only makes me laugh harder. Fuck knows what anyone listening to this exchange is thinking right now. Probably that we’ve lost our damn minds. Which, given we are currently standing in my dad’s house, waiting for him to show up and do who knows what to me after he killed my girlfriend’s father, beat up my best friend and then found out I turned him into the cops, might not be far off the truth.
This whole situation just feels so unbelievably surreal. Never in a million years would I have thought this is what we’d be coming home to when we left Hawthorn two weeks ago. But as shitty as it all is, I am glad we’ve come back. And I’m glad that Sie and I have found out all the shit that Caleb’s been hiding and that we are now finally ending it all for him.
That is if my dad ever shows up here.
“Think he’s going to come?” Sienna asks, taking a sip of her beer.
I exhale, leaning back against the kitchen counter as I pull her closer so she’s standing between my legs. “I have no idea,” I say. “But fuck am I glad you’re here with me.”
Sienna smiles, pushing up on her toes to kiss me. “Me too.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Sienna
The house hums with anticipation and anxiety, vibrating under my skin and making it feel like it’s misfiring. This whole plan feels very disorganized and uncontrolled, despite the police surrounding the house. I keep asking myself how long we’ll have to wait like sitting ducks, how long we’ll live with the nervous energy of what’s to come.
“I think you should just call him and tell him you’re at the house and want to talk to him,” I announce, making my thoughts clear. “I really just want to get this over with.”
How the hell will he even know we’re here and what makes the police think Ray’s suddenly going to come out of hiding because we’re hanging out at his house? He’s not stupid. He’s run this business for the last thirty plus years without ever implicating himself, without ever throwing up so much as a small red flag.
“I hear you, Sie, but the police want us to just wait it out,” Reid replies, far too relaxed given the situation. I’m sure he’s playing it off so he doesn’t panic me because there’s no way he isn’t thinking about the unknown, too.
The house sends up an eerie creaking, a settling sound, but it causes both of us to look around. We’ve been sitting at the kitchen table for the last two hours and nothing has changed, nothing has happened. What’s really weird is the police are sitting in a van down the street listening to our conversation, hearing everything we’ve said. Not like it’s all that riveting, but still. It feels awkward and intrusive and all I want is my quiet life in Hawthorn back.
“So we literally just sit here for what? Days? Weeks?” I’m bothered by this all now and I’m taking my frustration out on Reid which I know isn’t fair. “Are you going to sleep here tonight? And what if your mom comes home? Fuck that, what if your dad comes home and we’re asleep?” Broadcasting my worst fears has only compounded them and I’m starting to think this was a terrible idea.
“I’m sure we won’t be here for weeks, but days, maybe. I don’t know though. This is my first ever set up with the police.” His joke falls flat and I shoot an annoyed look at him, sneering with my arms crossed over my chest as I start to feel a headache form.
I realize he’s trying to make the best of a bad situation and I should be grateful I have him as my partner in all of this. The fact that either of us turned out okay given our family situations is shocking and that we were able to find our way back to each other is also pretty amazing.
“I’m sorry. I’m being really unreasonable and I know that. I don’t have to be here. This was my choice, but it’s still hard,” I admit to him.
“I know it is. Imagine being the one who’s trying to get your own father arrested?”
What he says causes me to take a pause, realizing he’s sacrificing so much more than just his time. He’s sacrificing his entire relationship with his family, something he may never be able to get back. While we’ve known each other practically our whole life, we don’t talk about what his life has been like. We don’t talk about the reasons that led him to make this choice.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper, the realization of what is unfolding in front of us is almost too strong to comprehend.
I know what it’s like to lose your family, to wonder what will happen to your life. I look at people like Ruby and I’m in awe. She has her sister and her mom and dad. She even has a large extended family. Should she ever need them, they will be there. Should she find herself without a job, without some place to live, she has her family to fall back on. Reid will have nothing now. It’s a hard pill to swallow, something I came to terms with long ago, but it’s all new to Reid. He’s now about to find out what it feels like to be truly on your own.
“Don’t be sorry, Sie,” he says, his hand covering mine. “I made this choice because I can’t continue to live with what he’s done. I can’t sit back and watch him ruin other people’s lives. Killing your father and then going after Caleb was the last straw for me.”
I nod my head knowing this was a long time coming and hating that it had to get to this point. As much as Reid and I are all in and I know he’s it for me, I worry things may change down the road. I worry he may regret his decision and the blame will fall on me.
“I need to know there will never be a time that you blame me for what’s happening here, what’s happening right now. I worry you will one day be overcome with guilt. One day when we have our own kids…”
Reid tosses a hand up, shaking his head, a harsh look on his face. “It won’t happen. Ever,” he says with insistence.
“How can you be so easily sure? You don’t think you’ll ever regret turning your back on your family?”
“We can’t go into this with doubts, Sie. We can’t go into this wondering if what I’m doing is a mistake. I have no fucking idea. What I know with one hundred percent certainty though, is you are not a mistake. You will never be a mistake. You are the only thing good I’ve ever had in my life.”
I feel the tears well up in my eyes, his words burying themselves deep in my heart because I feel everything he says in every part of my body. He’s always been it for me and even though our future beyond today may be uncertain, our future together will never be something I doubt.
“I love you and even though I know we are both fucked up, you are truly the best thing in my life,” I tell him, my hand resting on his cheek.
“We work because we already know we’re fucked up. We don’t have to hide it. That shit’s already out in the open,” Reid teases a little, making me smile, but there’s so much truth in what he says. We don’t have that worry that someone will leave when they find out just what a fucked up childhood we had. That given it all, we may be incapable of understanding how to love someone, but what we have together shows we’re only capable of falling in love with each other.
“
And I think you mentioned something about us having kids?” Reid questions, his eyebrows going up as he shoots me a wolfish grin. “When are you gonna let me knock you up?”
“When we finish school and both of us have jobs and we own a home. Stability, Reid. Have you not listened to this conversation at all?” I joke, hitting him with a look that is intended to shame him but only seems to make him less inhibited.
He grabs hold of my hand pulling me out of the chair and onto his lap. With his mouth close to my ear, his words hushed, he says, “I’m dying to be completely fucking reckless with you, Sienna.” His hand glides between my legs, rubbing me through my shorts. “We could do it right now,” he hints, winking at me.
I shift away from him instantly, my eyes wide as I take in his face. “You can’t be serious, Reid?” Sometimes you are so strange.” I shake my head, once again realizing the damn police can hear every word of our conversation. “Do you say shit like this for shock value?”
“Maybe,” he says, shrugging his shoulders and smirking at me. “It’s kinda funny that they can hear everything we’re talking about and right now they’re wondering—”
“Don’t even continue with that thought,” I say, cutting him off before he can take this conversation even further. He laughs out loud, knowing he’s being far too graphic for his own good.
The sun is beginning to set and the idea of the darkness taking over pulls me away from the silliness of what has just happened.
We’ll be stuck in this house, not knowing when Reid’s dad will show up and what will even happen. We can’t stay up all night. Eventually sleep will come, putting us at our most vulnerable point, unaware and unprepared.
“Should we order something to eat? Maybe watch TV?” Reid asks, and I shake my head.
“We can’t order food and I can’t even believe you can think about anything but your dad fucking showing up here and ambushing us.”
“Why can’t we order food?” he asks, thoroughly confused by my response.
“Seriously, Reid. We aren’t here to eat. What if your dad shows up and the delivery driver rings the doorbell? Are we supposed to tell the swat team stationed outside to wait so you can get your lobster roll from Evelyn’s?”
He lets out a mock annoyed huff, but still hits me with his perfectly straight-teethed smile. “Why are you so sensible? And for the record, the lobster roll from Evelyn’s is worth it.”
“How about we just watch some TV?” I suggest, getting up from the table and making my way into the massive living room with an oversized TV.
“Fine,” he concedes, following me into the room and flopping down on the couch.
We’ve only been gone for a little over two years, but his parents’ house looks entirely different than when we left. The furniture is practically brand new; the house spotless as if no one lives here. I don’t think Reid planned to stay at Hawthorn through the summers, but when he realized there was no way I was going back home, he stuck around. I remember it bothered me when I would see him around campus and when he would show up at the place I was waitressing at during the busy summer tourist season, but now I know he stayed because being away from me was too much for him.
“Is it weird being back here?”
“Fuck yes. After the first summer I stayed at Hawthorn, I knew I never wanted to come back to this place. It isn’t home. Honestly it never was and even though the place I live in with Matt and Logan is kinda a shit hole, it’s better than being here.”
Reid turns on the TV and begins to scroll through the guide stopping on a re-airing of a college football game. The sound drones on in the background as I lean against him.
I have no idea what time it is or where I am when I wake up suddenly, sweaty, still wearing my clothes and with a headache that comes from waking in the middle of the night. I scan the room, remembering I’m at Reid’s parents’ house. He’s asleep next to me, his chest rising and falling in the way that only comes from the deepest of sleeps.
There’s movement in the house. I can feel it in my soul. I can sense it with everything in me and I hold my breath as I listen. The unmistakable sound of another person’s feet, the creak of stairs and footsteps make my heart race in my chest, the feeling of vomit rising up in my throat. I know I should wake Reid, but I wait, wondering if what I’m hearing is all in my head.
We’ve been through a lot and sometimes I second-guess my mind’s ability to hear things correctly, like it’s creating things out of fear. I stand up from the couch, my movements controlled and calculated, stepping silently out of the glow of the TV and into the darkness of the kitchen. My eyes are trained on my feet, walking with precision so as not to wake Reid and that’s when I hear it. A sigh leaving someone’s mouth, the slight scrapping of chair legs against the raised grain of the wood floor and when my eyes shoot up, there he is.
“Hi Sienna,” he says, his voice deep and menacing. “How’s Caleb?”
“Ray,” I say, his name falling from lips like it’s poison and I will my body not to lose control.
Don’t scream.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Reid
A noise pulls me from sleep, my body consumed by an overwhelming sense of dread. I can feel my heart pounding in my chest, the noise loud in the silence of the room as my eyes blink rapidly, trying to focus in the darkness.
“Sie?” I whisper, but almost as soon as I say it, I realize she’s not here, the couch beside me empty, even though traces of her warmth still linger.
“Sie?” I call again, a little louder this time.
Prickles of anxiety track down my spine. Where the hell is she? But then I hear it, the unmistakable voice of my father as he says, “Hi Sienna. How’s Caleb?”
Fuck!
I shoot off the couch, adrenaline coursing through my body as my heart beats even faster, crashing against my ribcage. I rush from the living room to the kitchen, the moonlight streaming in through the open window and revealing my father, sitting at the kitchen table, his hands clasped together in front of him as he looks up at Sienna, an evil smile tugging at his mouth.
“Sie,” I say, striding into the kitchen, ignoring my father as I reach for her, pulling her close. “Are you okay?” I whisper, my eyes giving her a quick once over.
“Yes.” Her voice is hoarse with fear, her eyes wide as she stares up at me. I can see the terror in them, the questions she has, questions I don’t know the answers to.
I nod, turning so she’s standing behind me now. I can feel her fingers gripping my t-shirt, her chest as it presses against my back, her hard puffs of air on my neck.
“What the hell are you doing?” I say, finally acknowledging my father’s presence.
My dad lets out a small, humorless laugh. “I could ask you the same thing, Reid,” he replies, his voice cold and unemotional.
I swallow hard, forcing the nerves down. “What?” I spit out. “You mean going to the police? Did you honestly think I wouldn’t?”
“I had hoped,” he says, as though he doesn’t understand why this is such a big deal.
I scoff. “Fuck, then you don’t really know me at all, do you?”
“It would appear not.”
I shake my head at him, leaning a little closer. “Did you honestly think I’d be okay with you killing my girlfriend’s dad, with beating up her brother, a guy I’ve grown up with? Fucking hell, Ray, you must be more delusional than I realized.”
I don’t miss the tic in his jaw or the anger that flashes across his face at my words. I don’t know if it’s the accusations I just voiced out loud or the fact I called him by his name, something he’s long hated me doing.
“I told you, Reid,” he says, pushing his chair out now and standing. “You’d do well to watch your mouth when speaking to me.”
I let out a laugh, shaking my head as our gazes meet, nothing separating us but the kitchen table. We’re similar in height, so our eyes are level and I can feel the hard intensity of his stare as it bores into me. My hands
curl into fists at my sides and even though I know I’m stronger than him, there’s still a part of me that’s afraid, especially now I know everything he is capable of.
“So what?” I ask. “You just expect me to keep my mouth shut, to pretend that none of this ever happened?”
Ray nods, his eyes never leaving mine. “I’d expect you to do at least that, yes,” he says, his voice like ice. “We are family after all.”
I roll my eyes. “Fuck off, Dad, we were never a family,” I reply. “And there’s not a chance in hell I’m hiding your dirty work. Jesus, what kind of person do you think I am? Anyway,” I say, pausing as I level my gaze with his. “It’s too late now, isn’t it? The police have everything and they are gonna nail your ass. You know it and I know it.”
Where the fuck are the police anyway? Are they not hearing any of this?
“Enough,” Ray yells, his hand slamming down on the kitchen table and making both me and Sienna jump. I feel her fingers tighten in my shirt, her body now pressed tight against mine.
“What?” I spit out. “You gonna beat the shit out of me too?” I ask, not giving a shit that I’m provoking him, pushing him in a direction I know I don’t want this to go.
“You have no idea what you’re talking about,” he says, his voice like steel. “You are…”
“No, you!” Sienna suddenly shouts, stepping out from behind me, her finger pointed directly at my father. “You are a piece of shit.”
“Sie,” I whisper, my hand on her arm, desperate to protect her, to drag her back behind me so he can’t get to her.
But she ignores my warning as she leans closer, her hands on the kitchen table. “You belong in fucking jail,” she continues, her words loud in the silence of the kitchen. “For murdering my father,” she shouts. “For nearly killing my brother. For everything!”
Ray sneers at her, his eyes flicking to me briefly before moving back to Sienna. “Your father was a worthless piece of shit,” he says, his voice eerily calm. “He dug his own grave and your brother was on his way to joining him.”
