He looked up at the two families. “So, you see? This proves both families believe a lie. They’re both right and they’re both wrong. The Wedges did buy pigs from the Thornhills, and the Thornhills did refuse to let the Wedges take back one of their own pigs. This whole time, you’ve been fighting over an incident you’re both convinced you’re right about.”
“Let me see that.” Preston took the letter and read it through. Then he handed it to Wesley. “It’s true.”
Preston’s attention wasn’t on Wesley, but his sister, Yasmin. He removed his eyes from her in time for Wesley to hand the document back to Steve.
“If this is true, it paints a nasty picture of the Wedges,” Wesley said.
“No worse than the Thornhills,” Preston said. “No matter whether you’re ancestor was brash and abrasive, the Thornhills should have honoured their agreement.” He glanced at Yasmin and seemed to take some strength from seeing her there. “You have my apologies for my ancestors’ behaviour.”
Wesley blinked at that, surprised to hear the words. He ran a hand through his scraggly hair, looked around at the family members on either side. “I guess I’m man enough to admit my ancestors could have handled the situation better. A bit better, mind you. Not a lot.”
The family members on both sides watched with bated breath as Thornhill extended his hand. Wesley looked at it as if it might be a trap and then extended his own.
They shook.
Neither family was quite sure how to respond to this. After all, they spent the best part of their lives fighting each other. It would take some time for them to accept the full ramifications of what was taking place.
“What about the kids?” Bill said. “They would make a pretty symbolic union of the two families, don’t you think?”
“What are you suggesting?” Preston said.
“Perhaps if the both of you gave your blessing for them to get married…” Bill said.
Luke and Louisa beamed with incredulous expressions. “Please.”
Preston and Wesley shared a similar expression of amusement.
“What do you reckon, Preston?” Wesley said. “Fancy being in-laws?”
“It would be the ultimate insult to our ancestors,” Preston said with a grin.
Wesley snickered. “Wouldn’t it just? Yes, kids. You have my approval.”
“And mine,” Preston added.
Luke and Louisa ran into each other’s arms and hugged and kissed like it was the end of the world which, Camden supposed, it was.
“But the wedding will happen on Wedge land,” Wesley said.
“You’ve got nothing but ugly scrubland. It’ll happen on lush Preston land.”
As the argument ensued, the two families came together, shaking hands and having tense – but agreeable – conversations.
“I guess it worked out for the best in the end, huh?” Camden said to his grandfather.
“You say that,” Bill said. “But the kids don’t know what they’re letting themselves in for with marriage. It’s all downhill from the ceremony.”
Camden chuckled and glanced at the crowd, looking for someone. “Have you seen Katie anywhere?”
59
Quentin coughed and spluttered, leaning against a sheer rock face. He slid down it, leaving a bloody trail to the ground. He attempted to push himself up on his elbows but he couldn’t do it. The bullet in his arm was not the killing blow but it seriously incapacitated him. He puffed and panted, the sweat coursing down his face.
Katie stepped from the shadows, her pistol trained on him. If the man was surprised to see her there, he didn’t show it.
“I take it you’re one of the good guys?” Quentin said through half-lidded eyes. “I see you found my gun. Be good to her. She’s a beauty.”
When Katie didn’t respond, he looked at her more closely. “How old are you?”
“Old enough to pull this trigger.”
“Okay. I surrender. Take me in.”
Katie’s emotions were calm, collected. An icy lake in the dead of winter. She made no effort to approach him.
“I know a killer when I see one, girl. You’re not one.”
“You’re sure of that?”
Quentin looked at her again, and this time he saw something in her that made him look away. “You can’t kill me. You don’t have it in you.”
“You took my brother, my grandfather, and a young couple that only ever wanted to be happy.”
“That was my gang, not me.”
“Your gang, your responsibility.”
“Hurry up and go get your masters. Quit wasting my time.”
Katie pulled the hammer back and aimed it at him. “And let you go? Not this time.”
“Katie, wait.”
Bill and Camden stepped from the forest.
“Put the gun down,” Bill said. “You don’t know what it’s like to take a life. He’ll haunt you for the rest of your days.”
“Best listen to the old man,” Quentin said. “You don’t want to end up a monster like me, do you?”
Katie hated this man. Loathed him. She could think of nothing better than putting a bullet in his head.
“Katie,” her grandfather said softly. “Give it to me.”
Did she want to be the one to kill this man, despite what he’d done to her loved ones? No. But she still wanted him dead, and if she could get that without having his blood on her hands, so be it.
She relaxed and handed the pistol to her grandfather. He tucked it in his trousers.
“Give me a hand carrying him,” Bill said.
“Carry him?” Katie said as her brother moved forward to take up the slack. “Carry him where?”
“To the clearing. We’ll get him on a horse and take him back to the prison.”
Katie’s blood turned cold. He wasn’t going to end this man here and now. He was going to let him return to his cell.
He would escape again.
It was only a matter of time before the fuel ran out. The police were too gutless to put them down and would prefer to let them run amok.
Bill took one arm, Camden the other.
“Easy with my arm,” Quentin said. “You put a pretty ugly hole in it.”
No, it can’t end this way, Katie thought.
She scooped the pistol out of her grandfather’s waistband.
Bill froze. His arms were full with the criminal. “Katie? What are you doing?”
The only way to end something was to really end it. Locking away a prisoner didn’t prevent them from committing the same crime later. In the old world, they had the resources to deal with them. But now, they didn’t. They couldn’t let weak decisions dictate their actions any longer.
But someone still had to pull the trigger. Was Katie sure she could be the one to do it?
Katie raised the gun at Quentin. “What needs to be done.”
Bang.
Quentin’s head snapped to one side and a sheaf of blood sprayed across the flint. His body went limp and he sat there, unmoving.
She handed the gun to her grandfather, turned on her heel, and left the clearing, leaving the others dumbfounded.
60
In the end, a compromise was reached.
The wedding took place on a piece of land that straddled both properties. Both the ceremony and the reception took place before a huge structure draped with a giant sheet of cloth. It took a month to build and the majority of the guests had a hand in building it. Nobody was in any doubt about what it was – least of all the bride and groom.
The moment the couple kissed, the two families cheered and Preston and Wesley took to the stage.
“As a wedding gift from both sides of the family, we built their first home,” Preston said. “The first of many such houses to be built on the land between our two properties. Of course, the flint and bricks came from Preston land. Without which, there would not be any house.”
“And,” Wesley said, stepping forward, “the wood and ceiling beams came from g
ood old Wedge family land. Stock that will last a hundred years.”
Preston opened his mouth to respond with another verbal attack, but Louisa rushed forward, grabbed the sheet and together with Luke uncovered the house. Their new house. Louisa clasped her hands over her mouth in excitement and wrapped her arms around Luke. He only hissed a little with the remaining pain of his injuries.
“Go on, then!” Preston said. “Carry your new wife over the threshold!”
Luke grunted with the effort. Louisa stood inside the house and pumped her fists triumphantly in the air. On the other side of the stage, her brother Oliver looked on with unconcealed contempt. His sister ran to him and hugged him tight. Despite himself, he squeezed her back just as hard and even managed a smile. Over his sister’s shoulder, he stared daggers at her new husband. He mouthed: “If you hurt her, I’ll kill you.”
Luke mouthed back: “And if you hurt her, I’ll kill you.”
When Louisa pulled back, the angry daggers were gone, replaced by a warm smile they shared for the most important women in their lives.
The Thornhills and the Wedges were now one.
The two families parted during the reception – the Wedges taking up the left side, the Thornhills the right. They conversed, ate, drank, and stared daggers at the opposite side of the hall.
“It’s a beautiful thing,” Steve said to Katie.
“Not yet it’s not,” Katie said. “But I suppose they will be, with time.”
“How much time do you think it’ll take?”
Katie chugged on her drink. “About a hundred and fifty years.”
Steve chuckled. “Probably. I only hope they don’t look too closely at the documents I gave them. They might notice the company name in the corner.”
Katie frowned. “What do you mean company name?”
“I spent days looking for the right documents, but no matter how long I searched, I just couldn’t what I was looking for.”
“But you gave them the document.”
“No. I made my own.”
Katie almost choked on her drink. “What? You’re saying it’s forged?”
Steve hushed her quiet. “Keep it down. You don’t want them to hear, do you?”
“I can’t believe you did that. This whole ceremony is based on a lie.”
“Every marriage is based on one lie or another. This one is just a bit bigger than most.” He caught sight of someone out the corner of his eye. “Excuse me.”
He left Katie with her mouth hanging open and approached her mother, Nancy. She grinned and chuckled when he handed her a drink and then, seeing her so happy, he took the drink away from her and led her to the dancefloor.
“He’s not so bad after all,” Camden said, sidling up to his sister.
“Tell that to the Wedges and Thornhills,” Katie grumbled under her breath.
“Huh?”
Katie waved her hand. “Nothing.”
Camden sipped at his drink and eyed a pretty Thornhill girl on the other side of the dancefloor.
“Listen,” Camden said. “There’s something I wanted to ask you. Doesn’t it bother you? What you did to Quentin Morse, I mean. Killing someone. Dad always said it was the most difficult thing he ever had to come to terms with.”
The night after she murdered the notorious gang leader, she hadn’t tossed or turned or been haunted by his face in her dreams. She felt… nothing. Someone had to do it. She would have felt a lot worse if he was in his prison cell, plotting his escape and how he would visit his revenge upon them. “I feel better that he’s not out there if that answers your question.”
“I think that’s what separates you and me. You’re willing to do anything necessary. I’m not.”
“I’m sure you could have done it if you had to.”
“I did have to and I still didn’t do it. I had the man responsible for kidnapping me, grandfather, and those two lovers in my sights and I couldn’t bring myself to put one between his ears.”
“Then I’m glad you didn’t have to take his life.”
“And I’m sorry that you did. What happens if I need to take action, but I’m unable to?”
“When you need to do it, I’m sure you’ll do what needs to be done. You have to protect the people you care about, no matter the cost.”
The pretty Thornhill girl approached Camden. “Would you like to dance?”
Camden shared a shocked, but pleased, expression with Katie.
“I’ll hold your drink,” Katie said, deciding for him.
As the girl dragged her brother onto the dancefloor, Katie glanced over at Hannah, who was already surrounded by a pair of handsome suitors – one Thornhill, one Wedge. Katie couldn’t help but smile inwardly as Hannah had no interest in the two boys vying for her attention and instead stared jealously at Camden with his mysterious new girl.
It was always the way, Katie thought. You always wanted what you didn’t have.
“Having a good time?”
Katie turned, tripped on her own feet, and almost landed headfirst in the dirt.
Aaron caught her and straightened her up. Katie put the drink glasses on the table. “Yes. I am.”
“Would you like to dance?”
“Dance? Me? I don’t think so. I can’t dance.”
“So says everyone until they start.”
Aaron offered his hand. Katie looked at it sideways before finally taking it and letting him lead her onto the dancefloor.
The live band played a catchy dance tune complete with banjo and drums. The fiddle carried the melody the people danced to. But Aaron didn’t dance fast. He danced slowly, one hand on her waist, the other on her back. He turned her in a slow circle, completely at odds with the music. He pressed his body against hers. Katie didn’t know where to put her hands, so he took them and placed them around his neck.
Katie blushed and couldn’t look him in the eye. He tilted her chin up toward him.
“I’m not asking you to marry me or anything,” he said. “I’m just asking you to be with me sometimes.”
Katie wasn’t sure what to say to that. The butterflies formed a tight fist that fluttered in the pit of her stomach.
“What do you say, Katie?” Aaron said. “Maybe we can hang out sometimes?”
When he spoke her name, a shiver travelled the length of her body. And still, she hadn’t said a word.
“I want to be with you,” Aaron said, trying again. “You can decide what that means and I’ll go along with it.”
He was giving her all the trimmings and she didn’t have to give anything in return. Finally, words found her lips and she could bring herself to speak. “Let me think about it.”
Aaron grinned. “That’s good enough for me.”
He shifted his hands and began to dance at a faster pace, matching the music. Katie’s heart thumped and pounded in a way that killing a man never did.
Ding, ding, ding, ding.
Everyone turned to the glass being tapped by a silverware fork. Preston got to his feet and put the implement down. He took a deep breath.
“Being here today to see this wonderful ceremony reminds me of what it means to bring families together. Ties are always stronger when there are many strands and not a single thread. That’s why I’ve decided to give in to my desires and extend the hand of marriage to a lady I’ve loved my whole life. Until this moment, I never believed it was possible to enjoy the fruits of that love, but I’m willing to find out.”
He picked up his glass of champagne and raised it. “I offer my hand to Yasmin Wedge if she’ll have me.”
Gasps and hisses whirled around the table in equal measure. Preston Thornhill’s influence was such that no one dared hurl an insult or else risked being hurled from the celebration.
Yasmin peered at her peers, delicately dabbed at her lips with a handkerchief, and got to her feet. In the most elegant voice she was capable of she said: “I accept your proposal.”
They met on the dancefloor, embraced, and kissed. Th
e older generation sighed. The younger generation grimaced. The kissers took no notice.
An hour later, a mass brawl broke out – a combination of alcohol, good spirits, and lively music. A heady mix that resulted in punching, kicking, even biting.
“Aren’t you going to stop the fighting?” Bill said to Preston.
“Nah. Let them work it out. They’ll tire themselves out eventually.”
Twenty minutes after the brawl ended, the men wrapped their arms around each other, faces bruised, bloody and swollen, and sang a happy tune, swigging from bottles of beer and gorging on handfuls of food.
It was a brave new beginning for the two families, a new start for a new age.
But how long would it last?
A Gift
I hope you enjoyed Cut Off. I’m currently working on more books in the series. Until then, why not check out the first book in my completed series After the Fall.
It follows a group of survivors in a post-apocalyptic world forced from the safety of their commune. They embark on a journey that reveals a startling secret that promises to change the fate of the human race forever.
Find the opening few chapters below. Details of how to grab the whole book are available afterwards.
The Commune
AFTER THE FALL | BOOK ONE
-EXCERPT-
CHARLIE DALTON
Prologue
AN ESTIMATED one hundred and fifty million meteorites and asteroids inhabit our solar system. Adrift, aimless.
They’re made of metal, rock or ice, the left-over remnant debris from the birth of our solar system. Some are as large as dwarf planets, others smaller than your fist. They bump and cajole one another in the protective Oort Cloud playschool, disrupting their eternal slumber.
Occasionally, one gets knocked hard enough to be ejected from the asteroid nursing ground and toward the centre, toward the distant point of motherly light we refer to as our Sun.
Cut Off (Book 3): Cut Loose Page 21
