Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 87416 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 437(@200wpm)___ 350(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87416 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 437(@200wpm)___ 350(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
I reach out for Grave’s hand, but he pulls away from me.
I close my eyes and let the tears roll freely down my face. He’s been this way ever since he found out about her death. Distant. Completely closed-off. No jokes. No nothing.
He blames himself. We all do. Even I feel like I could have done more to help her. To save her. She didn’t deserve to die. Not this young and not this way. She had too much to give to this world. She was going to rehab. She had plans to change her life around. She wanted to do better for herself.
Opening my eyes, I see the three Mason brothers standing by her casket. Trey, the baby, openly sobs with his hand on the light wood.
Tanner stands next to him with his head down with his hand on his baby brother. I can see his shoulders shaking.
The only one I’ve never seen is Turner, but I knew who he was the moment I saw him. They all have a similar look about them. He stands there, head held high, and not a tear in his eye. His hands tucked in the front pockets of his suit. Sunglasses on top of his head. He looks out into nothing. And my heart breaks for him. At the inner battle he’s fighting. There’s nothing wrong with feeling something, especially when the loss is a sibling.
The song comes to an end, and a pastor steps back up to say a closing prayer. We all bow our heads, and I close my eyes, sniffing. I feel someone reach out to me on my left, and I pull the hand into mine. It’s Jasmine. She was the last one I saw standing on that side of me.
“Amen.” We say in unison.
I lift my head to reach out for Grave, but he’s not there. I look around the cemetery and spot him over by the vehicles parked on the gravel. He stands in front of his flat black Zenvo STI, and Turner is right next to him. They’re talking. Turner pulls out his cell, and they start watching something.
Grave nods a few times, and then Turner reaches out his right hand and shakes Grave’s.
I immediately turn, looking for Bones. I spot him talking to Titan off to my left. “Bones?” I call out, running over to him. “What’s going on between Grave and Turner?”
He looks from me to where his brother stands. “April …” he starts.
“I’m asking you to check it out,” I say. “I need someone to believe me.”
He frowns. “Believe what?”
That your brother isn’t the same person he was three days ago? That I see him standing in the kitchen while he stares at the bottle of vodka like he wants to down the entire thing at once. That I know, if he wanted, he could have a bottle of pills in his hands in a matter of seconds. That I’m afraid he’s at the point of no return. I can only do so much. And if he relapses, I’m not sure I can bring him back.
“April, you ready?”
I spin around to see Grave now standing behind me. His sunglasses covering his eyes. I nod and walk toward him, knowing I’m on my own. They couldn’t help him before, so they’re not going to be of any help now. I’ll do it by myself.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
GRAVE
I STAND IN my closet back at my house, pulling a pair of jeans on.
“What are you doing?” April asks, entering the large space.
“I have to go to work,” I say flatly.
“Grave, it’s three a.m.” She yawns.
“I know.” I rip a shirt off a hanger and slide it on. Then walk past her, exiting.
“Grave …”
“I don’t have time, April,” I snap at her, not in the mood to argue. I have somewhere to be.
“When will you be back?” she asks softly.
“Don’t wait up,” I say before I walk down the steps and into my garage.
I start my car, open the door, and back out, squealing my tires as I drive out of the gate. Heading toward the Airport.
I pull up to the back and park. I grab the bag out of my back seat and enter the building. I take the broken escalator two at a time and enter the room.
Turner sits at the table, waiting on me.
“Is he here?” I ask.
He nods. His eyes dropping to the bag. “Ready?”
We make our way downstairs to the underground tunnels. This existing, functional airport had a bomb shelter back in the seventies.
They have safe rooms that the Masons use as prison cells. They have their own law enforcement at the Airport. We make our way down through the tunnels and take a right at the end. Turner unlocks the master lock and yanks the door open.
A man sits in the middle of it, his arms strapped to the chair. He lifts his bloody face and looks at us. “Grave?” He fights the restraints. “What the fuck are you doing?”