Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 78227 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 391(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78227 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 391(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
Doc falls to the ground and sobs. He actually sobs.
Brittany runs to him. “Daddy? Please, Daddy. Make this all go away. You can do it, can’t you? Just like before?”
Just like before?
What is she talking about?
I open my mouth to pose the question when she looks up at me.
“Brock, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry about what I did to Rory and Callie all those years ago. I’m so, so sorry. And the atropine? All I did was get it out of the medicine cabinet in the clinic. I didn’t know they were going to try to poison your uncle.”
“Doc,” Dad says. “Do you realize they’re making it look like you’re the one who’s doing all of this? You’re a patsy. They’re framing you. How the hell did you get involved with these degenerates?”
“I had no choice.”
“Bullshit,” I say. “There’s always a fucking choice.”
“And don’t pawn it off on Bryce and me either.” Dad scowls. “You want to know why we didn’t give you that job all those years ago? Because I don’t trust you, Doc, and it seems my trust issues were well-founded.”
“I never did anything to you,” Doc says.
“You didn’t have to. I go with my gut, and rarely does it let me down. Clearly it didn’t this time.”
“What about your gut told you I wasn’t trustworthy?” Doc asks.
“If I could put it into words, then it wouldn’t be my gut.”
“Stop it!” Brittany yells. “My father’s a good man. If he did anything, it was only to ensure his and my survival.”
“You know,” I say, “if a small-town vet can’t make a living in a small town, he could move to a larger town where there’s more of a need for veterinarians.”
Doc says nothing, just continues sobbing like a child.
“You may think you haven’t done anything,” Dad says, “but your fingerprints—and your daughter’s—are all over this. These people you’re working with are not novices. They know how to cover their tracks, but clearly you don’t. And you know what? They will take advantage of that. You can bank on it. They’re ready to frame you, to let you take every fall. You and your daughter. You see, these people don’t care that she’s a young woman. They deal in young women. They deal in children.”
“I didn’t know,” Doc pleads. “You’ve got to believe me. I didn’t know.”
“Sell it to someone else,” Dad says. “My son and I aren’t buying. Not today.”
“I have to agree with my father,” I say. “How could you not know something bad was going on? On property that you have a leasehold on? That we own? You didn’t think it was strange that they asked you to build the barns to hold”—air quotes—“freight?”
No reply.
“And they need your dogs to guard them? What do they pay you for all this?”
“They think we’ve got money somewhere, Daddy,” Brittany says.
Doc says nothing.
“I’d be willing to bet your father has a lot of money stowed somewhere. It’s probably not in cash. My guess is it’s in jewels or gold or something, probably buried somewhere on your property.”
Doc’s cheeks redden, though they’re already pretty ruddy from his sobbing.
“So my son is right,” Dad says.
Doc doesn’t reply.
Brittany inches toward her father. “Daddy…”
“Please. Leave my daughter out of this.”
“Your daughter’s already in this,” I say. “She supplied the atropine that was used to try to poison my uncle.”
Dad goes rigid, sets his jaw.
Just the mention of Uncle Talon…
“Dad, you okay?”
“Not even slightly.” He cocks his gun, points it straight at Doc’s head.
“Dad”—I will my voice not to tremble—“you’re not a murderer. Don’t be that guy.”
Dad puts his gun down. “You’re right, son. I’m not that guy. I’m not my old man. At least not today.” He trains the gun back on Doc. “Get up. It’s time to look in the other barn.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
RORY
How I wish I could confide in my brother. My big brother, who has always been my protector. He was four when I was born, and it was only the two of us for the first two years of my life. I don’t remember any of that, of course.
Callie and I are the closest of all my siblings, only two years apart. Maddie didn’t come along until five years after Callie, so we have Jesse on one end and Maddie on the other, and then sandwiched in between, only two years difference in age, are Callie and me.
Callie, who is so different from me in almost every way, is my closest sibling.
But my brother… He and I are close as well, but in a different way. We’re close because we share the same interests. Music, most of all. We’re both creators, performers. But we also have sports. Jesse was a star athlete in high school, and though I was never as good as he was, I did start for softball and girls’ basketball.