Total pages in book: 143
Estimated words: 132834 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 664(@200wpm)___ 531(@250wpm)___ 443(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 132834 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 664(@200wpm)___ 531(@250wpm)___ 443(@300wpm)
Griffen’s eyes shot back and forth over the page, the color draining from his face with every line. Finally, he put the sheet of paper down on his desk and looked up at Finn.
“This is a ransom letter. You were kidnapped?”
Kidnapped? Finn had been kidnapped? What the hell was Griffen talking about?
Finn didn’t say anything.
“Finn,” Griffen said, his voice raising to a shout. “You were fucking kidnapped? In Mexico? What the fuck?” Griffen shot Royal an accusing look. “Did you know about this?”
Royal looked sick, his eyes on Finn, heavy with guilt. “I didn’t know until long after it was over. There was nothing I could do by then.”
“Explain,” Griffen ground out.
Royal kept his eyes on Finn. “Dad told us all that you dropped out of college and joined the army. We tried to call, but your number was disconnected. We wrote but never heard back. Then Tenn and I saw the letter you wrote Dad. When you were living in France. After. We recognized your handwriting, and we knew Dad wouldn’t tell us anything, so we opened it. That was the first time we knew anything about the kidnapping.”
“And you didn’t say anything?” Hope asked.
Royal shook his head, not taking his eyes from his younger brother. “I’m sorry, Finn. Dad told us you were kidnapped in Mexico, that he refused to pay the ransom, just like he would have refused for any of the rest of us. He said you were pissed about the whole thing, that you’d get over it eventually and come home.”
“How could you keep a secret like that?” Hope demanded. “Why didn’t you tell me or your sisters?”
Royal shifted in his chair and looked at Hope. “Prentice swore us to secrecy. He said Ford agreed with him about the ransom, which was easy to believe. And what would it help if we told anyone?” He met Finn’s eyes. “I read your letter. I knew you didn’t want to come back here. I figured if you ever did, you could tell your own story. And if you didn’t, I didn’t want the girls to know what happened to you.” Royal swallowed. “Prentice showed us the pictures they sent him. We didn’t want the girls to see.”
Hope shook her head. “I don’t understand this. When, Finn? When did this happen?”
We all looked at Finn.
Through sheer force of will, he straightened, rolling his shoulders back, then jerking one up in a teenage shrug—that angry fuck off and leave me alone shrug I knew so well from back in the day.
I wished things were different between us and I could take a step toward him and put my arm around him. Because for all that he was trying to look strong and angry, agony leaked out of every pore.
I stayed where I was. I wasn’t sure Finn wanted my sympathy right now. He was practically vibrating with restrained emotion. I wasn’t feeling so steady myself. Kidnapped? How could something so big have happened to him, and I didn’t know?
Finn’s eyes locked on Griffen. His voice when he spoke was so raw, I knew this question had been torturing him. “You didn’t know?”
“No, Finn. No, I didn’t fucking know,” Griffen said, his voice rough and low. “What the fuck happened?”
Finn gave another jerk of a shrug, as if he could fool us into thinking this was no big deal. “I was on spring break. Sophomore year of college. Somebody grabbed me, held me for a couple of days. Dad said he wouldn’t pay the ransom. They were going to kill me, but then they got drunk, and I got away.”
We stared at him in shock. I’m pretty sure my mouth was hanging open.
His words sank in, and I realized what he was actually saying. “That’s—but you never—” I was babbling. I couldn’t get the words to line up right in my head. “You never came home. That’s why you never came back to Sawyers Bend.”
He was supposed to come home that summer. I’d been dreading seeing him, having him around making obnoxious comments and generally aggravating me. I was relieved when my mother told me he had joined the army, even though that didn’t sound like the Finn I knew. With the self-absorption of youth, I accepted her story and went on with my life. A wave of nausea hit me. I’d been relieved Finn wasn’t coming home, and it was all because he’d been kidnapped.
Finn’s eyes met mine for the briefest second before they flicked away, and he jerked his chin up.
“Your father lied,” I said, trying to wrap my head around what Prentice had done. “They were going to kill you, and he was going to let them?”
“He told them, ‘I don’t give a fuck what you do with him. He’s worth nothing to me.’” Finn jerked his shoulders in another shrug. “I didn’t feel like coming home after that.”