I cleared my throat. “You’ve got a good hold, Tal.”

“No more than you do. You can kick my ass, and you know it.”

I let out a small chuckle. “Maybe. Maybe not. We’re probably pretty evenly matched.”

“You were really going to let me kick your ass, weren’t you?”

“I sure thought I was.” I looked around at the gorgeous mountain scenery. “But I kind of had an epiphany. For some reason, I had the idea that getting my ass kicked would help my guilt. Funny thing though, the guilt never went away.”

“What made you think it might be different this time?”

“You’re the one I wronged. Maybe if you kicked the guilt out of me, it would take this time.”

He leaned back on the car. “Bro, it doesn’t work that way.”

“Yeah, I figured that out while you were choking me.” I looked at him seriously. “Was there ever any time when you did actually blame me? Be honest.”

Talon grabbed a handful of his hair. “I’ve actually thought about that a lot. And consciously, no, I didn’t blame you, but I did resent you.”

“Why?”

“It wasn’t you so much as anybody but me. I always wondered, why me? Why hadn’t it been you or anyone else that day? Why did it have to be me?”

“Did you come up with any answers?”

“No. I was in the right place at the right time. Or rather, the wrong place at the wrong time.” He chuckled. “You know, I came pretty close to punching your lights out. You were pissing me off. If you hadn’t started laughing…”

“I wonder if I would’ve felt better if you had.”

“Maybe for a few minutes. But only a few minutes. The only one who can heal you is you, Joe. Your Dr. Carmichael taught me that.”

She wasn’t my Dr. Carmichael. She wasn’t mine at all.

“Look,” my brother said. “You’re the toughest guy I know. You always have been. You never took any shit from anyone. You’re a lot like Dad in that regard. More so than either Ryan or I are.”

I looked down at my feet. “Sometimes I’m not sure that’s a good thing. Yeah, Dad did a lot of things right, but he sure gave me a hell of a burden to bear. It was nothing compared to the burden you had to bear, though.”

“I won’t argue with you there, bro.” Talon swiped his forehead. “But maybe Wendy will have some answers. Maybe we can figure out why Dad put those burdens on both of us.”

“You want to get going?”

“Sure.” Talon adjusted his shirt. “You hungry? We missed dinner, you know.”

“Hell, I could sure use a drink. But we’re both driving.”

“One drink won’t hurt either of us,” Talon said. “Let’s get back on the highway, and the next place we see that has a bar and grill, we’ll stop.”

“Sounds good.” I drew in a breath. “Look, Tal—”

“It’s all right. I understand.”

His dark eyes were genuine. He did understand. My brother was an amazing person, and he would never have come so far without—

Melanie.

I should’ve picked up her call.

How could I have thought it possible, mere minutes ago, to let her go? I couldn’t allow her to disappear from my life. I needed her. Perhaps she needed me a little too.

Talon jiggled the keys at me. “You want to drive for a while?”

“No,” I said. “I have a call to make.”

Chapter Thirty–Two

Melanie

A black mask. Black everything. When the lights in the bedroom hit my eyes, I squinted.

“Get up, bitch,” the masked man said.

I trembled, my panic consuming me. Nine-one-one hadn’t responded. Jonah hadn’t responded. I was utterly alone. Alone and vulnerable, with nothing but a damp towel separating my naked body from the mercy of this man. This had to be a nightmare—a nightmare of jagged glass and broken promises. Exactly what I deserved.

“Who are you?”

“Just somebody who wants to see you punished.”

My cold blood turned to ice. “Punished for what?” But I already knew what I deserved to be punished for.

“Did you not hear me the first time? I said, ‘get up, bitch.’”

I timidly rose to my feet, holding the brown suede pump behind me. The man was tall and large, dressed from head to toe in all black.

“Y-You’ve got the wrong person.”

“No, I don’t. What are you hiding behind your back?”

Without thinking, I lunged toward him with the shoe, but he grabbed my arm, stopping me.

“Feisty, huh?” He took the shoe and then ripped the towel from me. “I wish I had time to give you a taste of my big cock.”

I shrank back into the closet, nausea rising in my throat, but he pulled me forward, right into his body, my naked skin pressed against the black fabric of his clothing.

“Unfortunately, I’m on a tight schedule.”

I silently thanked whatever deity was watching over me for this perpetrator’s tight schedule. Surely, I would be raped, beaten, or worse, killed, before this was over, but the short respite seemed like a gift from above.

“Turn around,” he said.

I didn’t, and his fist came into my cheek with a dull thud. Pain surged through my cheek and jaw, and I screamed.

No one had ever hit me before.

I stood, trembling.

“I said, ‘turn around,’ bitch.” He pulled at a length of rope tied to his belt loop.

Rope like I’d seen the “mayor” purchasing at the hardware store in Snow Creek earlier today.

“You want to taste my fist again?” He leered at me.

I turned around slowly, still trembling.

He pulled my hands behind me and tied them together with the rope. I closed my eyes, squeezing them shut. Maybe I was finally getting what I deserved. Whoever this was had probably been sent by Gina Cates’s parents. They wanted to see me suffer. They wanted me to pay for what had happened to their daughter and now for what her mother was going through.

In that moment, I made a rash decision—a decision so foreign to me that I became numb to my attacker’s touch. I would succumb to whatever punishment the universe had in store for me. It was no less than the punishment Gina had endured. In fact, it wouldn’t be nearly as harsh. Maybe I deserved to die, as she had died.