Chapter Thirty-One - Diane

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

DIANE

I haven't heard from Westin in a few weeks.

My heart isn't broken, but it's crumbling.

Soon, there will be nothing left.

Ever since the day Thomas beat me and Avery and David let him, things have been worse. Avery doesn't stop by anymore. I wonder if it's because Thomas is keeping him away.

I know how much he dreads the day his brother finds out the truth about his marriage. As much as he doesn't care what happens to me, he'll do anything to make sure the outside world thinks he's man enough.

Thomas' fatal flaw isn't cruelty: it's weakness. He's a puppet of whoever he desires the good opinion of. In this case, it's Avery.

It's a cold evening in November when Avery finally comes back to the house. I'm cleaning up dinner when his truck rolls up the drive. The headlights flash and the engine dies. He walks in through the front door, and I shrink back against the stove.

In my heart, I know it was him. He somehow saw Westin take me to Sovereign Mountain.

My stomach burns .

He spares me a brief glance as he walks through the kitchen and into Thomas' office, where he's working at his computer. The door closes, and I hear their voices rise and fall. After a while, they start rising more than falling.

Hands shaky, I finish the dishes and wipe my hands. I haven't had a break in hours, and I need the bathroom. Quietly, I tell Billie to stay on the floor before I take off my boots and tiptoe barefoot down the hall. The bathroom shares a wall with Thomas' office, so I'm careful as I close it.

I use the toilet and go to wash my hands. My reflection stares back at me. I'm in jeans and a thin t-shirt. Carefully, I slip the shirt off and touch my ribs. The bruises are almost completely healed. I got lucky; Thomas didn't kick me as hard as he made it look.

The knob jiggles.

My breath catches.

"One moment," I say, but the sound doesn't come out.

The knob turns. I forgot to lock it. The door opens, and Avery walks into the bathroom and shuts the door behind him.

My body tingles with fear. He's in a Henley, sleeves rolled up to his elbows, an unlit cigarette behind his ear. The entire room smells like whiskey, and it makes me wonder if he's sober. It's hard to tell with Avery.

"What are you doing?" I whisper, backing up.

He's positioned so I can't get around him to the door. It hits me just how big the Garrison brothers are. I'm used to seeing them from an arm's length—I try not to get close—but Avery is easily as tall as Westin.

"I don't know how a little bitch like you got my brother so tied up in knots," he drawls, his voice soft.

My mouth is dry. I couldn't talk even if I had the words to counter that.

He reaches up, and I flinch. It feels like he was going to touch my face…but he stops himself .

"You know what they say: thou shalt not covet thy brother's wife," he says. "But are you really my brother's wife if he can't even fuck you?"

I can't get back any further. The towel rack digs into my upper spine.

"Can't?" He mulls over the words. "Or won't because he's got a manipulative little cunt in his ear?"

I wonder distantly if Avery really wants me, or if he just wants to crush the little spirit I have left.

His hand comes out and wraps around my neck. It's not sweet the way it was with Westin. The pressure doesn't spark heat in my body. Instead, it makes me wonder how many breaths I have before his grip goes too tight to draw more.

He pulls me closer. The shirt drops from my hands.

"If he doesn't fuck you, I will," he says. "I made that deal with Corbin to save your farm. Someone's getting your pussy out of it."

He lets me go, and I stumble back. My vision flashes as he turns on his heel and the door slams.

My grace period is done. I crumple to the floor. I don't know who told Avery, if it was Thomas or if he just guessed, but my time is up. I'm surprised I held them off for this long.

I take a moment to cry myself out. Then, I put my shirt back on and leave the bathroom, ignoring Avery and Thomas' stares from the kitchen. They burn on my back as I duck into my bedroom and shut the door. I lean against it and listen until their footsteps fade out the back door.

Heart pounding, I creep to the window, the same one I saw Westin through. They're standing on the porch, smoking.

I'm on my knees on the hard, wooden floor. My hands are weak, but my body is strong. I know Thomas, and if I go as willingly as I can, he won't hurt me. I have my doubts it will be pleasurable, but I don't think he's violent like that.

Avery, on the other hand…I know he is.

Heart in my throat, I wash in the little half bath off my room. My slip hangs on the back of the door. I strip naked and pull it on. Then, I brush my hair out and dig through my clothes to find my dressing gown. There's no way I'm leaving this room and walking upstairs to Thomas' bed in just a slip. It was bad enough that Avery saw me in my bra a moment ago.

I square my shoulders.

I can do this.

My eyes close. My mind fills with the soft scent of field grass, the cool of Nana's headstone, the silvery willow blowing overhead. Someday, I'll go home, and when my life is done, I'll sleep forever beside the people I loved most.

That and Westin Quinn are the only things I've ever wanted.

I take a deep breath. They took my freedom, but they'll never take my pride. I'm the only granddaughter of the strongest woman I've ever known.

Hands unsteady but heart brave enough to carry me through the night, I walk out to meet them.

Thomas and Avery are still on the back porch, the door hanging open even though it's cold. I wonder where Billie went, maybe out the back to get away from Avery. She hates him.

The front door is unlatched. I turn to head down the front hall and freeze.

Why is the knob turning?

I stumble back, the hair on the back of my neck rising. It swings open, and Gerard Sovereign strides into the hallway, like the first vengeful horse of the apocalypse. Behind him comes Westin, his face hard as stone. Bringing up the rear is a tall man with his face half covered by a dark bandana, his narrowed green eyes zero in on me.

My heart goes crazy.

No, no.

He promised he wouldn't do this until Carter Farms was secure. He promised he wouldn't kill Thomas. My mind goes into overdrive, racking my brain until it starts to sink in.

No, Westin said he wouldn't kill Thomas.

He never said Sovereign wouldn't .

Before I can speak, Westin skirts around Sovereign and takes hold of me, dragging me back against his body. I open my mouth, unsure if I want to scream at him or scream to give the Garrisons a fighting chance. I'm so fucking angry right now, I can't see straight.

I don't want death and bloodshed. I just want freedom.

"Hush, darling," Westin breathes against my neck. "We're not here for you."

I kick back, hitting him hard in the shin with a crack. My chest seizes and my vision tunnels. Darkness creeps in like frost.

I can't control my panic. I'm so tired from everything that's happened since that day at the swimming hole. Every fiber of my being is raw and bruised. I think my heart that has been crumbling at the edges for weeks is shattering into a million pieces.

I'm at my breaking point.

"Fuck," Westin snaps.

"Where's your husband?" Sovereign says, his voice low.

My eyes widen, darting back down the hall to the open back door before I can stop myself.

Sovereign nods once. "Take her to the kitchen."

Westin pulls me back, and I let him, because I know his strength intimately. We duck out of view as Sovereign and the man with the covered face disappear down the hall. As soon as they're gone, I expect Westin to release me.

But he doesn't.

White hot rage floods me. I wriggle hard, the terry cloth robe slipping to the floor. I'm in just my slip, nothing underneath.

His hand moves up under my clothes, though not on purpose, and I lose it. Maybe it's how tense my body is from being shut in the bathroom with Avery, but I'm primed for a touch that isn't his, and his skin on mine triggers my survival instinct.

I lash out, hitting him with my nails and leaving bright red scratch marks down his face.

He rears back, shocked.

"Jesus, Diane," he breathes.

My face crumples. "Get away from me," I beg .

We both hear footsteps in the hall. Westin snaps into action, but he doesn't take hold of me again. Instead, he takes his belt off and carries me to the chair, using it to lash me down. I'm too stunned to fight when he forces the tie of the terrycloth robe into my mouth and knots it around my neck.

The same way he did in his bed, with the ball gag.

My heart hurts. My body aches.

This reckoning, right here in the same kitchen Thomas beat me in, is the oncoming train. It's derailed. The impact is shredding my remaining sanity. I don't know how I can come back from tonight.

I feel like I'm drowning.

Distantly, I see Sovereign walk Thomas and Avery into the kitchen and tie them to the remaining chairs. He and the man with green eyes have their guns out. Their voices sound garbled, like I'm listening through water. Avery is running his mouth. Thomas is quiet. I can hear that much.

They're not going to make it through tonight.

Which means, when morning comes, I lose everything.

Everything is hazy, but suddenly, I hear words I understand. Sovereign is talking to me, looking at me. I fix my eyes on him, still so angry, I can hardly breathe.

He circles the table and crouches beside me. He's a lot more frightening up close than I realized—pale eyes cold, lip curled like he tasted blood and he's starving for more.

He pulls the gag from my mouth.

"Diane," he says, his voice a soft rumble, "have you ever fucked another man while married to Thomas?"

I don't know how, but I feel every fiber in Westin's body go tense. He's not even touching my chair, but he crackles like a live wire.

"Come on, Diane," he says, looking up at Thomas. "You can tell Thomas all the dirty things you did. He won't live long enough for it to matter."

The room is so quiet, the little sob that escapes me echoes. Thomas shakes, like this pours salt right into his open wound, the one he thinks I gave him, the one that Avery likes to work away at so it's always oozing blood.

Hurt people hurt people, and Thomas has hurt me deeply. I'd still want him dead if it wasn't for the farm.

I can't look at him. My eyes drop.

"No," Sovereign says, his voice splitting the room. "You look at Thomas and tell him that Westin fucks you so hard, I can hear you scream all the way from the gatehouse."

My breath catches. This time, I glance over my shoulder, and Westin is staring at Thomas and Avery. His neck is flushed, like he's having trouble holding himself back. The veins on his forehead stand out.

Thomas loses his shit. "Just shut the fuck up!" he screams.

"I thought you were interested in the topic of infidelity," Sovereign snaps, rising and circling the table.

My eyes are watering so badly, I have tears etching down my face. My breath comes in short, wheezing gasps. The rope around my body cuts into my breasts.

"Tell me who you paid Jack to kill?" Sovereign orders.

He's talking to Avery and Thomas, but I don't know what the fuck he means. All I know is if I don't get out of these ropes and out of this room, I'm going to die. My chest is so tight, the world spins, my head aches. My vision flickers.

"Just tell him," I beg.

I don't know what's going on, but I want to go home. I want to be back in my little bed with a wire frame and worn sheets.

I want to be rescued.

I want my quilt, my Nana, the sweet scent of hay coming through my window as I fall asleep.

The garbled voices in my ears are split by a sound so loud, it makes me bite down on my tongue. A gunshot, so close to my head that it splinters my ears with pain. Avery is screaming, I'm sobbing, snot and spit running down my chin. Someone is talking, on and on .

Then, it happens again—bang. My head burns from the sound. My eyes flicker into focus. Avery is slumped to the side, blood dripping from his temple. It's thick as it drizzles into his lap.

Everything goes still. My body shakes. I think I screamed, but my body is far below me. Inside, I'm curled up in my bed. Nana holds my head, running her ivory comb through my hair as she hums.

"Revenge belongs to God," she whispers. "But sometimes, God is just a man who loves you enough to save you."

I have to give in.

I have to let go.

These burdens I carry are too heavy for my shoulders.

My head falls back. Nana's face blurs, and I'm being carried. The scent of Westin fills my nose and cold air bites my face. A horse snorts, white mist floating to the black sky.

I'm lifted up, up, up until I wonder if I've died.

But no, I feel the warm sides of a horse against my bare legs. It prances as Westin swings up to sit behind me. His breath burns through my hair, and his arm locks over my body.

"I have you, darling," he says. "And this time, I'm keeping you."