I laughed.
And then I kept fucking laughing, until my throat hurt.
“He’s lost his fucking mind,” Charles said.
“It’s just people who say that to me tend to be fuckheads.”
“Told you he wouldn’t believe us,” Jo said. “Show him the thing.”
Silently, Keller reached into his back pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper, handing it to me.
When the time comes, Grayson Crowne will help you. He’s not the boy you think he is, not the boy his grandfather is trying to make him be.
Sincerely,
Woodson Hale
I slowly sat up, eyeing them. “What the fuck is this?”
“You tell us,” Jo snapped. “For our entire lives, we lived with a shitty stepbrother who never spoke to us, then right before the Holidays, our mother gives us this note, tells us not to come, and then she fucking dies. We loved Woodsy. So…reluctantly…we are inclined to listen to him.”
I shifted. “He was like a father to me.”
“Us too.”
Silence spread. We stared at one another, and I could almost see the walls we’d built crumble.
They’re your competition now, Grayson. Thank your father for that.
I saw beyond that moment that had shaped the course of our lives. I never even knew they had a relationship with Woodsy. I knew nothing about them, really.
How much longer was I going to let my grandfather’s insidious thorns dictate my decisions?
“Then why the fuck were you with my grandfather?” I asked.
“We know he killed our mother. We’ve known he killed our father for years. So for years we just…” Jo trailed off, exhaled. “We waited.”
“And what are you waiting for?”
“We want justice,” Jo said. “We want his ass in jail.”
I laughed. “Beryl Crowne in jail? It would be easier to catch a falling star.”
“So what’s your plan then?” Jo asked. “Audition for the world’s mopiest Heathcliff? Cuz sorry, bruh, but my brother’s already got you beat.” She threw a thumb behind her, to her brother with the shoulder-length hair hiding everything but his eye, leaning against the window—Keller.
Keller kicked Jo behind the knee and she stumbled forward.
I worked my jaw. “My plan was to kill him.”
Keller raised his hands. “Thank you. I’ve been saying this for months.”
Charles and Jo shared a look, then Jo continued. “Mother deserves justice. Our father deserves justice. Your baby mama—”
“My wife.”
“Your wife—doesn’t she deserve justice? Your baby? Killing him is too kind. I want him strung up. I want everyone to know what he did. I want the world to see the ugly. Right now if you search his name, only his charity works come up. People think he’s good. If you kill him now, he’ll die a martyr.”
I slowly sat up, resting my throbbing head against the cool window.
She was right.
Fuck.
“My mother lived in the shadows her entire life…” Jo looked away, a shadow falling across her face. “Beryl doesn’t get to die in them.”
“He has guards,” I said. “The staff. Everyone is on his side.”
“They’re bought and paid for, but they don’t follow him. We’ve spent months—years—playing his bitch, learning who is on his side and who isn’t. I’m sure you know what that’s like, and you already have a good idea who we’re talking about.”
I did.
I knew everyone who listened to my grandfather. So I knew that it wasn’t as easy as just knowing who they were.
“So what’s your plan?”
They all shared a look.
“I mean…” Jo trailed off, rubbing her neck.
“You don’t have one.” I laughed. “Because you know even if we managed to separate my grandfather from his sycophants, he still owns everyone from the cops to the prosecutor to the fucking judge and district attorney. And do you have any proof of all the terrible things he’s done?”
Their mouths parted, but nothing came out.
I dragged my hands through my hair. “Fucking great.”
Keller stepped off the window. “We could get rid of his guards. We could do that. They’re so afraid of him if we told them they’d gotten on Beryl’s bad side, they’d run without looking back. And you know who controls the staff.”
My mother.
It could work. I remembered her shaking hands as she’d sat on my bed. I think, for once, she wouldn’t choose my grandfather.
But it only gave us a small window.
“We still don’t have proof, and we still don’t have a way to keep him in jail…”
But a plan was forming in my mind.
You could raze a country. Become a king.
“If we can get proof, I know how we can keep him in jail, how we can sever those political ties.” They leaned forward, waiting. “We have to steal back the coins.”
Charles threw up his hands. “And I thought Jo was insane.”
“You’re the insane one,” Jo muttered.
“Do you really think you can steal coins twice from Beryl?” Keller asked. “We know the story. We know how our father stole them and tried to use them to free us. Beryl won’t let it happen again.”
Once again, I felt like my father. Maybe decades ago my father stole those coins for a selfish reason. Or maybe he was like me, staring at the mouth of a gluttonous monster about to destroy the world.
“We have no choice,” I said. “It’s the only way. If we don’t, we have no leverage. And if we don’t, he’s too fucking powerful. If he goes through with his plan he’ll be…unstoppable. He could destroy our entire family.”
“And if we somehow manage to pull this off?”
“We use it to topple a throne, to destroy a king. We use the coin to demand a favor of the man my grandfather has been using to threaten me from the beginning: District Attorney Millard.”
“He could challenge.”
“I don’t think he will. It’s mutually beneficial. I’m sure grandfather has dirt on Millard, and someone like that will jump at the chance to get rid of his biggest threat. We’re promising him a coin, he can use it to become the next governor.”
They were all power-hungry.
Greedy.
“The other three…I think those were always meant for you, anyway.”
Their brows furrowed, and Jo shifted on her feet.
Charles rubbed his neck. “How will we know you’ve done it—”
“I’m not doing it.” I looked at them, my siblings. “You are. You’re the ones who have been playing the long game. If he’s like me, he’s keeping them in his pocket. I don’t know if we can plan it, we just need to look for an opening during the Swan Swell. A moment when he isn’t guarded.”
They all shared a look.
“I’ll handle the DA, you handle the coins.” I exhaled. “If everything goes according to plan, his seat will be empty.”
Someone would have to stay to take it, to watch over my sister, my mother—everyone.
I’ll come back. I’ll always come back.