Payton rolled her large brown eyes that were so like their mother’s. “Taryn always did think she was the smartest person in the room. It’s nice to finally put her in her place.”
Taryn couldn’t breathe. The world spun uncontrollably around her. She wasn’t sure which way was up and which was down. This had to be some kind of nightmare. She’d wake up any moment. She’d wake up.
Wake up!
Taryn squeezed her eyes closed and then reopened them. Still, Payton stood beside Boyd, her arm around his waist. Maybe this was some trick Payton pulled to fool Boyd into letting his guard down. Yes. That had to be it. “Tell me what’s going on.”
“Just like Taryn. Always demanding,” Payton stated in a voice filled with hatred.
Boyd couldn’t contain his glee as he smiled at Taryn. “I’ve been waiting for this moment for years. I thought you would’ve figured it out by now, but you couldn’t get it out of your head that you were supposed to save your sister. You should’ve thought about yourself. I even gave you a chance.”
“I told you she’d come back with the money,” Payton said with a laugh that was as cold as the Arctic. “We should’ve demanded more.”
Taryn’s blood ran like ice as uncertainty and rage filled her. The woman standing before her looked like her sister, but Payton would never act like this. Would she? “Payton. Wh-what are you doing?”
“I had to get free of you,” her sister spat, resentment and ire contorting her features. “You were so fucking controlling, always telling me what I could and couldn’t do.”
“I-I was taking care of you.”
“You weren’t Mom!”
Taryn jerked as if slapped. She didn’t recognize the woman in front of her. This wasn’t her sweet younger sister, who stayed up to watch scary movies with her, shopped with her, and baked sweets. This woman was selfish. She was … malicious.
Boyd turned his head to Payton and gazed at her as if she were his everything. “It was Payton’s idea. Everything you’ve endured. She has the most brilliant mind I’ve ever encountered. There has never been anyone as well matched to me as her.”
Payton smiled lovingly up at Boyd and touched his cheek before kissing him.
Taryn swallowed the bile that rose in her throat as her brain comprehended what Boyd had just shared. “What?”
Payton snapped her gaze back to Taryn, hatred burning in her eyes so brightly that Taryn was surprised she didn’t fry to a crisp. “You wouldn’t shut up about moving in with you. I told you over and over that I wanted to be on my own, but you wouldn’t listen. I didn’t need you. Dad and Ben didn’t need you. But you had to control everyone. Why do you think Ben started doing drugs with Dad? Because you were constantly on his case.”
“To do something with his life and not get caught up in the never-ending shit that was Dad’s life,” Taryn retorted, as she became enraged. “You call that controlling. I call it looking out for my brother. I wanted him to be happy, to have a life.”
“And look what you did to him.”
Taryn snorted as she raked her gaze over Payton. She thought of all the years she had been enslaved to Boyd for her sister’s sake. And the entire time, Payton had been living it up, enjoying life. All while Taryn prayed that she got through each day without being killed and thinking of ways to free her and Payton. So many wasted years. “You want to put his death on me? That’s rich. I’m not the one who has to carry that weight. You are. That’s not on me. He followed Dad down the drug-addiction path.” Then it hit Taryn. All of it. And she understood what loathing and disgust truly were. “Boyd said all of this was your fault. I always wondered how Dad and Ben could afford the cocaine. It came from you, didn’t it?”
Payton smiled in response.
Taryn was caught between wanting to cry and scream. “You got Ben and Dad started selling for Boyd. You knew they wouldn’t be able to help themselves, and you made sure they didn’t tell me. Then you got Boyd to come in and take all of us.”
“About time you pieced it together,” Boyd told her.
But that didn’t make Taryn feel any better. She didn’t take her eyes off Payton, nor did she think about Brick or the other armed men near her. “All you had to do was leave. Why did you have to pull all of us into this”—she looked around as her animosity grew—“this fucking hellhole!”
“Because it amused me,” Payton replied with a smile.
Taryn swallowed, realizing then that Payton had been lying to everyone for years. The sweet sister act had been just that, an act. Taryn fought back tears as she thought about her father, who had been lost when her mother died. Of Ben, who had tried to be the dutiful son and brother but was so easily swayed. Taryn couldn’t believe that she had been blind to it all. “You’re the one who got Dad hooked on drugs after Mom died. You pushed him down that path.”
“It was so easy,” Payton said with a shrug. “Too easy. I actually thought it would be more difficult. There were times I thought you’d figure it out, but you were too caught up with Jace to notice. Even when I got Ben hooked on drugs, I thought you’d finally piece it together, but you didn’t. Instead, you started poking into my life, wanting the two of us to move out together. I had Dad and Ben right where I wanted them. The only one in the way was you. I thought you’d move in with Jace, but you stayed and continued messing with my plans.”
Taryn shook her head in amazement and confusion. “You ruined all our lives.”
“You had a chance to get free, but I knew if the rest of us disappeared, you’d come looking. So, I told Boyd that you had to come, as well. He didn’t want to include you at first, but then I told him you’d do anything for your family.”
“I would have. I did,” Taryn bit out, her hands fisting with her fury.
Payton laughed and rolled her eyes again. “Even now, you came back. Not that you would’ve gotten far had you tried to leave. I made sure you were followed closely. I know everything, big sis. Including the fact that you got married this morning.”
Boyd’s eyes widened as he smiled. “And we both know that Jace wouldn’t allow you to return without a plan to get you back. Where is he?”
Taryn’s stomach dropped to her feet like a rock. This was her worst fear. She couldn’t lose Jace. She wouldn’t. Not to her deranged sister and her boyfriend. “I don’t know.”
“But he’s here,” Payton said as she took a few steps closer to Taryn. “Isn’t he?”
“You expect me to answer that after all you’ve done to me? To Dad? To Ben?”
Payton crossed her arms over her chest and gave Taryn a knowing look, complete with a sardonic smile. “I know you will.”
“No,” Taryn said with a shake of her head. “You purposefully ruined Dad’s life. He could’ve found some peace after Mom’s death, but you made sure that didn’t happen. Then you put Ben on that same path simply to see if you could. Instead of going out on your own, you put the three of us into servitude, beholden to a maniac. He killed Dad and Ben, Payton. Did you know that?”
“Of course. I’m the one who told Boyd to do it. I also made sure to put you and me in a dire situation so you’d think we were in danger. Then I told Boyd to take me away from you. I knew you’d do absolutely anything he wanted after that.” Payton’s cocky smile said it all. “Because you wanted to save me.”