Prologue
Anabelle
Three Years Ago
I love being at the music shop my brother and his friends—more or less family—owns together. The atmosphere is beautiful, and it makes me feel relaxed in a way I haven’t felt in a long time.
“You know she’s been in love with you for like ever, right?” I ask, toying with the keys of the grand piano. My question comes out innocently enough. I like the thought of my brother being with my best friend. Mackenzie has been in love with Lex for a long time, and now they’re together. Lex swings his gaze to me—he’s been staring out the door as Mackenzie follows Chaz and a very pregnant Bethany leaving the shop.
“Would you believe me if I said I’ve been in love with her just as long?” He grins. My heart hurts, but I hide the pain. I wish I could have the happiness he’s feeling right now.
I lost my right to that happiness. I can at least say I’m happy for him and my best friend. The two of them have been through enough and deserve a wonderful life together.
Pushing the thoughts out of my mind, I tilt my head to the side. “Yeah, I suppose you have, considering every girl you’ve been seen with always seems to have some kind of feature to match Kenzie’s.”
“What?” Lex sputters, seeming shocked I’d notice something like this. I’m not blind. Honestly, I feel I have more life experience than a lot of other people think I do. At the age of eighteen, I’ve been in love with a total of four men in my life. Yes, men, not boys. One is standing in this room with me, another is my daddy. He may be gone, but I still remember him. The other two who hold a place in my heart are Derick, the father of my baby I’m carrying, and the brother to the other man I’ve been in love with, Dylan—it was love at first sight.
The first time I met Dylan, he’d come home on leave from a deployment while Derick and I were still friends. I instantly felt my heart reach for him. Unfortunately, we couldn’t be together, no matter how much he made me laugh. Derick wasn’t stupid. He knew I’d crushed on his brother. He didn’t care. Derick wasn’t the type to get jealous.
Nope, he’d been laid back and loved his music, just like my brother. Now he’s gone, and I miss him more than ever.
Inwardly, I shake these thoughts away. I can’t be thinking about it. I’ll end up in tears and not able to stop them from falling. Focusing on my brother, I move from behind the piano and place my hands on my hips. “Don’t what me. I may not have said anything before now. I may have let you both do your own thing, but I’m not dense. I knew you were it for each other. You look at her the same way Derick used to look at me.” I ignore the way my voice hitches as I speak Derick’s name. The pain hits, and I have no choice but to sit back down, or I’ll fall in a heap to the floor. It’s only been seven months since that fateful night. A night I blame myself for—one I’ll never forget.
“I’m sorry,” Lex whispers tenderly, closing the distance between us and sitting on the bench next to me. “I wish I could take the pain of losing him away from you, Anabelle. I really do. Guts me to know this and not have known who he was.”
I wish he could’ve, too. I lay my head on my big brother’s shoulder and let out a heavy breath. “You know, I barely remember Mom and Dad. I only know them now from pictures and what you, Lisa, and Nick tell me about them. Uncle Justin never wants to talk about Dad for some reason.”
Lex tenses when I mention our uncle’s name.
“You talk to Uncle Justin?” he asks inquisitively.
“Well, yeah. Granted, he’s not the best at raising kids—he’s always nice to me, though, and keeps up with what I’m doing. He even gave me five hundred dollars for a graduation present.” Okay, so this was true until I realized he’s not a good guy. He’s a monster. A monster for what he’s done. What I’d witnessed him doing to a man in his own house. My uncle swore me to secrecy and told me not to tell, and I’d promised him I wouldn’t say a word about what I saw. I thought he might hurt me. He’s strong enough to do so, but he let me go, and I haven’t been near him since.
“Anabelle, I need you to tell me exactly everything Uncle Justin did or talked about in your presence,” Lex demands, soft yet firm.
“He would ask me about my future and what I had planned. We talked about the possibility of me going overseas for school, but I didn’t want that, for the obvious reason you now know,” I shrug. Sometimes I wonder back to that conversation about him wanting me to go to school overseas. Did he have something planned for me? I can at least be thankful I didn’t spend more time with the man.
“Is that all he talked to you about?” Lex asks.
“Pretty much,” I nod, wishing my brother would change the subject. I’m tired of the sorrowful talks.
Lex kisses the side of my head and stands from the bench, pulls out his phone. I’m sure to call and check on Mackenzie. He’s like that. He wants to know she’s okay at all times. Especially after what she’d endured at my uncle’s hands.
I start to play a song Derick had taught me as my brother talks on the phone. I go into my head, not listening to what Lex is saying. Instead, I hear Derick’s last words to me swirling through my head. “Love him, Belly. Love him as much as you love me.” Derick had stated those words while I tried to staunch the blood spilling from his chest.
Why would he say that to me? It’s been nearly seven months since that night, and I can still feel it like it were yesterday.
The sound of my brother rushing my way pulls me back out of my head when I see the look marring his face. Somethings happened. Lex takes my hand and pulls me to my feet.
“What’s going on?” I ask quietly.
“There’s been an accident, we gotta go. Come on,” Lex states, rushing us to the front door of the music shop.
Lex helps me into the truck while Hunter climbs in behind me. My mind is racing a mile a minute about what’s happening. What accident? Who? Lex hasn’t told me anything. Other than we had to go.
Oh God, I hope it’s not Mackenzie.
Lex floors it, getting us to the hospital in record time. He slams on the breaks right outside the emergency room doors.
Everything seems to blur around me as I stand off to the side, listening to my brother, Hunter, and Tanner get into it with a nurse. Only when Connors, a doctor I’d met after Mackenzie was hurt severely, comes in do they calm down.
We all move to the waiting area, with several other large men filling the space as well.
“Justin has Mackenzie,” Lex snarls harshly.
“Fuck,” one of the men standing near my brother and his friends snaps. I remember seeing him at the clubhouse where Lex took Mackenzie to be seen by Connors. I think he’s the President of their club. “Alright, do we know where he would go with her?”
“I haven’t found any house or anything with his or any of his men’s names on it,” another man mutters.
“What about my name?” I croak, speaking up from behind my brother as I remember my uncle having me sign a bunch of paperwork for him, he said he had needed it from me.
“Belly?” My stomach drops at the sound of that voice as I slowly turn enough to meet those vibrant glittery eyes of the man stepping toward me.