Time was cruel, and I spent it absently watching the gridlock on I-285 move at a snail’s pace. People were leaving their jobs and going home to eat dinner and watch TV. Normal people doing normal everyday things, and I couldn’t imagine going back to any semblance of normal with the taste of my ex-lover’s blood still lingering on my tongue.
When my phone finally rang, and I saw a familiar area code from a number I didn’t recognize, I couldn’t answer fast enough.
“Hello.”
I listened intently for several seconds as they passed, my chest filling with unimaginable dread at what news waited on the other end of the line.
“Hello, please, hello?”
Several seconds later, I heard the distinct open and close of a Zippo. That sound had a sob bursting from my lips. Sean.
It was the sound of ice rattling in a tumbler, one, two, three times, that had me sobbing hysterically behind the wheel. Two distinct sounds they knew I would easily recognize.
They’re okay.
They’re okay.
“Please. Please…talk to me.” When silence rang clear on the other end of the line, somehow, I just knew the damning quiet was because of Tobias. And words would never come.
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. Please, somebody, talk to me. I’m sorry.” The silence lingered as I tried to search for words until a familiar voice finally spoke.
“Hey, Cecelia, sorry about that.”
“Layla, I, I, I,” I sobbed so hard I gagged, rolling down my window and inhaling deeply to try and calm myself.
“Oh, babe,” she sighed, “It’s just a move. You’ll be fine. We’re all fine here.”
We all were anything but.
“All of you?” I asked breathlessly.
“Yes, I swear to you, we’re good. And you will be too.” She continued a clearly rehearsed speech. “And we’re all going to miss you, but we’re glad you’re moving on. It’s a shame we’ll be so far away.”
“Layla—”
“Don’t get upset, honey. I’m sure you’ll make new friends wherever you land. You’re a tough girl. You’ll be on your feet in no time.”
“I can’t do this,” I cried into the line. “I c-c-can’t.”
“No choice, sweetie, you’re growing up, and you have school to finish and this great big life to live. We’ll all be on the sidelines, cheering you on. I’m so glad you left this shit town and are never coming back.”
“I can visit.” The question lingered as harsh whispers were exchanged in the background, but I couldn’t decipher them.
“No reason to, baby… My boys are leaving me today, and I don’t know how long they’ll be gone.”
They’re leaving, and they’ll be untraceable wherever they land. A thousand-pound weight sinks in my stomach.
“And I hope you know, you’re better off there,” it was a warning, and she’d delivered it with the gentleness of a mother’s love. “There’s nothing good going to come out of you coming back here. You don’t want to end up a dried-up old lady working at the plant, anyway. And we only want the best for you.”
“Layla—”
“I gotta run, but I just wanted you to know that I’ll miss you.”
When the line disconnected, I screamed at the loss. Neither Sean nor Tobias wanted to speak to me.
It was all over.
My future had been decided, my ties cut, they didn’t want me to come back. I had no choice in the matter, no say. And I’d lived that reality before.
Thoroughly unhinged, I shattered over and over again at the finality of it all. It was never going to end well, but that parting had ripped some of my humanity away from me.
I moved to Triple Falls a teenager, wanting nothing more than to challenge myself, to give in to my wild side, and create some stories to tell.
By the time I stood in my new apartment in Athens that night, I was a woman who’d been unearthed by deception, lies, lust, and love, whose essence was shrouded by life-changing secrets, full of stories I could never share and never, ever tell. In keeping me safe, in architecting my future, they’d left me to wither and rot with those secrets.
Between the painstaking lengths my boys went to and the first-class ticket my father bought out of hell, all I wanted to do is go back and let the flames consume me. But in protecting me, in all the trouble my presence caused, all they asked in return is for my absence and to keep their secrets.
And I did.
Baptized by fire, I wore my mask until I grew into it, I kept our secrets, following their orders to the letter while trying to resume some semblance of a life.
And eventually, I did that too.
I far exceeded my own expectations, but time has been nothing but a noose, giving me the rope an inch at a time. And now that I’m here, I refuse to continue the charade. It’s far too much to ask. And so, I’ll demand answers and seek them in full from the man who owes me the explanation.
And I’m not leaving without one.
It’s my last promise to myself as I drive down the lone road leading to the forgotten house.
An eerie feeling washes over me, and I expect nothing less as I gaze on at the grand estate from the gate as freezing rain begins to pelt the hood and windshield of my Audi. The house is far more intimidating underneath the grey sky. But I know a majority of my contempt is due to the history that lives within the walls.
Pulling up, I swallow hard and step out. Leaving my bag in my car, I grab the envelope from my purse that the management company sent me years ago along with the new key, security instructions and a schedule for those in charge of maintaining the late Roman Horner’s estate. I palm the heavy key in my hand as I walk up the steps and turn back toward the driveway. Though the wind whips heavily around me while the stinging rain infuses the cold into my bones, I’m graced with a glimpse of my past, an image of a golden man waiting at the hood of his Nova, boots and arms crossed, a smile playing on his lips. The gilded tips of his spiked halo, lit by the sun as his eyes dance with promise and mischief. And just as soon as the ray appears, it’s gone.
Taking a calming breath, I turn and unlock the door, pushing it open and stand frozen at the threshold baffled by the sight that greets me.
The interior is no different than it was the day before I left, though I can only imagine the damage done that morning. I’m fairly certain the walls house shells of bullets in between sheetrock and touched up paint. But all traces of that horrible night are gone, as if I imagined it.
If only that were true.
“No one leaves breathing.” I shudder as I think of the look on Tobias’s face when he gave that order. Tyler said Miami had pulled up ten cars deep.
If the ravens succeeded in carrying out that order, there had to have been a significant body count. And then there was the brotherhood side. I didn’t know them all personally, but I hated to think they’d lost more brothers that day.
Odds are, they did.
I’d accused Tobias when we met of being a petty thief who threw parties trying to downplay the extent of what I knew, all the while they kept me cornered, shielded, and safe from the ugly truth of the reality of what the war they waged entailed.
Dominic had admitted as much to me the night he died.