Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 77576 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 388(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77576 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 388(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
“That’s a different story,” Donny says. “I made a bad decision. A decision I rectified, but it unfortunately resulted in Brendan’s place being trashed.”
“What bad decision?”
Donny sighs. “I can’t give you any more details at this time, but the result was someone breaking into Brendan’s place above the bar.”
Normally I’d demand to know everything, but after the bomb Donny just dropped, I don’t want to ever yell at him again. I want to hold him to me and protect him.
“And no one knows who did that?” I ask.
Donny shakes his head. “Believe me, I personally went through all the evidence with a fine-tooth comb, and so did Hardy Solomon at the sheriff’s office. Whoever trashed it left absolutely no evidence behind. If there was anything hidden somewhere in Brendan’s place, it’s gone now.”
“So you think whoever trashed his place was looking for something?”
“We can’t prove it,” Donny says, “but that’s our working theory.”
“Why? Why is this all happening?”
“If we knew,” Brock says, “we would tell you. The good news is, we shut down the trafficking ring again. At least as far as our property goes. We’ve combed every inch of our own property to make sure they’re gone.”
“Why would they be using our property?” I ask.
“To implicate us, most likely,” Donny says. “But we’re good. All evidence has been destroyed.”
“Why? Why would they want to implicate—” I breathe out. “Right. Because our dads shut them down.”
“Right. The stragglers stayed under the radar and began again from scratch with the sole purpose of implicating us in the future. That’s our theory.”
“But again,” Brock says, “we shut it down. My dad and I made sure of it.”
“How did you find out all of this?” I ask.
“It’s a long story, but people left us evidence. For example, someone left me a safe-deposit key that led us to the first clues,” Donny says.
“Who, what, when?”
“Like we said, cuz,” Brock says. “It’s a long story. So I hope you’ve got time.”
My eyes are swollen from crying, my nose clogged. “I don’t know what to say.”
“The first thing you can say is that you’ll keep this to yourself for now,” Donny says. “We don’t have our fathers’ go-ahead to tell you this.”
“But there is more,” Brock says.
“God, I’m not sure I can take any more.” I grab a tissue from the box on my end table.
“Well, we’re not going to tell you any more,” Donny says. “But you do need to ask your parents.”
“Ask them what?”
“First you’ll need to tell them that you know about Dale and me,” Donny says.
“And then what?”
“Just tell them you want the truth. The truth about your family,” Donny says.
“This is all so scary to me.”
“We know,” Brock says. “It’s scary to us too.”
“No, you don’t understand. Don’t laugh at me, but the cards—”
“We won’t laugh at you, Ava,” Donny says. “We know you take your cards seriously.”
“Thank you. I do, and I’ve been getting some very troubling readings lately. And most of them have to do with our family.”
“Anything you want to talk to us about?” Brock says.
“The underlying theme seems to be secrets. Secrets regarding the family dynamic.”
Neither Donny nor Brock says a word, but they do steal a glance at each other.
They’re hoping I won’t notice, but I notice everything. I’ve been observant since I was a child. Observant and intuitive.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
“We’ve told you all we can,” Donny says. “If you want to know more, you need to ask your mom and dad.”
A chill breaks over my body, and I visibly shudder.
“It’s normal to be apprehensive,” Brock says. “God knows I was.”
“When?”
“When I confronted my father, demanded the truth from him.”
“What truth is there? How is there any more truth than what you’ve already told me?”
Another stolen glance between them.
“You’re really freaking me out here, guys.”
“We know, cuz,” Donny says. “And we wish we could say more, but we absolutely can’t.”
I stand then and turn to face them, fire flowing through me. “Brock, I’ve always thought of you not as a cousin but as a brother. I’m closer to you than I am to my own sister. You, Dave, and me. Huey, Dewey, and Louie, remember?”
Brock smiles, and a nostalgic look passes over his face. “I haven’t thought about that since we were kids.”
“I’ll take this,” Donny says. “You and Brock are close, I know that. And I know it’s killing him not to be able to tell you everything. It’s killing me too, Ava. I love you and Gina as much as I love Diana and Brianna. So as far as I’m concerned, we are all siblings, not cousins. We all grew up together, and we see each other most days. We’re as close as any family could be, but families aren’t perfect, even as much as ours seems to be on the outside. Every family has skeletons in its closet.”