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“Of course, she is. It was planned, wasn’t it, sweetheart?” Caleb answers for her and when her pretty eyes lift up from the floor to settle on mine, I have to remain numb to the pain it puts in my chest. Leia has never been the kinda girl who gets spoken for.
“Yes, it was planned,” she tells Maisie robotically, and the look of pride on Caleb’s face as he continues to talk to my mom and Maisie forces me to move away and head for my truck. Garrett comes after me, both of us marching slow enough not to cause a scene, and when he catches up with me I can tell from the stern look on his face that he’s just as mad as I am.
“You good?” he checks as I open my truck door and hop inside.
“She’s lyin’ about being pregnant,” I assure him, keeping my voice low in case there's anyone around to hear me.
“I’m sorry, Wade, but you can’t be in denial about this.”
“She’s lyin’, Garrett, and I know she is because I told her to. Me and her, we’ve been… together,” I admit, knowing it’s only gonna add to his stress.
“Youwhat?” He looks like he wants to punch me in the face, but I don’t care. I’m done with this situation now. Leia is my girl, and I ain’t having her paraded around for all to see by that slimeball.
“Maybe you are the one who needs to stop being in denial, Garrett. Your plan’s fallin’ apart, this ain’t us, this ain’t what we do. Three men should be dead, and all three of ‘em are right here. Walking around in front of us like they ain’t got a care in the world or a sin on their conscience. How long do you expect us all to hold off?” I question.
“You think I ain’t strugglin’? “Ya think I don’t want ‘em all dead too? Wade, on the one hand, I got the whole, wide world; three perfect kids, a beautiful wife I don’t deserve, and brothers who I know would lay their life on the line for me. On the other, I got a need for chaos and mayhem. I wanna wreak havoc and spill blood for what Walker did to our sister. And every night I gotta kiss my pretty wife goodnight and promise her I’ll be around to help her raise those kids we made together. I’m juggling flames here, Wade, I’m tryin’ to do what's right by this whole family, and I’m tryin’ to keep us all together,” he tells me firmly.
“Then how about we go to the root of this whole problem?Harvey.If we take him out, we eliminate the whole damn issue.” I look at my brother and try to provoke some of that Carson fuckin’ fight outta him.
“Because I ain’t got a death wish. Harvey is bigger than this town, hell, he’s bigger than this whole damn state. He’s got people all over this country doing his work. Small-town mayors are just where it starts. I don’t want that shit brought to our fuckin’ town. We fuck with Harvey, he won’t just kill us, he’ll do it after he’s made us watch him destroy everything and everyone we fuckin’ love.” Garrett scrubs his hand over his face in frustration, clutching at the open window of my truck ‘til his knuckles turn white.
“Garrett, how are those babies of yours?” Mrs Tucker from the bakery steps up from behind him, and he takes a second to calm himself before turning around to speak to her.
“Keepin’ us busy, why don’t ya head on over and check ‘em out?” he tells her politely, then waits for her to be on her way before facing back to me.
“And what if that bastard is the person Harvey’s got lined up to take the mayor’s place?” I tip my head toward Caleb, it doesn’t take a fuckin’ genius to see that that’s the way things are headed. “What do we do then?”
“Then we hope all these Sundays we’ve spent in that chapel pay off and we say our fuckin’ prayers.” Garrett shoves himself off my truck, taking off his hat and sliding his hand through his hair. “This ain’t gonna break us, Wade, we’ve been through too much shit, and we got far too much to live for.” He looks over to where Maisie and Leia are talking to Mrs Tucker. “Violence ain’t always the way,” he tells me.
“Who even are you?” I show him we’re okay by smirking as I start up my engine.
“Right now, I’m a desperate fuckin’ man.” He taps the side of my truck, prompting me to drive off, and as I pull away, I notice Leia look over her shoulder so she can watch me leave.
“We’re all desperate men,” I say to myself, out loud, as I head back toward home.
“You're mad at me.” Caleb tuts as we drive back home. I hated the look on Maisie’s face when he told her I was pregnant, I hate that now she’ll now be worrying. But worst of all, I hate that Caleb wanted to get a rise out of Wade. I saw the way he left, and how badly this is hurting him, and I’m wondering how we’re ever gonna last a month of it.
“I’m not mad, I just thought we were gonna be keeping it a secret.”
“I see no need, you're healthy, Leia, our baby will be healthy too. Unless, of course, this isn’t about Maisie.” He shrugs as his eyes focus on the road.
“It’s about everyone, you practically told the whole town.”
“Including Wade,” he points out, gripping the steering wheel a little tighter and pressing his foot on the gas.
“This has nothing to do with Wade.” I shake my head.
“Do you expect me to believe that? You think I didn’t notice the looks you two were giving each other today? Nowthat'swhat the whole damn town will be talking about, Leia. All eyes are on us, you know that, and today you decided to make a mockery of me.” He pulls up outside the house and I get out of the car, walking up to the door and sensing something brewing as he opens it to let me in. I figure some space between us will be my best option, so I head straight up the stairs to the bedroom.
“Don’t youdarefucking walk away from me!” Caleb comes after me, thundering up the steps and grabbing the top of my arm so he can force me to turn around. “After everything I do for you, this is how you fucking repay me? By humiliating me?”
“Everything you do for me?” I laugh back at him sarcastically. Something in my head seems to have clicked and I can feel the real LeiaWalkergetting ready to fight back.
“Tell me, Caleb, what should I be most grateful for, the bruises? How you’ve taken my whole life away from me? Or the fact you’ve been practically raping me every night?” He strikes hard and fast with the back of his hand against my cheek, making me stumble backward, and when I look up and see how angry I’ve made him. I know that my lie isn’t going to protect me anymore.
“A man can’t rape his own wife,” he spits at me, and despite the painful stinging where he hit, his words provoke a power inside me that feels unstoppable.
“You're no man, Caleb Mason, and I sure as hell ain’t your wife. Not up here anyway.” I tap my finger to my temple, then gasp in shock when he grabs me by my throat and shakes me so hard I feel my bones rattle.
