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I smile, rolling my eyes. But it helps.
I stay calm for the rest of the ride.
* * *
Jerry pulls in the second we do, leaping out of her car, guns blazing. She didn’t bring the others, but honestly, it makes sense. This is a family matter.
The second I get out of the car, she throws me a small handgun, and Ronan takes his out, positioning it in front of him, ready. We’re not sure what we’re getting into.
But the place is silent.
And it’s just like I remember.
The fields sit over a couple dozen acres. I used to think they went to the end of the earth as a kid. Everything at the end seems so far away.
The large cabin sits before us, smoke coming from the chimney. The chilly October air is nipping at my skin, and the wound on my hand hurts.
Jerry puts a finger to her lips, directing us to follow her.
Trying the front door, Jerry finds it unlocked, pulling it open. She leads, checking the corners before we follow her.
We silently scope the place out, but it’s empty. Not a thing.
My father’s old study, where he kept all of his company paperwork, has been completely emptied. Not a single thing in sight. The house stands, but there is no sign of life other than the fireplace raging, the smoke rising from the chimney like the dead.
But it’s when we exit to the back porch that we find it.
Or him.
Jeffrey Wright sits on the porch swing he’d often torment me on as a kid, using his foot to swing himself slightly. He barely glances our way as we step out.
“I knew I was going to die here,” he says, a small smile creeping onto his lips. “And I knew you would probably be the one to do it. Well, unless you died a martyr. You were always one for theatrics, weren’t you.” Jeffrey lets out a bone-chilling chuckle.
He sighs as we stay silent.
“I knew since the time you were a little girl that you weren’t going to take over this company. I knew it with every fiber of my being. You were always too good for it. Even as a kid. They couldn’t train you. Couldn’t mold you into something you refused to be. But you could have been powerful. You could have controlled the world.”
“No single person is supposed to control the world,” I tell him. “And you don’t. You get paid by people who want to watch the world burn.”
He shrugs.
“You know, I think you should thank me for Ronan,” he smiles, looking out across the fields.
“Why would I do that?” My heart starts beating faster and faster as I realize we’re on the edge of something I can’t possibly come back from.
“Who do you think sent all your boyfriends away? I knew that when the day came that your parents passed, you couldn’t be married. Do you know how easy it was to pay them off?” he looks me in the eyes, chuckling. “They took the money and ran far away from you, child.”
A shiver of disgust runs down my back. I don’t think I’m strong enough to ask him about what he did to me. I don’t think I have to be.
“You talk like you wanted them out of the way,” I say, my head tilting. “Who killed them, Jeffrey?”
He shrugs, his shoulders dropping dramatically.
“I did,” comes the voice to my left.
My head whips to the left, my eyes wide as I watch her shrug.
“I lit their car on fire. I don’t have a single regret about it.”
