Page 16

“Bro, there’s nothing left,” I called out finally after Joey had gone far beyond brutalizing the body. My words didn’t stop him, causing me to step forward and grab his hoodie, giving it a firm jerk. “He’s way past dead, man. Now you’re just beating a dead horse, and we got shit to do.”

He didn’t respond so much as snarl, struggling to escape me. I had to pull him further away, feeling like I was holding onto a feral cat and trying to avoid getting scratched.

“Joey! Stop!” I yelled, pushing him hard away from the pile of corpses, causing him to trip and fall, landing against a wall. For a moment, he just stayed there blinking before standing again and turning to face me. The wild look was gone from his eyes, but the cold anger had taken its place.

“Since when did you have a problem with carnage?” He sneered. “I was just doing what needed done.”

“Since when has overkill been your thing?” I snarked back. “And you didn’t even leave any for me, which, come on. Party fucking foul dude.”

“Don’t be childish. You did your job, I did mine. So what if a cockroach ends up a little more smashed than the others. No one cares.” He rolled his eyes, brushing past me.

“Me?ME being childish?Have you listened to half the shit coming out of your mouth the last couple of days? All you’ve done is be fucking childish about our damned woman, butI’mbeing childish. Be fucking for real.” I shouted, moving into his space.

“It’s not childish to recognize a fucking snake in the grass after it’s already bitten you. It already took us too long to figure it out, and I can’t get you chucklefucks to see it!” He yelled back, crowding toward me.

I shoved him back, intentionally slamming him into the wall this time. “I warned you. I fucking warned you. What happens next is on you, I just want to make that cl–” My words cut off as I felt a sharp prick in the back of my neck. Joey grunted and reached toward his shoulder, drawing my eyes to see where a dart was sticking out of him. I reached my hand back and pulled out a dart from the back of my neck, squinting at it as it came into my line of sight. “What the f–”

Chapter Eight

Victoria

Being alone wasn’t something I’d had to deal with in so long that now that I’d found myself alone in Dawn and Ian’s house, I wasn’t sure what to do. I hated the feeling of being in a new place; even though the house was warm and comfortable, I just couldn’t get myself to relax. So I found myself doing what anyone restless in a new place did: snoop. I wasn’t going through anyone’s things, but wandering through the house, seeing what doors led to where because curiosity was all I had to indulge in. Or rather, was safer to indulge in. I opened a door, looked around a small bathroom, and closed it again.

As I wandered down a hallway, looking at the pictures on the walls of the boys, Dawn and Ian, and other people from their lives I’d never met, I stopped to look at a picture of Joey. The walls of this house weren’t as thick as the boys would have liked, and even though they didn’t say anything after their talks or meetings, I knew fractures were starting between them. It was hard to reconcile the man who was so angry and hateful toward me with the Joey I’d gotten to know. It made the others act like they had to handle me with kid gloves.

I sighed softly, continuing my exploration. It felt like we were all waiting for something, and none of us knew what it was.I opened another door to a bedroom that had me drawing up short. It was one of the only unused bedrooms I’d seen, and as I stepped inside, a scent washed over me that nearly buckled my knees.

This was Rich’s room.

It smelled just like him, and I could almost see him in it after a second look around. There were books on gardening stacked up on a small desk and a neatly made bed, and there was a straightforward and logical order in his room. Tears pricked in my eyes as I realized the room was largely dust-free, even still. Dawn must have cleaned it, and the idea of the woman cleaning her son’s room, knowing he would never use it again, was enough to nearly steal my breath from my chest. I couldn’t imagine.

I sat on the edge of his bed. It occurred to me that someone would have to do the same thing at our house if we ever managed to make it back there. We’d have to pack his things… or keep the room clean. Who would take care of his flowers? I didn’t know anything about gardening, and I could only imagine how angry he’d be if they wilted because they’d been poorly cared for.

I grabbed his pillow, pulled it into my lap, took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and let the familiar presence surround me.

“I wondered how long it would be before I found you in here.” Dawn’s voice made me jump, and I jerked my head toward the door. She smiled softly, an understanding look on her face as she stepped into the room.

“Dawn! I—” I stood quickly, putting his pillow back.

“It’s alright, honey. You have just as much right to come in here as anyone else does.” She moved to his desk, letting her fingers trail along the books and the surface. “You meant a great deal to him.”

“I… wish I had known. I spent most of the time I knew him fighting with him.” I said sadly, looking at my feet.

“That was one of the things he liked about you.” Dawn chuckled. “He wasn’t used to that, and you came as a surprise.”

I didn’t know what to do with that, so I said nothing. My eyes burned, and I blinked rapidly in an attempt to keep myself from crying in front of this woman who’d lost more than I would ever know. I shuffled my feet together, picking at the hem of my shirt as I looked back up at her. She’d handled everything with more grace than anyone, and it hadn’t taken long for me to understand why all the guys treated her as a mother.

“Dawn, how… How are you okay?” I asked softly.

Dawn pressed her lips together momentarily before letting out a soft sigh. “I’m not. I’m only still standing because the rest of my boys need me. They won’t make it through this without someone to hold them steady, andyoustill need a moment to grieve before you can be that for them. When you’re ready, then… then I’ll fall apart.” She looked at me, and it felt like she was looking into my soul. I could see the weight of Dawn’s grief then, like the crushing pressure of an ocean on her shoulders. It amazed me that she was still upright. Then she let out a long breath, and it was gone. “And I have Ian. We have each other. He holds me up when I need it. He’s…” She trailed off, and even though I had seen how badly she was hurting, the light of love was still written all over her face as she thought about her husband. “He’s more than a rock after all this time. He’s my bullfighter. He has been since the first time we met at the rodeo.”

I’d seen the pictures in his study—a young Ian and Dawn at the rodeo. Dawn was beaming with pride as a smiling Ian held up a first-place buckle and a trophy with a bucking horse on it. I couldn’t picture Ian as a rowdy cowboy, but I imagine married life and children would settle a man down.

A hand on my shoulder pulled me from my reverie, and I blinked to bring Dawn back into focus.

“Come with me. I have something to show you, ” she said with a small smile, leading me from the room. When she shut the door behind us, she did it so gently that it was like she was closing up a shrine as we left the room. I followed along beside her, listening to her talk because I wasn’t sure what else to do.

Dawn filled every second of silence with idle chatter, and by the time we reached the greenhouse doors, I understood why Ian was so quiet. He didn’t have to do much talking when she did it all for both of them. It wasn’t until we stepped inside that her words started to paint a picture of how things used to be for the Innocenti family.