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Prologue

WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED.

A thick fog clouded my thoughts as I attempted to open my eyes. Their heavy weight made it feel like I’d been asleep for days. I tried to shift in the soft bed, but my legs and arms wouldn’t cooperate.

Nothing was working as it should.

“You’re okay son.” Pappy’s gruff voice cut through the fog easing a bit of my growing apprehension.

After several attempts my lids lifted. I took several slow blinks to clear away the remaining haze. Pappy sat in the chair next to my strange bed. The room was large, but not one I recognized.

White walls. White sheets. Monitors.

“Where the hell am I?” I gritted out as I pushed to sit up.

“A facility,” he responded.

“What kind of facility?” I held my head between my hands and attempted to focus on the last thing I remembered.

Nothing. Not a single damn clue to what I was doing in this place or how I ended up here.

“A detox center inside a rehab facility.”

“Why am I here?”

Pappy’s gray brows rose high on his forehead. “You don’t remember?”

“Fuck. What did I do this time?” It had to do with drugs or booze that much I was certain. I didn’t remember details but being a coke head was something not easily wiped from my memories. “Is Caleb here too?”

Pappy’s lips dipped in a slight frown. “No son just you.”

Right. So whatever I did didn’t involve Caleb. Good.

“You don’t remember her?” Pappy asked leaning forward like he was asking the most critical question of his life. As he leaned forward, a few papers slipped from his lap and floated to the floor.

His question shot a bolt of fear to my core. Her? If I did anything to a woman while high that she didn’t want, like my fathers living legacy, I'd never recover.

“No, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Like the weight of the world was removed from his slumped shoulders Pappy leaned back and gave a sigh of relief. “You didn’t do anything wrong, Brenton. Don’t worry about that; everything is fine. You’re fine.”

“Why am I here?” I bellowed. Frustration boiled the blood in my veins. Dumb ass memory needed to fucking start working.

Locking his green eyes with my own, he gave a small smile. “Fate, my dear boy. Fate brought you here.”

Beneath the frustration, something else simmered. Something that told me that he was not only wrong about the fate shit but also holding back the truth.