Page 64

CHAPTER 64

WOLF

Redley sits in the passenger seat as I drive, and it’s so strangely relaxing to be near her without her trying to kill me. Her perfect pussy still coats my tongue from earlier. I smell like her, and things are almost where they should be, but there’s some remaining tension between Muffin and me that I’m hoping to eliminate now.

She hasn’t asked me where we’re going, and I don’t know if it’s because she’s guessed or she doesn’t care. Her long black hair tumbles around her face. The ends are cinched in a messy braid with a leather cord. Green eyes point at the sky, and I can’t help but notice the beauty between the two. The car bumps and jostles us as my staring backfires.

“Jesus, what the hell, Wolf!” she shouts as she bounces in her seat and her teeth clatter.

“Sorry, Muffin, I was staring at you again. Your fault for being so damn pretty I’d rather die than not look at you.”

“I think that’s your fault for being insane, Wolf.”

I just shrug. The cops are long gone, and with my father and great-uncle dead, it’s up to me to either keep things a secret here or let it all come to a head. She was all too proud of herself when she told me how she killed the town Doc and the shock on his face right before he died. I really love her, and she’s just as crazy as me, whether she wants to admit it or not. I won’t try to boss Redley around, but if she wants, I’ll keep things secret for her forever. We don’t really have to change our lives much.

We reach the base of my mountain, and she finally looks at me with a question on her face, but she doesn’t ask it. I don’t feel inclined to give her information that she’s not even brave enough to request, so I ignore her as I find the road that pitches upward toward the mansion.

She must recognize the way, given she came here once herself, but still, she doesn’t say anything. We pull into the driveway and park the car up at the top by the house. There are so many things inside that belong to my father that I haven’t had time to deal with. It occurs to me that it technically all belongs to Red anyway, so I decide to leave that up to her. There's a hole in my heart where the figure of a father belongs, and that emptiness hurts. But I don’t miss Carver.

I climb out of my seat and open the door for her. Each time I do this, she looks at me like I’ve got some deep ulterior motive. Which I frankly find silly and profoundly hot. I fucked her without her consent. I’ve killed in front of her. I don’t know what ugly thing she’s waiting for, but she’s not exactly easy to scare away. Despite how much I’ve lied to her, she’s always known the truth of me.

I take her by the hand and lead her up to the front door, much different from the first time she came here when I told her to shut her mouth and carried her up the stairs to my wing in secret. Her eyes dart around the building, and the gardens wonder in her dominant emotion. I slide the key into the lock and open the door. She’s seen it before, but it’s different this time.

“Welcome home, Muffin,” I say, and for the first time in my life, the air doesn’t feel so damn tense. “This is all yours.”

She pauses in the doorway and looks at me with a thread of distrust.

“You have the deed. Why do you look so confused?” I ask. “Just come in.”

“So you’re really telling me you’re not planning to just take it back from me?” she asks as she looks at the foyer. She seems so small and sad right now, and I hate my family lineage more than I ever have for making her feel like she’s less than she is or doesn’t deserve what was legally owed to her to begin with.

“I want you to marry me, Redley, and I want you to make this house whatever the hell you want it to be. It’s yours now,” I promise her, feeling like there isn’t enough time in eternity to show her what she means to me and make up for the times I allowed her to suffer.

“It’s mine, is it?” she asks, with a wicked glint to her smile. “And I can do whatever I want with it?”

“Of course you can, Muffin,” I insist, feeling oddly vulnerable. I thought we were past this. We were holding hands and chatting.

“Is there money hidden in here, valuables?” she asks.

“Not as much as there used to be. My father was bad with money, and things were getting tight for us already.”

“Grab what you can,” she tells me.

“What?” I ask, but she doesn’t repeat herself. She just walks off into the house.

I decide to listen to her and empty my father’s safe. I head into his wing for the first time in years. He did some truly terrible things to me here and taught me some of his most disturbing lessons, but I don’t allow myself to think of them as I grab everything that could be important or valuable, including the cash and gold he had. Then I stuff them all into an oversized duffel bag. As I head back to find Red, the smell of smoke catches my attention.

“What the hell?” I ask, but only roaring flames answer me. Anxiety opens in my stomach, not for my home, but for my girl, because I’m sick to death of not keeping her safe from danger.

I didn’t need to worry, though, and I resent her for how often she inspires the emotion. Gorgeous Red stands by the door with an empty bottle of liquor, the match she dropped already eating up the deeper section of the house.

“What the hell!” I shout this time.

“It’s my house, Wolf. You said I could do whatever I wanted with it.”

“Yeah, but where are we going to live?” I ask.

“Your family built it on the blood and suffering of mine, and I want to watch the fucking thing burn. Count yourself lucky that I’m not locking you inside.” She does not answer my question. I knew she was fucking crazy.

And if this was a long game plan to take me down, she really could have, and she would have finally won. Instead, we run out of there together and stand on the lawn as the flames eat the entire mansion apart. And maybe I should feel sad about this too, but what she said about ghosts and hauntings feels more true than I expected, and my mother’s and my pain seems to leave with the smoke rolling across the Appalachians.