Series: Webs We Weave Series by Krista Ritchie
Total pages in book: 147
Estimated words: 145038 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 725(@200wpm)___ 580(@250wpm)___ 483(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145038 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 725(@200wpm)___ 580(@250wpm)___ 483(@300wpm)
My family. The family I never knew. “They never made it out of Connecticut,” I say with hollowness.
“One did,” Everett says to me. “You were a one-year-old boy in his car seat. Your oldest brother was next to you. He must’ve unbuckled you while the car was sinking. He got the window cracked, just enough to squeeze you through.”
My chest tightens. I fight an onslaught of raw emotion. “How could you know this?”
“Because I jumped off the bridge and went into the water. To see who was alive.”
“And you found me?” He what—he saved me? I’m fisting his shirt now, but it’s not with malice.
“You were a child.” Everett’s nose is runny. He wipes it with the back of his hand. I’ve never seen him this outwardly overcome with an emotion that’s not disappointment, frustration, or anger. “I wasn’t going to let you die. The river was deep. Varrick had run them off the road and driven away. He didn’t want to risk anyone seeing him.” Everett fights a tremor in his voice. “I would’ve…I would’ve tried to save more, but they were already gone. You weren’t even breathing. Addy gave you CPR when I brought you to the bank of the river. The only thing that we knew at that point is we had to get you out.”
“Get me out? I had a grandmother, an uncle, an aunt who were all still alive—and you took me?”
“He was going to kill them—”
“Alert the sheriff.”
“The sheriff was his best friend!” Everett shouts with a shrill, wounded laugh. “You have no idea, son. You think you can talk your way out of five federal penitentiaries—he can talk his way out of five hundred. They were all going to die, and we couldn’t stop it. But we could save you.”
I blink, my eyes so dry—they sear. “How does Varrick know who I am? Present day. He called me Brayden. How?”
“He knows you exist. He’s always known. We couldn’t just run off with you without him knowing, so we were trying to work around him. We told him we wanted a baby—me and Addison. It’s why we saved you. It’d been our dream. We weren’t going to raise you as a Wolfe, which would’ve been a threat to him. Instead, we’d strip you of your identity. And we were going to raise you as ours. You’d grow up as a con artist. He thought it was a great idea. We wanted to leave Varrick on good terms. So he had no reason to come after us.”
Too many questions slam into me, but I just go with this one: “Why call me Brayden? Out of everything—why would you risk choosing my birth name?”
He shrugs, his eyes glassing. “Guilt. Shame. We did have a hand in killing your family, indirectly, and maybe it was our way to make ourselves feel better.” He drops his gaze. “Your father was a good man—”
“Don’t,” I choke out. “I don’t want to hear it.”
He nods tensely, understanding. “They didn’t deserve it, is all. William—your grandfather, maybe, but not his kids.”
Nova suddenly speaks from the stairs. “Varrick has been targeting the girls. You said you left on good terms—how is that fucking good?”
Everett wipes at his nose again. “He’s not singling out the girls. He’s probably hoping to unsettle all of you. Or test you—to see how well we raised you.”
“You aren’t sure?” I ask, loosening my grip on his shirt.
“No. He knows all six of you are here, and he knows Addison and Elizabeth haven’t stuck around. We’ve been worried that he’s trying to threaten you all, just to lure them out to Connecticut for more than a day at a time.”
“Why haven’t they come out here more?” Phoebe asks angrily from the ground. “Why hide away?”
“Beth is terrified of him. For good reason.” He exhales a long breath. “And Addy won’t leave her. They’re…attached at the hip, and I can’t argue with it. You know how it is,” he tells me, then stares behind me at Phoebe and Hailey. “Varrick is…unpredictable. We don’t know what he’s going to do, which is why we’ve avoided pulling jobs in this state since ’86. Which is why we need to leave after this one with the Konings. We’re playing roulette the longer we stay.”
My temples pound.
I have this strange feeling, and the longer I stare at my father, the longer his eyes veer away from mine, the more I feel like…he’s evading.
He’s left something out.
He knows I see through him. But Nova says, “They’re here.”
The godmothers rush down the creaky stairs. “Hailey?” Addison’s voice pitches up as soon as she sees Hailey crumpled in Phoebe’s lap and how she’s staring off at nothing.
“Oh my God, Addy.” Elizabeth grabs on to her friend’s arm, and they race toward their daughters, but I cut off their path.