Page 119 of One Last Rainy Day
In an instant, Tyler is next to me, inspecting my skin, and I jerk away, knowing the damage is minimal as he starts to shout orders at the birds already scrambling around us. “Use whatever you can!”
Tyler speaks rapidly into his phone as my heartbeat ramps, filling my ears.
Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh.
“...came here in a rage, asking who fucking marked her, T. She shredded every tire and threatened to light the place up. She looked fucking possessed, man. Why doesn’t she know?...Where the fuck have you been?!”
Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh.
A long pause follows, and I know my brother is rapidly relaying a worthy explanation. As ruthless as he is, he wouldn’t have left Cecelia so exposed if he didn’t have a choice. Even as my brain reasons in his favor, I feel the resentment simmering beneath.
“Dom,” Tyler says, stretching the phone out to me.
“Don’t we have a track on her Jeep?” I ask, and Tyler jerks his chin.
“The fuck?!” I roar. “Why?”
“They were living together,” Tyler says on harsh exhale. “At Roman’s.” Sean visibly flinches from where he stands a foot away as I snatch the phone and curse the fact that I’m too drunk to fucking function properly. “What the fuck is going on?”
“Dom.” The panic in Tobias’s voice has my fear elevating. “Listen to me, I’m begging you, listen to me.”
“I’m listening,” I snap.
“Roman didn’t do it. He didn’t kill Maman and Papa. I got it all wrong...Jesus Christ,” he roars.
“What?” It’s barely a whisper.
Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh.
“...Dom! Are you there?”
“I’m here,” I say, as my focus flits to Tyler and Sean, who can hear every shouted word, their wide eyes glued to me as I put the phone on speaker.
“Roman didn’t do it.”
Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh.
“How do you know?” I ask, my voice barely audible.
“Because he just fucking told me,” Tobias croaks.
“What?” The ground starts to feel like it’s moving beneath me as my breaths become labored while the weight of his words sink in.
My head starts spinning with answered questions while more begin to circulate.
“Dom?!”
“Yeah,” I croak as he talks over me, and I pinch my temples, a headache forming behind them.
“...his office, Roman knew we were coming for him, Dom. He’s fucking known.”
Tyler, Sean, and I stare in disbelief at the burner in my hand.
“It was an accident,” Tobias says, tone rattled. “Dom...it was Diane...she was pregnant with Cecelia. Roman didn’t do it.”
Why would he allow us near her? Why would he...I gape at the phone as the answer snakes its way in. Because we couldn’t even fool our fucking enemy of our affection for his daughter.
What confounds me just after that is that he was never our enemy.
