Page 10 of Burning Truths
I told you. We’re stuck in this room until our corpse rots. It’s just me and you and our empty screams.
Chapter Seven
RYKER
“I feel like a fucking penguin.” West grunts.
He pulls at the jacket of his suit, aggravation laced across his features. My hands run over the pants of mine, trying to calm the hammering organ in my chest, my eyes slide to my brother.
“You made the call?” I ask.
The entire town knows what today is, the past two weeks we’ve been fielding foundation bullshit and hunting down answers of our own. No one’s batted an eye at the professor’s death, hell I forgot Kenna pulled the trigger, until Addington came crawling back to town. Gio found him in a hotel at the edge of Del Mar trying to pull a meeting together a few days after Kenna was snatched. We hoped he would lead us to her, but he was just as surprised as we were. The other council members have been tight lipped about any information related to who may have taken her or how we could find her. That ends today.
“Yep.” West says, popping the P at the end.
His eyes are locked on the moving scenery around us, the limo speeding down the beachside highway, heading to our family cemetery. Juliana is going to meet us there, leaving this ride the only alone time we’ve had since she got here, and I plan to use it.
“You know what we have to do.” I state, pointedly looking at the side of his head until my stare pulls his attention. His normal playboy smile hidden behind tired and sunken eyes. It’s been the longest couple weeks of our lives, but hopefully today we start to gain back the footing we’ve lost.
Brushing off a small piece of lint from my knee, my eyes flash back to him.“Cole would track her if he were here, but he can’t, so we’re going to bring Ally with us. If she tries to refuse, we cut her dad’s throat in front of her.” I say, my words empty, but my threat firm.
He nods once, “G said he heard some muscle rolling into town early before dawn. I think their presence is going to rattle a few cages, but maybe that’s just what we need.”
I rub my lips together, “Use whatever we can to draw them out. No one person could have pulled all of this off. The fire, planting Ally, the snakes in the foundation, Kenna being grabbed.” I pause, my throat catching, “Cole. He told Kenna he found something on his last call.”
I trail off, giving us a moment to swallow down the mess we’ve found ourselves in. Two men in college just becoming the kings of their family's empire. One that was snuffed out by hands from the inside. How did we find ourselves here? Kenna has to be the missing link in the circle of questions that we need answered and just thinking her name has my soul roaring to find what belongs to him.
“Once all the players are in place, I want to start the ceremony.”
The limo slows, making a sharp left turn, West turns from me back to the window.
He nods, “It’ll be one the town won’t forget.”
Tinted windows block the peering eyes lined up and down the walkway, waiting, watching, ready to see what the Stone men have planned. There have been rumors that have circledthe town, but none close enough for us to care about correcting. There’s another limo up ahead with an older man standing next to the open door. His hand is stretched out, ready to help the woman wearing deep red heels from the back seat. A dainty gloved hand grasps his, hoisting herself from the leather seat to stand at the edge of the curb. My lip curls slightly at her wide smile.
“Doesn’t she know she’s burying her son today?” West snaps.
My fingers pop under the strain of my fist, but I ignore his comment. We all know why we’re here, so it’s a rhetorical question that doesn’t need a response. Instead I roll my shoulders and slide on my mask, ready to put on whatever show was needed to get the point across. Our ride comes to a stop behind Julianas, but we don’t wait for our door to be pulled open.
Filing out, one by one, we steadily make our way across the lawn until we’re standing next to my mother., I let my gaze slide across the faces surrounding us. Some red and puffy, some masked in bravery, but the ones dipped in fear stand out the most. A sea of sheep waiting for the next orders that trickle down the pipeline. Fucking Christ. My skin itches with disgust. The urge to flee, to scour the world for Kenna. It’s suffocating.
“Wipe that sour look off your face.” My mother snaps. Her velvet voice laced with venom.
West walks over with a solemn look on his face and it’s then that I remember that this is a funeral. Black on black, a wave of people follow us to the site where Cole is to be laid, their footsteps an echo of how empty I feel. G stands off to the left near the front row waiting for us to reach him. He ignores the icy stare from my mother and instead walks up to me and leans in.
“We’ve got him.”
It’s all he says, yet it’s all I needed to know. Breathing in deep, I turn to my right and motion for my mother to take aseat before I finally take my own. Quietly, one by one, the chairs behind us fill. When the Stone’s call for attendance people show up, so it's not until I look over my shoulder that I see people spanning through the isles all the way back to a small valley of graves.
Swallowing the lump in my throat, I turn to see the preacher standing next to an all black casket with gold accents. The body inside no longer my brother but a shell of a soul gone too soon. When the man dressed in all black with a white tie speaks, everyone listens. Eventually he ends his speech and all eyes fall to the box being prepared to be lowered into the pre-dug hole. Crying. So many people are crying. It almost makes me laugh at the irony of the situation. Cole hated it here. Hated the school, the students, and most people. Yet, here we were, listening to people crying over the death of one of us.
Looking over my shoulder, a quick flash of purple hair has me doing a double take. Ally. She’d been warned not to show her fucking face here, but it looks like West might need to get his little toy back on her leash. She’s supposed to be taking care of something way more important, not here where people might see her. Kenna blew up the fact that she was related to Addington and since we had our guys out looking for him, we had her lay low. Gave her a job to keep her little ass busy, but it seems like our bite needs to be worse than our bark.
“Looks like your little rat doesn’t follow directions.” I growl under my breath.
I only speak loud enough for him to hear. Fuck, if Juliana got her claws into Ally, we’d be cleaning the towns streets for weeks. The woman to my right eats college girls for breakfast. Ones that betrayed her sons? I pray for the day Kenna and my mother go toe to toe. If-
Don’t go there.