to Savannah because I didn’t want it if I didn’t have her.
I had nothing if I didn’t have her or our kids.
It’d been one thing when I’d thought she’d been keeping them from me because of Hunter and Madison. Because of the betrayal and lies. I would’ve gone to the ends of the earth to fix that. To make it right.
But taking our kids to protect them from me?
Saying she knew I wouldn’t hurt them only to say she was afraid she couldn’t stop me?
There was no fixing that.
Savannah had known me most of my life. She knew the way I worked better than anyone. Better than me. And she’d been witness to the past ten years of keeping that anger leashed.
If she was scared, she had every reason to be.
And I’d put that fear there.
“Why are you sad?”
“Avalee.”
I forced my head up to see Madison holding her daughter to her. Protecting her. Stopping her from coming closer to me.
“Avalee, go back to the kitchen,” Madison continued, voice a hushed plea.
But her daughter just tilted her head as she studied me. “I saw you that one time when I was with my friends, Quinn and Wyatt, and you were mad. But right now, you’re sad. Like, so, so sad. This sad,” she said, spreading her arms wide.
My heart wrenched at the names of two of my children, the shock of the pain stealing my breath.
“I’m sorry,” Madison whispered as she stepped backward with her daughter in tow.
“Beau,” Hunter began after they’d left, voice uncertain, but I spoke over him.
“Am I Dad?” I met each of my brother’s blank stares when there wasn’t a response, my chest pitching with my uneven breaths the rougher they came. “Am I Dad?” I demanded harshly.
Hunter’s stare flashed Cayson’s way for a moment before meeting me again. “Come inside, man. Dry off. We’ll talk.” He reached for my shoulder, and I jerked back.
Staggered to standing and continued backward as he followed.
“Beau—”
“Answer me,” I shouted as I reached the lip of the top step.
“Let’s go inside and talk,” he said calmly as he neared me.
One of my hands shot out to shove him back, but he grabbed my forearm and twisted it to the side before I could touch him. In the next second, I had the collar of his shirt clenched tight in my other hand and was pulling him closer.
My jaw aching in protest as I seethed, “Be a fucking man and answer me.”
His nostrils flared as he watched me slowly give over to that haze of anger. “You want a real answer? Then you need to talk to all of us,” he ground out. “Sawyer’s been there nearly every day—he sees you with your kids. Cayson lived through the bullshit with Dad—he’s the only one who saw that side of him. I was your best friend before you destroyed my life.” His grip on my arm tightened as I struggled to escape the anger surrounding me. “But it’s been ten years since we’ve seen each other, Beau. I can’t answer that.”
“You can. You won’t.” I shoved him back and raked my trembling hands through my hair as that pain continued to tear through me like a dull, jagged blade.
I turned. Moving down the porch steps instinctively as Hunter called out my name.
His voice getting closer and closer as I walked through the rain even though my feet were moving faster as I reached the cluster of cars and trucks.
“Beau, stop,” he shouted. Grabbing my arm and jerking me to a stop.
I had a hand around Hunter’s throat and had him slammed up against the side of a truck in the next second.
My entire body trembling with the rage that always stayed just beneath the surface. Ready to explode. Racing through my veins and consuming me.
His brows were drawn close and his eyes were narrowed. One of his hands was on my chest to keep me back, the other was wrapped around my rain-soaked wrist and was squeezing in an attempt to make me loosen my hold on him.
I gripped tighter.
“You got what you wanted,” I seethed. “You got your life back at the cost of mine.”
“Beau, that isn’t—” His jaw flexed when I shoved him harder against the window.
“We’re done,” I said slowly, making sure he heard me. “Forever. Understood?”
“Yeah.”
I pushed away from him and stalked across the gravel driveway, never stopping even as I passed my truck. Fighting to see through the red haze and pouring rain. Struggling to breathe as the