Hatred such that I’ve never known rises inside me, heating my blood. I shove Mark’s chest, and he flies backward into a large redwood, his head smacking the trunk. It makes such a loud, cracking sound that panic stabs through my rage.
But he only grimaces with the pain, and then wheezes out a laugh. “You can take it out on me as much as you want.”
“You’re a fucking scumbag.” The forest rings with my shouts, which are swallowed by the noise from the bulldozers rumbling down the streets. People spill out of their houses to watch them drive by. My chest tightens as an older woman slumps down onto her porch steps, her face buried in her hands. I whirl on Mark, who watches the scene, bored.
“Why can’t you just let me go?”
“This isn’t about you, darling. This is about my baby growing in your womb. A baby that belongs to me. I will do anything it takes to control its upbringing.” He licks his lips, his eyes heated. “Sign the divorce papers, and this all goes away.”
Thirteen
Gage
Vince, the bartender, gives me serious side-eye as I slam the glass on the bar counter for the third time. Behind him, there’s a poster stuck to the wall. One of George’s. It claims the Illuminati have finally infiltrated Fair Oaks after years of pilfering territory from Yosemite.
I point at it. “You actually believe that?”
He doesn’t even have to turn around to know what I’m talking about. “I hung it to make him shut up. You know how he gets.”
I run an impatient hand through my hair. “The whole town is being evicted, and he wastes time on this conspiracy shit.”
“Don’t get mad at him. He's just shaken up. We all are.”
The bar is actually crowded for once. It only gets like this on holidays, or when the town feels the need to band together. The atmosphere is energized—angry. Those “rich bastards” keep cropping up into conversation, but most people have no idea that the people responsible for this are the Cranburys. Most haven’t connected the government eviction notices to their toxic presence. Word about Evelyn crashing our family dinner and shutting down my business spread around town, and the garbled gossip about how she wants “to steal Gage’s baby.”
Which of course resulted in the whole place hating the Cranbury’s fucking guts. The angry rhetoric isn’t violent yet, but it probably will be once they find out “those rich bastards” are right next door. Yeah, things could get ugly.
But that’s not honestly what I’m most worried about.
Someone slides into the stool next to me. I don’t have to even look to know it’s one of my brothers. Everyone else knows to leave me the hell alone when I’m in a mood.
It’s Chris. Damn, he doesn’t look like himself. He’s wearing his uniform, but his normally clean-shaven face is rough with a dark red beard. The tie at his throat is unclipped, and he looks like he hasn’t slept in days. He reaches over me and grabs my beer, throwing back his head to drain the glass.
“Go ahead and help yourself.”
Glowering, he finishes the last drop and slams it on the counter, earning a stink-eye from the bartender. “This is fucking ridiculous.”
“The evictions? I’m not worried. I’ll chain myself to my goddamn house if I have to. They’re not getting rid of us.”
“I’ve been up all night trying to find a way to get us out of this, but apparently it’s one hundred percent legal. The government can seize our property for public use and there’s nothing we can do about it.”
I sneer at him. “Are you having an existential crisis, right now?”
“Shut the hell up. I’m a cop, not a lawyer.” He peers around the bar. “Where’s your wife?”
My insides turn to lead. “Gone.”
For a few seconds there’s nothing but the constant rumble of tense conversation as Chris’ head turns to stare at me.
“Gone where?”
“She went back to Cranberry prick. Decided she couldn’t stick it out with us. She said she couldn’t stand living in Fair Oaks. That I’m too poor for her.”
The words feel strange in my mouth. At the time, I swallowed it up, but now I’m starting to wonder if she meant them at all. At the garden she looked miserable, and then she lingered after Cranbury pussed out and walked away. The haunted look in her eyes kept me up that night. It was like someone begging to be saved. I thought she would say