I couldn’t bring myself to tell him about Vincent’s threat. He already wore his resentment against Leo like a badge of honor. If he allowed his father to blackmail him into moving home, he’d never let that resentment go. And I didn’t want that for Leo or Tristin.
“My brothers were just fine without me for the last year and a half. They won’t even notice I’m gone.”
“That’s insane. They love you.”
“Based on what?” He made a show of looking around him. “I don’t see them here, begging me to come home.”
“Because they don’t know where you are,” I practically shouted.
“And I suppose they have no idea how to find me on campus either.”
I heaved a sigh. This conversation was pointless. He’d clearly made up his mind about his brothers—about me—and he wasn’t budging. Which irritated the hell out of me.
I wished I could say the only person he was hurting with his stubbornness was himself. But that wasn’t true. If he didn’t come home, I was getting shipped back to Kansas, and Leo was losing his trust fund.
And, right now, I sincerely doubted he would care about either.
I took a few steps back, more than ready to get away from him. But, before I left, there was one thing he needed to know.
“Leo told Violet the truth. Did you know that?”
His head jerked back. Finally—finally—I got a reaction out of him. “When?”
“The day he and Hayle went to the Backwoods Tavern.”
“Why the hell would he do that?”
I wished I was close enough to smack him over the head. “He did it for you. So that Violet would help us expose Bodie’s role in the whole ordeal.”
Tristin clenched and unclenched his jaw several times before saying, “Why are you telling me this?”
“Because, whether you believe it or not, Leo loves you. He screwed up—more than once—but that isn’t the end of the story. He and Hayle are your brothers, and that means something.”
“Maybe to you.” He pushed away from the railing and turned his back to me. “But, to me? It doesn’t mean shit.” And then he slid open the door to the cabin and disappeared inside.
I stared at the empty space where he’d been standing. Did he actually believe the drivel that came out of his own mouth? Because I didn’t accept, for one second, that he didn’t care about his brothers.
He might be pissed at both of them, but anger was fleeting. Family was forever. At least, that’s how it was supposed to be.
Moving slower than I would have liked, I picked up my bike and began walking it down the dock. My confrontation with Tristin had left me physically and emotionally drained.
I couldn’t even think right now.
I just had to keep moving until I made it to...I didn’t even know where.
Home wasn’t the right answer. Even if I was willing to go back to the mansion, I absolutely couldn’t think of it as home right now.
Just as I made it to the end of the dock, the sky opened up, exchanging the mist for sheets of rain. I yanked my hood up and hurried to the closest building, where I was partially covered from the deluge.
I couldn’t even be annoyed, since the weather was mirroring the storm raging inside of me. Add some thunder and lightning into the mix, and we’d be twins.
Retrieving my phone from my backpack, I stared at my short list of contacts. I knew I should reach out to Leo, but I couldn’t quite talk myself into pressing his name. After my encounters with Vincent and Tristin, I needed a break from all things Sharpe. So, I called the only person who had any hope of distracting me right now.
Petra pulled up to the curb less than ten minutes later, and as soon as I dropped my soaked ass into her passenger seat, she didn’t pull any punches. “Oh, girl. You look like shit.”
I laughed. Leave it to my one and only girlfriend to do the impossible. I would have sworn laughter was a thing of the past, but five seconds with Petra, and she’d proved me wrong. “Please, don’t hold back on my account.”
“How did you even get here?”
“My bike.” I pointed to a bike rack, where I’d locked the cruiser up. I hated to leave it, but I was too exhausted to waste much energy worrying about it.
“You didn’t check the forecast before heading out?”