The Reckless Oath We Made - Bryn Greenwood Page 0,113
when she got to the apartment, you weren’t there. She’s going to try again next—”
“No, she isn’t, because Molly’s dead. Somebody murdered Molly.”
“No, she stayed behind in Nebraska. Conrad’s going to go meet her.”
“Nobody’s going to meet her!” I yelled. “One of your boyfriend’s buddies murdered her. Or maybe he murdered her. Maybe you’re next. And did you think I would hand Marcus over to some stranger? Because fuck that really fucking hard.”
“It’s okay. I’ve got you,” LaReigne whispered to Tague. Where she had her hands pressed to his side, blood was seeping out between her fingers.
“We’re leaving now. Right now.”
“No, I can’t. We’ll figure out a way. You don’t understand, Zee. Loudon is going to get paroled and as soon as he does, I’ll have to share custody with him. I can’t do that.”
“You won’t be sharing custody with anybody, if you don’t come with me right fucking now. We can still figure something out, but only if we go,” I said.
“I can’t leave him.” She was crying and looking down at Tague, so I grabbed a handful of her hair to turn her head and make her look at me.
“You’re not leaving Marcus! They took him away! The Gills took him away! So you are fucking coming home and getting him back!” That was all I could think of: if she went to prison, the Gills would get to keep Marcus. It made me feel like my heart was on fire. “You don’t just get to abandon your family.”
As soon as I let go of her hair, she went back to looking at Tague and saying, “It’s okay. It’ll be okay.”
I took ahold of the waist of her jeans with both hands to move her, but she fought so hard I had to squat down and dig my heels in to keep ahold of her. Gentry was pacing, waiting for us, scratching his neck and holding his sword. I really, really wished that he would finish Tague off, because I felt like maybe Tague being good and dead would clarify a few things.
“This is not Beauty and the Beast! He’s not going to magically change from a fucking Nazi into a prince, just because you love him,” I said.
“He’s not a Nazi. He’s made mistakes, but he’s a good man. I love him. He’s going to take care of me the way Loudon never—”
“Loudon? Fuck you! I took care of you. I took care of you and Marcus.”
“You smothered me. You don’t even have your own life. You were there all the time! I never got to be alone.”
“Because you needed me! Because you and Marcus are my life,” I yelled. “When did I get to be alone?”
“Well, you can be alone now!” LaReigne said.
“My lady.” Gentry raised his voice enough to cut through our shouting.
Hearing how freaked out he was killed my anger. LaReigne dug her fingers into the grass, still trying to get away from me. I let her go. Then all I had left was fear.
“Please, LaReigne. If you stay here, you’re going to prison. Even if you didn’t help them escape, it’s going to look that way. When the cops show up and you’re here crying over this piece of shit, it won’t matter whether you’re innocent. I don’t even care if you are, but you can’t stay here. Please.”
Maybe I would have gone on begging her until the cops showed up, but we heard more gunshots from the woods. They were close together, rapid-fire, and they echoed back across the valley.
“Lady Zhorzha, by the oath I made, I beg thee come with me,” Gentry said.
Thee. That meant just me. Whether he meant it that way or not, I knew he was right. If I stayed, I was going to end up in prison, too. Nobody would believe I’d come there to rescue LaReigne. They would think I was in on it. And if I went to prison, Mom would be alone in the world, Marcus would grow up in the Gills’ house, and I would never get to see him again.
Gentry gave me his hand and pulled me to my feet. We left LaReigne there with her head down next to Tague’s, crying and whispering to him.
Where we went into the woods, I could see there’d been a fight. There were broken branches, scuff marks in the pine needles, and blood. More blood. Twenty or thirty feet further, Conrad Ligett was lying facedown in a puddle of blood. It wasn’t Dirk or Edrard,