Golden Trail (The 'Burg #3)(216)

“Brother,” Merry choked.

Layne jerked his head around and got in Merry’s face again. “I’m not your brother,” he bit out.

Merry’s eyes narrowed and he yanked on Layne’s forearm. “You don’t get it.”

“I f**kin’ well do, it leaked straight from her eyes into my skin, you ass**le.”

“You don’t get it,” Merry rasped.

“What didn’t sink into my skin filled my head, she told me, Garrett. She told me.”

“She made us promise, Tanner,” Dave said behind him, his tone pleading.

Jasper got close and whispered, “Stand down, Dad.”

Layne stayed in Merry’s face and stared in his eyes. It didn’t occur to him Merry wasn’t struggling except to keep Layne’s hand from squeezing the life out of him.

“Dad, stand down,” Jasper repeated, Layne’s body locked before he pushed off, shoving Merry deeper into the wall as he took a step away.

“You aren’t welcome in this house,” he announced as both Merry’s hands went to his throat.

“Please listen to me, son,” Dave begged and Layne turned to him.

“You want me to listen now? Is that right? Now you want me to listen,” Layne asked sarcastically.

“Devin told us it was bad up there,” Dave said quietly.

“Yeah, Dave, I guess you could describe it as bad, watchin’ my woman relive a nightmare where she heard her mother scream through torture, you could describe that as bad.”

Dave flinched then his face got hard. “That’s my wife you’re talkin’ about.”

“No, Dave, that’s your daughter I’m talkin’ about.”

Dave’s jaw clenched.

“She made us promise, Tanner,” Merry said softly and Layne turned to him.

“Yeah, she did? What’d she make you promise?” Layne asked.

“When she left you, she was out of it, like what you saw but worse, it lasted two days,” Merry explained.

Two days. Rocky said she’d lost two days. She didn’t remember it.

Fuck.

“And, what? You call Doc?” Layne’s eyes cut to Doc. “They call you?”

“Nope,” Doc answered, his eyes were sharp and he was pissed, Layne could tell. “Didn’t get a call. Offered it, when she was fourteen and I knew this would play with her mind. But I didn’t get a call Tanner, not at fourteen, or fifteen, or –”

“We could handle it in the family,” Dave snapped.

“Right, see you did a fine job with that, Dave,” Doc snapped back.

“This is none of your concern,” Dave shot back.

“Was my concern when you brought her in with appendicitis. Was my concern when she had a chest infection. Was my concern when she dislocated her shoulder. The mind is a part of the body, Dave, and I’ve been her doctor for over three decades. It’s my goldarned concern!” Doc returned.

Jesus, the old guy remembered all that? Fucking hell.

“We were handling it in the family,” Dave repeated.

“And I wasn’t family?” Layne asked and Dave’s eyes shot to him.

“What?”

“Eighteen years ago, when she turned then, I wasn’t family?”

Dave closed his eyes slowly.

“Answer me, Dave, wasn’t I family?”

Dave’s eyes opened. “Tanner –”

Layne leaned forward and roared, “Wasn’t I family?”

“She made us promise, Tanner,” Merry whispered and Layne swung around to face him. “You saw her, you saw the way she could be. Wouldn’t you promise anything, anything, to stop her from being like that?”

“No,” Layne shook his head. “No, I would not. What I’d do, no matter what she said, how she acted, what she threatened, was understand she needed some serious f**king help and get it for her.”

“Even if that meant losing her?” Merry shot back.

“Yes, brother, even if that meant losing her because even if I had to sleep at night without her, I’d know she wasn’t tortured by her mother’s dying screams. So, yes. Absolutely.”

A muscle ticked in Merry’s jaw, he turned his head and looked away.

“Losing Cecilia happened to all of us, Tanner,” Dave noted and Layne looked at him.

“I’ve no idea, pray to God I never do. You all had it tough but you didn’t listen to her die, Dave, your daughter did. You didn’t have the tools to deal with Rocky and you should have found someone who had those tools. You should have talked to Doc. You should have taken care of her.”

“I did,” Dave returned.

“No, Dave, you didn’t. You didn’t then, you didn’t seven years later when she cut me out of her life and you knew, you and Merry, you both knew and don’t bother denying it, you knew I was the only one who could heal those wounds and you let her cut me out. And you aren’t now because you’re standing there, in total denial and not admitting how huge a f**k up you perpetrated.”

“I lost my wife!” Dave shouted.

“I’m sorry about that, Dave,” Layne whispered. “But you didn’t lose your life so that means it was your responsibility to get your head outta your f**kin’ ass and take care of your daughter.”