Page 49 of Confessions of Pain
Daulton leaned down and looked at me. “Sure did. His cute little fingerprints are all over it.” He laughed. “Anyway, who’d question this little fairy offing himself? Everybody knows he’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer.” He leaned in closer and said, “That’s a little knife humor, pet. You got it, didn’t you?” He tilted his head as he watched me. “Wait, you can’t move, can you? I’ll just assume you got my joke.”
“How much longer is this going to take?” Wayne snarled.
Even with my vision growing fuzzy, I noted how his belly jiggled as he walked. Maybe I’d get lucky and he’d die of a heart attack while watching me bleed out. Wouldn’t that be some poetic justice?
“Why? You worried somebody’s gonna catch us?” Daulton asked.
He acted arrogant, but I noticed how he glanced around the graveyard, a worried expression on his face. Yep, he knew what Jax would do to him if he ever learned of his involvement with hurting me. It gave me some consolation to know the coward would probably have nightmares about it for years. Jax was a mean son of a bitch when crossed.
Wayne huffed out a breath. “Nah, ain’t no angels gonna rush to his rescue. They’re all at the tree looking for him. Kelsey was always so…unimaginative. He went to the same damned place every time he took the knife to his wrists.” Wayne straightened and tucked the front of his shirt back into his pants. Every time he moved, it came untucked and exposed his ample gut. “Hell, he’ll probably rot out here before anybody finds his body. I’m the only one that comes to visit Daddy, so as long as I stay away, the worms and maggots can have their way with him.”
“Don’t forget the coyotes,” Daulton murmured. “I’ve heard about them ripping bodies apart and spreading the pieces far and wide.” He scratched his chin thoughtfully and said, “They may never find your body, kid.”
“Don’t say that shit,” Wayne countered. “I’m counting on the proceeds from his life insurance policy to put me back on track. I’ll have to make sure somebody finds him before he completely disappears into the belly of some wild animal.”
I tried to tune out their cruelty. I hoped Snowball was okay. Evie would take care of her and the kittens. I also knew she’d give Gabe my journals. Although it wouldn’t help either of us, I still felt comforted by the fact that he would read them and know I never stopped loving him.
Wayne squatted down in front of me. “Hey, kiddo. Did I ever tell you about the time I ran Gabriel Maverick out of Trenton Falls? Yeah, I think I did. At least I gave you one version of why he ran away, leaving his faggot lover behind. You wanna know the real story, baby brother? You know…as a parting gift?”
He laughed at himself but my ears perked up…even if the rest of my body was as lifeless as a corpse.What had they given me?
“I know what you’re thinking,” he said, “but there’s so much more to the story. That little recording I made of you ranting and raving about how much better you were than Gabriel Maverick—the one where you swore you’d never let that trailer-trash lay a finger on your body? I didn’t let Gabriel listen to that, I didn’t need to. No, instead of letting Maverick listen to your lies, I told Daddy about that little fuckfest you and your lover shared in the woods that night.” He tried to lean in closer, lost his balance, and ended up landing on his ass. “I was there that night, the night Maverick turned you into a man,” he hissed in disgust. “You were both disgusting. Grunting and humping like animals. Your daddy raised you better than that, Kelsey Morganston. I made a video of it. Daddy helped me alter it a bit and then we took it to the sheriff.” His eyes glittered with hatred. “Maverick didn’t run from you because he thought you denied your love for him, he ran because Daddy said you accused him of raping you. Regardless of how tight that ass of yours was, he wasn’t willing to go to jail for it.” He burst out laughing. “My plan couldn’t have worked better if the good Lord Himself had intervened. Daddy and I got everything we wanted. Maverick gone and you back in line, where you belonged.”
I couldn’t believe it. Wayne had lied the entire time. Gabe thought I accused him of rape? The breaths I was already having a hard time pulling into my lungs became more difficult. He thought I’d told everybody he raped me…and he was still willing to forgive me? No wonder he’d been hell-bent on revenge. What had happened to him? Where had he gone?
That was why he’d left without me.
Wayne smiled when he saw my heartbreak. “Hey! Help me up, Daulton,” he yelled. “My knees ain’t what they used to be.”
Daulton reached his hand down to grasp Wayne’s elbow but said, “No, it’s that your belly ismorethan it used to be.”
Their words seemed far, far away and their movements were in slow motion. I knew this feeling; I’d been here before.
This was it. I was close. I would never get to touch Gabriel again. My entire life had been spent with somebody taking him away from me. He was all I’d ever wanted but the one thing I’d never get.
“Come on, Wayne,” Daulton said as he moaned and heaved Wayne’s body to a standing position. “Let’s get out of here. I’m cold and the kid’s minutes away from bleeding out. I want my money so I can get out of this town. I don’t want to be anywhere near this shithole when Jax or Maverick learns Kelsey’s dead, and I’d suggest you live by the same rule. I have a feeling they’d both kill for him.”
They’d kill for me, but all I could do was die for them. There was so much left to say…so much left to do. I didn’t want to leave without Gabriel, Jax, and Evie knowing how much I loved them. Inside my head, my mind was screaming that I needed to move…to dosomething. I couldn’t, though. Death was so fucking anticlimactic.
“I have a feeling you’re right. I hope you’re both willing to die,” a deep masculine voice answered Daulton’s comment to Wayne.
Even in my sluggish condition, I recognized Gabriel’s husky voice…and the sound of a bullet chambering into a gun. So damned much left to say, but I felt my eyes grow too heavy to keep them open. I was there one second, screaming to Gabe that I loved him and that I hadn’t betrayed him, and gone the next.
Heaven…or Hell, whichever I’d made it to, was incredibly annoying. People were always talking, always touching me, and I couldn’t make myself move. I was thirsty. Surely somebody in Heaven could spare an ice cube? Shit, I must be in Hell—no ice cubes anywhere. My mouth was so parched. I tried to move my tongue, hoping for just a bit of saliva, but something was smashed against it, keeping it from wetting my lips.
I might have known dentists were in Hell.
I tried to reach for the offending object, but every time I tried to move my hands, somebody pushed them back down. I’d hear them chuckle softly and then tickle my eyelashes or pull my hair. I could hear them talking to me…butcouldn’t. It was frustrating. I’d been frustrated on Earth and now it looked like I’d be frustrated throughout eternity.
Time drifted…or maybe it didn’t, I didn’t really have the first clue. After a while, though, the noises I heard started making more sense and, thank all things holy in the world, I recognized voices. Gabriel was there…talking to me in soft, hushed tones, telling me how much he loved me and that I needed to come back to him. Jax was there, usually growling or snarling at Gabe about something, but even in my semi-conscious state, I noticed how his tone would change when he said something to Titus. With my eyes closed, something stuffed down my throat, and my hands tied to a bed railing, I was still very aware that Jax was smitten with Titus, and I seriously doubted anybody else in the room even noticed. Evie was there…always there, even when Gabe tried to get her to leave. She’s stubborn like that. She loved me but I suspected she was hanging around just to spite Gabe.
I wonder if she knew none of them had a reason to dislike Gabe any longer? He hadn’t deserted me, he’d run for his very life because of my sorry-ass family. I wanted to kill Wayne Jr. and then dig my father up and…well, I wasn’t sure what to do with a corpse that would cause them any pain. I could only hope he was rotting in Hell.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity to me, I found the strength to open my eyes. I felt them flutter at first, but then it turned into a good, solid blink. The lights around me seemed way too bright and the noises, suddenly, way too loud. I tried to open my mouth to call for Gabe, but the tube was still lodged in my throat and it prevented any words. The choking or gurgling sounds were enough, though. Gabe’s beautiful face was right in front of me within seconds.
“Hey, angel,” he whispered. “You’re safe. Everything’s okay. I’m with you. I love you, Kelsey. Stay with me, okay? Try to fight the weakness that keeps dragging you down.”
His words were spoken with such concern and love that I felt my heart start to melt. Oops. It didn’t melt, it must have started beating like I was running a marathon because beeping noises started going crazy. Gabe turned to somebody and said, “Tell them to get the doctor. He wants this tube out of his throat.”
