SWNOVELS Sworn Enemy: Chapter 27
As we’re leaving the alligator sanctuary just outside of Lufkin, Anders elbows me.
“Dude, what’s going on with you? We had a blast in India, and it’s been fun hanging out with you now that you’re back in town, but you have been a major buzz kill today. Seriously, what gives?”
I grip the steering wheel of our borrowed truck, watching the pine trees fly by.
Anders looks over at Erik, confused. “What gives?”
Erik purses his lips, giving me a quick judgmental glance in the rearview before responding to his cousin. “Charlie thinks he needs to break up with Justin.”
Anders turns to me, his mouth open. “You wanna break up with him? Didn’t he just save your life?”
I glare at Erik in the mirror, then turn my attention back to the road. “I’m the one who put him in danger to begin with. All because of a fucking laptop. Which I would’ve booted up and handled weeks ago had I not been so distracted by everything. I can’t live with endangering him. I won’t do it.”
“Is Justin okay with this? I mean, like, does he agree that you shouldn’t be together anymore?”
I clench my jaw, ignoring Anders’ questions.
Erik rolls his eyes. “I can promise you that he does not. He was devastated last night, and when Omar took over his watch this morning, he looked awful. I keep trying to tell this one,” he says, hooking a thumb in my direction, “that he fucked it up, but he won’t listen to me.”
Anders raises his brows. “We’ve got an hour-long flight back home, brother, and if you think I’m not going to give you shit about that the entire way back, you would be wrong.”
I stare at the road in front of me, shaking my head. They just don’t get it.
“We have no clue whether or not we got everybody who had access to my location. I’m not yet convinced that we don’t need to abandon the property and go somewhere else. Hell, there’s no way for Erik and me to guarantee our safety, let alone his. Why the fuck would I endanger Justin in that way? It doesn’t make any sense.”
“Brother, I can promise you that we got all the people we needed to get. Anybody else who might be hanging around has gotten the message that we are not to be fucked with,” Anders insists, shaking his head at me.
Side note: I noticed a while back that Anders started calling me brother. He and his team tend to make people family whether or not they ask to be. It’s something the Bashes, Goodnights, and the Wills have in common.
“How can you be so sure?” I ask, taking my eyes off the road to glare at him again.
“Brake,” he says, pointing at the road.
Shit. I slam on the brakes, narrowly avoiding slamming into the eighteen-wheeler taking his damn time turning onto a side road.
“Thank you for not killing us. As for the reason I can be so sure…I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.”
I glance in the rearview mirror at Erik, shaking my head. What the fuck?
Anders peers through the windshield, tapping his chin. “Tell you what. Take the next right.”
“Why?”
“Because I want to show you something.”
I check the mirror, and Erik gestures me forward. Fine.
I make the turn, and after we’ve gone down a mile or two, Anders has me pull over at a construction zone.
Putting the truck in park, I turn to him, more than a little annoyed. “Okay. Now what?”
“You know what this place used to be?”
“Not a fucking clue,” I say, no chill whatsoever.
“It used to be a set of rental cabins called Seven Pines.”
“And I give a shit about that why?”
“Because that’s where me and Omar found Sam. Strung up in the bathroom, slit from lip to ear. Charlie, I could see his teeth through the side of his face. And those serial killers who grabbed him? Hadn’t even gotten started yet.”
I gulp, remembering my initial not-so-charitable thoughts about the little femme boy who captured Trip’s heart and how much he and Desi have supported what I’m trying to do at the ranch.
“Why are you showing this to me?” I ask, agitated.
“Because when Desi found out that this is where Sam had been hurt, he bought the place and tore it down. He then donated the land and the construction costs for a community center for LGBTQ+ youth. In East Texas. And those boys will never be part of the fuck-shit-up side of our operation, but they are family. And this is what family does.”
He’s not wrong.
He’s also not finished, by a long shot. “Desi will buy shit out to make it right. I will put a bullet in the motherfucker’s head and then fly the body to Lufkin and feed him to the family alligators because that’s what I bring to the fucking table. You two go in and free people who have been enslaved in the worst kinds of situations. And that’s just you and Erik out there in the wind, fucking deciding to make things better on your own. Maybe in New York, you two had to go it alone, but you’re not alone anymore.
“You are part of this fucked-up family, whether you like it or not. And when I fucking tell you that you are safe and that Justin is safe, I am not fucking lying to you. But we can’t help if you keep thinking you’re on your own. You’re just not, and you need to get that through your thick fucking skull.
“I wasn’t around for all the drama in high school, but I get that Justin was a shithead. You try to kill yourself, then he tries to kill himself, and then you both manage to do something better with your lives. That you found each other after all of that is a goddamn miracle. And if you think for a second, I’m going to let you throw that away? You have lost your damn mind.”
Finished with his diatribe, Anders leans back, crossing his arms over his chest.
I slump forward, resting my forehead on the steering wheel. Tears drip down my face. I’m not even sad. I’m kind of…grateful? That I’ve somehow been swooped up into this crazy sprawling mix of people. People who are good. People who are loving. People who are forgiving.
As I’m going through my existential crisis, I can’t help but notice that my dear friend, Erik, is in the back seat, laughing his ass off.
I turn around, wiping my face. “What the fuck, Erik?”
“I’d just like to point out that you were called crazy by Anders Fucking Bash.” Turning to his cousin, he continues, “Never doubt, cousin, that I love you. You know that, right?”
“Of course. We’re family.”
“Exactly. But you are goddamn insane.”
Anders holds up his hand, a patient expression on his face. “Those tests were never conclusive.”
That only makes Erik laugh harder.
“Okay, okay, I’ll give you that. But you telling Charlie that he is being insane? Fucking hilarious. Even better? You’re right. Like who better than you to tell someone that they’re acting like a crazy person?”
“Fair point,” Anders concedes. Turning to me, he continues, “Speaking of mental health—Hedy, the gal who owns the plane we’re using today, is the company shrink. Justin can’t go to his usual places for help with this, and I know she’ll be happy to talk him through it.”
Fuck. I hadn’t even thought about that. Of course he’d need support after doing something like that. If these last twenty-four hours have been torture for me, I can only imagine how he’s feeling.
I text Omar, Anders’ husband, who’s watching after Justin today, and he says Justin’s okay but hurt and confused. Knowing that I’m responsible for him feeling that way is…awful. The need to care for and comfort him is so overwhelming that I’m starting to wonder why I ever thought I could stay away from him.
Erik leans forward and grips my shoulder. “You ready to go back home to your man?”
I let out a gust of air. I may not know the right move here, but I damn sure know the wrong one.
“Yeah. I am. I really, really am.”
Anders grunts. “Good. Now let’s get on the goddamn plane and hope to hell those bullet hole repairs hold.”
Needing Justin’s soft smile and long arms around me, I simply nod in agreement.