Sorrow (Cape Frost #1)

34

Bleak River churns wildly as it washes my sins downstream. It’s unnatural, this river. It doesn’t behave like it’s supposed to. Never frozen, never stopping. No one’s even sure where it leads. It wraps around our town like a noose and travels on, wherever it pleases.

Maybe I have something in common with this river after all. I too, managed to thaw out in this arctic hellscape. We’ve got secrets buried deep, and chaos on the surface. I too, wrapped myself around this town like a noose and wish to travel on.

We’re also wildly misunderstood. The river isn’t evil, and neither am I. It’s the people who surround us, poisoning us and twisting our natures. We were forced to be what we are — the river, a resting place for the dead, and me, the personification of a curse. But while Bleak River’s original name was lost to time, mine won’t be. Married or not, I’ll live the rest of my life as Samara Sarro since that’s who I became tonight. But Samara Radley won’t fade. The little girl who clutched her pet rock and let hope for the future fill her chest will never die, never be forgotten.

So that’s where our similarities end.

“Are you ready?” Boo asks, rubbing his hands together to stave off the cold. “Hayes and Reeve are already in the truck. You two need to get on the road and get out of here as fast as you can, we only have a couple of hours until daylight.”

The moon is so bright tonight it may as well be the sun, illuminating my brother’s scruffy face and tense eyebrows. He looks like me, if I’m being honest. Slim nose, cupid’s bow, hooded blue eyes. The only difference is that my dark hair falls down my back and his is a messy little tuft on top of his head. There’s no denying he’s my brother, my only living family. I wonder if my parents can see us standing by the same river they were found in, adding bodies of our own. Something tells me they’d be proud of us anyway .

I’m trying so hard to memorize his face and to forgive him for what happened here tonight. He made mistakes that had unimaginable consequences, but he’s still my brother. There’s no erasing that, not after everything he’s done for me. Maybe this was my way of repaying him.

“Will we ever see each other again, Boo?” I ask quietly. “When all this blows over?”

Sorrow lines his face as he shakes his head. “I don’t think so, Sammy. But maybe.”

I can’t say I don’t understand. He’ll need to stay here to do damage control for years, making sure no one ever reopens the case once he closes it. He’ll also have a chance to truly turn this town around now that The Sons aren’t here to ruin it. It’s what he always wanted, why he became a cop in the first place. It’s his dream. And after everything, mine hasn’t changed. Once I leave the town limits, I’m never coming back.

“Maybe,” I echo. “But take care of yourself, okay? Make us all proud.”

He hugs me roughly, face buried in my hair. He’s shaking, but not from the cold — from a lifetime of dominos toppling over in one night, fracturing the peace we once had.

I have faith in him though. He’ll be okay.

We all will.

––––––––

Once Hayes loads up the last of the bags and gets in the truck, I reach over to squeeze his hand. “I’m sorry about your Camaro, baby. And the house. And... everything we couldn’t take.”

“I’m sorry it took something like this to give you what you wanted,” he replies, fingers slotting with mine tightly. “Everything here can be replaced.” Still, there’s a hint of sadness in his eyes as he begins to turn his head to look back at the house, but I watch him stop himself and meet my gaze again. “Ready for our new beginning, Hurricane?”

Part of me wants to stay and watch the house burn, proving there won’t be anything to come back to. There’s a closure with fire you can’t quite get any other way — it’s so final. There’s no repairing it, no taking it back. It’s just... over. Clean. Pure. But I don’t think I want closure here, not really. I want that “maybe” to stay alive in my chest until I see my brother again. I want to believe that one day, he’ll succeed and Cape Frost will be a town worth coming home to. So this... this is best.

“I am, I think. Are you ever going to tell me the real meaning behind your tattoo?”

His beautiful smile catches me completely off guard. “You. You’re the violets... I’m the rocks. It was always about you, and how I knew you were the only one who could break me. I just didn’t realize then that I’d want you to.”

I think a little part of me knew that. Maybe not consciously, but the truth was there all along, barely hidden. He may have been cruel, but he protected me, guided me, and taught me in the way he thought was best. He was wrong, of course... but what man isn’t? In the end, we broke each other, and now we have the rest of our lives to put each other back together. One kiss, one touch, one cut at a time.

As he starts the truck and gravel crunches under the tires, I don’t look back. I said my goodbyes, made my peace with it. There’s only one thing left to decide. “Where are we going, exactly?”

“I honestly don’t know, baby. But we’ll figure it out along the way. Together. ”

He brings my hand up to his lips for a kiss as he presses harder on the gas, filling my stomach with anxious butterflies. There’s no guarantee that where we’re going will be any better, but it’s a fresh start with a man I fell irrevocably in love with, and for that? I’m grateful.

Cursed or not, sun down to sun up or forever and a day, it doesn’t matter. Hayes has me and I have him, no matter where we end up, no matter what we do.

I’m finally not alone anymore.