Hell To Pay

Chapter 16: Seeing Red

Flint was standing outside, sucking in deep breaths as he desperately drank in the air. Someone had followed him out of the house but he wasn’t sure who until they spoke from a short distance away, “You okay, man?” Honestly he would’ve expected it to be Archie, not Rancher. Archie had always been the more caring one in their group.

“Why didn’t one of you tell me?” He asked haggardly without turning around. “I’ve been back for more than a week and none of you told me.”

“You were gone a long time, bruh,”

“I’m getting that.”

“You wouldn’t take our calls. None of us, not just hers.” His voice got a little more mumbled and he finally twisted to see him, hands stuffed in his pocket as he kicked at the sidewalk. “When you got back, well, it’s Harper’s to tell, not ours. She’s the one raising your kid without you.”

“And Mac’s.”

He ran his hand down the back of his neck and drug it back to his face, biting down on his knuckles as he tried to sort himself out. Face it, dickhead, you haven’t been sorted in over a year. “I never should’ve made her do it alone.”

“She wasn’t alone.” Rancher said, this time with anger, almost accusing. He met his gaze and Rancher’s eyes were narrowed, his lip curled. “We were here. We loved Mac as much as you did and I, for one, didn’t drag your sorry ass out of that rubble for you to run off and leave all of us. You didn’t just leave her, you didn’t just leave your kid, you left your whole damned family. We needed you and you just…” he huffed, face reddening and fists clenching.

“I’m sorry.”

“A lot of good that does us now.” Rancher hissed.

“Were any of you even happy to see me come back?” He didn’t even demand, he just asked, and Rancher fell silent. He seemed to really consider it before he spoke.

“Maybe. I was. But I needed you to get Harper back,”

“And now that she’s safe you can be mad at me.”

“Exactly.”

“I didn’t know my life held such a pinnacle for all of yours—”

“Oh, shut the fuck up, man! You don’t get to turn this on us.” He stabbed his finger at him. “You left. Not us. Deal with the fall out without turning it on your family.” He threw his weight into the door as he went inside and Flint stared after him, gnashing his teeth together. He hated that they were all right and they wouldn’t let him deny it.

The way he saw it, he had two options. He could man up and go back inside, or he could keep running. He sighed and bowed his head, he still needed just one minute to breathe, but then he’d go inside. For Mac, for their daughters, for the family because these people were, in fact, his family.

One more inhale, long and filling. He let it out slowly, unclenched his fists, and turned to go back into the house, following the path the sidewalk laid out for him. He pushed open the door and awkwardly stepped inside with all eyes on him.

“Ugh, shut the fuck up.” He muttered to them and started back down the hall where he’d left Harper, but when he rounded the corner to the kitchen, he drew up short. Whatever rational part of his brain he’d been trying to pulley out of the deep well inside his head dropped suddenly and disintegrated in a burst of flame. “What the fuck is this?” He demanded roughly but it was clear what the fuck it was as Lyle let go of Harper and jerked his lips away from hers. He stumbled back, eyes wide, hands going up to stave off any attack he knew was coming and Flint saw red. “You son of a bitch!”