“You’re not right here, old man, because you’re an old man. You deserve worse,” he growled and Dave’s pale face grew paler.

“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 fuckin’ well do, it leaked straight from her eyes into my skin, you asshole.”

“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 fucking 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 fuck 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 fuckin’ ass and take care of your daughter.”

“Dad,” Tripp called softly, “you’re bein’ too hard on Uncle Dave.”

Layne turned to his son. “That’s not my job, Tripp, lookin’ out for Dave. That’s my woman up there.” He jerked his finger to the ceiling. “It’s my job to look after her.” He turned back to Dave and swept through Merry with his glance. “It goes without sayin’ you shoulda let me in on this shit eighteen years ago but that’s done. Then you had a second shot, both of you, I asked, I fuckin’ begged, and you still kept this shit to yourself.”

“This was coming back up for all of us, Tanner,” Dave defended himself. “Knowing why she left you, knowing it might surface again, not only for her, but for all of us. This wasn’t exactly easy.”

“You have turns like that?” Layne asked.

“No, but I feel Fisher in my bones every time it rains,” Dave returned.

“So, you think, maybe all of you might need some help to sort your shit out?” Layne suggested derisively. “So you could deal with that pain in your bones, Merry could get his head sorted after leavin’ the only woman he’s ever loved and Roc wouldn’t have to endure another turn?”

“Dad and I talked and we thought, she had another episode, this time, we would have your back,” Merry said and Layne’s eyes locked on him.

“Well, you didn’t, you weren’t here. My boys and my mother had my back.”

Merry stared at him a beat before he nodded.

Layne kept talking. “Rocky, she loves you, she’ll always love you. Me, I’m feelin’ a fuckuva lot different. She’s in my house and she’s under my watch now. I want you two gone. I know you’ll be back and I know I’ll have to deal but, right now, I want you two gone.”

Dave puffed out his chest. “I want to see my daughter.”

“You’ll have to call her tomorrow,” Layne replied.

“I want to see her now.”

“She’s sleepin’ in my bed now, Dave, so, like I said, you’re gonna have to wait until tomorrow.”

“She’s my daughter, Tanner,” Dave hissed.

“Dad, let’s go,” Merry whispered.

“No, I’m not –” Dave started.

“Dad… let’s… go,” Merry clipped.

“He can’t tell me when I can see my daughter,” Dave shot back.

“Yeah, Dad, he can,” Merry returned.

“He can’t.”

“Would you let someone see Mom, you’re pissed as hell at them?” Merry retorted and Dave’s torso jerked back. “Yeah, that’s what this is. You know what this is. We’re Merricks for fuck’s sake. You’re like that. I’m like that. Mom was like that. Rocky’s like that and, you know, Rocky’s gonna find a man like that. So, Tanner’s pissed and we need to go.”

Dave glared at his son. Then he turned his glare on Doc. Then he turned his glare on Layne. Then he turned on his foot and stalked to the front door.

Merry’s eyes went to Layne. “We’ll work this out, brother.”

“I wouldn’t hold your breath ‘til that happens, Garrett.”

Merry studied him then shook his head, a small, sad grin on his face.

Then he said, “You’re pissed now but you love her. We’ll work this out.”

Merry was right but Layne sure as fuck wasn’t going to give that to him. So he stayed silent and watched Merry walk out.

“I’ll go to the office,” Doc announced after the door closed behind Merry. “Get some names. Good counselors. I’ll call you with numbers. She needs to find one she trusts and start right away.”

Layne nodded.

“I didn’t give her much, she won’t be out long,” Doc went on. “I’ll leave some sleeping pills. She has trouble sleeping, you need to make her take them. If she wakes and she’s still not well, exhibiting disorientation, any of the symptoms you saw, even amnesia, not remembering what happened today, I need to know.”

“Right,” Layne grunted.

Doc rounded the island and got close to Layne. “You need to make yourself safe harbor, Tanner. She needs to know she can lay this weight on you. It’s heavy, son, you want her better, you learn to brace.”

“She’s safe now, Doc,” Layne muttered and Doc’s eyes searched his face.

Then he nodded and murmured, “I reckon so.”

Doc’s eyes swept the room, he nodded again then he turned to go but he stopped by the stairs and turned back. His eyes locked on Layne and he spoke.

“Later, not now, later, you think about Rocky, how you feel about her, then how you’d feel learning that she was tortured then shot twice in the chest and once in the face.” Layne’s middle jerked back at Doc’s words but he didn’t break eye contact. “It happened to you, you might deal with it different. You might make better choices. But that man did what he could carrying the burden that he brought that on his wife and left his daughter with demons. A burden he’s still carrying, Tanner. You’re right to be angry but no good man can understand the burden Dave Merrick carries and hold a grudge.”