Caleb froze and stared into his father’s familiar face. Took in the sharp, roughened features, leathery skin, bushy silver brows. Those brown eyes still held a fierce spark of life. In that moment, Caleb decided to take a chance. If something happened in surgery, he didn’t want to regret it for the rest of his life.
He leaned down to kiss his father on the cheek.
Christian slapped him back with a growl. “Cut it out. Grow some balls. I’ll see you later.”
The tiny touch of emotion flickered out and left a cold, empty vastness inside his belly. So stupid. He felt so stupid. “Sure. Good luck, Dad.”
“Don’t need no damn luck. Make sure you do what I say. I don’t want to see your brothers.”
They were the last words Caleb heard as his father was wheeled into a surgery that took over five hours to perform.
The next morning Christian Pierce was dead.
And then the nightmare really began.