I tilted my head back and looked up into his eyes. Twin pools of icy blue stared back at me.
"Get them here," I whispered. "Cage and Danny, they should be here. And Kami, too … she'll never forgive herself if she doesn't say goodbye."
"Done. You thirsty? Hungry?"
"I should eat," I said. Pulling out of Deuce's embrace, I wiped my tears from my cheeks and glanced at my father. "But I'm afraid to leave him."
"I'll bring somethin' up for you." Before I had a chance to respond, Deuce disappeared into the hallway.
"Wait!" I cried, rushing after him. Deuce stopped short and swiveled on his boot heel, causing a passing nurse to nearly trip trying to avoid crashing into him. The young man's eyes grew wide at the sight of Deuce, a veritable wall of a man, and he hurried off down the hall.
Grabbing Deuce's hand, I tugged him back inside Preacher's room.
"The Four Points Rally upstate," I said. "Did you ever go?"
Deuce scrubbed a hand over his grizzled jaw. "Yeah, I think-yeah, I went a few times back when I was a kid."
"She was there," I hurriedly told him. "At Four Points. My dad and my mom were there together the summer before I was born-were you there that year?"
"Darlin', slow down." Deuce shook his head. "That was a long-ass time ago, and your old man always had more than one piece of ass hangin' off him."
Internally I groaned. Of course he had. I'd never known Preacher without at least one leggy blonde on his arm.
"I know, I know," I muttered. "But I'm talking specifically about the year before I was born. Think back to that summer. Were you there?"
"Eva … back then I was-" Deuce cut himself off and glanced to where Preacher lay sleeping. "The summer before you were born?" His eyes narrowed and then flicked to me, his expression turning grave. He shook his head. "Wasn't that the summer The Judge was … "
When he didn't finish his thought, I felt my stomach flip-flop. "What?" I demanded. "Wasn't that the summer The Judge was what?"
Looking bewildered, he shook his head. "Eva, what the fuck? Don't you know what happened that summer?"
Confused, I shook my head. "What do you mean? What happened?"
"You motherfucker." Deuce sent a seething glare in Preacher's direction. "You dirty, lyin' motherfucker-"
"Deuce! Focus!" I grabbed his arm and shook it. "What the hell happened that summer?"
Nostrils flaring, Deuce finally faced me. His jaw was clenched tight, making his cheekbones more pronounced. Angry grooves lined his forehead. "That was the last year they held the rally in Four Points," he bit out, "because that was the summer The Judge and his old lady were put to ground."
"What?" I whispered, backing away from him. I shook my head. "No. No. The Judge and Ginny … they died in a car accident."
Deuce cursed several times. "No, Eva, they fuckin' didn't. I thought you knew this shit. They're your fuckin' grandparents."
Shock zinging through my body like mini electrical surges, I fell silent. The Judge and Ginny were about as familiar to me as my mother was. They were almost never discussed, and on the rare occasions I had asked about them, nobody had ever had much to say. Eventually I'd stopped asking.
"God, they were … murdered? At the rally?" Feeling disordered and overwhelmed, I continued shaking my head.
"Everyone was questioned," Deuce said. "I don't remember much, just that no one seemed to know jack shit."
"They never … they never figured out who did it?"
Deuce took a deep breath, his chest rising noticeably, then blew it out slowly. "Wish I knew, darlin'. But all I remember from back then is after the boys in blue told us we were free to go, we got the fuck outta Dodge."
• • •
Wanting answers, Deuce left Eva sitting by her father's bedside, googling Four Points on her cell phone. He marched past the elevators and into the small waiting room, finding Tiny exactly where he'd left him-stretched out over a loveseat, sound asleep and snoring.
Deuce sent the toe of his boot into Tiny's shin. "Wake up," he growled. Nothing. Tiny continued to sleep, his large head lolling side to side with every earth-shattering snore.
Deuce kicked him harder. "Wake the fuck up!"
Tiny jerked, blinked twice, and then started snoring again.
Muttering curses, Deuce gathered the collar of Tiny's sweat-stained T-shirt in his fist and yanked him upright. "Wake the fuck up, you useless piece of shit!"