With his hands on his hips, he questioned. “So, what else?”
“What do you mean? I was confused.
“Is there anyone else we know whom you’ve fleeced?”
I closed my eyes, struggling with whether to say anything more about last year, but knew I had to. If I kept it to myself, I would never be free of the guilt.
It would never be over!
My shoulders slumped as I wrapped my hands around my body. “Yes. At the beach party last year. The cell phones that went missing after the game. I took them.”
“What?”
“Shannon Cummings and Ellie Slater’s iPhones.”
Phoenix then turned on me, immediately putting two and two together. “So,youwere the one who stole the phones thatforcedHudson and Reed into a fight?”
“Yes.”
“The fight that distracted them both from having Micah’s back.”
I hadn’t thought about that part of it; it was too painful to process. “Yes, and I’m sorry.” I took a deep breath through my nose and tried to calm down.
“You do realize that’swhyMicah was stabbed.Becausehis brothers weren’t there for him. Hudson has spent the last twelve months blaming himself. To the point where he had to increase his meds whilst Micah was recovering.” Phoenix’s hands dropped to his sides and were fisted.
Shaking my head, I moved back towards him, my face pleading with him to be reasonable. “That could have happened at any time, you know that. Micah was the one who involved himself with the Creeds. If he hadn’t gotten into those typesof drugs, he wouldn’t have been a target.” I remembered how Hudson had stolen from Anton Creed’s drug-dealing eldest son and how that led to Molly being kidnapped. It wasn’t my fault, yet it appeared I was now being blamed for the stabbing.
Was that right or wrong? I couldn’t process what Nix was accusing me of.
“It wasn’t my fault. Micah owed a drug baron money.”
“That may be so, but without your little indiscretion that night, the attack on Micah wouldneverhave happened, at least not like that.”
That gaping hole in my chest grew bigger. “Phoenix, no…”
Phoenix was now yelling at me. “He lost his shot at playing pro football due to his injury. Did you know that?”
No, I didn’t know that. I had never thought Micah wanted to go pro. He never talked about the NFL like the others did. He was a physics major. Was Nix saying that to hurt me, punish me somehow?
“So, due to your little habit, you changed the course of our brother’s life.”
“No,” I said with a half-sob. I couldn’t believe that I ever thought Nix would be OK with my problem. That he would understand.
My breath hitched in my throat.
The noise brought Nix’s head up, his eyes drilling into mine. He looked at me like he hated me, and I couldn’t stand that. “Why didn’t you say anything at the time. To stop the fight.”
“I didn’t know that’s why they were fighting, I only found out that night at the beach after the game the other week. I swear.”
Throwing his hands out, Nix started to move around the room again. “I can’t do this now. I’m supposed to be meeting my old man tonight. I have my own hell to deal with.” I watched as he started pulling the rest of his clothes on. I had forgotten he was going to see his father. My news could not have come at a worse time. If only I hadn’t kept my pain relief in the same drawer as that damned photo and purse.
“Please, Nix, don’t go. Not like this.” He was like a crazed person, stomping around my bedroom, grabbing his stuff.
I tried to take hold of his top to stop him, but he batted my hands away, growling. “I can’t even look at you right now.”
“Nix,” I begged, wondering how I would ever claw myself out of the trouble I had unknowingly caused.
“No, Harper.” The tension in his shoulders never faltered as he left,slammingthe door on his way out. His rejection and refusal to look at me was like a fist punching through my chest and ripping out my heart. Phoenix was blocking me out, just like before.
