“I’m sorry ya lost your Mum and Da. Taking responsibility for your brother must have felt overwhelming, aye?”
She’s resolutely silent and I rub my eyes. I’d shared that story with her to let her know I trusted her. It dinna look like she’s gonna give that trust back.
“I know ya gave up your life to protect your brother.” She tenses, like she’s about to get off me and I wrap my arms around her. “Tell me what Gavin did to him.” She starts wiggling, trying to make me let go of her, but with my arms around her like this, she’s not going anywhere.
Keeping her face stubbornly turned from me, she says, “I want to get up.”
I almost let her go. I almost do, and then I see my ring on her finger and I tighten my grip, just slightly. “Your people are now my people, lass. I will protect them. But ya have to talk to me.”
“They’re… I can’t do this, I just-”
“Ya talked about your brother all the time while you were feverish. How that fecking Gavin hurt him. Ya said ya were sorry-”
“Shut up! You don’t get to talk to me like that! You don’t-”
“I know exactly what it’s like to protect my family, even when it looks like I won’t live through it,” I say calmly. “And even so, I’d do it all over again, because that’s what ya do for family. But ya dinna have to do it all by yourself anymore. Ya have a family here, too. A family that will do anything to protect ya.”
“You don’t make any sense!” Sloan screams, slapping at my shoulders. “Why the fuck would you want to get involved! I was ajob,remember? Just a job! I’m not your next DIY project! I don’t need saving!”
There she is, the furious little firecracker who revs herself up with rage to distance herself, to keep moving.
“Ya know, you’re like a shark,” I muse, resting my chin on the top of her head. “Always moving, always in motion like you’re scared that somethin’ will catch up with ya if ya stop.”
She tries to pull away again, then sags in my arms.
“Tell me what Gavin did, and I will kill him. He will never touch you or Nate again.”
“He poisoned him.” Her violet eyes are flat, and dull. “Nate started gaining a lot of weight about two years ago when he was sixteen. He’d have these terrible mood swings but Mom and I just thought he was going through that general asshole stage all teenagers have, like maybe the weight gain was hormonal. I almost started liking Gavin then because he’d bring Nate these protein shakes, telling him that the shakes would build muscle. He knew how sensitive Nate was about the weight gain.”
Shifting slightly, she rests her hip against my thigh. She must still be sore from last night.Ya sick bastard. She’s spillin’ her guts and you’re fighting down a stonner?
“It was Carmella who figured it out,” she says, staring blankly out the window. “Mom hired her as a personal nurse whenNate got worse. Carmella had worked in a sports rehab clinic and there were ‘roided up dudes everywhere. Always popping steroids to bulk up. One of them went into cardiac arrest and the doctor said it was due to the guy taking prednisone for so long and then stopping. I guess it triggers an adrenal crisis.
“Carmella swapped out one of Gavin’s ‘special shakes’ and took his to a lab to be analyzed. Sure enough, he’d been poisoning my…” A sob breaks loose and I rub her back until she can continue. “He’d enjoyed it, too. I’d come home to see him and Nate talking and when Nate would be having one of his meltdowns, he’d watch him so closely…”
She shudders. “Gavin would watch Nate scream and throw shit, he never got upset, like he did with everything else. Looking back, I can see that he was enjoying it, that watching Nate go to pieces was rewarding for him.”
“We took Nate to a doctor when Gavin was out of town and got him tested. It was terrifying. He said that if Nate had had any kind of high-stress event, he would have died. I think that’s why Gavin went out of town. No more prednisone shakes. The drugs would be out of Nate’s system by the time he went into cardiac arrest. He’d have a perfect alibi, traveling forbusiness,”she spat.
“How did the car accident on New Year’s Eve that ya didn’t think was an accident come into play?” I keep my voice level and calm.
“We realized Gavin was ready to kill all of us,” she laughed bitterly. “He came home with presents for everyone, a huge bouquet of roses for Mom. The next day, Carmella got word that the doctor who examined Nate had been killed the night before. Someone shot him and set his office on fire.”
I run my fingers through her hair, nice and slow.
“That’s when Mom took us to see her friend, a hotshot attorney back in Boston. He met us on New Year’s Eve so we’d all have an excuse to be out of the house. Gavin was at one of his douchey tech-bro’s parties. Martin - the attorney - set up all the evidence to be delivered to his friend, he was a detective for the Boston Police. He also started the divorce paperwork and even changed Mom’s will. All three of us were singing on the way home. We were going to pack up and leave while he was out.
“The truck that hit us came barreling through a red light. He didn’t slow down at all, he floored it.”
Sloan…
Eighteen months ago…
My eyes opened and my face was wet. I was covered in blood and broken glass. Mom- oh, god Mom was lying half on top of me, the blood was from her. Her pretty blue eyes were open but she was gone. Something was shoved through her chest. Part of the steering column, or…
There were footsteps outside, loud on the wet concrete. No one else was on the street. I heard the low rumbling of a truck engine and the feel of my heartbeat, pounding in my ears.
He’s checking. Play dead. That shouldn’t be hard.
