“None of your fucking business.”
“Actually, it is.”
Joey stops and gets in my face. “I know that was my son on the phone just now. So, I suggest you leave Aurora right this second because I’m coming back for them.” I watch him for a long second as I leisurely lean against the bar.
“What are your pronouns, Kloss?” I ask, slowly twirling the whiskey in my glass.
“My pronouns?” He frowns.
“Yeah, you know people identify differently. So, what are yours?”
“What a stupid fucking question. He/him.”
“Cool. Cool.” I push away from the bar and set the glass on a passing by waiter’s tray as I get into Joey’s face. “Well, mine are Try. Me. And if you make one step, take one look in the direction of my woman and our son… I’ll end you,” I say with a smile.
I knew for a while that the fucker wasn’t bright, but I hoped he’d understand better this time. Alas, his face grows taut and red, and he spews, “That’s my girlfriend. I was the one who fucked that baby into her. So, that makes him my son and I suggest you walk away before I drag you through courts so exhausting you won’t know what day it is.”
I blink, then blink again, then dissolve into a belly-deep laugh that draws attention of half the guests and makes Joey Kloss turn redder by the second.
I shake my head and clamp a hand over his shoulder as if we’re old pals, making him wince a little in the process.
“Oh, Joey, Joey, Joey. You’re actually serious, aren’t you? So, just for my memory, remind me, he was your son before or after you crashed your car into his mother, leaving her to bleed out on the side of Iris Lake? Or was it during?”
The red hue of his skin melts off it faster than ice cream on a hot day. Replacing it with the shade of terrified pale, and I makesure my grin conveys the menace, and all of the untold, bloody secrets he thought he was so smart to bury five years ago with the local police. Too bad for him, I was there. Too bad for him I know too much.
“No, wait, Emett must’ve been yours when you came into a hospital and harassed Aurora’s father to sign a document stating that you have nothing to do with the boy or his mother, in exchange for covering the medical bills. Oh, and yeah, that’s his name by the way. Since you never bothered to find out.”
“H-how did you—”
For a second, I allow the golden boy mask to slip off my face. Just long enough to remind this motherfucker who’s standing before him.
“Don’t ever come near Aurora or Emett. Not with goodwill nor your pathetic threats. Not when you don’t have the stomach to take me on, and I, unlike you, know exactly what they are worth.”
This pathetic piece of shit opens and closes his mouth like a dead fish, but my eyes catch on the form standing behind him.
Aurora.
She’s watching us with heaving breaths, her eyes wide and glimmer with tears.
She’s told me she suspected he was behind the wheel that night but didn’t have proof. Proof that I found once she told me the story, because no matter how good the cover-up, only a few in this world can truly make the story disappear.
Especially when I was already there, hearing most of with my own ears. Yet I didn’t want her to know. I didn’t want to burden my girl with more hurt.
Too late now.
“Run, before I catch you,” I command Kloss, and the motherfucker scatters without looking back.
“Aurora.” I hold her gaze.
“Is that true? It was him. Really him in that car?”
I take a step toward her trembling body. “Yes, Lychik. It was.”
She sucks in a sharp breath, burrowing her head in my chest as I draw my arms around her. “I think I always knew it was him, I just…I just hoped.” She shakes her head, and I bring her closer to my chest. “H-how did you know?”
“There’s nothing I don’t know when it comes to you Aurora. Nothing I’ll leave to chance or in the dark,” I tell her, meaning so much more than I’m willing to say and she trembles once more. This wasn’t how I wanted her to find out, but too late now.
“Shh, it’s okay. You’re okay. I got you.”
