“How did Justin know what happened?” she asked then.
“Lucky guess.” I shrugged. “Everyone knew my father was drunk, armed, and tripped and fell, but not my part in it. My mother made sure of it.”
“I guess growing up with Justin as a foster brother wasn’t ideal.”
I finally lowered my gaze to hers. “Foster kids don’t get choices. Justin thought he could do and say what he wanted because I was no one, had no one. We got into fights often. He didn’t always win. Caleb put an end to it, giving us chores, and I learned to ignore Justin. His friends were a whole other issue.”
“Egged on by him, no doubt,” she muttered. “Caleb doesn’t seem to be the type of man who’d take anyone’s nonsense.”
She was right on both accounts. “Caleb made sure I went back to school. I’d missed nearly two years. He understood me more than I realized and found a way to channel my self-hatred and anger into hockey. If it weren’t for him, I would have self-destructed long ago. And there you have it.” I waited for her verdict.
Her gaze searched mine for a minute. “War, you were there for me withmymother issues. You didn’t dump me in a hotel like I asked, and I was a stranger—”
“You weren’t a stranger, Charli. I’d already known you for a few months.”
“Okay, if you want the fine print.” A smile. “But you watched out for me, every single time.”
“Yeah, I learned from that bastard who spawned me hownotto treat those weaker than me.”
“I know. You have a protective streak for miles.”
I scrubbed my unshaven jaw and shut my eyes, unable to bolt out the old agony and helplessness. My throat raw with pain, I rasped, “The thing is, now I have money, but I don’t have her.”
“I’m so sorry, honey.” She crawled onto my lap and hugged me. “For all that you’ve been through. But I’m here now for you…” Her gaze skimmed my face as if she could see into my soul. Hell, maybe she could. “The boozing and stuff weren’t because of your newfound fame, was it?” she asked quietly.
Her words had me reeling, feeling as if I’d fallen to my ass, even though I was sitting. She called out the one thing I’d suppressed for so long.
The box unlocked, and I shut my eyes, seeing it all again as if it happened yesterday. “No. It wasn’t. The nightmares of the bastard’s abuse haunted me, of not being able to save my mother, and especially of his death,” I rasped. “Don’t get me wrong, I was damn glad he was gone. But watching him fall on that knife, the blood—Christ!” I pinched the bridge of my nose.
“War.” She grasped my hand, holding it against her chest, making me look at her. “You might hate hearing this. But I think what happened haunts you because you regret how it occurred.”
Hell. I exhaled heavily, releasing the air…the nightmares, too, I hoped, trapped within me for so long. Since Charli came into my life, the darkness and anger didn’t overwhelm me as they used to. She made me see clearly again.
“Perhaps.”
She nodded as if pleased that I had admitted it.
“Your mother would have been proud of you, of what you’d become. And she would have liked Caleb, too. I did from the moment he said hello.”
Her warm smile seeped through me, warming the chill within. Fuck. I hauled her into my arms, my face buried in her neck, my heart sliding up from my belly, slipping back into my chest.
After a few seconds, she whispered, “Caleb doesn’t deserve a son like that Justin. He gave you both the same chances in life, he told me.”
“He has, but I was too much of a hard nut to appreciate it at the time. Now, I do.”
“Ah.” She sat upright. “The reason for the unsmiling photo Caleb has.”
I grunted out a laugh.
“So, Justin didn’t like that you were better than him at sports?” she asked me.
My smile faded. “Justin didn’t like anything. Fact is, he showed potential at soccer, but he chose to hang out with his friends, skip practice. When I got offered a scholarship to move schools and play hockey—it’s where I met Max and Jack—that pissed him off even more.”
“Yeah, well, he’s an ass from the little I’ve seen. I would have given anything to still have my dad. He has his father right there, and the idiot doesn’t appreciate him,” she muttered, shifting on my lap.
“I didn’t want anything tying me to mine,” I told her, grasping her hips and stopping her from moving on my groin. “After I turned sixteen, I legally applied to change my last name to my mother’s.”
“I like Warrick better, anyway. War—” She went dead still on my lap, eyes wide with worry. “Do you think Justin’s behind those text messages?”
