Chapter 30
KAIDEN
My skin fucking crawls—everything inside of me protesting, urging me that we’re making a mistake in telling the story we were sworn to never tell.
She can’t handle this. I can barely stomach carrying around the weight of it, and Sage is fucking emotional.
She’s bound to fly off the handle and do something stupid.
I keep my mouth pressed closed, though, putting my trust in my brothers, hoping they know what the fuck they’re doing.
Once Sage has returned to the seat at her desk, Vinny sighs. “The records of the second year of Games are documented, but I can’t tell you that everything written is the God’s honest truth, or the entire story, I can only tell you the way that I know it.”
Sage’s face is red, pupils dilated, her chest rising and falling quickly as anxiety floods her bloodstream. The twisted part of me loves seeing her flushed and scared.
“The Hallows Games weren’t always like the one you played, Sage,” Vinny starts, but stops and looks at me for a moment. I breathe out through my nostrils, then nod at him.
“When they started, the founders just wanted one safe place to live out their deepest desires. It’s not completely clear their separate intentions, but we know that Benjamin and your uncle had a relationship—one they couldn’t be public about in Blackmore.” Vinny glances at Beckham, who grins back.
When I look at Sage, she shakes her head a little. “But my uncle is married…to a woman.”
My eyebrow quirks, but my mouth stays shut, letting her piece it together for herself.
Beckham laughs, though, his loud boom cutting through the room as he waves a hand between himself and Vinny. “I know you’re familiar with the concept of bisexuality.”
Vinny chuckles, and Sage clicks her tongue. “My brain is just trying to catch up, asshole.”
My lips tip up in a grin at her attitude, and when Beckham laughs again, I shake my head, a small laugh escaping my lips.
“Benjamin and your Uncle Aaron loved each other.” Vinny continues, the room falling silent again.
“But they couldn’t be together—the Blackmores were very old fashioned, especially your grandfather, so they kept their romance a secret.
When your dad presented the idea of the Games to them, they saw it as an opportunity to be together, even if it was just for that one night.
But your dad, he had other ideas. He was rooted in darkness and violence—he wanted a place where he could unleash his demons, let them run free, and then lock them back up at the end of the night until the next year came. ”
When Vinny pauses, no one says anything, even Sage who looks like she’s going to spill the contents of her stomach onto the carpet.
“He was the one who decided to bring a girl into it—your mother, Christine. He wanted to hurt her; he wanted to spend the night marring her skin with his hands and teeth and belt. He didn’t expect to fall in love with her. I don’t even think he expected to fuck her.”
Sage swallows hard, and when Vinny meets her gaze for reassurance to continue, she dips her head in a nod so small I almost miss it.
“She was just as dark as him—twisted and morphed into this person she didn’t want to be.” Vinny chuckles. “She played right alongside him, even in that first year. She loved the pain, the joy, the freedom he gave her, and she became the Hallows fucking Girl.”
“Skip forward,” Sage blurts, looking sick. “To Megan.”
Vinny nods minutely. “Christine was the only person besides Andrew who knew about Aaron and Benjamin’s relationship, and she fit into their formed family so flawlessly that they fell in love with her right alongside each other.
She liked the…attention, and Andrew liked knowing he was in complete control of all three of them. ”
Sage’s lip curls up in disgust at that, and I smirk at how uncomfortable she is.
“Your mother confided in her best friend, Megan, about her relationship with the Hallows Boys and the things they liked to do, but Megan shamed her. After two decades of friendship, growing up together, learning together, Megan shoved her aside with repulsion and malice, all because she liked to get kinky and bloody with three boys in the cemetery.” Vinny scoffs, then keeps going.
“Your mother was hurt beyond words, broken and betrayed by the person she’d called her best friend, so when Megan started telling the whole town that the Hallows Boys were freaks, your mother brought up the idea of playing the Game with her, showing her how fun it can be, immersing her in their world so she’d understand. ”
“But Andrew was angry—all the boys were. Their secrets in the dark were exposed to the town, and they needed to teach Megan a lesson.” Vinny sighs.
“I don’t know who knew what—I don’t know if your mother was in on whatever was planned, or if she really just wanted to try to convince her closest friend that she wasn’t a freak.
I don’t know if she knew the power and control Andrew had grown to love, so when Halloween night came, she could’ve been caught off guard over what really happened in the crypt, but we’ll never know for sure. ”
The room falls silent, nearly suffocating, and when I catch Vincent’s eye across the space that separates us, I know he can’t go on with the rest of the story. I clear my throat, sitting up straighter in my seat.
“They went too far, Sage.” I meet Sage’s gaze, and her eyes glisten with moisture. “And they liked it.”
“No,” Sage breathes, shaking her head as tears slip from her eyes and trail down her cheeks. “You’re lying! My parents would never fucking hurt someone!”
“I’m not lying, Sage,” I say, placing my hands in my lap. “We don’t know if it was on purpose—if they meant to kill her—but they did. Your dad did.”
“But Benjamin—” Sage says, her mind busy. “They arrested him for it.”
My eyebrows raise. “A one-in-three chance of whose DNA they found, I guess.”
Standing abruptly, she points at the door. “Get out—all of you. Get out of my house.”
Beckham stands too, stepping toward her, already trying to soothe her. “Sage.”
“No!” she yells, pushing her hands out to stop him from touching her. “You don’t get to sit here and tell me my parents are murderers, and then act fucking chill about it, like it’s some schoolyard gossip! They couldn’t kill someone—not the parents I knew!”
My lip curls as my gaze locks onto hers. “You asked for the fucking truth, Sage, and that’s what you got. Stop acting like a baby and listen to the rest of the story.”
“I don’t need the rest of the story. I already know it!
They fled, letting their friend take the fall, then they had me, pretended to be people they weren’t, and then they died.
” Sage laughs humorlessly, stepping in my direction.
“And here I am, in Blackmore, playing the same fucked-up Game with you three when you know it’s rooted in death and darkness—when you’ve been lying to me since the moment we fucking met! ”
I shake my head. “We aren’t playing the same fucked-up Game with you Sage. The Game has changed.”
She takes another step, rolling her eyes. “Oh, so you aren’t going to murder me?”
My jaw clenches. “The Game isn’t about fucking violence—”
“Oh, it’s not?!” she interrupts me, sending my blood rushing through my veins. “Do you want to see the bruises all over me? Maybe the scabs on my back?!”
I throw my head back and laugh, letting her stalk right up to me and push against my chest with her weak little hands. When I meet her eyes again, her face is red, and she’s heaving for air. “Don’t pretend your tight little cunt didn’t love every second of it, Sage, I remember you asking for more.”
“Fuck you!” she shouts as she starts punching my chest with her tiny fists that couldn’t hurt a fly.
“Go on. Get it all out.” I chuckle, pulling my head back so she doesn’t hit my face.
She continues with a growl, screaming at me. “I fucking hate you!”
My eyebrow kicks up, and I grab her wrists to stop her from hitting me. “Do you now?”
With my cock rock hard, it’s a task in itself not to rip her pants down and slide into her, but instead I just stare at her while I hold her in place in front of me, waiting for her to calm down.
“Yes!” she yells, sobbing now. “I wish I never met you! I wish I never let you touch me!”
Rolling my eyes, I look over her head to glance at Beckham and Vincent. “A little help here? I think she’s having a fucking breakdown.”
Beckham sighs, walking up behind Sage and wrapping his arms around her. “Enough, Sage. Sit back down, please.”
I don’t know what it is, maybe his touch or his gentle tone, but she goes limp in my grasp and falls forward onto my chest. She wails, crying so hard that her entire body shakes, so I do the first thing that comes to mind—I wrap my arms around her and hold her.