Chapter 29 #2
But Knox’s gaze has already moved to the notices in my hands.
He sighs, a sound so heavy it seems to come from his bones.
“Dad left us with a lot of bills.” The admission sounds like it physically pains him.
“The mortgage on the auto shop, the unpaid property taxes, the loans he took out to help Brax get through school. Credit card debt he racked up right after mom left.”
The front door bangs shut, footsteps and voices carrying from the kitchen. Jax’s laugh echoes down the hallway, followed by Brax saying something. They’re too far away to fully understand.
“Do the guys know how bad it is?”
Knox looks away. “They know we have bills, but not how many.” His jaw muscles ripple. “Neither of them come in here. It’s too painful, and I—” He cuts off, head hanging in shame.
My frown deepens. Of course he’d try to take care of things on his own.
He’s their big brother but this is worse than I thought.
Theo really could take their house from them and that would just be the start.
There’s no telling what Theo won’t do to try to win me back.
He’s already gone to extreme measures to keep me under his control. What’s one more?
Exhaling, I head over to Knox. “I need to tell you all something, but it means telling them about these notices.”
His forehead pinches. The questions on the tip of his tongue are obvious, but much to my surprise, Knox doesn’t demand to know right away.
Instead, he nods. “They deserve to know. I should’ve told them sooner.
” He scrunches his face, visibly in pain by the weight of their world. “I failed them, Callie.”
“Oh, Knox. No.” I give him a hug. “You were protecting them from this, but this isn’t your failure and it’s not your dad’s. He did what he had to do because he loves you.” I pull back to look at him. “And you did what you had to.”
He swallows. “You think I’m good.”
“Because you are.”
“I’m not,” he disagrees with a hard shake of his head.
Narrowing my eyes, I rise on my toes until we’re nearly eye to eye. “Knox Williams. You are a good man and if I ever hear you say otherwise, we’re going to have a problem.”
He arches his eyebrows. “Is that so?”
“Yup. So be nice to yourself or else I’ll go find that lizard and—”
“Don’t you dare, Callie Mae.”
I smirk. “Then we have a deal. You be kind to yourself and the lizard stays put.”
“You drive a hard bargain,” he rasps, searching my face.
Leaning in, I brush my lips over his. “Don’t forget it.
” I kiss him and then drop to my heels with a sigh.
“My news isn’t good, but it’ll be okay.” I don’t tell him that I have no idea how or when, but even if they lose everything, they’ll still have each other.
At the end of the day, family matters most. He threads his fingers with mine and leads me down the hall.
We find the twins in the kitchen, Jax already raiding the groceries while Brax puts items away in the fridge. They’re completely unaware of the storm brewing around us. That at any second a tornado could strike and carry us all away.
No. I won’t let that happen. They deserve better and I’ll be damned if Theo hurts them.
“Hey, Alley cat.” Jax winks. “You two getting hot and heavy?”
“Uh, can you guys sit down?” I ask.
Jax quirks an eyebrow, cracking open a package of cookies. “Damn, what did we do now? You sound like Dad when he caught us putting frogs in your backpack.”
“This is serious, Jax.” Brax elbows his twin, his features turning severe. Or maybe they’ve stayed that way since my supply closet confessional.
Taking in his brother’s grim faces, Jax swallows and a line cuts across his forehead as they all take a place on the couch.
I stand before them, wringing my hands, wondering exactly how to tell them everything without sounding pathetic.
They know the stronger version of Callie.
They haven’t exactly met the broken girl who fled from home and got herself tangled up in a controlling relationship.
Jax notices the way I’m fidgeting with my hands and leans forward, resting his forearms on his thighs. “Who do I need to kill?”
His protectiveness shoots to my heart. Brax and Knox look ready to jump in to help bury the body.
These guys. I fucking love them. Which means they need to know everything.
The words tumble out of me. I tell them how I met Theo, at some stupid art bar, how easily I fell for him.
None of them seem particularly happy to hear this part of the story, but I push through it.
The highlights are quick but stacked on top of one another, it’s a big steaming pile of shit.
The show where Theo stole my art, how I broke into the studio we shared and took the rest of my work before fleeing home.
The lawsuit that’s barely started and already turning into a nightmare.
The way he’s been stalking me since I came back to town.
Their faces grow darker with each confession.
“And today,” I continue, my voice barely above a whisper, “he hired the only lawyer in town before I could. Then he said something about tax liens and buying property by Sawmill Creek.”
“Well we’re not selling, so he can fuck off,” Jax growls.
“Actually,” Knox says, voice strained. “Dad left us with some debts and overdue bills.” He glances at me, hesitation stalling his words, and I nod in encouragement. With a heavy exhale, he forges on, explaining about the liens and the trouble he’s been trying to cover on his own.
Brax’s features tighten. “Knox, you should have let us help.”
“I have some savings,” Jax adds. “I’ve been saving up to help us remodel the kitchen, but you can have it.”
Knox shakes his head. “It’s my job to take care of you guys.”
“Maybe when we were little, but—”
“No, Jax. Dad told me to take care of you guys and I—” His voice catches. “Fuck. I fucking failed, okay?”
“Knox,” I warn.
He looks at me, but there’s so much agony scrawled across his face that I can’t bring myself to threaten him into self love.
“It was my job,” he says a little louder, more angry.
Years of pent-up frustration finally spilling over.
“Ever since Mom left, that’s what I’ve been doing but it wasn’t good enough! ”
Silence follows his shout, and the twins trade looks, so much passing between them. I almost feel like an intruder at the moment, but I was there when they came to school upset that she left, and I’ll be here while they figure out what to do and how to move on from this mess. We’re in it together.
“Dad never should have asked that of you,” Brax begins.
“You don’t understand. He was a single dad working sixty-hour weeks. I was the oldest. It was my responsibility.”
“That’s fucking bullshit, Knox.” Jax grips his shoulder and shakes him a little. “You were a kid. That was more than you should have had to carry and deep down you know it, you don’t want to be mad at a dead man.”
“Jax, come on,” Brax murmurs.
“No. We’ll argue back and forth if we dance around it, so I’m saying it.
Dad was amazing, but he fucked up too. He did the best he could, but it wasn’t enough, and it’s okay to be angry, Knox.
You didn’t get to enjoy being a kid and you should have.
He never should have put you through parentification. ”
Knox looks at Brax who looks at me and I look at Knox before we all look at Jax.
“What the hell did you say?” Knox asks.
“Parentification. It’s when kids are forced to be care takers and—” He cuts off when he notices the way we’re all staring at him. He bristles. “What?”
“And where did you learn about this?” Brax asks.
Jax sighs like we’re all dumb. “Therapy reels are all over social media. Maybe you three should get educated.”
That makes us all laugh, and with those light sounds, the tension bleeds away. The twins may not notice, but Knox glances at them differently, like he’s seeing them see him for the first time, but they’ve known all along that he was always doing everything in his power to take care of them.
“So,” I begin, pulling the focus back to the big problem looming over us. “With everything Knox shared and what Theo said, it’s obvious what his plan is.”
Jax’s jaw is clenched so tight I worry his teeth might crack. “That son of a bitch.”
I don’t have to be a mind reader to know he’s contemplating violence.
Knox leans back. “Do you know for sure that’s what he’s planning?”
“No.” The admission makes me feel small. “But the timing seems too convenient to be coincidence. He doesn’t like to lose and me leaving. . .” I trail off and shrug. “He’s not going to let me walk away.”
“We’ll take care of it,” Jax adds, rage still simmering in his eyes.
Brax and Knox nod in agreement. “Let him try to stalk you now that we know,” Knox says, voice so low it’s practically a growl.
“We’ll go to the town hall on Monday. Check the records, see what’s really going on,” Brax says. “There has to be something we can do.” He glances at Knox, a little flash of frustration zipping across his face, but it’s there and gone in a second.
The twins know Knox was only trying to take care of them.
“I’m worried,” I say, hating how helpless I sound. “He’s always three steps ahead. I don’t know how to fight someone like that.”
“You’re not fighting him alone anymore,” Jax says. “We’ve got your back.”
The dinner I planned is too daunting, so I settle on making toasty sandwiches as we talk through worst-case scenarios and possibilities. Through it all, I can’t help but envy their certainty.
They’re so confident in their ability to protect what matters. I wish I felt even an ounce of that conviction, because right now I have no idea how I’ll deal with the lawsuit now that Theo’s effectively blocked me from getting legal help in this town.
But maybe that’s okay. Maybe I don’t need to have all the answers right now. Maybe having people who’ll stand by me is enough for today.