Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
Chelsea
After he finished his coffee, Ice left. Frost nodded off in the armchair. I waited for a while, then stepped outside to see if I could find Storm. He might have gone home, but I sensed he was close.
I headed down to the car park and found him sitting in a dark corner by himself. I almost missed him at first, but he moved, scuffing his feet on the concrete.
“Storm?” I said softly. “Are you okay?”
He grunted. “Nope. I don’t know how you are.”
I sat down beside him so we weren’t quite touching, but close enough to feel his warmth. “I’ve had a lifetime to get used to it. If I just found out, I’d be packing and getting ready to get the hell out of Dusk Bay.”
“Is that what you think I should do?” he asked.
“No,” I said quickly. “You wouldn’t turn tail and run. I know you better than that. Yes, this is strange, and it’s a lot, but is it really the weirdest thing you’ve ever heard?”
“Yes,” he said without hesitation. “My best friend, my… I don’t even know what to call him. He killed a woman and liked it. He wants to do it again. It’s one thing when he was slipping you a roofie, or tying you up and fucking you. What if he decides he wants you dead? What if he chokes you and can’t stop himself from going too far?”
“Is that what you’re worried about?” I asked gently. “I can take care of myself.”
Ivy should have been able to as well, but now was not the time to mention that.
“Not if you’re drugged,” he argued. “You won’t be able to do anything but lie there and let him kill you. Fucking hell.” He raised his fist as though to punch the concrete wall beside him, but dropped it to his thigh.
“You’d be there to stop him,” I said. “But I know for certain he won’t do that to me. He cares about me. About us. He lost his shit once. He’s not going to do it again. We’ll make sure of that.”
“What if we can’t?” Storm asked. “He might kill me, then you.”
“He won’t,” I assured him. “If you’re so worried, we could always kill him first.” I didn’t mean it, but it got the reaction I expected.
“I’m not killing him,” Storm insisted. “This whole conversation is fucked up. Why are we talking about killing anyone? How could he do something like that? He could have asked for help. We would have dealt with her.”
“How?” I asked, curious how he’d answer in his present frame of mind.
He exhaled, loud and frustrated. “I don’t know. We could have put her in a taxi, or walked her home. Something.”
“She might have come on to you instead,” I said.
“Then I would have—” He closed his mouth with a click.
“What would you have done?” I insisted.
He was a simmering pot, ready to boil over. I wasn’t sure if he realised that. He saved the violence for the rugby field, but it was close to the surface, itching to spill over into the rest of his life. Better he realise that now before he lashed out the way Frost had.
“I would have told her to fuck off,” he said.
“And if she refused?” I asked. “What then?”
“I would have walked away,” he insisted.
“What if she followed?” I pressed.
“I would have—” He cut his words off again.
“What would you have done?” I pressed harder.
“I would have stopped her,” he said, his voice quieter now.
“How? How would you have stopped her?” What I was getting at quickly sank into his mind. He didn’t like it, but he needed to face it.
“If I had to, I would have fucking done what Frost did,” he finally admitted. “I would have wrapped my hands around her throat and squeezed until she understood.”
“Do you wish you’d done what he did?” I asked more gently. “You like having power. Do you want power like that?”
He pressed his hands to his face. “I don’t know. I can’t stop thinking about him doing it. I should go to the police, but instead I’m fucking hard.”
I placed a hand on his thigh. “Welcome to Dusk Bay. The question is what do we do with the way you feel right now?”
“The answer to that should be extensive therapy,” he said bitterly.
“If that’s the path you want to take, I’ll support you,” I said. “I’m a doctor, I shouldn’t be advocating violence. But I also know there are some shitty people out there.” People much worse than Ivy. “People the world would be better off without.”
“What are you saying?” he asked. “Are you suggesting you will bring me some…I don’t know…rapist, and let me kill him?”
“When you thought Frost forced himself on me, what would you have done? If you honestly thought he was capable of that?” I asked.
“I would have ripped his nuts off and choked him with them,” Storm growled. “I would have smashed his face in.”
“You would have killed him,” I stated.
“For raping you, yeah, I would have killed him,” Storm said. “I was pissed at him, but I knew he wouldn’t go that far. Not really. If he was any other guy…” He shook his head.
“How would doing that have made you feel?” I asked.
“I dunno. Better. Asshole wouldn’t have laid a finger on you again.” His words were still grudging.
“If you want, you could make sure people like that don’t rape anyone,” I said.
“It’s not that simple though, is it?” he asked. “Your brother isn’t a vigilante. He works for people with an agenda. Right? Does he kill innocent people because his boss tells him to?”
That was a good question and one I was reluctant to answer. Yes, at times Ice might have had to torment someone he considered innocent. Times like that would be few and far between though. He much preferred to deal pain to those who brought pain to other people. It was his way of doing good in the world.
My tongue slid over my lips. “Not just because his boss tells him to.”
Storm’s head snapped towards me. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Remember Belinda Simmons?” I asked.
“Yeah, bitch died in a car crash or some shit.” He shrugged, not really caring one way or another what happened to her. She was gone and wouldn’t bother him again, that was all that mattered in his book. Apparently he hadn’t stopped to think it might not be a coincidence.
“No she didn’t,” I said softly. “I took her to my brother. She threatened to publish an article online telling the world I used to dance and fuck men for money. She would have ruined my career. All for a few dollars.”
Storm let out a string of curses, each more harsh than the last. “Fucking bitch. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I would have had to explain everything,” I said. “Things you weren’t ready to hear yet. I dealt with her to save us all the hassle. Specifically, my brother dealt with her.”
“He killed her?” Storm asked.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “He killed her for me.”
“I wish you told me,” he said on an exhale. “Next time, you will tell me. You don’t go off and do shit like that by yourself. Understood?”
“You’re adorable when you get bossy,” I teased. It was also hot as hell. He’d gone from uncertain to possessive and aggressive in the blink of an eye. Quick enough to give anyone whiplash. He was fascinating.
He reached over to wrap his hand around my throat. “Understood?” he insisted.
Considering the conversation we just had, I should be nervous, but it wasn’t. I knew without doubt he wouldn’t hurt me. Not in a way I didn’t like to be hurt.
“I don’t want to deal with things like that by myself anyway,” I said. “Not if I don’t have to.”
He loosened his grip. “She was really going to publish that crap? That would have pissed off a lot of people. I’m right at the top of the list, but the rest of the team wouldn’t be far behind. Frost might have slipped her a roofie, then strangled the shit out of her. If he got to her before I did.”
“If either of you got there before my brother did,” I said.
He would have tracked her down and sliced her to pieces if she published that article. She would have suffered worse than she already had. It would have been difficult to cover though. The eyes of Australia would be on me and her. Her going missing wouldn’t go unnoticed.
Luckily for everyone, I got to her before that happened. In a way, she should thank me. Her last hours could have been much, much worse.
“He’s protective of you, isn’t he?” Storm lowered his hand to my lap and laced his fingers in mine.
“Very much so,” I agreed. “We’ve always been close. Ever since we were little. If I fell and grazed my knee, he was there helping me clean it up. If I wanted to be pushed on the swings, he’d be the one to do it. The amount of times the teachers told him off at school because he was in my classroom and not his…” I smiled.
“It must be nice to have someone look out for you like that,” Storm said.
“You didn’t?” I asked gently.
“If I grazed my knee, it was because my older brother pushed me over or tripped me,” he said. “He was the asshole who always did things and told our parents it was me. I got yelled at and grounded and he walked away laughing. Prick.”
“What does he do now?” I asked.
“Dickhead died of a drug overdose a few years ago,” Storm said. “That was the one thing he did that my parents couldn’t blame me for. I was away in Queensland, playing. Came home to find the family in self-destruct mode. Parents divorced a year later. Since they couldn’t blame me, they blamed each other. You know whose fault it was? No one’s. It was just one of those shitty things that happens. I tried telling them that, but guilt and grief are heavy and loud. They couldn’t hear past them.”
I squeezed his hand. “I’m so sorry. That must have been terrible.”
“Yeah, well, it was what it was. Probably no surprise my family was dysfunctional.”
“I think the functional family is a myth,” I said. “Mine has its challenges too. All families do.”
“We’re family now,” he said softly. “You, me, Frost, Dallas. Fuck, he doesn’t know.”
“No, he doesn’t.” I wasn’t looking forward to crossing that bridge. Sooner or later, we’d have to. Before any of us got in deeper.