46. Kingston
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
KINGSTON
NOW
Ifind Damon a few yards from the porch, his arms crossed over his chest as he stares out at the tree line.
It’s freezing up here at this time of the year and certainly too cold to be out here without a coat.
Stepping up beside him, I hold out the coat, and for a moment I think he might reject it, but as stubborn as he may be, he’s not stupid.
“Thanks,” he rumbles, tugging the zipper up with more force than is required.
He’s pissed, and I can’t say I blame him.
Ryker was out of line and being intentionally obtuse about a situation we know little about. Hell, not even Chloe knows why he pulled away from her all those years ago.
As kids, the three of them were inseparable. There wasn’t one without the other two, much to Salvatore’s disgust.
But Caroline loved it. She always wanted a daughter, and Chloe filled that void for her.
He wanted his sons to be soldiers from the moment they were born, and if he could have, he would have started training them as soon as they could walk.
Thankfully, his love for their mother protected them, giving them a normal childhood for as long as possible. Or at least as close to a normal childhood as you can get growing up in a Mafia family.
“How’s your arm?” I ask. “I’ll replace the bandages for you after you’ve showered.”
“I can do it.”
I sigh. “But you don’t have to.”
“I don’t need your help, Kingston. If anything, I need you six feet under.”
His words hurt more than they should. Both brothers have been poisoned against me, and I’ve known that for a long time. But knowing something and seeing it firsthand are two vastly different things.
“Because of your mom’s accident?” I ask.
“Because you killed her,” he retorts.
I swallow the need to snap back. To tell him point-blank that I wasn’t responsible for the accident.
But it won’t help. Not without context, and he won’t believe it until he realizes how many lies his father has told him over the years.
“The day of the accident, your mom was going to meet with a lawyer about filing for divorce. She wasn’t happy, and she didn’t want you boys to have no other choice than to follow in his footsteps.
“I’m sure you remember I was rarely at the compound back then, and although your mom and Neil were my best friends, Salvatore didn’t like that his wife and number two were close with someone else.”
I shake my head, letting out a little huff at how childish this part of the story is.
“Salvatore never hit Caroline, but he could be cruel, a trait it seems you’ve unfortunately inherited.
” I don’t pause to allow for his denial.
“I chose to stay away so that she wouldn’t have to deal with the consequences of our friendship.
But this one day she called and asked me to drive her somewhere.
She had her own personal driver, and she’d never asked me to do anything like that before, so I didn’t ask questions.
I just got in the car and went to pick her up.
“It wasn’t until we were halfway to the city that she told me she was going to meet with a lawyer.”
“You’re lying,” Damon growls.
“I wish I was.” I swallow, bracing myself to tell him about one of the worst days of my life, second only to the day I found Chloe unresponsive in a pool of blood.
“Unlike your father, I never had an interest in fast cars. If something was going to take me out, it wasn’t going to be a car accident.
But when you kids or your mom were in my car on rare occasions, I took extra care, and the day of the accident was no exception.
“The light was green when I entered the intersection. I’ve replayed that moment countless times over the years, even going as far as hacking into the city’s traffic cameras to make sure.
I didn’t run a red light, but the person that hit us did it intentionally, and hitting your mother’s door was the aim. ”
“You can’t possibly know that.”
“I can show you the footage if you think it would help, but I’ve had analysts look it over, and they confirmed my suspicions.”
“Why would you do that if you never had any intention of coming back?”
“Because I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself if I were responsible for my only family being hurt. It was my own selfish need to not be at fault that made me obsess over it for years,” I admit. “And by the time I had proof, it was too late.
“Salvatore had every man that worked for him tracking me, he’d turned you and your brother against me, and Caroline was trapped in that house with a man she didn’t love.
In that time, I’d built Hawk Security and there was nothing left for me in Miami.
I cut ties with everyone, starting a new life and trying my hardest not to look back. ”
“Until Chloe called you.”
I shake my head. “I came back to Miami one other time, for your mom’s funeral.
It didn’t matter how much danger it put me in, I couldn’t miss it.
I already held so much guilt about missing those years of her life, not being there for her while she recovered and while she navigated her new life.
I didn’t help her escape a marriage she didn’t want to be in anymore.
And I didn’t save you boys from your father.
I failed her over and over again, but I refused to miss saying goodbye. ”
His cold eyes flick to me for the first time, searching for insincerity he won’t find. I’ll never regret anything the way I regret not doing more for my best friend.
“When Chloe called, she sounded so scared. So broken. I dropped everything and flew to Miami to pick her up, because even if you boys had turned on her, I knew Caroline would want me to take care of her.”
He swallows heavily, forcing his attention back to the line of plush green in front of us. “You think I’m just going to believe everything you say?”
“No,” I reply. “But maybe you should think about all the lies Salvatore has told you and your brother over the years. How he framed Chloe as a traitor when she was a scared eighteen-year-old carrying his grandchild. And perhaps you should consider the only person that benefited from your mother’s accident. ”
I turn on my heel before he can respond. All I can do is plant the seed. He has to do the rest.
I’ve never been more convinced Salvatore orchestrated the accident, including using me as the perfect scapegoat.