Chapter 41 Grayden
FORTY-ONE
Grayden
“First few years in the Army, my anger fueled me. I told you that. I was kind of an asshole. Didn’t make many friends.
Joining the military seemed like the best option for me, for a whole host of reasons, but I missed everyone here too.
It was like I hated Silver Ridge, and I also felt like huge parts of me were missing, not being here. Does that make any sense?”
“I think so.”
“Teller and I hadn’t enlisted together, but we were stationed the same place at first. Then his career took off pretty fast while I was barely skating by. We started to grow apart. He tried to be a friend and understand what was going on with me, but I didn’t let him in.”
Piper traced a finger over my thigh, drawing a pattern on the denim. “Teller never told me that. He’s always been pretty quiet about his years of service.”
“Well, most of this he didn’t know. I met this skinny kid named Aaron Drummond.
He reminded me of Callum and Ashford, but he had anger like mine boiling inside him.
Aaron despised his father, like I did. I befriended the kid.
Tried to keep him out of trouble. And we just clicked.
I started to feel more settled, like I’d needed a younger brother around to set a better example for. ”
She smiled against my chest.
“Aaron’s background wasn’t like mine, though.
Like yours and mine. He came from money.
At that point, I didn’t know exactly who his father was or what he did for a living, but Aaron told me he’d grown up privileged.
I thought that difference between us didn’t matter.
In fact, it bonded us even more. Having a similar experience with uncaring fathers even if we’d grown up in the opposite circumstances. ”
I huffed a soft laugh.
“Also, Aaron let me borrow his Yamaha Supersport. That elevated his status in my head too.”
“I bet,” Piper said.
“Things were actually looking up for a while. I wasn’t getting chewed out by my superior officers as much, and Aaron met a girl he really liked.
Got engaged when they found out she was pregnant.
But he still had a chip on his shoulder.
When Aaron drank, his anger came to the surface, and I was usually the guy trying to pull him back. ”
She stroked my hand, threading our fingers together and apart. So sweet and soft, and yet she gave me the strength to keep talking.
“One night, though, I was the one getting drunk and belligerent. It was the anniversary of my mom dying. We went to a bar on base. I proceeded to get shit-faced. Some other soldiers were in the mood to get rowdy, I guess, so I decided to oblige. There was a certain guy who was especially awful. Private Ricker. His favorite hobby was saying shit to rile Aaron up. But that night, everything the man said was riling me.”
My heart was beating hard. I wondered if Piper could feel it.
“Even now, I don’t have a clue what set me off. But I threw the first punch. I remember that, clear as day. Everything that happened afterward was a result of that one stupid impulse. I started it, and that’s something I can never take back.”
“You didn’t mean to.”
“But I did, Piper. I punched Ricker in the face with everything I had. That would’ve been enough to earn me a reduction in rank and confinement, if not worse. I’m still so fucking ashamed of it. Losing control like that.”
She lifted her head to look up at me. I averted my gaze to the wall, my expression stoic, but the racing of my heart and the emotion in my voice probably spoke volumes.
“I told you,” I said. “I’m not the hero in this story.”
“Doesn’t sound like there’s a hero at all. Just people messing up and being human.”
My eyes squeezed shut for a second. “Suppose so.”
“Someone died in that fight?” she asked.
She could see where this ended. The night my entire life had shifted and gone off track.
I nodded. “It got chaotic fast. A dozen of us brawling. Glass breaking, fists flying. Within minutes, somebody shouted that the MPs were on their way. Time to get out of there, but I couldn’t find Aaron. I hoped he’d already bailed, and I ran out the back.”
I took an unsteady breath.
“That’s where I found Aaron. He had Private Ricker on the ground. Whaling on him. Ricker was bloody and unconscious. I dragged Aaron off him and didn’t think. Just told him to go. Run. The MPs got there less than a minute later.”
“They blamed you?”
“I told them it was me.” My voice was raw.
“So many things flashed through my head right before. The fact that Aaron was engaged with a baby on the way. The fact that I’d thrown the first punch and started the stupid fight.
Aaron was like my kid brother. I had to protect him, like I would’ve done for Ashford or Callum. I was responsible.”
“You were drunk. Hardly in your right mind to make a confession.”
“Didn’t matter. A dozen witnesses could confirm I’d punched Ricker in the first place. My knuckles were torn up already. It all fit. But I didn’t know Ricker would die. I wasn’t thinking through all the consequences. What it would really mean for me.”
Pain bled from my voice. The shame and guilt that had wracked me all these years.
She put her hand over my heart. “But Aaron just left you to twist in the wind? What the hell? How could he do that to you?”
I rubbed my cheek against her hair, taking comfort in her even more than I was giving it.
“When I learned Ricker had died, I realized how badly I’d screwed up.
Not that I wanted Aaron to suffer, but at that point, I could’ve been on the line for murder.
I’d never see my family again. I thought about changing my story, but why would anyone believe me?
So I tried to get in touch with Aaron. My only hope was that he’d come forward and confess. ”
“But he didn’t.”
“Nope. His father showed up to see me at the stockade, where I was being held.”
“The father Aaron despised?”
“Exactly. Aaron had called him for help. Told him everything. Turned out, his father’s a big-shot attorney with high-powered clients and friends.
People with serious political power. He told the MPs he was my lawyer, so he could talk with me privately.
Aaron’s dad said I had two choices. If I tried to tell anyone the truth about what happened, he would destroy me and everyone I cared about.
And I’d still go to prison anyway because he’d make sure I was courtmartialed and found guilty for murder.
Or, I could accept a plea deal from the prosecutor and keep my mouth shut. ”
“Oh, Grayden,” she whispered. Her fist tightened on my shirt, as if she wanted to absorb some of the pain I was feeling. “So that’s why you pled guilty to manslaughter instead. Refused to explain what really happened to your siblings.”
“Yes.”
“Why did you cut off all contact with everyone, though? Your siblings and Teller.”
Teller had tried to speak to me a few times, but what could I possibly say? It had been easier to put up a brick wall of silence. Same as Ashford and Callum and Grace. I’d refused to speak to any of them after my sentencing.
“I was too ashamed. Just…fucking broken. I’d done something impulsive for someone I thought of as a brother, and that destroyed my entire life. I thought it would be better for you all if you forgot about me. I know I hurt everyone, and I’m so sorry for it. So sorry.”
A tear streaked down her face.
“Piper, I understand if you don’t see me the same way after this. I should’ve told you before, whether you wanted to hear it or not.”
She pushed back a little from me. “You think I’m that judgmental?
I’m sorry it happened to you, but even more than that, I’m furious.
I want to know the full name of Aaron’s father and anyone else who was involved.
So I can…” She waved her hands. “I don’t even know.
Something terrible because they deserve to get what’s coming to them.
You didn’t destroy your life. It was stolen. It was stolen, Grayden.”
I brushed her tears with my thumb as they kept falling.
For years, I’d hated myself for throwing that first punch. For taking the blame for my so-called friend.
The story wasn’t as bad as it might’ve been. Better than my worst critics in Silver Ridge believed, anyway. I wasn’t a killer. But I’d still blown up my life. I’d made choices that had terrible consequences and hurt the people I loved.
“What if you hadn’t survived your prison sentence?” she asked. “If we’d never had this chance…”
“C’mere.” I pulled her into my lap. “I hate making you cry. Ollie’s not going to be happy with me. He doesn’t want you to be sad, and neither do I. I haven’t even told you the rest of it yet.”
“I can’t talk anymore,” she said. “Can’t feel anymore.”
“What can I do?”
“You don’t have to do anything. Nothing you told me changes what you mean to me.”
It was the best thing she could’ve said. I hadn’t been sure what Piper would think. But she wasn’t pushing me away. Instead she wished she could avenge me. I adored her for that, even though I’d given up a long time ago on my record being cleared.
Piper saw past my mistakes. She still wanted me. That meant everything.
She straddled my lap and kissed me. I kissed her back, pulling her up against my body. My cock responded to her proximity, hardening against my thigh. But this wasn’t even about sex. It was just the need to be close to her.
“Take me to my bedroom,” she said against my lips.
Was it possible to fall for someone this quickly? It had happened little by little over the last couple of months, and then in a cascade effect over the last few days. The more I knew about Piper and how she viewed the world, the deeper I fell.
It had to be possible. Because I was completely and utterly in love with this woman.
I picked her up and carried her. Piper rested her head on my shoulder. When we reached her room, I set her on the bed and closed and locked the door.
We undressed quickly. I just wanted to be skin to skin with her, and she clearly wanted the same.
Piper pushed back the covers. We crawled beneath them, and my blood quickened when she was pressed fully against me. Warm, smooth skin. Her golden hair, light brown eyelashes. I wrapped my arms around her and held her close, gazing into her green eyes. She did the same to me.
“So beautiful,” I murmured. “How do you get more perfect every time we’re together?”
I’d never been in love before. Never felt anything like this. For a lot of my life, I’d never believed I could have something, someone, this pure and soft and beautiful.
But Piper was right here in my arms. This was the third time we’d been naked together in Piper’s bed, and every time, it had felt more and more like a place I could belong. There was no way I could ever let her go.
I couldn’t tell her yet, because she wasn’t ready to hear it, but hell. I desperately wanted to tell her.
I love you.
We kissed slowly. Trailed hands over bare skin. She lay on top of me, long hair falling in a curtain. I rolled us so I was above her, my erection nudging her stomach.
“We’ll have to be quiet,” I whispered.
When I slid inside of her, she sighed and put her hands on my face. We kept kissing and touching as our hips rocked.
Piper felt like home.
Still kissing her, I rolled us again so she was on top. She sat up to ride me. Her eyes were still a bit red around the edges from her crying, and that did things to my chest.
“Want to make you feel good,” I said. “No more tears, okay?”
She draped herself over me and nodded, her hair brushing my shoulders. “You said you won’t hurt me, and I believe that. But I won’t hurt you either, Grayden. I want to keep making you happy.”
“Just be with me, and you will.”
She was killing me. Tearing me down to my base elements and building me back up again.
Before coming back to Silver Ridge, I hadn’t expected much from the remainder of my life.
I’d had small hopes. Like finding solace and peace, having a few genuine friendships.
My art. Some kind of relationship with my siblings.
But with Piper, I felt like I had a shot at my wildest hopes coming true.