46. Mason
46
MASON
“ Y ou’re my brother.” Sam said the words quietly, a slight hint of wonderment mixed in.
Beltraine fell back a few steps, his entire head rearing back. Axel had moved his hands up, grabbing onto two fistfuls of hair, but at Sam’s statement, his mouth fell open at the same time his hands slid slowly down, landing with a thud against his legs. Their eyeballs were almost bulging out.
Steele chanced them a look, hesitating before his head hung down again. “Yeah,” he said it almost as softly as Samantha. His eyes remained on her, a wall in place between them.
I watched in real time as my wife fell in love.
She’d reached out a hand to him, but seeing the distance he put between them, she blinked, her eyes shining with unshed tears, and let her hand fall. She swallowed tightly. “I—Steele?”
He blinked rapidly a few times, his own Adam’s apple moving up and down. He drew in some air, readying himself. “It’s my nickname. I—” His gaze swung to his friends, his mouth flattening before curving down. “They didn’t know. I…” His eyebrows pulled together again, his gaze swinging my way. “You knew.”
I raised my own eyebrow because this little prick had the balls to sound accusatory to me. “I know everything. You tell her the rest, now .”
Sam drew in more air, her chest rising and holding. She was preparing herself for what was still to come.
Just then, we heard a crash upstairs, followed by a door opening. One set of feet pounded the hallway. A second set of feet pounded after, until— thud. Thump.
Maddy yelled, “Ow! Fucker.”
Max grunted. “You need to give them time. Jesus, Mads.”
Her voice went low, but we could still hear it. “If you don’t let me go, I swear to God, Max, I’m going to do permanent damage to your dick.”
Enough was enough. I went to the stairs and shouted, “Logan Malinda Kade.”
They fell quiet. The sounds of their wrestling ceased.
“Dad, I—”
“We are figuring some shit out. Go to your room and wait.”
Thunk.
Max groaned.
“Do not hurt Max’s— any body part of his. Just go to your room.”
“But, Dad—”
“We will read you in when we know everything ourselves. Until then, go to your room.”
They were quiet again, until Maddy began whispering.
“What? No, Mads. Do what he said. I mean—”
She whispered again, more fervently.
Max fell quiet.
She raised her voice, “Okay, Dad! We’re going to my room. We’ll have the door closed so no worries about the loudness of your voices. We won’t hear a thing.” To Max, we could hear her hiss, “Come on! Let’s go.”
He groaned again, but their feet faded, going in the direction of Maddy’s bedroom.
I met Sam’s gaze and saw some dark amusement pooling in them. Some of the stress in me lifted, just slightly. She didn’t know everything. When she did, that amusement would be gone and I didn’t know when it would come back again, but I was grateful to my daughter for putting it there now. Only if it was going to be a short time.
Sam and I shared a look, on the same wavelength. Sam said, “You know she’s going to—”
I nodded, already moving. “Go around to the back end of the house and sneak downstairs, where they can overhear us. Let’s move this to the study.”
I led the way.
The boys followed next with Sam bringing up the rear. She and Steele kept sneaking looks at the other.
Beltraine joked as we went inside, his voice strained, “You guys have a study? And I thought we were rich.”
No one laughed.
He grimaced. “Tough crowd.”
“It’s not fucking funny, Traine. Shit. Are you listening to what’s happening?” Axel exploded, his arm thrust out toward Steele. “Fucking Steele’s been lying to us this whole time.”
Beltraine grimaced again, but this time there was some guilt mixed in. His eyes shot to where Steele had braked.
Axel saw the look. His arm dropped dramatically and he squared up against his friend. “You knew? You fucking knew?”
Beltaine shared another look with Steele before opening his mouth, but nothing came out. He cringed, before closing it back up. He shrugged, admonishing, “I…”
Sam closed the door, but she didn’t move far from it. Her back was to it, and she stood there as if she were barring anyone from leaving or entering. I tried to get a feel on what was going on with her, but she wasn’t letting me. Her eyes were heavy, some sadness shone out, but that was it. She wasn’t closed off, but she wasn’t meeting my gaze either.
Steele interjected, raspy until he coughed to clear his voice, “He didn’t know the specifics, but he just knew I wasn’t being on the up and up for why I’m here.”
“Why are you here?” Sam asked quickly. Clearly. Her gaze was only on her brother.
“I…” He trailed off, flinching before raking a hand through his hair.
There was a lot of that happening. A lot of people not finishing their statements. A lot of grimacing. A lot of fucking lies that needed to be out, and the sooner the better.
I growled, bringing all attention to me. “Drop the act. You come clean now, or I swear to God, kid, I’ll do it for you. I’ve got a feeling you’ll appreciate if you say the words first. You hear me?”
He paled, the first fucking time showing some fear.
Good.
This kid had no idea the shitstorm coming for him.
I jerked my head toward where the other part of my heart stood outside of my body. “She deserves the truth. You either deliver it, or I will.”
He held my gaze for a moment before everything changed. The rigidness left. His shoulders slackened. The lines around his mouth softened. His eyes grew sad. “You’re right. Fuck. You’re right.” He sank down, taking a seat.
Beltraine leaned against one of the walls in the far corner.
Axel sat on the same couch as Steele, but at the farthest end. He was there, watching his buddy.
Beltraine only had eyes for Steele as well.
Sam and I didn’t move.
Steele waited a moment, maybe to gather himself, I didn’t know, but then he started talking.
“Some of it, I don’t know myself. Brinna—”
“Brinna?” Sam’s voice was hoarse.
“My sister. That’s what we call her. She, uh—”
“Your dad used to call her Seb.”
My heart tightened, hearing that. ‘Your dad.’ No longer her dad. I hated that this was happening, that this had happened. God, Sam. I kept my eyes on her, as if I could block the pain that was happening in front of me, and how more of it was going to land on her as he would continue to unravel everything.
“Yeah.” Steele shot her a slight grin before it faded, his face going flat again. “She informed everyone when she turned thirteen that she no longer wanted that name. She didn’t like it, said it was too guy-like for her.” He scoffed.
“Why are you here, Steele? Did you know who I was this whole time?”
He looked haunted, that slipped out before he locked it down, as quick as it showed. “Yeah. I—Brinna… God. This is all messed up.” He shot to his feet, one of his hands in his hair, fisting it and he held onto it. He began to pace. His shoulders and back tightening. “There’s things that I can’t tell you because I don’t fully know myself. I just—” He let loose a myriad of curses, swiftly and savagely.
Sam asked when he took a breath, “Where are your parents?”
He swung those heavy-lined eyes her way, stopping in his pacing. His hand lowered from his head. Some of the wall began to fall from his face, and soon, it completely collapsed. He stared at Sam, stricken. He couldn’t look away. “They’re in Europe. They were banned from being here since the last time he saw you.”
Those words held a punch. It slammed into Sam. She fell back a step before righting herself. “What?”
“It was one of the conditions. He had to cease communication with you. He was having a hard time with it, or that’s what I was told. I guess he kept reaching out and then finally they said he couldn’t live in the country anymore. He and my mom have been in Europe most of my life. Since I was four, I think?”
Sam looked my way, a question in her depths if I knew this information.
I shook my head. This was new to me.
I knew about Steele. I knew about the sister and about what she did. We’d not gotten to that part.
“Where’s your sister?” Sam was frowning to herself. “Maddy said…” Her head tilted up and to the side, her lips pursing together briefly. “She mentioned her. You’re the friends she talked about, aren’t you? The ones where the sister comes on the weekend, but she was told not to ask any question about where she goes to school. That’s you guys. That’s Sabrina, she’s talking about. Not the other friends I thought she was referencing.” She lifted her eyes to me again, and I got it. Noted it. Our daughter lied. That’d be added to the list for another discussion with her.
I gave her a brief nod back, letting her know I was with her.
Sam closed her eyes for a beat before focusing on her brother again. He hadn’t answered. “Steele,” she prompted.
“Yeah. I—I don’t know. Maddy hangs out with us.”
Axel spoke up, “There’s another girl that she talks to in class. Lucia. But they don’t hang out outside of school. That’s us. She’s been hanging out at Traine’s house with us on the weekends. Her and Monroe.”
“Dude,” Beltraine hissed.
Axel shot him a dark look. “Get over it, Traine. Real shit’s happening here.”
He glared back. “Where’s your fucking loyalty to Mads? She’s our friend.”
“And you think she’s going to find out Steele’s been lying, that you had an idea, and not go apeshit on both of you?” He gestured to the ceiling. “She’s an animal. If you think she’s going to protect you over her parents, you are delusional.”
Beltraine continued to glower at him.
Axel scoffed, shaking his head. He leaned back on the couch, shoving his hands in his pockets. “Whatever, dude. She’s not you. She has good parents. She’s not like us in that vein.”
“But I am,” Sam spoke. She gestured to me. “So is he. We’re like you guys.” She lingered on Steele before adding, “I’m not sure about you. Are your parents…” She hesitated and began chewing on her bottom lip. “What are they like?”
Steele sat up and his head rose. His chest filled. “They’re good parents. I swear to God, Sa—Mrs. Kad—I don’t know what to call you.”
“Sam,” she said, huskily. “Sam or Samantha. I’m not Mrs. Kade to you.”
He held her gaze before swallowing and nodding again. “Yeah. You’re right. Sa… Sam. Samantha. My mom and dad are good parents. They really are. They didn’t like what was happening and Dad, he—he tried to stop it. He really did. It’s why he stopped talking to you. It was their condition. If they were going to leave you alone, then he had to as well. It’s…” He stared at her, that stricken look returning. “He loves you. He does. It’s why he left you. I swear it.”
Sam and I shared another look. Both of us were confused.
“Who are you talking about? Who, Steele?” She moved away from the door.
He stiffened, his pupils dilating before he shook his head. As much as he’d opened before, the opposite happened now. He folded in on himself. If he could’ve balled up and disappeared, he would’ve. He croaked out, almost too quietly to hear, “I can’t tell you about them. I’m not supposed to even know, but I do. I…” He was back to hesitating. “I can’t be the one to tell you.”
Beltraine ripped away from the wall, stalking to his friend. He touched his shoulder, but turned so he was shielding him from us. “That’s fucking enough. He told you what he could.”
No. It wasn’t enough.
I stalked forward, meeting the little shit’s gaze. “He tells us everything—”
Beltraine jerked his chin up, drawing to his full height to stand against me. “Or what?” His eyes turned mean. Glittering from heat. “You going to make us do shuttle runs too? Beat us up? What are you going to do?”
This was a kid, going toe to toe with me.
I didn’t want to like this kid, or respect him, but I did. It came in, grudgingly, but it was there. He was protecting his friend. I made sure to soften my voice, but he had to know the ramifications. “There’s a whole side to his story that I didn’t know about, but we will hear it all. You hear me? What he’s withholding threatens my family. I get that you consider him your family. That’s obvious, and trust me, I do get that, but he’s saying there’s someone out there that wanted to come after my wife. That’s Maddy’s mom. We have you in our home. She was making up beds for you so while it’s cool you want to protect your friend, you need to think long term. My wife still hasn’t heard all of it and I’d much rather she hear it from him, than me. He might be able to offer up some understanding for why he did what he did.” I moved to the side as I spoke, my eyes falling on Steele as I said that last piece.
Blood drained from him. He grabbed onto the couch, just before his entire body wavered to the side.
Axel cursed, shifting over. He grabbed hold of Steele, keeping him from toppling over.
Beltraine whipped around too, also cursing. Both righted their friend simultaneously.
“Fuck this.” Axel looked up.
“Axe,” Beltraine warned.
“No. Fuck this, Traine.” His gaze skirted between Sam and me. “You need to call his sister. She’s behind all of this. Whatever all of this is, it’s her. Guaranteed. It’s her.”
Something shifted inside of me. He was giving me a new target. “What are you saying?”
“You want answers, you get them from her. Fuck. She’ll probably gloat about it.”
Beltraine and Steele didn’t argue with what he was saying. Both remained quiet.
Axel added, almost as a curse, “She’s the mastermind behind whatever this is.”
I took out my phone and tossed it to him. “Call her.”