CHAPTER SIX
Fallon
IDIDN’T WANT TO TELL HIM. WOULD’VE GIVEN ANYTHING TO make the truth disappear.
So, I’d stayed in the gym for far too long, simply watching him move.
My beautiful everything. I took in the way his body bent and bowed.
The infinite power he held within him. I hadn’t wanted to break the spell. Hadn’t wanted to break him.
Because I knew the fact that he had siblings who had been raised in possibly the same environment he had would kill him. That they had moved through the world with no one to look out for them when he lived less than five miles away.
“No.” There was a finality to Kye’s voice. A certainty. “That’s not possible.” I stepped toward him, and he instantly took a step back. “No.”
I stayed where I was, not wanting to heap on even more pain. “I’m so sorry.”
“How do you know for sure?” Panic laced every word—a desperate plea for me to be wrong.
“I saw her.”
Kye jerked back as if I’d slapped him.
“I’ll never forget her face. You showed me a picture once, and I’ll never forget it.
Because I know how much she hurt you.” Hurt him and had all but gotten away with it after the sob story she gave the judge.
She’d gotten nothing more than a slap on the wrist in the form of three months in jail and a revocation of her parental rights with Kye.
And now, she’d hurt others, too. Had done untold damage to those tiny humans—tiny humans who were pieces of Kye.
His face paled, making the ink on his neck stand out more as if it were strangling him. “She has my eyes,” he rasped.
My knees nearly buckled, but I wouldn’t let myself fall. Kye had been strong for me countless times. I needed to be strong for him now.
“Gracie,” he choked out. “Keely’s friend. She has my eyes.”
“They all do,” I whispered.
His jaw tightened so much I could see every one of the bones. “Tell me.”
I knew he’d want to know. Need to. “They’re amazing. Three girls. Gracie’s six. Clementine, who goes by Clem, is eleven. And the oldest, Hayden, is fourteen. She’s the one Cope was coaching on the side last summer. She plays hockey.”
Kye’s breaths grew more ragged with each fact I gave him.
“Trace and Cope know my sisters better than I do.” He jerked a hand through his hair, tugging on the strands.
“How is that even possible? She would’ve had to be pregnant when she was arrested.
Or right after—” He halted. “They were always fucking around on each other. Toxic to the core.”
“They have a different father. A man named Les Jensen, who doesn’t seem to be involved in their day-to-day lives.”
I had to explain in case he was worried that Rex Blackwood was back after getting out of prison. But that coward had never returned to Sparrow Falls. At least as far as I could tell.
“You’re sure? Sure they’re hers? That they’re my … my sisters?” Kye choked on the word and then started pacing. “I’ve seen that callous bitch around town and haven’t once seen her with a kid.”
Another dagger to the heart. Another nail in the coffin. As far as I could tell, Renee hadn’t been a mother to those girls in a long time. Then I watched as realization dawned.
Kye’s hands fisted, his forearms flexing with the motion. “Because she doesn’t take care of them. Probably not goddamned once.” His gaze jerked to me. “What happened? Why the callout?”
True terror was grabbing hold of him now, cutting him open. I knew I had to stanch the flow. And there was only one way to do that: the truth.
“A neighbor called in the sounds of a fight. When the sheriff’s department arrived on the scene, it was clear that Hayden was injured. Renee slapped her and threw a glass at her head.” I got out the worst of it as quickly as I could.
Kye had gone stock-still. There was no expression on his face now. No anger. No fear. Just blankness. “What else?”
“Deputies found both a loaded gun and a stash of meth,” I said quietly. I would’ve given anything for the words to be lies. For the girls. And for Kye.
“In a house with a six-year-old.” Kye’s voice had a quiet lethality now. One I’d only heard once or twice in my life. “She could’ve killed someone or been killed.”
“Everyone’s okay. Hayden had to get liquid stitches, but she’s all right. She’s been taking care of her sisters so well. Now, she’ll have some help doing that.”
Kye’s amber eyes flashed, more golden tones threading through them. “Taking care of?”
I swallowed, knowing he needed to hear it all and that it would be better to tell him now. “The trailer was in bad shape. Filthy. Hayden had food hidden in their room. Even a mini fridge. She’s kept them fed, their clothes clean, their hair washed.”
“She’s fourteen fucking years old,” Kye bellowed.
I let his rage hit me, but I didn’t brace because I knew it wasn’t for me. “And now she’ll get to be a kid.”
Kye’s spine snapped straight. “Where are they? Tell me you’re not letting that bitch keep them.”
I didn’t let that one land, knowing he wasn’t thinking straight.
“Renee is being charged with several offenses, including child abuse, assault, child endangerment, and drug possession. Now that I’ve flagged the connection to her past charges, we’ll be able to file a lawsuit to terminate parental rights.
The girls were born in a different state and have a different father than you.
That’s why it didn’t come up right away. ”
None of that mattered to Kye right now. Nothing but the girls being safe did. “Where are they?” he growled.
“With one of my most amazing foster families. I promise. They’re together, and they’re safe. With time, they’ll heal,” I assured him.
Kye’s pacing started up again. He moved back and forth as he tried to make sense of the unthinkable. “They got pulled from a nightmare, and now they’ll get shuffled from one place to the next. Ripped apart. Thinking it’s their fault that no one wants them.”
“Kyler,” I whispered, hoping using his full name would reach him. “You don’t know that. Look what happened to you.”
His gaze cut to me. “My situation was a fucking miracle. A one in a goddamned million chance. Three girls? And none of them infants or toddlers? They’ll never keep them together.”
The problem was, I knew he had a point. If a family member didn’t step forward, keeping the girls together would be an uphill battle, though one I’d never stop fighting. But I wouldn’t lie to Kye and say it would be easy.
“They’ve been all fucking alone.” The words tore from his throat with an animalistic tone that had me instantly on alert. He moved so fast I didn’t have a prayer of getting in his way. He went for the equipment rack first, upending it and hurling the shelves at the wall.
“They’ve been living through hell, and I didn’t know.” He dove for the towel stand next, grabbing that and throwing it with all his might. It shattered into countless pieces on the floor.
I moved then. I knew it was stupid, but I couldn’t let Kye hurt himself even worse than he already was. I did the one thing I thought might pull him out of it. If even just for a moment. A fraction of a second where I could reach him.
Pushing off my feet, I launched myself at Kye as he stormed toward a rack of weights. I saw his brief moment of surprise before he caught me. Just like he always did.
The moment my body hit his, I held on for dear life, hoping I could keep Kye from detonating or at least put the pieces back together after the trigger had been flipped.
His whole body shuddered, and for the first time, I felt how massive he truly was. Not just tall, but broad. And the power coiled inside him was like a wild animal poising to strike.
“Let go.” Kye’s command vibrated with fury.
“Can’t do that, Kyler.”
His entire form shuddered with everything he’d been holding inside. “I’ll hurt you. Look what the fuck I just did,” he snarled.
I gripped him tighter. “You’re not going to hurt me.”
“You don’t know—”
“I do. I know that you are the kindest soul I’ve ever known to walk the Earth. I know that a rage lives inside you, but it’s only matched by your gentleness. And I know that you will never do a damn thing to cause me any sort of harm.”
It was as if all the fight drained from Kye in a split second. Every ounce of tension, every speck of rage … it all just collapsed, and Kye sank to the floor with it, taking me with him.
I still didn’t let go. I kept holding on. And then Kye was holding me, too, the two of us curving around each other as his entire body started to shake. I held on as the tears came—not holding him together but telling him I was there no matter what.
“I wasn’t there when they needed me.” The words were choked, escaping through the sobs he so desperately tried to hold back.
I pressed my face to his neck, the scent of oakmoss and amber stronger there. “You didn’t know.”
Slowly, the sobs abated, but a bone-deep grief remained. “It doesn’t change that they were alone.”
I pulled back and brushed a lock of hair from his face, feeling his agony. “They won’t be now.”
Kye searched my eyes for a long moment. “I want to take them. I want to give them a home. I want to make sure they’re never scared again. I want to make sure they always know they’re wanted. That someone chose them.”
My jaw went slack. I had known Kye would want to be involved in the girls’ lives.
I’d even thought about seeing if Mom might consider becoming a kinship placement of sorts, even though I knew it was a stretch.
But Kye taking custody and possibly becoming their guardian?
He lived in a one-bedroom apartment over his tattoo studio.
He worked long hours and hated getting up early.
But I also knew that if he was truly ready to make that choice, no one would give more to be everything to those girls.
His amber eyes swirled darker. “Can you help me file for custody, Sparrow?”