Chapter 36 #2
“Jesus,” I mutter under my breath, dragging a hand down my face. “How the fuck did your uncle know how to do all that?”
Reid exhales slowly. “Second-hand experience. Like I said to Sierra just now, some of his friends used to be in a gang.”
“I knew it,” Sierra murmurs quietly, but Reid doesn’t even glance at her. His gaze stays locked on his hands, like he doesn’t trust himself to look up.
“After that, we went home to his place,” he continues.
“I packed my things and left with my uncle. I’d already dropped out of school, so there was nothing keeping me there except…
” He hesitates for a fraction of a second.
“Loyalty to my mother. But after that day, that was done.” His shoulders shift slightly, like something in him still carries the weight of that decision.
“I left. Got my GED.” He pauses, then adds flatly, “And that’s it. ”
“That’s it?” The words come out sharper than I intend. It feels like he just dropped a bomb in the middle of the room and then shrugged like it was nothing. I force out a breath, trying not to spiral. “No one else knew? Just you and your uncle?”
Reid shakes his head. “It took a while before the body was found. We didn’t even tell my mom.
She just thought he’d taken off again, after grabbing the cash she kept in her nightstand.
She was pissed at him.” A faint, humorless huff leaves him.
“My uncle said she called him, complaining that I’d abandoned her too, asking if he knew where I was.
He told her I was staying with him after me and my dad argued, and that my father had been there when he picked me up. ” He glances up briefly. “Clean alibi.”
He takes another breath, slower this time, letting a beat stretch out between us before continuing.
“Eventually, the body was found. But just like my uncle planned, they ruled it an accident. Said he probably got drunk, fell into the lake, drowned.” He shrugs slightly.
“Apparently, he wasn’t the first person it had happened to, so they didn’t look too hard.
No evidence of foul play.” His jaw tightens.
“I think my mom probably suspected, though. I don’t know if she ever told anyone.
No one came looking for me.” He tucks his hands into his pockets.
“She died a few years later. The case was never reopened.”
Silence stretches.
“And I thought that was it,” he adds quietly. “That I’d gotten away with it.” His gaze drops again. “Except I couldn’t stop thinking about it. It was eating me alive.”
“Could anyone have seen you dump the body?” Talon asks, his voice low, controlled.
Reid shakes his head. “No. No one else was there.”
I turn to Sierra, my stomach still roiling, my head still trying to catch up. “And you knew all this? Is that why you broke up with him?”
“No,” she says immediately. “I found out way before we broke up.”
“I told her once, when I was drunk,” Reid says. “I thought it would drive her away.” A faint, bitter exhale. “It didn’t.”
“And you stayed with him after that?” I ask, incredulous, my voice rising before I can stop it.
“Yes,” she says, firm and unflinching. “What happened wasn’t his fault. It was an accident.”
“He just admitted he wanted the guy dead.”
“So?” She lifts her chin, not backing down an inch. “I wanted my parents dead too. That doesn’t mean I would’ve actually killed them.” She shrugs, unapologetic. “And even if he did…” Her eyes flash. “He deserved it.”
“Jesus.” I scrub both hands over my face, pressing hard like I can force my thoughts back into place. I can’t. None of this fits. None of this makes sense.
Yeah, my family’s fucked up. But not like this. Not even close.
“I gotta go,” I mutter.
“Where?”
“I have no fucking clue.” I just know I need to get out of here before my head explodes.
I push the door open and walk out, ignoring Sierra calling after me. The hallway feels too narrow, the air too thick. My vision starts to tunnel, dark creeping in at the edges as I move faster, needing space, needing air.
This is insane.
I knew Reid had demons. I never imagined even for one moment they involved a body at the bottom of a lake.
Murder.
Or… maybe not full-on murder. Maybe something less clean-cut. Murder one, murder two, manslaughter—hell, I’ve never needed to know the technical differences. Not until now.
Whatever the hell it’s called, it’s not small.
I don’t know if I would’ve gone into business with him if I’d known. Actually, I am pretty dure I wouldn’t have. I mean, apart from anything else, knowing about it would’ve made me an accessory right? And thinking about it, that means I am now an accessory.
I’m an accessory to a murder. Albeit one I knew nothing about… up until about thirty seconds ago.
Jesus!
And now that I do know… what the hell am I supposed to do?
How do you even begin to process something like this?
“Luke!” Sierra calls as I reach the entrance.
“I just need a minute,” I throw back, not slowing.
I jog down the steps and head straight for the trees, the forest pulling me in, quiet and empty and far away from everything I just heard.
I don’t make it far.
She catches up fast, grabbing my wrist and spinning me around before I can get any real distance.
“You can’t just do this,” she says, breathless but steady.
“Do what?” I snap. “I’m not doing anything, Sierra. I’m just trying to process the fact that one of my best friends and business partners is a murderer.”
“He’s not a murderer!” Her eyes blaze as she jabs a finger into my chest. “And you don’t get to judge him when you have no idea what he’s been through.”
“Oh yeah?” I laugh harshly. “I had shitty parents too. I didn’t kill them.”
“Oh, how righteous of you.” Her voice sharpens, cutting clean.
“I’m sorry—did your parents ever tie you up, hang you upside down, and beat you with a horsewhip?
Did they choke you out when you tried to stop them, only letting go when you were seconds from passing out?
Did they tell you every single day how easy it would be to get rid of you?
” Her eyes burn, bright and furious. “There are shitty parents, Luke, and then there are true monsters. The kind that make every single day a fight to survive. The kind that make you wonder if you’ll even live to see tomorrow. ”
That stops me.
Completely.
I exhale slowly, the images she’s throwing at me too brutal to even fully picture. “He went through that?”
“And worse,” she says.
“Oh.” The word feels small. Useless. Shame edges in at the corners of my thoughts.
She sighs, some of the heat leaving her expression.
“I’m not blaming you for reacting the way you did.
It’s a lot to take in. I get that. But you can’t just run when things get hard.
Reid’s your friend. You can’t abandon him right now.
” Her voice softens, but it doesn’t lose its strength.
“We’re a family, and I love you. I love Reid, and I love Talon.
Face it… the only way this works is if we stay together. ”
I blink.
Everything else—fear, anger, confusion—just… disappears.
“I’m sorry,” I say slowly. “Did you just say you love us?”
Her mouth opens. Closes.
Yeah. She didn’t mean to say that out loud.
But she did.
And it wasn’t fake. It wasn’t for me. It wasn’t to calm me down.
It was real.
A slow grin spreads across my face before I can stop it.
Hell. Sierra loves us.
I mean, I suspected. I’m not blind. But hearing her actually say it?
That hits different.
Everything else just… fades out.
“I didn’t…” she starts, flustered now. “That’s not what I was trying to say.”
“So, it’s a lie?”
She bites her lip, shaking her head. “No. It’s not a lie.”
My chest feels like it might burst.
“I love you too,” I tell her, pulling her in by the waist and kissing her before she can overthink it.