Chapter 7 Kingston
Kingston
My fingers ached as I slid my thick work gloves off.
I’d been repairing the top floor of the farmhouse for the past week, pushing out images of Presley wearing that dress, wearing her hair down like that. She looked like something from a dream, a dream I couldn’t wake up from. One where, in the end, I knew the girl I loved wouldn’t be mine.
“Kingston!” Gio roared from the lower level of the house.
He’d been elusive and absent this past week as well.
I hadn’t told him that I saw Presley on FaceTime through Scotty’s screen.
I hadn’t told him that she wore a massive ring on her left hand that didn’t look like anything she’d ever pick out for herself.
I hadn’t mentioned that she was forcing her smiles upon the room of strangers she was floating around in, and I certainly hadn’t shared that I told her in no uncertain terms that she still looked like she belonged with my brother. And not me.
“Yeah!”
I heard his feet slam against the stairs that I had recently rebuilt, and then his head popped up. He’d gotten a haircut, and it looked as though he’d just showered because it was still wet as he ran his hand through the ends.
“You aren’t answering your cell.” My brother glanced down at my jeans that were covered in dust and paint.
“Been busy. What’s up?”
Gio shoved his hands into his pockets and wandered around the open floor. He saw the three bedrooms framed with drywall already nailed in place and the extra set of stairs leading to a third level.
“What’s this for?” He ran his palm over the railing, tilting his head back to take in the steps.
It wasn’t easy to build a house while not knowing jack shit about it. I had hired three contractors to come and help me, but there were a few things they’d told me I could do that would move things along a bit faster.
Lifting my head to gesture, I explained, “Figured you’d want to star gaze… I built this so you’d have that option from the top level.”
Gio’s face fell. His hands slid from the wood, and he shook his head.
“Why? She’s not coming back. You need to stop doing all this shit, acting like you’re building this life for me and Presley. It isn’t happening.”
I ignored him and set my tools back in the bucket that I’d carried up here. I had been hanging drywall all morning, so I didn’t have a ton of things to pack up.
“Kingston, I’m serious. You need to stop.” Gio crowded me with a shove.
I shoved him back, making everything tip out of the bucket I had packed things in.
“Gio, stop!”
“No. She doesn’t want me, King. Fuck. Why can’t you see that?” He seethed.
I refused to see it because I knew better.
I had witnessed the two of them interact and fall in love, my entire life.
Gio was good for her. He always made her laugh when all I did was make her sad.
He taught her how to read the sky for fuck’s sake.
He’d permanently tattooed that sky on his back just for her.
There was no way I was fucking this up for them any more than I already had.
“Let me do this,” I begged him while he came at me again, ready to punch me.
He paused, and I caught something in his gaze that scared me.
Something that made me want to reach into his chest and check over his heart to make sure it was still beating.
I carried my dark clouds and demons with me everywhere I went; Gio was always sunshine and happiness.
If his came out, they’d try to kill him.
His voice was quiet as he whispered, “Why do you want to?”
Because I’m not good, not like you, and not like her. Because you always made her smile. Because all I do is ruin things. “I fucked it up. Let me fix it.”
My brother shook his head before turning away again, pacing the length of the floor.
“Dad is lying about Markos. He’s dead set on leaving, and based off how much has been packed in the house, I think they might be going soon. I need help convincing him. He knows more than what he’s saying he does.”
Gio was coming to me as a last resort; he knew Dad wasn’t going to budge, even if I got involved. But I could tell my brother was desperate.
“Then we motivate him,” I suggested. My brother’s eyebrows lifted as he watched me grab the rest of my things and head downstairs.
“I don’t want Mom to get upset,” Gio said as we pulled to a stop in front of the house.
My head dipped in agreement. I had no plans whatsoever in bringing my mother into this or my sister, but that actually had me wondering where she was. I hadn’t seen her in over a week.
“Where has Alex been lately?” I shoved the parking gear into place and pulled the small box from the back seat before exiting.
I had no idea if Kyle and Rylie were around, as I’d been avoiding the manor for the most part.
The first time I had come over was last week when I caught the FaceTime call.
If I did run into them, I planned on being pleasant, or as pleasant as I could be.
Unfortunately, my decision to draw a line in the sand between our families made everything fucking awkward when we showed up, or anyone was caught in the same vicinity as us.
Well, me. Just me…Gio was probably on good terms with everyone since living here and being in the family wing.
Gio fell into step next to me as we pushed through the manor doors and made our way down the hall. “I haven’t seen Alex in a few days…maybe a week?”
Exactly how long it had been for me. My mind raced with where she might have gone to and I mentally reminded myself to text her as I adjusted the weight of the box under my arm.
Gio paused right as his fingers wrapped around the door handle leading into our family space. “He’s going to lose his shit when you do this.”
I shrugged. “Then maybe he’ll be properly motivated to talk.”
Pissing my father off wasn’t exactly something I enjoyed doing. While I knew I had become rather good at it these past few years, I actually hated being a burden. I detested this wall that had been erected and all because he refused to help us protect Presley.
It angered me past empathy. Which was why I didn’t exactly feel remorse as I walked to his office and allowed my actions to speak all the necessary words.
Dad sat at his desk, and glancing around, I saw that most of his office had been packed up. The only thing that cluttered his desk space was his laptop. His amber eyes flicked up to watch as we entered, and I hated how a flicker of hope or excitement shone there.
“Boys.”
“Hey, Dad,” Gio said warmly.
I shot my brother a quick glare before pulling the box out from under my arm. We didn’t need to give Dad a false sense as to why we were there.
Dad’s eyes narrowed. “What’s that?”
I nudged my brother’s shoulder, so he’d get out of the way. Then I dumped the contents of the box on his desk, covering his laptop. “This was everything found inside Markos Mariano’s office. We just wanted to know if you were aware that he stalked our mother?”
Pictures littered the waxed surface of his desk with image after image of our mother.
Close-ups, invasive images that Gio and I both had to ensure Henry packed and not us.
But there was more than that. He had pictures of Mom when she was a little kid.
T-shirts that seemed to belong to her, a perfume bottle, and hair spray.
There were ultrasound images of Alex tucked inside the box, as well as pictures of when Alex was at an ice cream shop here in Rake Forge.
Another one appeared of Alex when she was swimming at the lake one summer.
An eerie feeling swam through me, making the hair along my spine erupt.
I watched as my father surveyed the mess in front of him. A reddish pink flare filled his cheeks and neck. I cleared my throat and pressed on the gaping wound that had seemed to split open at the memory of this man apparently stalking our mother.
“If he’s dead and you put the bullet in his brain, then great. Let’s burn all this shit,” I warned.
Gio stepped closer, adding, “But if he’s not and there’s even a chance that he could be alive, then we need to find him, Dad. He needs to pay.”
I watched my father carefully as he scanned the things in front of him.
The muscle in his jaw flexed, and he looked as though he were about to say something, but then his gaze snagged on a photo in the pile of our family laughing while at the beach.
In the image, Dad was holding Gio while Alex was struggling to hold me.
She was five or six, and we were just toddlers.
The beach behind everyone was white sand with turquoise water.
“This was after…” Dad’s voice trailed off as he plucked the image from the pile of other photos.
“After what?” Gio asked.
Dad slowly stood while staring down at the picture before digging in the pile once more. I glanced at my brother to see if he was piecing anything together, but his brows were furrowed as if he were just as lost.
Clasping another image, Dad sank back into his seat and stared at it. The picture was of our mother, in college, from what it looked like. She was out at a shooting range, or somewhere similar…she was all alone, and had a white BMW that wasn’t meant for off-roading.
“Son of a bitch,” Dad rasped, scowling so hard at the image I thought he might begin to cry.
A door clicked shut from inside the house somewhere, and Dad’s head snapped up.
“Shut the door. I don’t want your mother to see any of this.”
Gio covered the space quickly and quietly slid the door closed, then locked it.
“Dad, what is all of this? After what?”
“Markos was injured, badly, by Kyle. He scared him enough that we honestly assumed he’d slip out of the life and disappear.
Any images that he might have collected, I assumed, might be prior to that specific day.
The beach image was years after, which means it’s possible that he’s been keeping tabs on our family ever since. ”
By the looks of it, he was particularly interested in Alex.