TWENTY-NINE
“Fucking finally!”Beckham chuckles as he tosses his phone onto the beach towel beside him.
As soon as we got home, Echo decided she wanted to have a blow-up kiddie pool set up for Chase to play in after daycare. We helped her inflate and fill it in the backyard before pulling out what felt like a million water toys.
The look on Chase’s face was worth it. He’s an excitable kid, but this reaction had taken the cake. It’d been all Echo and Kara could do to stop him from jumping in fully clothed. But now, he’s happily splashing about with Echo wading in there with him. Chase thinks it’s hilarious when we shoot at his mommy with the water guns we’d confiscated, and I’ve gotta say, I’m enjoying her reaction, too. We all are. The woman outright squeals with every stream of water we send in her direction.
I turn, staring at Beckham from behind my aviator sunglasses. “What?”
Huffing out a laugh, Royal nods as he holds up his new phone. “I just got it, too. We’re allowed to return to SIN at our convenience.”
“What’s going on?” Echo calls to us, bringing her hand up to shield her eyes.
I pick up my phone, open it without paying attention, then glance down. I don’t have just one text notification. The number six stares back at me. Huh. I’d put my phone on silent when we came outside earlier, not wanting it to interrupt our afternoon. I guess I missed other messages, in addition to the ones from the school.
“You probably have a message from Dean Franklin saying you can return to TZE, princess.”
Chase scoops water with his hands and throws it up into the air. “Pwincess. Dat’s funny, Mama.” Echo leans down, tickling his sides, and he shrieks with laughter.
Once he’s occupied again, pouring water back and forth from one cup to another, Echo turns to face us. “That’s great, I guess.” She glances at Chase. “Not that I’d be staying there, right?”
I think she’s referring to living with us at SIN, but she could just as easily be referring to remaining home with Chase. The problem being that we can’t all stay here for the entire year. And I can’t imagine any of us wanting to be without her. Returning my focus to my phone, I open my texts. The first one, is indeed from the dean.
Sigma Iota Nu has reopened.
Please return at your convenience.
Picking up my bottle of water, I take a long swallow. I guess we’ll go back, but I’m in no damn hurry. I can bet Beckham feels the same, especially since his belongings are caught up in the murder room. I shift my gaze back to my phone screen and click into the next message. Fuck me. I can practically feel my blood pressure begin to rise. It’s Brian. What the hell does this prick want? I grit my teeth. Tell me he doesn’t know where River is. I turn and glance up to the window I think is Davis’s room. I’m worried about her. Drawing in a careful breath, I turn back toward the happy toddler noises and splashing water. The sound of my friends talking about what we should have for dinner. Everything grows hazy as my face heats. He knows I have River with me. And I’m going to have to break that news to her. The thought of it makes me want to hurl.
I found out something interesting today.
Bet you’re going to want to know about it.
Or maybe not.
Any guesses what it is?
I glance at the time stamp, realizing that somewhere out there, this bastard is on the other end of a phone, goading me. I hastily hammer out a response.
No, Bri, why would I?
Fucker hates when I call him Bri, therefore I do it as much as I possibly can.
Oh, I think you know exactly what I’m talking about.
I fucking don’t.
I’ll give you a hint.
I looked into your father’s death.
The tests on his blood?
They were mishandled.
We’ll never know what happened.
My palms sweat as I stare blankly ahead of me, waiting for my phone to vibrate again, and at the same time hoping it never does.
I believe we do know what happened.
And I know what you used to do it.
My blood runs cold. The vial that was given to me with my first Sin Keeper card. I’m not stupid. I knew what sort of thing was likely in it.
Flashes of memories roll through my mind. My head spins with it, ears buzzing incessantly like I’m surrounded by a swarm of bees. The roar of a crowd on the television set. The clink of ice in his glass. A belligerent shout at players running around on the screen. My palms clammy with confusion. Sweat pouring down my back as I waited. Waited. Waited.
I blink hard, clearing my vision of the horrific recollections of what seems like another lifetime. Inhaling through my nose, I lower my gaze as my heart pounds a furious beat, my eyes locking on the screen again as other messages pop up. My heart lodges in my throat, and I have a death grip on my phone.
And you want to know what’s really interesting?
The couple who was killed at your frat...
They each had a drug in their system.
The toxicology reports were enlightening.
Each second passes in a ridiculous, agonizingly slow manner. My throat grows thick, like there’s something expanding inside, but there’s no way to swallow it down, no getting rid of it. It’s permanently lodged there while I wait for Brian to confirm what I’m already certain he knows.
The drug was the same one you used to off your father.
In my peripheral vision, Chase continues to play, Echo has come over to sit down for a while and is happily chatting with Beckham, and Royal has taken her place with his son. But all of it seems hazy and unreal and like it might get ripped away from me at any second, because they don’t know the trouble that is silently erupting on my phone.
My throat goes dry. How? How the fuck does he know? Fuck. Fuck! However he does, I see what his intentions are a mile away. That mean fucker plans to pin these new murders on me, even though I sure as fuck didn’t do it.
A violent wave of nausea slams into me, and I’m on my feet in half a second as my stomach revolts. Running for the patio door, I fly inside, startling River and Kara at the kitchen table. I skid around the corner and fall to my knees in front of the toilet, retching up the contents of my stomach. I heave and heave until there can’t possibly be anything left.
“Wilder.” Echo’s soft voice comes to me as though through a tunnel. She squats at my side, peering into my eyes as she lays a hand on my back. “Are you okay? What happened?” She pauses. “Are you sick?”
When I don’t answer, she picks up my sunglasses that’d hit the floor when I tore them off right before I puked. After that, she reaches for something I can’t see.
My phone. Fuck! I try to grab for it, but she shushes me, and sets it on the counter without looking at it.
“Come on. Let’s get you up,” she murmurs.
The way my heart is ramming around inside my chest cavity is reminiscent of the day I watched my dad die. I unfold my body, trying to contain it by gripping at my chest as I struggle to draw in each and every breath. With Echo watching me with keen eyes, I move to the sink. Wash my hands. Splash some water on my face. Rinse out my mouth. Each little thing is meant to make me feel better. More human. But I’m not. I’ve never been since that day. I glance toward the open doorway and find Beckham and Royal hovering beyond the threshold.
Swallowing, I ask, “Chase?”
“River and Kara are in the backyard with him. It’s fine.” Echo tucks her lower lip between her teeth, worrying it as she watches me. I brace my hands on the counter, and a moment later, she slips her arms around me. “Whatever it is, you can tell us.”
“We’re here.” Beckham’s voice is scratchy, the furrow in his brow declaring his concern.
I take a deep breath, pick up the phone, and hand it to Royal. “Read the texts from Brian.”
His eyes dart to mine, but he nods. “Yeah, okay. In a sec. I wanna make sure you’re okay.”
I exhale harshly. “Just read it. Please. All of you.”
We move as a unit out to the living room, where I collapse onto one of the couches, my head in my hands.
“Fuck. Is this?—?”
My face burns and my breaths come out ragged and grotesque. Wallowing in the misery I made, I keep my eyes on the floor, waiting as the phone gets passed around.
A huff of shock. A flustered gasp. A muttered expletive.
I swallow thickly. Will they understand? I finally look up, anguish radiating off my skin as I meet each of their gazes. “I can’t take back what I’ve done.” My voice sounds gritty and raw to my ears, but I continue. “The Sin Keeper gave me a way out. A way to set my family free. And if given the choice, I’d do it all again. Because it saved my mother. And it saved River. And I think it may have even saved me. My father was a monster. But to protect us, I had to become one, too.”
After a moment’s pause that feels like an entire lifetime, Royal drops down to sit at my side, putting an arm around my back. “You did what you had to. Period. End of discussion.” I blink, staring into his pale-green eyes. The understanding there nearly knocks me over.
The couch shifts at my other side, and I turn my head, knowing instinctively that it’s Beckham. “I wish I had known. That’s a hell of a burden to carry on your own.” He grasps my hand, lifting it to his mouth, and kisses the back of it.
My breath catches as my gaze trails to Echo. She stands before me, emotion filling her eyes. If she says she’d rather not have me around her child, I will totally understand. But it’ll kill me to walk away from her.
She takes one step toward me. Then a second. And before I know it, she’s curled onto my lap, fitting herself against my chest in a tight embrace. She tucks her head under my chin, sweet-smelling red hair and all. I feel her sigh with my entire body before she eases back to look at me, her brilliant green eyes glossy, her lip trembling. “You are not a fucking monster. You slayed the goddamn dragon. You’re a protector. A fucking dark knight.”
“Does that make me Batman in addition to Superman?” I give an uncomfortable, sad chuckle, but Echo smiles, and that’s all the answer she needs to give me.
“You were my hero.” River’s voice startles me, but her words are like salve to an open wound. “Still are. Everything you’ve done has been to take care of Mom and me.” Her face pinches, as if she’s remembering things she’d rather not. “I-I thought it may have been you. Worried like hell you’d get caught.” She holds up the phone. “But then the evidence was mishandled. And it was like a get-out-of-jail-free card.” Her gaze slides to Royal with a wince. “Sorry,” she murmurs.
Royal waves his hand, brushing her well-intentioned comment away.
I absorb River’s words. It had never been clear whether my sister had a clue what I’d done or not until the other day when she’d whispered to me I wouldn’t get away with it a second time. I’m still unnerved she’s known and has never said anything. And now… My brain slowly rakes through what she’s said— Eyes crashing shut, my jaw clenches. No. Please, no.
Before I can say anything, River sits on the coffee table opposite us and reaches out, fingers grasping my forearm. “It seems like he’s suggesting you killed these two people, as well.”
I shake my head, my entire body tense. “No. I fucking didn’t.”
“Couldn’t have.” Beckham huffs out a laugh that sounds a bit crazed. “He was with my drunk ass when it happened, so there’s no way.” His bright eyes lock on my sister. “River, I don’t think you’ll deny it… but your husband has got to be the dirtiest of dirty cops.”
Pointing to her still-healing black eye, she shakes her head. I don’t miss the way her hand protectively rests over her stomach. “Say whatever you want about him. He’s nothing to me. We will be fine without him. Better off. And I do appreciate all of you not batting an eye when I landed on your doorstep.” She heaves out a sigh as her warm gaze shifts to mine. “Wilder, there is one thing that makes me very nervous about all this. I don’t know what to make of Brian knowing you had anything to do with Dad’s death or what would have led him down that path. I didn’t fucking tell him. I swear, Wilder. I never would have.”